I was simply pointing out that your example of India did not quite match Ireland.
The challenge is when two groups of people claim the same land. The Jews clearly lived in what is now Israel many years ago. They want it back. The Brits living in Ulster have indeed been living there for hundreds of years. But please dont deny history and say that England did not occupy Irish land and drive out the Irish, confiscate lands and pass repressive laws.
Any Indian in the US can own land, become a citizen, vote or continue to live on a reservation. Or open a casino. Or live the life of an alcoholic. Far more freedoms than the Irish Catholics in Ulster, that led to the development of the modern IRA.
I dont support the modern IRA. I dont propose that anyone in the northern provinces have any land or property taken from them. When I say I want the Brits out of Ireland, I mean the government. Ireland should be Ireland. I do believe this will happen over time. The birth rates of the Irish and Catholics will overtake that of the Brits and the protestants. (Although the Irish economy of Ireland is actually attracting labor from the North, this may slow the birth rates.) I believe reunification will happen. Probably not in my lifetime.
My original post that started this string was my response to a statement that the Brits killed fewer Irish than the IRA. I took a longer term view to the arithmetic.
"The challenge is when two groups of people claim the same land. The Jews clearly lived in what is now Israel many years ago. They want it back."
Bay jaysus. I have no idea how bringing Israel into the question is supposed to support your point. By your logic and exoressed empathy for the Irish Catholic experience over time you cannot be anything other than a Palestinian sympathiser without looking like an hypocryte. (The IRA have always been bosom buddies with the Palestinians for just that reason).
"Any Indian in the US can own land, become a citizen, vote or continue to live on a reservation. Or open a casino. Or live the life of an alcoholic. Far more freedoms than the Irish Catholics in Ulster, that led to the development of the modern IRA."
When you say the 'modern IRA' are you talking about the 1920 version or the 'Provisional IRA' of messrs Adams and McGuniness. If the latter then I think you have a reality gap in your understanding of what life in Northern Ireland is like. I suggest you visit. It's great! And hey - the catholics vote, own houses, buy land, start businesses, and all the other things free people do. Both the UK and the Irish Republic are members of the EU so, for better or worse, we both even share the same supreme judicial arbitrator now.
"I say I want the Brits out of Ireland, I mean the government."
You mean you want to take a province of people who have democratically expressed their wish to reamain a part of the UK - the nation they have been a part of their entire lifetimes and for generations before that?
Again - like me saying I want the US out of California. It belongs to Mexico. It's chucklesome.
"But please dont deny history and say that England did not occupy Irish land and drive out the Irish, confiscate lands and pass repressive laws."
Have you heard me say anything other than there are episodes in history that don't paint the UK in a good light? Like I say - my grandparents were driven from their homes by the troubles. That's how I ended in GB!
"The birth rates of the Irish and Catholics will overtake that of the Brits and the protestants. (Although the Irish economy of Ireland is actually attracting labor from the North, this may slow the birth rates.) I believe reunification will happen. Probably not in my lifetime."
I only differ from your view in one respect on that point. I DO think it will happen in our lifetime.
"My original post that started this string was my response to a statement that the Brits killed fewer Irish than the IRA. I took a longer term view to the arithmetic"
Which kind of winds up people who have lived with death close to us from the troubles IN LIVING MEMORY. Going back to the potatoe famine to find some moral equivalence to the pain of widows and children whose grandparents weren't even on the planet at the time just sounds lame.