The IRA lost full stop and that is obvious. As for being a lefty - wrong. I hate the IRA and what they did in the name of their cause as they were a bunch of cowards who hid behing the Catholic Church and still do I bet. Are you deliberately trying to antagonise people on here by any chance ? One thing I always found funny were the Irish Americans who supported The Cause but yet knew nothing at all about it and found the IRA a romantic idea to get behind those poor IRA people fighting the tyrannical British Government. People like me ? Just because you don't agree with what I say is no excuse for that sort of inferrence is it ? Funny you should mention Leon Trotsky - he got a pickaxe in the head.

It was always good to hear on the news of a dead IRA member ( or more ) and it's just a shame that not all of them were finished off as they are a bunch of low life cowards who deserve nothing but contempt. It's a shame that no-one put a bullet in the head of Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams but we can live in hope and have two pieces of walking and talking excrement removed from this world.

I remember being in a bar in Hell's Kitchen, New York in April 2003. I was out with the cast of "Vincent in Brixton" and things were getting messy. Two very loud and obnoxious local lads found out I was English and declared to all around that "I should get out of Ireland".

I tried to take it in good humour but they carried on a bit so I stopped them and asked had they ever been to Ireland (no), were they Irish (some of the ancestors apparently were), what should be done with the Protestant population if the British left Northern Ireland (blank stares), and whether they thought the Good Friday Agreement was a positive development (blank stares).

Then I told them that not only was I part Irish, I visited the island of Ireland regularly and am godfather to two Northern Irish boys. Then I told them that just as Al Qaeda had flattened Manhattan 2 years earlier, the (P)IRA had flattened my home city, as well as killing 2 young boys a few miles in attacks down the road.

To be fair they took it well and backed down, and left us all well alone.

A fair comment and I understand why these two people would stoke up these sorts of feelings in people.

However, do you apply the same thinking to Bush, Blair, Brown, Cameron, etc?

Fascinating stuff DMW. Quite happy to jump on the anti Tory bandwagon hence i assumed you were towards the left. What i do get though is the stench of sectarianism that comes through in your posts. Anyone would think you were a Rangers fan or their Edinburgh equivalent Hearts. A bit of scots presbyterianism in there maybe.

I was waiting for the Cowards bit which is why i pre-empted it by using the Francis Hughes story earlier. Regardless of which slightly differing accounts from me and RS hardly the actions of a coward.

I must have touched a nerve with my Trotsky quote, but again i wrongly assumed that you were on the left and i used it to challenge the hyposcrisy of thos left wingers who quite happily support National Liberation struggles in palestine, SA or Rhodesia but do not have the Cojones to challenge British nationalism.

It was amazing how the 1st couple of years everyone hated Thatcher but a little war in the South Atlantic and the left had no idea what to do. Wham bam everyone is waving the flag and geting behind our boys.

I was going to write that it would have been worrying to have you next to me on the workers barricades as the workers seize power. Then the army march against us ready to smash our heads in with rifle butts and poor little you saying, " we cannot shoot back they are flying the Union Jack and singing rule britannia".

However after reading your posts i am fairly certain that at the first whiff of being accused of being anti patriotic you would have been off like a flash.

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The stench of Sectarianism ? Where would that be ? Have I slagged off Catholics or is the fact the Cathoilc Church were, and are, quite happy to hide IRA criminals and even absolve them through confession something that bothers you ? I'm really sorry to disappoint you but I'm not a Rangers or Hearts fan or even Scots Presbytarian so that blows that out of the water. I don't care in the slightest about the Trotsky quote so why you think it might have touched a nerve with me is a surprise. You are quite sarcastic really aren't you with your last two paragraphs ?

I think you should be very careful using that word to describe African Americans in future.

Quote: Dead Man Walking "The stench of Sectarianism ? Where would that be ? Have I slagged off Catholics or is the fact the Cathoilc Church were, and are, quite happy to hide IRA criminals and even absolve them through confession something that bothers you ? I'm really sorry to disappoint you but [sizeI'm not a Rangers or Hearts fan or even Scots Presbytarian so that blows that out of the water[/size. I don't care in the slightest about the Trotsky quote so why you think it might have touched a nerve with me is a surprise. You are quite sarcastic really aren't you with your last two paragraphs ?'" My mistake it must have been a different Dead Man Walking who posted this on the Scottish football thread. [sizeWell done Rangers. Hopefully Hearts can try to challenge next season[/size page 115. viewtopic.php?f=30&t=264000&tsmp=1341213134&start=1140

Quote: Dead Man Walking "The stench of Sectarianism ? Where would that be ? Have I slagged off Catholics or is the fact the Cathoilc Church were, and are, quite happy to hide IRA criminals and even absolve them through confession something that bothers you ? I'm really sorry to disappoint you but [sizeI'm not a Rangers or Hearts fan or even Scots Presbytarian so that blows that out of the water[/size. I don't care in the slightest about the Trotsky quote so why you think it might have touched a nerve with me is a surprise. You are quite sarcastic really aren't you with your last two paragraphs ?'" My mistake it must have been a different Dead Man Walking who posted this on the Scottish football thread. [sizeWell done Rangers. Hopefully Hearts can try to challenge next season[/size page 115. viewtopic.php?f=30&t=264000&tsmp=1341213134&start=1140

Context is evrything and in the context of the last two paragraphs of that post it is very clear what the meaning is. To provoke a response by using heavy irony and just making the point that people who are discriminated against or being oppressed are not responsible for the actions of those who oppress them when they are challenged.

Enough. Nice to see you all proving that bigots don't only wear red, white and blue...