Still Killing: IRA Linked to FARC, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Taliban
One of America’s most influential terrorist enemies traces its lineage back some thirty years — and it isn’t a Muslim organization.
In splinter groups like the Continuity IRA and more recently the Real IRA, Irish terrorists have positioned themselves at the center of a network connecting revolutionary FARC rebels in Colombia, Hezbollah in the Middle East, al-Qaeda in Iraq, and Taliban forces in Afghanistan currently fighting and killing American troops. The IRA and PFLP have trained together and coordinated attacks, weapons smuggling, and other illegal activities for decades. FARC and the IRA have a similar relationship.
What’s more, Irish terrorists may even link America’s foes abroad to its enemies at home. As PJ Media previously reported, federal agents earlier this year raided the homes of revolutionary Marxist-Leninist “peace activist” Mick Kelly and Hamas-connected “Arab-American leader” Hatem Abudayyeh as part of a multi-state sweep seeking to uncover the web of relationships between Kelly’s Minneapolis circle of American communists and terrorist militant groups in Colombia, Palestine, Syria, and Jordan.
Though federal agents have not disclosed an interest in the role played by Irish groups in American support for terror, a closer look at Irish Republican activities reveals a myriad of dots ready and waiting for investigators to connect — if they haven’t already.
As previously reported by PJ Media, among Mick Kelly’s colleagues at Fight Back! News is Conor McGrady, a New York-based “activist” from the north of Ireland who “organizes” with the city’s chapter of the Palestinian right-of-return organization Al-Awda. Fight Back! News closely and favorably covered the so-called Colombia Three, who were arrested and convicted in a Colombia court for traveling to rebel territory with false passports to train FARC militants. Successfully fleeing arrest by way of Venezuela or Cuba, as the Associated Press reported in 2005, “the trio’s unexpected reappearance on Irish soil sent shock waves through Northern Ireland’s peace process” — no surprise considering the identity of the Three.
Jim Monaghan, say British police, was the IRA’s senior engineer. Martin McCauley was another IRA explosives expert. After denying knowledge of Niall Connolly, IRA political arm Sinn Fein admitted — subsequent to his arrest — that Connolly represented the party in Latin America.
With notable timing, the September 24 sweep targeting Mick Kelly and his associates took place one day after Great Britain raised its terror alert status and issued a terror warning regarding potential Real IRA attacks on the mainland. On October 4 of this year, following an August car bombing, the Real IRA carried out another car bomb attack on an Ulster bank. On September 14, the Real IRA told the Guardian it considered London financial institutions to be potential targets. Two days later, the head of Britain’s MI5 security service, Jonathan Evans, used a rare public speech to warn of the increasing Irish terror threat, announcing that hundreds of followers were being organized for attacks on financial institutions on the mainland. A week after that, British intelligence published — for the first time — threat levels for “Irish related terrorism,” adopting the same system used for international terror.
In fact, Irish and international terror are two sides of the same coin. Irish techniques and technology have spread throughout the terror world for decades.
What troubles me is a possible IRA or Colombian suicide bomber. They would not fit any of the terrorist profiles and could easily make their way on to a plane, let alone a bus or a subway. Although the IRA and the Colombians are not known for being suicide bombers, there is a first time for everything.
This just proves that the civilized world needs to go after all terrorists, regardless of nationality. And Obama and Napolitano still think there isn’t a global war on terror? I really fear for my country when I think about the naive jerks running it.
Those of us who have been investigating Islamic terror-one way or another- have known for years that the PFLP(and all its offshoots) received much of its training from the IRA. In fact, the IRA, in tandem with the Soviets, ‘schooled’ the godfather of suicide terror,Nobel prize winning, Arafat.Hmmm…..
Therefore, the fact that this is only coming to the fore now is quite disturbing and revealing. The question becomes-who exactly has been shielding the public from IRA complicity with worldwide terror? The IRA has NEVER been a ‘local’ fighting force.
WAY past time to expose the internal devil, deep within the bowels of American cities.Hopefully this will be accomplished before they execute their terror training in any city USA, in the service of Islamic jihad.
