Operation Banner over, after 38 years!

[Mag_Uidhir]

The British Army’s emergency operation in Northern Ireland comes to an end at midnight on Tuesday after 38 years.

Source

All I can say is goodbye, don’t hurry back ! :coffeeread:

 

[stbruno]

Hallelujah. I hope and pray that peace will reign not only in the streets but also in the hearts of all mankind.

 

[system]

It’s a wonderful thing!

My favorite photos in the last couple years have been the dismantling of “observation towers.”

 

[vern_humphrey]

26 + 6 = 1

 

[system]

26 + 6 = 1

Yes.

There are days I’m hopeful that this is coming soon, but then days when I think it will never happen.

I was hoping and wishing for the year 2016, the centennial of 1916, but I think it’s too much to hope for in the current climate.

 

[vern_humphrey]

Yes.

There are days I’m hopeful that this is coming soon, but then days when I think it will never happen.

I was hoping and wishing for the year 2016, the centennial of 1916, but I think it’s too much to hope for in the current climate.

When that day comes, I’ll lay a pike on the grave of me 5-times great grandfather, Thomas Clooney, and tell him the fight is over.

 

[cainem]

Perhaps this could have happened earlier if people in far off countries didn’t donate to the ira and loyalist paramilitaries, and maybe a few more civilians on the mainland and ulster would be here today

 

[system]

Perhaps this could have happened earlier if people in far off countries didn’t donate to the ira and loyalist paramilitaries, and maybe a few more civilians on the mainland and ulster would be here today

Perhaps…or Perhaps NI would be a Catholic-free zone right now.

There’s decades of “perhaps” questions if we all want to look backwards forever.

Perhaps the unionist paramilitaries will disarm this year? The UDA is in the spotlight at the moment.

 

[Mag_Uidhir]

Perhaps this could have happened earlier if people in far off countries didn’t donate to the ira and loyalist paramilitaries, and maybe a few more civilians on the mainland and ulster would be here today

Agh ! there’s always one to spoil the good news, ignorance is bliss, you could have lived here like me and found out the real truth.

Thanks for spoiling a good news… story…typical…can’t start a story about N,Ireland without someone throwing in the tares among the wheat, then again given the location should I be surprised.

Oh mainland is it ? well we don’t recognize the so-called mainland that yous are connected to, this is mainland Ireland, we are the mainland.

I wish some would take a leaf out of the other posters and just be happy, no-one has a monopoly on suffering, and it’s easy to put your oar in when you live in the Glens.

If you can’t say something positive, please start another thread.

Have a good one…:coffeeread:

 

[vern_humphrey]

Perhaps this could have happened earlier if people in far off countries didn’t donate to the ira and loyalist paramilitaries, and maybe a few more civilians on the mainland and ulster would be here today

The Troubles would never have happened at all, if Britain had not set up an artificial statelet in Northern Ireland, and allowed that statelet to oppresses its citizens on religious grounds.

Note that there was never a reason to send troops into the Free State or the Republic to deal with sectarian violence.

 

[Wolseley]

Perhaps this could have happened earlier if people in far off countries didn’t donate to the ira and loyalist paramilitaries, and maybe a few more civilians on the mainland and ulster would be here today

Perhaps there never would have been a need for the IRA or paramilitaries if foreigners had simply stayed out of Ireland to begin with.

 

[vern_humphrey]

Perhaps there never would have been a need for the IRA or paramilitaries if foreigners had simply stayed out of Ireland to begin with.

Amen!

It’s funny how the people who created this problem want to blame everyone but themselves for it.

 

[Mag_Uidhir]

Perhaps there** never would have been a need for the IRA **or paramilitaries if foreigners had simply stayed out of Ireland to begin with.

There wouldn’t have been an IRA, then again Ireland didn’t create the IRA, England did, it’s their Frankenstein monster.

Ireland has changed,** I did not want this thread to go this road,** but some-people don’t let sleeping dogs lie.

