The 'RA don't kill people, they kill titles!

[KingKane]

Apparently, Cllr Killian Forde our prospective SF MEP for Dublin if MLM makes it to Kildare street reckons that the IRA weren't attacking Lord MountBatten when they blow up his boat with some locals in it, they were attacking his title. You know his title being, like, his position in British society and what he represented.

Does this mean it was ok for the loyalists to attack SF representatives for their titles of being representatives of the republican movement or to kill a priest or an iman or city councillor for representing their communities?

Couldn't Cllr Forde have simply followed the usual party line instead of trying to invent a new one?

This is in the Dubliner this month.

[DOD]

Of course they were killing him because of his title. That is hardly a revelation.

[Gladstone]

after dozens of debates on his killing, I'm still totallt lost as to what he had to do with Northern Ireland....

[campbeca]

Can we have a link?

If you see yourself as fighting a war then the idea of legitimate targets is perfectly acceptable but the BA soldiers you killed were mainly tweenies and young men with mothers etc. and who were probably in the army because of family tradition or lack of educational opportunities or the sort...... always a fact worth remembering

As for Mountbatten I have no/little idea how he was a legitimate target and even less how the deck hands were fair game.


I also have no idea how you figured by the 80s you could bomb the brits out but I suppose that's where the peace process comes in

[coconut]

Seemed like a good fan of imperialism to me. Maybe that's why the IRA thought he should be popped.

Couldn't Cllr Forde have simply followed the usual party line instead of trying to invent a new one?

Or maybe this is what he thinks about it, not what SF thinks. Ever consider that?

[Gladstone]

So...by their logic....Preisdent MacAleese (who has nothing to do with NI much like Mountbatton) could legitimatly be shot by the loyalists for the actions of the IRA?

[Trefor]

So...by their logic....Preisdent MacAleese (who has nothing to do with NI much like Mountbatton) could legitimatly be shot by the loyalists for the actions of the IRA?

Only if you believe the activities of Loyalist paramilitaries to be legitimate I suppose.

[Gladstone]

Ok lets just admit it here.

He was not a legitimate target, he had nothing to do with NI this was cold blooded murder.

[coconut]

The war was against British rule and imperialism. Mountbatten was a title-holding imperialist who was high up in the royal family.

I am not condoning his death but if the IRA killed him for this reason, I can understand why.

[Gladstone]

No, I can't.

Trying to blow up the PM (not very well thought out) but I can understnad as she wa sdirectly in charge.

Moutbatton was a figurehead, and nothing more, he held no power whatsoever over Northen Ireland and done nothing to the nationalists there.

He was an easy target for a coward who's only job was to push a button.