Anyone who’s been watching the various insurrectionist movements attentively would already have twigged to this. Yet it took a brilliant novelist to delineate the true, inner connective tissue:
What unites the various insurrectionist movements is nothing other than their worship of violence. Violence is their sacrament. While they struggle and sputter, a willingness to kill in great numbers effaces all ideological divergences. Only when they rise to power does the ideologically-based internecine combat begin.
This is a tragically important point.
The ideologies that mask the cult of violence are just defenses improvised to hide this terrible truth.
As one with many relatives in Ireland I have noticed an increased support of the Irish per se for the Palestinians and Moslem terrorist in general. The Irish have become increasingly hostile to Israel and supportive of all attempts to destroy Israel. For some perverted reason the Irish identify with the terrorists in the Gaza strip. Many of the American Irish in the democrat party have shown a similiar slide in their support for the Moslem terrorists in the Middle East.
I just came back to the states after a six month project in Ireland. While I was there the IRA was still active in killings and was in the news several times. It made me wonder why we hadn’t been hearing about them in the states.
As it turns out, there is considerable sympathy for the IRA and that the IRA has for the Al-Qaeda terrorists, in Ireland. As a matter of fact, I found the anti-Semitic attitude in Ireland to be rather prolific as well.
It’s not getting much news in australia either. I suspect that will change when somebody gets killed – which has only been a matter of luck so far. I think it’s been quietly ignored (a) because the press apparently can’t cover two stories at the same time (the “walk and chew gum” problem) and (b) it doesn’t fit in with the popular narrative – i.e muslims are bad and (c) if they go with the idiotic sort of coverage they’ve applied to the rest of the GWOT then they run the risk of offending people who might actually affect their bottom line – white westerners, many of whom live in the US and australia (althought I don’t think the ones who live here have much time for the IRA – might be different over there).
And you’re suggesting there might be anti-semitism in a staunchly chauvinistic catholic community? Why, I’m SHOCKED! Next you’ll be saying it’s a problem in staunchly chauvinistic catholic communities elsewhere … like poland.
No, no, no, no . . . we all know that all terrorists are Muslims and vice versa. What, you gonna tell me that all those innocent bombing victims over the last 25 years were killed by Irishmen? Don’t think soooooo! This is just another example of the hard left spending tons of money to make white guys look bad. In fact, I heard on Fox that Nancy Pelosi is secretly spending $200 million per day to infuse the IRA with weapons grade plutonium hoping that they will use it and the world we say, “See, not all terrorists are Muslims.” Dud! We now better, Nancy. Try again
Haha!!! U totally pwn3d faux news and all theez idiot racist, Islamophobic wingnuts!!!! Total. Effen. Takedown. LOLZ!!! UR smart, just like Rachel Maddow and Bill Maher!!! Lololozzol!!!
It was meant o be be obvious, putz. Try to keep up.
Good article. The one thing that was left out is the decades-old link between the IRA and ETA in Spain, as well as the discovery earlier this year that Venezuela’s Chavez and FARC have given support to ETA.
An interesting article.
For some perverted reason the Irish identify with the terrorists in the Gaza strip.
Irish nationalists see it as an anti-colonial struggle. For them Chavez, Mugabe, Mandela, Hamas, and Irish Republicanism are all part of the same struggle.
Ah, the Irish. Over 700 years of bad decisions, squandered opportunities and relentlessly held grudges. But hey – why stop now?
The IRA has been in business for so long, they have developed a real taste for murder & carnage. Like vampires, they can’t live without the blood of innocents. This is why it is the stupidest thing in the world to try to negotiate with them. Like with Arafat. He never had the least intention of a peace settlement. And the same goes for ALL terror dons. They are in it to the end. The only question is, do we have the will to kill them before they kill us.
Whether they admit it to themselves or not, terrorists like the IRA, and the Muslim Brotherhood, and all the rest of them, are nothing but sociopathic serial killers and mass murderers who operate under the rubric of a “cause”. They think of themselves as heroes, even martyrs, for “the cause”, but the real, bone-deep appeal is the thrill of killing and destroying. And their apologists go for the lesser, but still potent, thrill of enabling so that they can stand back in safety and watch. The sooner we understand this, the sooner we will stop trying to find justifications for their sociopathy, and find the will to crush them.
