Were the IRA freedom fighters or terrorists?

brainlet platitude

Terrorists

They weren't muslims so they weren't terrorists

started off arguably as some sort of militia but basically morphed into a gang/bunch-of-thugs.

Really the whole of the troubles seems to be that the British were too retarded to root out the silly anti-catholicism from Northern Irish Society.

That and they couldn't handle simple shit like riot-duty in their own cities. which even Yanks were better at

>Kent state like 4 people got shot accidentally when private-bumblefuck-national-guardsman-got-jumpy because hippies and shit.

>Bloody Sunday: Fucking Paratroopers, who should have riot-duty training adequate for the situation (or not be sent on riot-duty because they're entirely unsuited for roles where being aggressive is a hindrance ) mow down 14 people because a car backfired

>freedom fighters or terrorists
Both

>Really the whole of the troubles seems to be that the British were too retarded to root out the silly anti-catholicism from Northern Irish Society

You hit the nail on the head.

British conduct during the Troubles makes US conduct during the Vietnam War look sensible and meticulous by comparison.

up the 'ra to be honest

Literally a matter of perspective.

Freedom fighters against the occupation of the six counties.

26+6=1

Both are fairly meaningless terms. They were political actors.

GET THIS POST MODERNIST TWADDLE OUT OF HERE

...

>a car backfired

Disregard that Martin McGuinness was seen nearby holding a machinegun and had given bomb making parts to another IRA member that morning, but strangely cannot remember where he was or what he was doing on one of the defining days of the movement he dedicated his life to.

Freedom fighters

A soldier

>tfw you draw the conflict out for so long that even the papists get bored and abandon reunification

Fuck you

Freedom fighters of course

mostly terrorists mixed with criminals. iirc they started out as a marxist group i think.

TRAITORS TO THE STATE ALL

>REEE PRODDIES OUT BRITAIN SAVE US
>REEE BRITAINS OUT LIBYANS IN

>this thread again
Obligatory fact post so that the anglo-boos don't ruin another thread.
>NI set up to stop Loyalists causing more war with irish
>Loyalists chimp out and oppress the Irish catholics stuck in NI, denying them of equal housing/employment/voting rights
>Civil Rights movements begins
>Beaten down violently by loyalists
>Protest movement against the violence against the civil rights movement starts
>Beaten down violently by loyalists
>Meanwhile loyalists shoot people and firebomb places all before the IRA even wake up
>Some old faggot gets beaten to death by the police. This is considered the first death
>IRA campaign starts to "protect" the irish from the loyalists
>IRA campaign splits into "protecting irish" and "freeing NI from the UK"
>IRA campaign splits into 8 gorillion memey splinter groups
>Several years of Provos fighting British
>Loyalists don't really contribute anything of note to the Troubles beyond the fact that they started it
>Maze escape happens, mass recruitment surge for IRA
>Eventually things calm down
>IRA infiltrated up the ass, defintiely fucked if they keep fighting
>British-Irish agree to a peace deal that lets the Irish in NI be an equal part of the country
>IRA men and their friends form a nationalist government to work together with Unionists to share power
>Country starts to rebuild
>A bunch of fags on either side want to be criminal gangs without punishment so they call themselves paramilitaries and keep dicking around

Both the Provos and the Loyalist groups were terrorists, the only difference is the Provos had some semblence of a cause and were actually any good at fighting.
There were no "good" guys but the idea that the IRA were the "bad" guys of the conflict is retarded. Loyalists fucked over the innocents the most desu

Just to reinforce the fact that absolute nobody other than Loyalists sees them as competent whatsoever. The British could have escaped from the Troubles relatively guilt-free and I'd say Irish Nationalists/Republicans wouldn't be so comfortably secure in NI were it not for the decision of the British to co-operate with Loyalists.

A few decades later and there is a Nationalist majority in Stormont, Unionism as a whole relies entirely on a singular party that everyone hates which is starting to struggle to do the one thing people vote for it to do-keep Sinn Féin out of power.

The IRA did a lot of terrible, terrible things during the Troubles. So did the British. So did the loyalists.
Many people lie about the Troubles to try and change this fact, but statistics don't lie.

