The Kilt's use in Irish Nationalism

[Jock Scot]

You can't say armed guards on sentry duty outside a barracks are the same as soldiers patrolling the whole city, and doing random checks on people and houses.
There is also a difference between having 'occassional' check points, and a permanent stop and search check point on my road for 30 years.

From what I've read on this forum you always have insightful and intelligent comments, the majority of which I agree with. However, I can't agree with you on this. I know what I grew up experiencing, and it wasn't civil administration.

What you grew up in was the result of people behaving appallingly badly and as a result of that the army did their job and a very difficult job. If there are ruthless armed and lawless people in the community then what you had to endure was the result. Not pleasant, not something any thinking person would want for sure, or to be proud of necessarily, but that was still not an occupation.

If those ruthless, armed, dangerous people in NI were not there . Why would the armed British Army be out on the streets of NI? If everything was just dandy there, the Army had no need to be there patroling the streets. The fact is, that some people of NI were behaving well beyond what is required in a civilised society and that was going on well before the army was called in. Things escalated from there of that there is no doubt and there is also no doubt that there were genuine grievances that existed, but once the bomb and bullet took precedence over the ballot box then in reality the Civil Authorities had no other choice than to do what they did. That still does not make an occupation.

Yes we both know where we stand, let us move on.