a very turbulent time

Rating: 9/10 (25 June 2006)

I suppose it's easy to look back and pontificate on who were the "goodies" and who were the "baddies", OK, the likes of the Black & Tans came from the dregs. However, this was a very brutal period in Irish history and so people were not nice to each other. In my own family, my grandfather and his brothers were in what we call the "old" IRA this organisation should not be confused with the criminal scum that call themselves the IRA over the last forty years. The old IRA were men of honour who were fighting for the freedom of our country, chances are, not all of them were nice people I'm sure. It must be said on the British did not conduct themselves with gallantry during this period either, it was a fight to the death with no quarter given. The difference been that since then Irish people are fully versed on this period in history,eg the reasons why, for how long and who was involved In the UK however, this period is sanitised or removed from history, maybe because it's too close to home. This is the greatest tragedy of all, because to understand this piece of Irish/UK History is to understand the situation in Northern Ireland over the last thirty five years