IRA - Catholic Terrorists?

Question

Help settle an arguement...

Do the IRA bombing campaigns in the UK count as religious terrorism. Yes/No? why? and (if you are keen) compared to islamic terrorists?

Answer 1

No. The IRAs campaign was originally based on the premise of bringing about a United Ireland and therefore was based on an unrealisable political agenda. Though the IRA may have been born out of relatively understandable beginnings, it later transmorphed into a criminal organisation controlling the flow of drugs into Ireland and extending into protection rackets and other organised crime ventures. The same applies for paramilitary organisations on the other side of the fence such as the UDA and UVF, all of which are also heavily involved in criminal activity.

To answer your question, there is no such thing as a 'Catholic terrorist' or a 'Protestant terrorist' because it just doesn't work that way.

Answer 2

No simple answer to this. Yes the IRA were a Catholic organization as are most people in the Irish Republic. The main aim of the IRA was to have a united Ireland. So to put it into simple terms to take over Northern Ireland which has a Protestant majority, who wanted to stay British and part of the UK.Hence the conflict.. Having said that I never have or ever will agree with their methods

Answer 3

Irish Catholics in general are terrorists, and the IRA is merely the most visible manifestation of that. As we now know, based on admissions of the Bishop of Dublin, the Irish church has been abusing children for decades, and the Irish nuns have been burying babies in the backyards of their orphanages. Truth be told, probably a lot of those babies were the result of illicit unions between the nuns and the priests.

The Irish have made no positive contribution to the world. They are prone to criminal conduct, and they gave us the word "paddywagon." The stubborn Irish, left to their own devices, would not even speak English.

Answer 4

It had nothing to do with being Catholic. Most of the IRA and its supporters were little interested in religion. The 'struggle' was against the occupation by British forces and influences in Ireland. Eventually, we will see a United Ireland for all its people.
As for Islamic Terrorists, it looks like religion plays a pivotal role in their philosophy but I am no expert in this field!

Answer 5

i used to live in dublin fro quite a while, now the usa. the current troubles are not a religious thing. the irish are predomenantly catholic is true. the orange in ulster are protestant and that is pretty much where the religious aspect ends. the orange are settlers in ireland. settled by the british starting in the 1600s. they are not irish they are british. they have been there so long that they are mistakenly calling themselves irish. just like many people in the usa claim erronously that they are native american because their family histories go back a few hundred years in n am. they are not and the orange are not irish. the irish just want the entirety of their land to be irish as a nation, and are not so concerned about the catholic/protestant issue. orange loyalties lie with london. green loyalties lie with dublin. sinn feinn and the ira have been fighting for self rule (recd after the usprising and troubles in 1916) and a unified irish land. that is what the problem is. the orange loyalties in ulster preclude downing street from removing from ulster. it is purely political and the religious aspect is coincidental.

Answer 6

First the modern RA were not terrorists - but the religious aspect is not so simple. In the north of Ireland, Catholics were brutally oppressed and discriminated against. So,during the sixties, many of these Catholics tried to win equal rights with peaceful marches, but were set upon and beaten by loyalists. So, the RA filled the vacuum and took matters into their own hands. Their goal was to free the north from Britain's illegal occupation and to unite with the ROI. Now, their political arm, Sinn Fein, is working on a political solution - but without the RA forcing the issue - this never would have happened. Of course, our ultimate goal is still the unification of Ireland.

Note, not all Catholics are republican, and not all Protestants are loyalists.

BTW, I am from Derry and a member of Sinn Fein.

Answer 7

No it was political but many wanted it blamed on religion. This was just a scapegoat for BAD people wanting to bring hatred and violence in to the country. These people on both sides were terrorists. The decent people in Ireland, no matter what their religion was never for the loss of lives in the name of religion. There are some who still feel bitter bu thanksfull now a minority. Ireland has came a long way and have their peace. They should be a lesson to us all.

Answer 8

No.

The issue in Northern Ireland is political not religious. The media, who is always looking for short cuts and not the whole story, calls the participants Catholics and Protestants.

The conflict is about whether the British territory (probably the wrong word) of Northern Ireland should remain British or should become part of Ireland.

The majority of people in Ireland are Catholics. The majority of people in England and Northern Ireland are Protestants. There are actually Catholics and Protestants on either side.

The terrorists on either side of the issue are not Christian in any sense of the word.

With love in Christ.

Answer 9

No, it was all to do with factionalism. Many who identify as Irish catholics only pay lip service to catholicism, much as the morons who rant "This is a Christian country" usually don't go to church more than twice a year, if that.

The goals were political, the religion only demarked their community.

Answer 10

IMO - All terrorism is political not religious.
Religion is used as the smokescreen.
It is about power, wealth, land and how it is divided between peoples.
Terrorists today, tomorrow's politicians.