In conclusion, to call the IRA "freedom fighers" is retarded but to lump in with terrorists as we see them (ISIS etc) is equally retarded.
The Provisional IRA (aka, the last iteration of the IRA that had any semblance of legitimacy or competence) had a clear cause-however a majority of its members didn't really adhere to it. A shockingly low amount of members were actual "socialists" despite their goal being to establish a "32 county socialist republic" and most of the more extremist of them eventually splintered off into other retarded groups.

Martin McGuinness-or machine gun marty-was a provo man and a somewhat infamous one at that. He then went on to work together with Paisley (a man at the centre of what caused the Troubles in the first place) and eventually he was practically given a State Funeral as one of the finest statesmen NI has had.

Thank you OP, for another pointless IRA thread.

And for anyone confused by the graph showing republicans killing republicans or loyalists killing loyalists-punishment killings or splinter disputes make up for a majority of that.
The IRA were extremely harsh on any "touts" (aka, informers) and would often just kill them for doing so.
The Loyalists were the same, but were plagued by infighting from the get go. As you can see, they killed more Loyalists than they did Republicans.

American funded terrorists.

>dood police be violent so black panthers were totally justiefied with escalating all those situations

>but to lump in with terrorists as we see them (ISIS etc) is equally retarded.
but they're a politcal group which has no state but spreads terror for political gain and the accuisition of a state

>when you accept islamic funding for your terrorist activities

Did you read my posts at all? The police force of NI at the time-the RUC-were massively anti-catholic and the civil rights movements weren't at all similar to the black ones in America; the movement barely got its feet off the ground before it was beaten down by loyalists and off-duty police officers. The same fate hit the students who protested THAT violence.

The Provisional IRA (note-not speaking of any of their splinters many of whom devolved into US-tier gangs and gun/drug runners) were first and foremost targeting British security forces. Their campaign changed its goals many times, but I wouldn't really just set them aside as if they were just out spreading terror.
The Provos formed effective "police" forces in nationalist areas where the actual police couldn't really go, and several figures of the IRA co-operated with the British toward the end of the Troubles in regards to reconciliation and keeping order in divided areas.

A group far more comparable to such terror groups is the UVF, who killed almost entirely civilians. Although maybe you are correct in the sense that at the time the IRA were in fact stateless and fighting for a political motive, however I just don't like to see British/Loyalists acting like the IRA are somehow the overall baddies of the Troubles.

Statistics all point to their entire campaign being a reaction to outright Loyalist aggression-something which undermined the entire reason that NI was set up in the first place.

>loyalist paramilitaries are described as little more than a collection of gangsters

>fight for 800 years for Ireland for the Irish
>give your independence to the EU and Ireland to the immigrants

>Irish
>White

Depends on which IRA, you are referring to, like Irish War of Independence IRA or after the war IRA. The first IRA fought for Irish freedom and I cannot consider them real terrorists, even if they acted like a terrorist group ambushing the RIC and British patrol groups. The second IRA, which is the post war one, was formed from the old IRA members that didn't accepted the Anglo - Irish treaty terms ( partition of Ireland, Oath of Allegiance etc ) which are actually a terrorist group.

Near unanswerable question and political bias will always get in the way. I would argue that the emergence of the PIRA was an inevitability due to treatment of the nationalist community by the NI state but that doesn't mean I agreed with all of their acts. As far as Im concerned military and police casualties were fair considering it certainly was a conflict of sorts but civilian casualties we're obviously unnecessary. However Loyalist paramilitaries were little more than civilian death squads and killed much more civilians directly than all the republican paras combined.

they were a belligerent side since the UK govt negotiated with them

Terrist obviously

all sympathies should lie with those loyal to the crown

I wonder who's behind this post.

Is that you Mr. Frazer?

>I got baited better post it again to make up for when I kneecapped that kid because he said he wasn't Irish

You forgot
>be oppressed for being catholic for 300 years
>finally free
>pass laws allowing abortion and gay marriage

I just wanted an excuse to post that screencap again. It is my favourite.

Both.

>Terrist
I think you mean Terraist

Terrorist shits who should've been exterminated and executed. Fuck Roy Jenkins,me should've had Powell instead of Heath and Wilson.

Fuck the Officials , bunch or marxist cunts , the Provisionals were better .

this