That is a similar take on both the IRA and the PLO from family friends who immigrated here — they were very quick to dispel any notion that these groups were doing this for anything other than power…and a criminal liking for chaos and death (which both were also quick to point out that both groups made a lot of money and gained a lot of influence every time they managed to pull something off, usually at the expense of their respective opposing groups and the people they purported to be fighting for).
It is very unfortunate that many naive Americans have been hoodwinked into believing that these groups were anything other than murderers for hire (and they export murder…and drug use, and prostitution, and just about every other form of decadence — so much for “noble causes”//).
I don’t suppose many of my countrymen and women will read this; but those that do will have, as I do, a wry smile. You Americans kept the Irish terrorists in business for 30 years while they murdered men, women and children in the UK.
The Americans who were supporting the IRA were also voting for Ted Kennedy & Bill Clinton other pols of a similar stripe that the Brits & other Europeans seem to prefer we that we pick as our leaders.
Reagan & the Bushes fought very hard against the IRA.
“You Americans”
Painting with a pretty broad brush there, aren’t we? Where’s all that “sophistication” and “nuance” and “context” that British leftists keep lecturing us Yanks about?
How should I know? I’m not a leftist. In addition I am by descent Anglo-Irish.
Consider it payback for all the “help” you Limeys gave us when we we’re fighting the communists in Vietnam.
Did us ‘Limeys’ fund the vietcong? Did we give them visa’s to fund raise here?
Did we even allow fundraising ?
http://reason.com/archives/1996/08/01/bill-teds-irish-misadventure
Did we give them awards?
http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/giuliani-gave-award-to-terror-chief/
Did we refuse to sell weapons to the recognised government of Vietnam.
(Carter refused Thatchers request to sell weapons to the RUC-the police force of N. Ireland)
Did we refuse extradition to wanted terrrorists,even escaped convicted murderer’s?
(There was a policy of not recognising our justice system by giving political status.)
Sentor Peter King stiil supports them.
http://kingwatch.blogspot.com/2008/06/king-gets-hypocritical-on-illegal-irish.html
If you have’nt the time to read it all this is a quote,
“My experience dealing with (Irish) republicans is that they don’t jump bail in this country. They honor their commitments. Based on my experience, and also the republican movement’s commitment to the peace process, I think he should get bail.”
This was an escaped convicted terrorist hiding in the U.S.
I don’t remember the Queen inviting the Vietcong to Buckingham Palace ,like the I.R.A did to the White House.
Us ‘limeys’ didn’t name Steets after Vietcong members like the U.S did with I.R.A terrorists.
As Michael said ,we know you don’t like hearing about all this ,but i have no idea why you believe this involvent was O.K .
Why can’t you just condemn it?
Even if you think that the British didn’t help enough in Vietnam are you really saying it’s payback time and we should all be blown up by terrorist
groups?
The U.S was attacked on 9/11 support was immediate and unequivocal.
With your reasoning we shouldn’t of done that because of your funding and political support of the I.R.A.
I would be interested to know if other posters agree with you.
We thought the U.S supported the I.R.A bacause they had a romantic ignorant knowledge of the conflict.
I have never heard the Vietnam connection mentioned as a justification.
‘Did us ‘Limeys’ fund the vietcong?’
Beats me. I don’t have access to Vanessa Redgrave’s fiancial records.
mags said “The U.S was attacked on 9/11 support was immediate and unequivocal.”
Boy is that a laugh. Up until 9/11 I subscribed to an Irish chat forum (old style stuff) and the postings from Ireland were all *very* equivocal ‘well all those deaths are sad, but you know, the US deserved it’ So don’t post here about unequivocal support for the US after 9/11, I know differently. I never went back to that chat site, but on that day I did give up any romantic notions I might’ve had about the IRA.
These attitudes come right out of Irish Catholicism. We see many of the same attitudes among certain sectors of the Irish-American population. On Facebook, about half of the anti-Semitic posts I have seen come from folks with Irish surnames.
Within Ireland, this is all exacerbated by the identification of the Ulster Protestants with Israel, which appears to be both acknowledgment of the role of Biblical Jews in settling Ireland (and can be seen in the Star of David on the Ulster flag, a reference to Zara, one of the twin sons of Judah – the crimson hand, the second twin who first stuck his hand from the womb, only to be preceded by his brother). Protestant support for Israel no doubt refers to the Catholic hatred, such as it exists, and the Catholics blame Israel for the Ulster Protestants’ identification with it.
