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Thread: How did the IRA come to be at the peace table?

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    Default Re: How did the IRA come to be at the peace table?

    They came to be at the peace table because there was a complimentary buffet laid on and a free bar

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    L'Etranger Senior Member Banquo's Ghost's Avatar
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    Default Re: How did the IRA come to be at the peace table?

    Quote Originally Posted by Tribesman View Post
    They came to be at the peace table because there was a complimentary buffet laid on and a free bar
    Tsk. The free bar is the bit covered by the Official Secrets Act.
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    Darkside Medic Senior Member rory_20_uk's Avatar
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    Default Re: How did the IRA come to be at the peace table?

    I thought that another factor was that post 9/11 Americans found out that terrorism isn't fun, and stopped helping those nice Irish people who came to collect money, as perhaps providing funds to bomb an ally wasn't a good idea.

    An enemy that wishes to die for their country is the best sort to face - you both have the same aim in mind.
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    L'Etranger Senior Member Banquo's Ghost's Avatar
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    Default Re: How did the IRA come to be at the peace table?

    Quote Originally Posted by rory_20_uk View Post
    I thought that another factor was that post 9/11 Americans found out that terrorism isn't fun, and stopped helping those nice Irish people who came to collect money, as perhaps providing funds to bomb an ally wasn't a good idea.
    The change in attitudes certainly helped undermine reactionary elements of the Army Council and strengthened the hands of those trying to finalise the decommissioning of arms, but the substantive progress had already happened. The Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, remember.

    President Clinton's involvement had already holed US tolerance for the romantics well below the waterline.
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    Part-Time Polemic Senior Member ICantSpellDawg's Avatar
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    Default Re: How did the IRA come to be at the peace table?

    I think that the nature of British nationalism in general changed. This change effected it's attitudes toward the Catholic Irish and Irish terrorists realized that they wouldn't get sympathy by attacking a benign Britain.

    I credit Blair with the change, not Clinton. Blair and his new Britain are the source of the reasonable treatment of Irish Catholics. We had more problems over the last 10 years from Orangement who didn't like the way that London humanized the Irish. This put London and the Irish Catholics in the same boat and the loyalists (who still had power) on the outskirts of talks.
    Last edited by ICantSpellDawg; 08-12-2008 at 15:19.
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    Clan Clan InsaneApache's Avatar
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    Default Re: How did the IRA come to be at the peace table?

    Actually it was John Major that opened the way. Blair just followed in his footsteps.
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    Part-Time Polemic Senior Member ICantSpellDawg's Avatar
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    Default Re: How did the IRA come to be at the peace table?

    Ok - so it was a number of people.
    "That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there."
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    "If the policy of the government, upon vital questions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court...the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned the government into the hands of that eminent tribunal."
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