Did you read the article? These frail old men who were at the D-Day landings, imprisoned by the Japanese and helped to liberate Bergen Belson?
Of course, I tend to think of the IRA (especially in those days) as a raggle-taggle militia. Some of my ancestors were at the Post Office on Easter Day.
They werent, thats a myth.
The early IRA were terrorists, and did target civilians. In 1916, 1918-22, and people completely forget the bombings on mainland Britain by the IRA just before WW2. The idea that the early IRA were somehow morally different to the IRA of 1969-today is frankly a nonsense.
The modern IRA has simply been better armed and more efficient.