Finally saw the wind!

[DOD]

Well I've seen it now and I have to say it is one of the best films I have seen. Some really powerful stuff. Also, my line "This is a betrayal of 1916" really stole the show! :P

[green]

I don't understand the division on this thread.

I accept that there was never any orchestrated campaign of ethnic cleansing carried out against Protestants in West Cork or elsewhere and that the main source to the contrary is frankly untrustworthy. The IRA had more important things to deal with (e.g. arms seizures and military campagns) without drawing up plans for trivia such as that.

I also accept that it is extremely likely that cetain Protestant families would have been forced out of their homes, either during the War or in its aftermath, by local IRA brigades or members. Considering the new-found nationalist fervour of the time and distrust of the ruling class - a class which had been associated with Protestantism for 400 years - it would be extremely surprising if there were not a "trickle-down" effect, with local Protestants being associated somewhat (albeit inexcusably) with the wrongs committed by the Establishment. This does not mean that these expulsions were centrally sanctioned, or orchestrated by the IRA officially, simply that local mmbers took the law into their own hands, due to sectarianism, punishment (if a relative had been an informer, say), socialism (expulsion of "Big House" Protestants) or simply personal grievances. This is generally the case in a revolutionary period - why should Ireland's be any different?

I've done very little reading on the period, admittedly, but if someone can explain any flaws in this theory, I'd be interested to hear them.

[merle haggard]

Unscrupulous individuals in Cork attempted to take advantage of the power vaccum around the time of the treaty by helping themselves to protestant owned cattle and the like . Its a matter of record that Tom Barry placed armed IRA guards at the homes of protestants to prevent this happening and that the IRA ensured their property was returned to them .

Its also a matter of record that the Stormont governemnt was offering generous grants to southern protestants to move north and bolster the numbers up there in their protestant statelet .