Fun world.
There is one more element that unifies all the terrorist groups: the trafficking of drugs.
This is well known even in the case of the European terrorist groups: the “voyages” to and from the Middle East did not move only weapons and training, they moved tons of drugs too.
The cooperation between those who investigate drug trafficking and those who investigate terrorism is vital to build a strong counterinsurgency strategy.
Government sponsored terrorism is the real problem. This recent speech in the House of Lords confirms it.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/101101-0003.htm#10110215000101
“For the past 20 weeks I have been engaged in a very strange dialogue with the two noble Lords, in the course of which I have been trying to bring to their attention the willing availability of a strange organisation which wishes to make a great deal of money available to assist the recovery of the economy in this country. For want of a better name, I shall call it foundation X. That is not its real name, but it will do for the moment. Foundation X was introduced to me 20 weeks ago last week by an eminent City firm, which is FSA controlled. Its chairman came to me and said, “We have this extraordinary request to assist in a major financial reconstruction. It is megabucks, but we need your help to assist us in understanding whether this business is legitimate”. I had the biggest put down of my life from my noble friend Lord Strathclyde when I told him this story. He said, “Why you? You’re not important enough to have the answer to a question like that”. He is quite right, I am not important enough, but the answer to the next question was, “You haven’t got the experience for it”. Yes I do. I have had one of the biggest experiences in the laundering of terrorist money and funny money that anyone has had in the City. I have handled billions of pounds of terrorist money.
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: Where did it go to?
Lord James of Blackheath: Not into my pocket. My biggest terrorist client was the IRA and I am pleased to say that I managed to write off more than £1 billion of its money. I have also had extensive connections with north African terrorists, but that was of a far nastier nature, and I do not want to talk about that because it is still a security issue. I hasten to add that it is no good getting the police in, because I shall immediately call the Bank of England as my defence witness, given that it put me in to deal with these problems.”
Here is the video of the speech.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaA-5_IjkeE&feature=player_embedded
The IRA are not just Irish terrorists but Roman Catholic as well. I have always protested the fact that the Vatican has given tacit support to the IRA by administering sacraments to them and even giving one convicted terrorist a golden crucifix straight from Pope JPII. I encourage any practicing catholic to petition their hierarchy to excommunicate Catholic terrorists starting with the publically known officers of the IRA. This may encourage rank and file muslims to do the same with their clergy.
thats a load of codswallop jimbo aswell as you know, the catholic church took a stance against republican funerals in the mid 70s that refused ira/inla coffins entering any catholic chapel drapped in flags/gloves/berets etc
as someone already pointed out the largest provider of weapons/money for the ira
was americans.
–the Vatican has given tacit support to the IRA by administering sacraments to them
The official Vatican policy has actually been to excommunicat IRA members.
Can you give me the names of any prominent IRA members who have been excommunicated? I have asked this question many times and so far no one has been able to give me any names. I do know that convicted terrorist Bobby Sands was given last rites, was allowed a catholic burial and even given a golden crucifix by John Paul II. This despite the fact that he was divorced, committed suicide and was supportive of terrorist violence. Numberous Irish Catholics falsely accused of being “collaborators” were brutally murdered by the IRA but none of them were given golden crucifixes!
” This may encourage rank and file muslims to do the same with their clergy.”
Fat Chance….Terrorism is a direct assault on the legasy of Jesus. No “REAL” Catholic, no “REAL” Christian of any stripe can condone it…the scripture is clear and unequivocal…to love everyone, EVEN your enemies…
Mohammadeens, on the other hand, are FOLLOWING their scripture TO THE LETTER when they bomb, murder and terrorize…Thier are no “moderate” followers of Mohammed, because Mohamed was the ORIGINAL terrorist..
If they believe in peace and co-existence, they are practicing the CHRISTIAN VALUES they picked up in occupied territories when they tired of perpetual war, and the risks it brings to their personal lives and fortunes.
Sadly, the Koran is clear..It considered these muslims as lazy “apostates” and weak willed “infidels” for making peace, rejecting war and conquest for loot and booty. The Koran, the Hadith, and the Suras are just as clear and unequivocal in their proscribed mandates as The Gospels….
