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Originally Posted by classicman
Exactly when did we Americans think that?
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From Dana's article (which is actually about how little support their was in America, so if anything it's biased the other way).
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The Irish diaspora, especially those who settled in the United States, have played an intregal part in the Troubles. It is true that a small portion of Irish-Americans have always supported the Irish Republican Army
however, many Irish-American supporters of the IRA remained wedded to the idea that only violence would bring about a united Ireland.
For a quarter century, the IRA attracted a core of followers in the United States who were loyal and dedicated.
In 1969, as TV images of Catholics being attacked were beamed back to Irish Catholic enclaves in Boston and New York, hats were literally passed around pubs from Southie to Woodside in Queens. Fundraising for the IRA, or at least for IRA prisoners, peaked whenever the British were seen to do something outrageous, such as when British soldiers shot 14 civil rights marchers dead on Bloody Sunday in 1972 or in 1981 when Margaret Thatcher allowed the hunger strikers to die.
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Originally Posted by classicman
It will likely be less going forward.
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Don't get me wrong - I was writing about support in the past, not a current situation. And I have always been aware that it was a minority support.
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Originally Posted by classicman
?????
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Not 100% sure what you're questioning. I was stating my opinion that I don't think the IRA were political prisoners, and I doubt many Americans will see the terrorists involved in the current terrorism of America in a purely political light either. Bobby Sands starved himself to death and I didn't give a shit (poor pun). It wasn't meant to be anti-American.