Originally posted by Maeglamor
[color=66ff00]Actually it's always been about land; religion was just a simple way to 'identify the enemy'. It's well known that there are quite a few catholic businessmen who are pro-union and many many protestants who live in the republic but sectarians don't care, it's our side and their side.
Actually you'll see more religiously inclined bias with the hardline unionists (Ian Paisley and his mob.) the hardline nationalists have always been about nationalism.
I'm not vilifying terrorists here but if you look at the troubles overall you'll see that the IRA (that is the official IRA and not the splinter groups) always chose military targets whereas the loyalists just picked out any old nationalist (and continue to do so).
The thing that gets me most though is the BBC bias in reporting the news, republican terrorist attacks are headlined and emphasised yet loyalist attacks which are far more frequent and sinister are downplayed.
BBC worldwide is largely to blame for this, BBC NI can't really avoid the truth as it would be quickly called on it and tend to tell it like it is.
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Presumably you don't mean the PIRA since 1971, then.........which most people would count as the 'official' IRA, given its operational histroy and association with politics.
* 1971: Three British soldiers are killed in a bomb attack in Belfast.
* 1971: Catholic mother of ten, Jean McConville, is executed by the Provisional IRA for cushioning the head of a dying British soldier, although it is also claimed that she was informing the British Army of PIRA activities. The PIRA would deny any involvement in the killing until the 1990s, when it would acknowledge its action.
* 21 July 1972: On 'Bloody Friday' 22 bombs kill 9 and seriously injure 130. 30 years later the PIRA would officially apologise for this set of attacks.
* 1974: The Guildford pub bombing kills 19 and injures 182. The motive for the bombing was apparently that the pub attacked was frequented by soldiers. Four people, dubbed the 'Guildford Four', would be convicted for the bombing and imprisoned for life. The Guidford Four would claim police tortured them into confessing and 15 years later Lord Lane of the Court of Appeal would overturn their convictions noting "the investigating officers must have lied".
* 1974: In the Birmingham Pub Bombings bombs in two pubs kill 19. The Birmingham Six' would be tried for this and convicted. Many years later, after new evidence of police fabrication and suppression of evidence, their convictions would be quashed. Appeals by the Birmingham Six that the real IRA bombers had admitted responsibility for the bombings were ignored.
* 1975: The assassination of Ross McWhirter.
* 1975: The Balcombe Street Siege.
* 1976: A PIRA bomb kills the newly appointed British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, resulting in the declaration of a State of Emergency in the Republic. The PIRA also threatens to kidnap or kill Irish cabinet ministers and the President of Ireland.
* 1979: A PIRA bomb kills Earl Mountbatten of Burma, members of his family and a local child off the Irish coast. On the same day the PIRA kill 18 British soldiers at Narrow Water, near Newry, County Down; in an attack described by the British government as "a classic guerilla attack", they first plant one bomb, which kills 6, and then begin firing with sniper rifles at soldiers sheltered near a nearby gate where a second bomb explodes, killing 12 others. During an Irish visit Pope John Paul II calls for the PIRA campaign of violence to come to an end.
* 1981: IRA prisoner Bobby Sands, imprisoned in connection with his involvement in an attack involving a bomb and subsequent gun battle, is elected Member of Parliament for the Northern Ireland constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone in a by-election. The moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party decides not to run a candidate, and so split the nationalist vote, leaving Sands as the main nationalist candidate. Sands had been on a hunger strike for 'Prisoner of War' status for 41 days prior to being elected. He died 23 days later.
* 1981: The PIRA kill Ulster Unionist Party Belfast MP Rev Robert Bradford along with the caretaker of a community centre. Irish Taoiseach Dr. Garret FitzGerald and former taoiseach Charles Haughey condemn the killings in Dáil Éireann. SDLP party leader John Hume accuses the Provisionals of waging a campaign of "sectarian genocide".
* 10 October 1981: a bomb blast on Ebury Bridge Road in London kills 2 people and injures 39.
* 26 October 1981: a bomb explodes at a Wimpy Bar in Oxford Street London killing one person.
* 20 July 1982: In Hyde Park, a bomb bombs kills two members of the Household Cavalry performing ceremonial duties in the park. Seven of their horses are also killed. On the same day another device kills seven bandsmen the Royal Green Jackets as it explodes underneath the bandstand in Regents Park as they played music to 120 spectators.
* 1983: A Harrods department store bomb planted by the PIRA during Christmas shopping season kills six (three police) and wounds 90.
* 1984: In the Brighton hotel bombing a bomb in the Grand Hotel kills five in a failed attempt to assassinate members of the British cabinet, including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
* 1987: In the Enniskillen 'Massacre' the PIRA bombing of a Remembrance Day parade kills eleven civilians and injures sixty-three. Among the dead is nurse Marie Wilson, whose father, Gordon Wilson, would go on to become a leading campaigner for an end to violence in Northern Ireland. The PIRA would later claim that their target was a colour guard of British soldiers. On Remembrance Day 1997 the leader of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, formally apologised for the bombing.
* 1989: Ten Royal Marine bandsmen are killed and 22 injured in the bombing of their base in Deal in Kent.
* 1990: Car bombings in Northern Ireland kill seven and wound 37.
* 30 July 1990 Ian Gow MP is killed when a device explodes under his car as he is leaving his home.
* 1990: A British Army Artillery officer is killed by the PIRA in Dortmund in the then West Germany.
* 18 February 1991: A bomb explodes at Victoria Station. One man killed and 38 people injured.
* 1991: Mortar attack on members of the British cabinet and the Prime Minister, John Major at the height of a huge security clampdown amid the Gulf War is launched by PIRA.
* 1991: Two PIRA members are killed in St. Albans when their own bomb detonates prematurely.
* 28 February 1992: A bomb explodes at London Bridge railway station injuring 29 people.
* 10 April 1992: A large bomb explodes in St Mary Axe in the City of London killing three people and injuring 91. Many buildings are heavily damaged and the Baltic Exchange is completely destroyed.
* 12 October 1992: A device explodes in the gents' toilet of the Sussex Arms public house in Covent Garden killing one person and injuring four others.
* 1992: Eight Protestant builders are killed by a PIRA bomb on their way to work at an army base near Omagh.
* 1993: A PIRA bomb in Warrington kills two children.
* 1993: The PIRA detonates a huge truck bomb in the City of London at Bishopsgate, which kills two and causes around £350m of damage, including the near destruction of St. Ethelburga's Bishopsgate.
* 1993: A bomb at a fish and chip shop underneath a UDA office on the Protestant Shankill Road in Belfast detonates prematurely, killing ten, including the bomber and two children.
* 1 September 1994: the PIRA declares the first of two cease-fires in the 1990s.
* 10 February 1996: The PIRA ends its 1994 cease-fire, killing two in a bomb at the Canary Wharf towers in London.
* 18 February 1996 an improvised high explosive device detonates prematurely on a bus, killing the PIRA operative transporting the device and injuring eight others.
* 15 June 1996: The PIRA detonates a 5,000 lb (2,300 kg) bomb in Manchester, injuring 206 people and damaging seventy thousand square metres of retail and office space.