They are the “Anti-Gospels”, the exact, polar OPPOSITE of a peaceful co-existance and love of neighbor philosophy. They repudiate as false the entire message of Jesus, and proclaim God as a vengeful warrior who seeks murder and submission in his name.
This IS Islam….if not, then what POSSIBLE need was there, for God to send ANOTHER Prophet, with the SAME “peace and love” message, if HIS OWN SON already did so?
They cannot change, without admitting their cult is wrong, and leaving it.
Fat Chance
@ Judy Cross
I watched the video you linked but couldn’t make heads nor tails of it. The whole thing sounded like one of those Nigerian scam emails, but delivered in a toff accent.
Maybe this is mega-levels beyond our quotidian understanding of how things work. It’s quite hard to accept that the foundation of world governance is simply drugs and violence.
I have long been fascinated with the history of the troubles in Northern Ireland . I wonder if the Crown importing predominately Protestant Scottish farmers to work the Crown’s siezed lands centuries ago , is still an active thumb in the eye of the Irish still loyal to the Papacy . I knew a Preacher and Evangelist who grew up just north of Belfast. A lovely and loving man he was and is still I trust . But when it came to Catholicism , he called it ” the bloody Catholic church ” The hatred between Protestant and Catholics in Northern Ireland seems so intractable as to be mystifingly unreasonable .
Maybe the attitude of the majority Catholic Irish is that every Irishman should be loyal to the Papacy . Maybe the Ulstermen fear being persecuted by the Papist if Northern Ireland leaves the United Kingdom . I never got to talk to Brother Adam about how it is that Ulster ( protestant N.Ireland ) came to identify with the Red Hand of Zara or what differentiated racially or tribally between the people of the North and South .
The early written chronicles of Ireland record that the Prophet Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch along with a Princess Teah of Judah’s royal Perez bloodline , showed up in Ireland shortly after Babylons overthrow of the Nation Judah and Jerusalem . There Jeremiah set up a school for Prophets . Starting a school for Prophets indicates that a people from either the nation Israel or the other Nation Judah was already present in Ireland prior to Jeremiahs appearance there . In Ireland at a place called Tara , Princess Teah was married to a Prince of Judah’s Zara blood line . Why beside just pure sectarian bloody mindedness the Irish of the south should be ofended by this glorious bit of their heritage is a mystery to me . After all David,s harp is included on some of their heraldy .
This has the to be the worst and most inaccurate articles I have seen in some time.
“One of America’s most influential terrorist enemies traces its lineage back some thirty years”
The PIRA was never an enemy of the USA. In fact, they got a lot of their support from backers in the US. They have never carried an attack out on America or Americans, nor would they.
What link do those microgroups who are still active have to Al Queda, FARC, etc?
None whatsoever.
“among Mick Kelly’s colleagues at Fight Back! News is Conor McGrady, a New York-based “activist” from the north of Ireland who “organizes” with the city’s chapter of the Palestinian right-of-return organization Al-Awda.”
Plenty of people with plenty of backgrounds support similar organizations. Remind me again, what is McGrady’s link to the CIRA or RIRA, or even Sinn Fein? Right, there is none.
“In splinter groups like the Continuity IRA and more recently the Real IRA, Irish terrorists have positioned themselves at the center of a network connecting revolutionary FARC rebels in Colombia, Hezbollah in the Middle East, al-Qaeda in Iraq, and Taliban forces in Afghanistan currently fighting and killing American troops.”
You have nothing to back this up with. The anti-Peace Process splinter groups are just a few cells. Yes, 3 former Provos went to Columbia to train some guerrillas….for a fee. That is about it. There is NO connection with any Islamic groups in Iraq or Afghanistan killing American troops, let alone Americans.
This is absolute garbage.
“They have never carried an attack out on America or Americans, nor would they”
That’s not true! They tried to attack harrison ford. I saw it in that documentary, “patriot games”. Horrible, it was. I think darth vader was in it – at least, it sounded like him. He works for the CIA now, you know (it appears that a kylie minogue look-alike also works at langley – how many lookalikes does the CIA have? We need to know!)
