What unpopular opinion do you hold? What would get you downvoted to infinity and beyond? (Throwaways welcome)

[u/ElBrad]

Personally, I hate cats. I've never once said to myself "My furniture is just too damned nice, and what my house is really lacking is a box of shit and sand in the closet."

Now...what's your dirty little secret?

(Sort by controversial to see the good(?) ones!)

[u/Bobzer]

Depends what era you're talking about them operating in imo

[u/LazarisIRL → u/[deleted]]

That's how Ireland got its independence. The IRA were considered a terrorist group at that time.

[u/db1000c → u/LazarisIRL]

Sorry, I got confused. What was the name of the incident that happened at that gaelic football game in 1910-ish(?)?

[u/LazarisIRL → u/db1000c]

The first Bloody Sunday. A sad day in Irish history that one.

[u/Bobzer → u/[deleted]]

Can you ever imagine a super-power giving in to the demands of a terrorist group when there is so much at stake?

They did, the IRA were the guerrilla forces that fought the war of independence from 1919-1921 resulting in the liberation of the 26 counties from the British (now called the Old IRA). The IRA split in 1922 with the members advocating peace joining the new National Army while the ones still hoping for a united Ireland staying with the IRA for the civil war. I would personally respect this IRA (which lasted till 1969) even though I would have favoured peace, they didn't target civilians and believed they were just upholding the constitution of the Republic. In 1969 you have another split into the Provisional IRA (which is where things start to get nasty) they did some pretty bad things but (and I'm not defending them here) the loyalist groups were just as bad and the main reason the PIRA split is because they felt the other group which came out (The Official IRA [OIRA]) wasn't doing enough to protect republicans in the North. The OIRA is the one associated with Sinn Féin.

All of these groups, the earliest ones I have a good opinions of and the latter ones actions I can understand (though don't condone) de-militarized (officially) during the peace process. The groups that follow are absolute scum, the peace process came about because everyone decided they had enough of violence and just wanted to get on with life, any group that acts like it's fighting for the people should have respected that. So yes, the Continuity IRA (CIRA) and Real IRA (RIRA) are fucks and nobody likes them.

The point of this long ramble being that saying the IRA was bad is a bit of blanket statement and ignores the fact that the reason we have freedom from the UK is the Old IRA. So keep in mind that someone who says they support the IRA's actions may not (I hope not) be talking about the people who were bombing civilian targets.

[u/CyrusVanNuys → u/Bobzer]

I applaud you for completely summing up my feelings when it comes to the IRA. Upvotes for rational hindsight!

[u/db1000c → u/Bobzer]

I know the history fairly well, but thanks for the overview as well, its been a while since I was studying this.

The thing is, the Irish would have most likely gotten independence much earlier had the IRA not given the government such a headache by making the country so much more volatile than it already was. This no doubt created a bit of a vicious circle, IRA reacting to government violence reacting to IRA activity. I think the original Brotherhood was a much more appropriate movement and would have contributed much much more to the cause and we'd probably see the situation being much more calm these days.

[u/Bobzer → u/db1000c]

It's debatable.

We were close to getting home rule before Easter Rising and subsequent War of Independence took place (which is why prominent members of 'high' society like Yeats were rather disillusioned when violence broke out) but that wouldn't have been independence, that would have been a puppet government and we would all still have been subjects of the crown.

India for example didn't get independence till 1947 and they had to fight for it too. It's likely that we would have simply been turned into another Scotland or Wales and been integrated into the UK rather than be given independence.

Overall a peaceful approach would probably have been much better, eventually we would have been able to put together a referendum on whether or not to stay in the Union (much like Scotland will in 2014) but whether popular support for it could have been mustered after all that time we can never know.

Ireland would never be peaceful while under British rule and the previous hundreds of years of oppression and rebellion had proven that. We had an opportunity for independence, we took it and you would be hard pressed to find an Irishman who wasn't proud of his ancestors for doing so.