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Armed aggression is always the worst of the bad ideas. The IRA was wrong as were the Brits for refusing to correct the past oppression and recognize Irish rights. The innocent victims of the Troubles did not deserve the harm that could have been avoided.

I directly blame the Brit ruling class, monarchial imperialistic attitude and the extremist revenge-minded IRA for both causing the Troubles.

Armed aggression against armed combatants is usually a very good idea. Planting explosives to terrorize a populace by killing women and children is always a bad idea.

Nice moral equivalence between those who pursued policies detrimental to a population and those revenge minded members of that population who seek to correct this wrong through terrorism and the deliberate targeting of innocents.

Yep, you sound EXACTLY like the Muslim world after 9-11 who said that America was to blame.

Armed aggression is always the worst of the bad ideas.

It's almost always a sub-optimal solution, true.

The IRA was wrong as were the Brits for refusing to correct the past oppression and recognize Irish rights. The innocent victims of the Troubles did not deserve the harm that could have been avoided.

Irish rights WERE recognised. After all, Eire IS an independent country now, is it not? Unfortunately it is not possible to correct the past oppression (whatever that was) simply because we can never correct it sufficiently for the demands of the extremists. Eventually their demands become sheer extortion. Its a bit like slave reparations in the US. Slavery is widely recognised now as being wrong, but it WAS abolished. In fact a lot of time, money and lives were expended in abolishing it. The US nearly destroyed itself for the concept of all pervading liberty. And yet, even today Black leaders wax on about how badly done to they are, and how "white privilege" is holding them back, and how they deserve compensation for past injustices. Where does it all end? No American living today is responsible for dragging their ancestors over from Africa. No Briton alive today is responsible for Drogheda or the potato famine. We all of us have to live with the consequences of the past, even if it is not our fault, but I'll be damned if I will go on some massive guilt trip for the benefit of Ireland for my whole life. If nothing else I think THEY deserve better than that.