That report also proved the deep links between the irish and libyans, and I believe every bit of it. I really liked the real-time infrared video satellite camera as well. It doesn’t work on me, though, because I wear a power band.
This article is complete BS. If any of you believe this crap, you’re not worth talking to.
Since when was the PIRA, or the heavily infiltrated microgroups that still exist, an enemy of America? How many Americans did they kill? How many times did they attack America?
There is absolutely nothing to link any of those groups with Islamic organiszations. NOTHING. This article offers no evidence, other than one academic with an Irish background who has Palestine and radical sympathies. This person, btw, has no link with any of the RIRA or CIRA cells still active.
Sensationalist garbage at it’s worst.
Eamon troll, you can yell all you want, but it doesn’t matter. The ties between IRA terrorists and islamic terrorists have existed for many decades.
This past weekend – with Remembrance Day coming up – the Irish/Scottish Catholic supporters of Celtic participated in many anti-British Army protests. The one below begins with a line form a pro-IRA song:
Anti-Poppy Protest
Why don’t the Irish like the English? A short history:
- In 1541 Henry VIII becomes king of Ireland.
- Queen Elizabeth continues the fight against all Catholics, including her Irish subjects. There is particularly strong resistance in Ulster (the North). It is crushed by the English in 1607, and the Catholic leaders have to flee (The Flight of the Earls). The English crown confiscates their land, distributes it among 10,000 Scots, who are sent to Ulster to colonize the area. The original Irish population is forced off the land. This is the starting point of the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in the North.
- English national politics continue to influence the situation in Ireland. In 1685-1688 James II becomes King of England. James is a Catholic, the Protestants in England are not satisfied with him and he is dethroned by William of Orange. James flees to Ireland, where the Irish population supports him. William of Orange and his troops pursue him and they fight a battle, The Battle of the Boyne 1690, which William of Orange wins.
- The English king punishes the Irish supporters of James. The English are determined to crush out rebelliousness in Ireland once and for all and oppress Irish culture and traditions. They institute the so-called Penal Laws 1691-1793. According to these laws the Catholic majority in Ireland cannot :
- enter military service
- hold public office
- practice law
- produce/print books, newspapers etc.
- own land
- be ministers
- be schoolmasters
- pass on land to their children without dividing it, and thus impoverishing their descendants.
- speak their native language
- Throughout the 18th. century this system of oppression is in effect. The Irish population is reduced to paupers, having to support themselves as tenant farmers, exploited by the British landlords, many of whom do not even live in Ireland but in Britain, and resources are drained from Ireland to Britain. In part this colonial exploitation helps finance the industrial revolution in England. Jonathan Swift’s essay A Modest Proposal is a vicious satire on the oppression and exploitation of the Irish in this period.
- At the end of the 18th century Irish nationalism manifests itself for the first time in the rising of The United Irishmen. These are both Catholics and Protestants, a number of them are actually descendants of the Scots that came over in the 17th century. What unites them are the liberal ideas of freedom, equality, and brotherhood, which are catching on at the time and which are also behind the American and the French revolutions. These Irishmen want freedom for Ireland. They see clearly that their country cannot develop economically and socially unless the colonial exploitation is brought to an end. In 1798 they rise in arms against the British. The rising is crushed by the British army and the leaders are hanged in public. The most famous of the leaders is Wolf Tone (a Protestant), who is considered a national hero in Ireland to this very day.
- The need for social reforms and land reforms is intensified by the potato famine, which destroys the potato crop in the 1840s and causes a catastrophe as potatoes form the stable of the diet of the poor Irish farmers. One million Irishmen starve to death, another million emigrate to America and other places.
So – for hundreds of years, native Irishmen weren’t allowed to hold public office, practice law, write books, own their own property, be ministers or schoolmasters, give their children an inheritance or speak their own language.
In addition to those hundreds of years of oppression, British created an economic situation that led to a near genocide.
That’s why the Irish aren’t happy with the British. Although membership in the EU has helped the Irish escape British economic influence and British oppression, resentment still exists. Like other former colonies, the Irish often adopt an attitude of “You’re either with us or against us” Like many groups who were nearly exterminated by an oppressor who hates their very existence, they’re wary.
