Getting political here a bit, but:

> We have had generations of terror threats to and attacks on our railway system, trains, railway stations. (And the most long-term and persistent of those threats was Irish republican terrorism bankrolled by Americans, for that matter)

Did it ever cross Britain's mind that the whole IRA debacle is of its own doing? Can't you just leave Ireland for good and let them be?

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dofm 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Did it ever cross Britain's mind that the whole IRA debacle is of its own doing? Can't you just leave Ireland for good and let them be?

That people still ask this question betrays only that they aren't well-informed about what actual issues led to the Troubles.

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Schiendelman 9 hours ago | parent [-]

Tell us more! I don't know anything about it either. Couldn't the UK have ceded it to Ireland? Or would the problems just have gone another direction?

	▲	dofm 8 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		There are two largely different concepts/epochs separated by more than 40 years. The negotiations and partition of Ireland and the establishment of Northern Ireland as a self-governing province (rather than being governed from Britain): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_Ireland And then the Troubles, which were a sectarian conflict between Catholics and Protestants within Northern Ireland itself, that stemmed from Protestant oppression of Catholic rights protests (patterned after the US civil rights movement). The Wikipedia pages are really good, but the top level page is great because it covers the early days so well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles
	▲	9 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[deleted]

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tim333 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They couldn't because the majority in the north wanted to be part on the UK, and democracy.

	▲	ibejoeb an hour ago \| parent [-]
		No matter what position one might take, for context, that's less than 1/4th.

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11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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