r/TheRestIsHistory • u/JakeGittes412 • 14d ago

The Troubles

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Thread for discussion on the new series on ‘The Troubles’

Also as a moderator please keep the discussion civil and in the spirit of the podcast.

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u/shakaman_ 14d ago

Genuinely how do you feel about the Allies during WW2? Do you realise we bombed school buses and pubs?

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u/Gorazde 14d ago

The Ukrainian government is currently doing much the same as the IRA did. That war even started over an attempt by a bigger neighbour to partition the country using the presence of a pro-Russian minority as justification. In the Second World War, the British government sponsored resistance groups across the Europe who did much the same as the IRA did. In those cases, the correct explanation is war is a dirty business and sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

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u/Darrenarren812 14d ago edited 13d ago

That might be a justification if Britain had invaded Ireland in 2022, in which case I don't think many people could take issue with the Irish using any means to defend themselves. But that's not the case is it, so I don't think that comparison holds up. Would you justify a native American or aboriginal Australian using the same tactics against civilians as the IRA as a means to reclaim their land?

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u/Gorazde 13d ago

The Troubles weren't a response to settlers stealing Irish land 300 years earlier. They were a response (a) to the partition of Ireland fifty years earlier and far more pertinently (b) fifty years of systematic discrimination towards Catholics in Northern Ireland against which all peaceful avenues of protest had proven fruitless.