The IRA, Protestant terror groups like the The Ulster Defence Association and Islamist terror groups are thugs who profit from extortion, drug smuggling and general mafia-esque behavior. They all hide behind the skirts of religion, separatism and nationalism. They all cause more suffering among their own people than they inflict on their enemies. Nothing justifies terrorism and nothing justifies the tolerance of terrorism. If all of the members of these criminal groups died tomorrow, the world would be a better place.
But as far as Irish resentment of Britain goes, they have their reasons…
The above info was taken from this site:
http://www.haderslev-katedralskole.dk/kf/ire2.html
more here:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/irish_potato_famine.cfm
The IRA & their supporters in Ireland have never changed in their decades old support for international terror from the PLO to ETA to the Italian Red Brigades.
Just look at the street paintings prevalent in their areas of Northern Ireland.
http://www.crethiplethi.com/the-irish-palestinian-connection/israel/2010/
The only time they tone it down is when they are collecting money in the bars of Boston & Chicago etc. Yes, Americans have supported terror & murder in the UK, but they were misty-eyed, deluded Irish Americans. I think 9/11 may have had some effect but to the true believers they will never give up their struggle.
While it is true that the IRA has not been active in attacking the US directly in the states thats cold comfort for the American tourists evacuated during the recent bomb attack in Derry. Their political wing Sinn Fein has been very active in opposing the US military refueling flights into Eire. Their bomb-making skills have been passed on in training to Palestinians, FARC in Colombia & ETA in Spain so their hands are covered in the blood of innocents both abroad & throughout Northern Ireland.
No side of the conflict in Ulster comes to the table with clean hands or hearts from the British/loyalist/protestant/unionist community to their Irish/nationalist/catholic/republican opposition. Likewise successive governments, the military & indeed the Roman Catholic church. At the end of the day the majority of people in Northern Ireland wish to remain a part of the United Kingdom & they vote. The IRA’s campaign of terror failed, as will their delightful offspring…
Imagine trying to reunite West Virginia to Virginia? Or perhaps Texas with Mexico?! Good luck with that. Same with Northern Ireland. The Ulster Scots will never give in to terror. Check out Jim Webbs book “Born Fighting” to get a little picture of their history & determination.
There were Irish bars in New York City as well who collected aid for the IRA from unsuspecting Irish Americans. My own father was one of those who were tricked into contributing. You could usually tell these bars by a sticker displayed that said “Unite Ireland”. Years later I worked in the UK and met many coworkers who were Irish Catholics from Ulster who moved to England to work. None of them felt discriminated against because of their background and they were all happy to be British Subjects. The funny thing was, I could never tell a Catholic from a Protestant Irishman so I don’t know how the English could discriminate against one versus the other.
The Roman Catholic Church also looked the other way as they could never seem to find any terrorists to excommunicate. I guess the terrorists must have been hiding out with the pedophile priests because the Vatican couldn’t find them either:)
3/17/68
“More than 200 people have been arrested after thousands of demonstrators clashed in an anti-Vietnam war protest outside the United States embassy in London.”
“The St John Ambulance Brigade said it treated 86 people for injuries. Fifty were taken to hospital including up to 25 police officers.”
“The trouble followed a big rally in Trafalgar square, when an estimated 10,000 demonstrated against American action in Vietnam and British support for the United States.”
“The mood at the rally was described as good humoured. The violence broke out when the protesters marched to the US embassy in Grosvenor Square.”
“The embassy was surrounded by hundreds of police. They stood shoulder to shoulder to cordon off the part of the square closest to the embassy.”
“Tensions rose as the crowd refused to back off and mounted officers rode at the demonstrators.”
“The protesters broke through the police ranks onto the lawn of the embassy, tearing up the plastic fence and uprooting parts of a hedge.”
“During a protracted battle, stones, earth, firecrackers and smoke bombs were thrown.”–BBC
American-hating British loons attack U.S. embassy, in support of their Pals in the NVA and NLF…meanwhile other British loons demand that every single person in the United States support the U.K. vs. the I.R.A.
Only Europeans could be so transparently juvenile and stupid.
“Why can’t you just condemn it?”
Me?
I hate the IRA and I have no particular use for the Irish or the nation of Ireland.
when has Ireland ever gone out on a limb to help the United States?
Never.
