Really not wanting to get into these same arguments but I'll bite. If you are looking for a foil here, I'll stand up and be counted. I support Sinn Fein and aims the Republican movement stretching back to before most of our posters were born. I'd still support the cause of a non sectarian united Irish Republic today. It goes without saying that many of the actions from people on all sides of the conflict were appalling. It is also a 1000% improvement that the stakeholders have put down the gun and moved forward to peace.
Yes, and those were the actions that people who thought it was badass to donate to NORAID were funding.
From one perspective, you had a blatantly sectarian government and police force, an occupying army that clearly picked their side in the conflict and a failed civil right movement that was quelled with violence.
The local communities were burning people out of their homes
From the other side, you had the fear that they were going to have all their rights, history and and lives taken from them. All sides descended into violence and felt that violence was the only answer. These parties were funded and supported monetarily and organizational on both sides of the Atlantic.
You may have had some Americans buying guns under false pretense but you cannot overlook that the British government was supplying intelligence and weapons to loyalist hit squads. Or that apartheid S. Africa supplied the loyalists while Qaddafi supplied the IRA.
It was an ugly conflict that really shouldn't be brought down to a petty talking point.
I may have posted this years back but here is a video with interviews from both side of prisoners of HMS Maze. I think it captures their motivations well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-g5Rad_MKA
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