What I remember about Ireland as a child was body parts being removed from trees in the town centre in front of my eyes, not from a news report. The St Albans bombing was the one which caused law to be created to remove town waste bins in case someone hid a bomb in them, and that largely stands today. Sadly for the bomber in that attack was that most of the body parts were their own.
One of the two bombers blown beyond recognition was just 18 years old. Though I deeply regret this feeling now, at the time everyone was so pleased that they were killed. Everyone was suffering totally from Ireland fatigue after 20 years of it. That was the feeling we had about this nasty and spiteful group of people who just wanted money and power. And here once again the story of the ages the young and vulnerable being exploited, all in the cause, to gain wealth and power for a few. Under a veil of saving the world. Or at least their world.
And all this is not to say the police and army were not equally spiteful, in revenge. Or indeed their actions in the past might well have incentivised it. The fog of war.
My memory is also the feeling of fascism I got from Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and the IRA as a sort of SS. Sinn Féin being analogous to Hamas today. I was young then and clueless about cause and effect of these pointless conflicts with no ultimate meaning. Except as I say, to gain wealth and power so that they can save the planet. But this is also true for every political party anywhere in the world isn't it?
The lies were so appalling. Obviously we didn't really believe what our own government were telling us, but even as a child, you could detect intuitively that the IRA and Sinn Féin were a nasty spiteful group of people who did not care about the Irish. As usual, they had a narrative which they believed fanatically like a cult. What can you do about that sort of thing but pray. And again, to be fair, the British and the Northern Irish also had their own cult which they believe fanatically. Do they not?
Today is not so different. Except the fascism of each cult has developed in a way it always does into proto-totalitarianism with the parties we see there now. There are no parties standing who do not look like internationalist fanatics. Attacking their own people and exploiting those who can least defend themselves, all in the greater cause. One of the parties is certainly right up there in this respect.
Sinn Féin and the IRA though fascists were never right-wing. They were always a hard left wing Trotskyite gang much like we see on the streets today around the world pandering to about half the electorate with low IQ to exploit. But they have always been fascists even if they behaved like gangsters.
It'll be interesting to see how the election goes. It will be interesting because the same group of spiteful people are now looking to become president of Ireland.