Tell you what, I was born in 1958, I’ve been here for 49 years, so cainem do please start a thread on the subject,and put your money where your mouth is, I’d be interested to hear your (name removed by moderator)ut.

And I will try to keep it civil, you see most Americans don’t know the kind of animosity there is between N,Ireland and Scotland, then again thats where the planters came from.

 

[Wolseley]

And I will try to keep it civil, you see most Americans don’t know the kind of animosity there is between N,Ireland and Scotland, then again thats where the planters came from.

I’m one Yank that knows all about Cromwell. My Irish relatives came from Tipperary and Kildare.

I know a thing or two about William of Orange and Bogside and all that “No surrender” balderdash, too.

 

[cainem]

blowing up british civilians who had no say over what the political parties do once in power didn’t help either ira = murdering scum, by their very actions those people have placed themselves outsidse the catholic church

 

[seekerz]

Cainem, seems like now is not the time to rehash the past - isn’t it enough that the fighting’s over?

Why can’t we just get over our super-egos and get on with the business of forgiving/forgetting and all that good stuff?

War starts in the heart not with bombs or guns and to be blameless before God in this conflict, it isn’t only about who bombed or shot whom and why - each man has to examine his own internal strivings and attitudes.

Kind of like the ‘lusting in the heart =adultery’ example that Jesus gave us. Murder’s not just about physically killing someone though in this world that’s all we get punished for; in the next, the judging’s gonna be different and guilt will be as much a matter of the heart as of the trigger-finger.

Just something to think about…

 

[system]

blowing up british civilians who had no say over what the political parties do once in power didn’t help either ira = murdering scum, by their very actions those people have placed themselves outsidse the catholic church

Yes. Horrible things happened. but what you talk about is decades ago. Since the IRA renouced all violence, has been on cease-fire since '98, destroyed their weapons, declared their war over; let’s look at something recent. How about the annual hate marches, now called “Orangefest”. (for those new to this, the orange order holds annual marches to celbrate the victory of the Catholic king James in 1690; the Glorious 12th of July. The burn effigies of Catholics, the pope, and others and sing songs, and occasionally burn Catholics out of their homes. In 2005 they fired upon the British soldiers…strange since they are loyalists?)
This news happened about 3 weeks ago:

For the Irish News it was the story of Peter Neil, a Catholic father who had been threatened by unionist paramilitaries after he took down a poster carrying his son Aaron’/s name from an Eleventh Night bonfire.
13-year-old Aaron Neil had died just two weeks earlier from heart disease. The bonfire also bore the name of another Catholic youth Paddy Brennan who died last year. It is traditional to ritually burn effigies on bonfires celebrating the Twelfth.
Images of the Pope, nationalist politicians and republicans, as well as Catholic victims of unionist violence, are routinely burnt as part of the celebrations but that’s not an aspect of Orangeism discussed in the pages of the Newsletter or during the television coverage of the Twelfth.
Peter Neil from Co. Derry noticed the banner bearing his son’s name erected on an Orange bonfire at Harpur’s Hill in Coleraine. A number of other banners bearing the dead teenager’s name were later discovered at a number of other bonfires in the area. Peter Neil notified the PSNI and requested that his son’s name be removed. The PSNI refused to intervene.

Read the rest:
anphoblacht.com/news/detail/19926

**So the Protestants threaten the life of Catholics and the police refuse to intervene…excuse me, but isn’t this why the british army was called in in 1969? **

 

[Wolseley]

blowing up british civilians who had no say over what the political parties do once in power didn’t help either ira = murdering scum, by their very actions those people have placed themselves outsidse the catholic church

Who suffered most during the course of the Troubles, cainem?

Looks to me like it was Catholic civilians who bore the brunt of the casualties, more than any other individual group.

I could say a word or two about various Protestant paramilitaries being “murdering scum” on a level equal with the Provos, but I won’t. The war is over, for the love of God, let it die.

 

[vern_humphrey]

Let the British run Britain and the Irish run Ireland. What’s so complicated about that?

 

[Wolseley]

Religious hatred and love of power die hard, vern.