The IRA should never be glorified as freedom fighters. They were firmly terrorists and most of those that they murdered were Irish and indiscriminiately Catholic and Protestant. In 1998, 29 were killed in the Omagh bombing, including 6 children, 6 teenagers, a pregnant woman with twins and 2 Spanish tourists. In their early years, they raised money by robbing security vans (on occasion killing Irish policemen) and low level gang crime. Toward their end, they were running guns, drugs, prostitutes and people trafficking with the victims invariably innocent Irish citizens.
A shame that so few now know anything about Daniel O'Connell. Known in his day as The Liberator he campaigned fearlessly on behalf of the oppressed everywhere. He was passionately opposed to slavery, anti-semitism and the mistreatment of the native populations of new Zealand and Australia. He was much admired by Frederick Douglass and other prominent abolitionists.
His methods of mobilising the masses for a just cause and his resolute opposition to violence prefigured some of great leaders of the twentieth century such as Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Martin Luther King.
His methods of mobilising the masses for a just cause and his resolute opposition to violence prefigured some of great leaders of the twentieth century such as Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Martin Luther King.