The UK are our allies, the Irish aren’t and never have been.
But, not everyone in America agrees with that, just like not everyone in the UK supports America.
I just get sick and tired of listening to the English whine that not everyone on the planet will give them 100% support all the time. 36,000,000 Americans claim Irish ancestors, whiners. Guess what? Some of them are bound to take the side of the Irish in any dispute between the United Kingdom and the I.R.A., just like the UK is filled with America-haters, Muslims, communists and all kinds of other scum who will take the side of our enemies no matter who the United States is going up against.
That’s life. Deal with it, and quit sniveling.
Dave,
It was the aurthor an American on this site that brought up the I.R.A.
You are missimg the point.It is about U.S support of terrorism
against us.
The I.R.A did not represent the Irish people,their government were telling you to stop the funding as well.
This wasn’t an England v Ireland conflict.
By helping the I.R.A Americans were not agreeing with another countries policies against the U.K ,it was support of a terrorist manifesto.
The Green Book,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Book_(Irish_Republican_Army_training_manual)
Myself and many support an united Ireland ,it’s the method used that yanks got confused with.
Not by violence,by the principle of consent.
Yes as we know in the U.K we have U.S haters,maybe only a small amount but what is our response,
Stop funding
Tougher anti-terrorism laws
Extradition
Shared intelligence
Our leaders used words’shoulder to shoulder’ and condemned violence against Americans.People qued for hours to sign books of condolances after 9/11.
The brutal I.R.A campaign was funded and politically supported by Americans i don’t care which party they were from.
No body condemned them or claimed this policy of support should stop.
We felt you were just ignorant of history because if Americans knew they couldn’t think it was ok.
The reason why i am brining it up is because the author calls the I.R.A
‘One of America’s most influential terrorist enemies’
That is rubbish,they were given safe haven there,seen a freedom fighters,not by just a few,by your government’s for over 30 yrs.
Senator Peter King is still a cheerleader,where’s the objection?
It’s not sniveling it was you that said we deserved terrorism because we didn’t go to Vietnam.
Every country has scumbags. We have Peter King and Bill Ayers. You have George Galloway and Bobby Sands (or more correctly, you had Bobby Sands, who is no longer with us). We had judges who tried to block the extradition of IRA criminals, you have ministers who free terrorists who blew up American airliners and killed many Americans.
That’s life.
Now, quit your crying.
Dave mate,
Is George Galloway our Anti-terrorism Minister like the charming Peter King is?
If anybody supports any terrorism against the U.S then that is wrong and the force of the British State should be brought upon them.We have strengthen laws to do this.
Dave ,you need to recognise the U.S support was appalling and in no way equals our response.
Maybe like other Americans you are ignorant to the issues.I hope so ,because otherwise you are justifying over 30yrs of dreadful violence.
If you think ‘that’s life’then why did we go and are still in Afghanistan when you got attacked?
That says more about your countries morals and beliefs that you should offer little assistance to the slaughter of an allie by a terrorist group
of which we should just accept as life.
To the author,why do you believe the I.R.A was,
‘One of America’s most influential terrorist enemies’
I’d love to know.
“Dave ,you need to recognise the U.S support was appalling…”
Like I said, consider it payback for the “help” you gave us in Vietnam.
And, quit your whining.
‘Like I said, consider it payback for the “help” you gave us in Vietnam.’
I can’t stop whining because i am struggling to believe that is how you feel.
Is it a personal belief or Government policy?
I thought you were just messing because you seem annoyed with me.
Are you really saying that the motivation for funding the I.R.A was due to Vietnam?
Nobody deserves terrorism,but at least you are recognising that the U.S stepped back and watched us being slaughtered and didn’t help,so thats a start.
Do you believe the Vietnam war has anything in common with the I.R.A’s
campaign?
We supported you after 9/11 ,invaded Afghanistan and Iraq but still you have your anti-British rhetoric.
How long is it going to take for you to’ pay us back? ‘
The R.I.R.A and the Continuity I.R.A have planted 27 bombs in the last 12 months.
We are on high alert for an attack on the mainland.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169828/Real-IRA-threatens-new-attacks-mainland-Britain-Easter-message-hate.html
So you still believe it’s ok and the U.S should not help us because of Vietnam?