From the Loyalist blog It's Still Only Thursday, a second piece in a series looking at 'legitimate targets' during the North's politically violent conflict.

For a summary of the methodology used in the Killing by Numbers series please see Killing by Numbers: Part 1.

We will begin our re-analysis of The Troubles with a study of the republican armed groups, since they were responsible for most conflict related deaths.

In Part 3 we will deal with the smaller republican groupings but we will begin with the Provisional IRA, since they were by far the largest of such groupings and because they were also the organisation involved for the longest period of time, 1970-1998, whilst the Official IRA had all but abandoned violence by about 1975, the INLA only came into being in 1975 and the IPLO was formed only in 1985/86.

Legitimate targets

First we must ascertain who exactly the Provisional IRA regarded as “legitimate targets”. Something which is not as straightforward as one would assume.

Of course the Provisional movement regarded the Army, RUC and UDR as so-called “legitimate targets” but that particular list does not end there.

For as well as all serving soldiers and police, the Provos also regarded all former members of the Armed Forces (resident in Northern Ireland) and former police officers as legitimate targets too.

Add to that list all members of the judiciary, all serving and former members of the Prison Service, all members of the Ulster Unionist Party, the Ulster Democratic Party, the Progressive Unionist Party, the Conservative Party (at least after 1975), members of the Royal household and so-called “collaborators”, ie civilians employed in a clerical role, or as “searchers”, by the RUC and Army, those employed as cooks or cleaners in Army barracks and police stations, those who supplied foodstuffs and other goods/services to the Security Forces and those who built, maintained and repaired police stations, Army barracks and UDR bases.

In fact, the list of so-called “collaborators” was extended in the late 1980s to such a degree that even those who supplied building materials or sub-contracted to those involved in “Security work” were regarded as “legitimate targets” by PIRA/Sinn Fein.

Continue reading @ It's Still Only Thursday.



➽ Follow It's Still Only Thursday on Twitter @0nIyThursday

Killing by Numbers ➤ Part 2

From the Loyalist blog It's Still Only Thursday, a second piece in a series looking at 'legitimate targets' during the North's politically violent conflict.

For a summary of the methodology used in the Killing by Numbers series please see Killing by Numbers: Part 1.

We will begin our re-analysis of The Troubles with a study of the republican armed groups, since they were responsible for most conflict related deaths.

In Part 3 we will deal with the smaller republican groupings but we will begin with the Provisional IRA, since they were by far the largest of such groupings and because they were also the organisation involved for the longest period of time, 1970-1998, whilst the Official IRA had all but abandoned violence by about 1975, the INLA only came into being in 1975 and the IPLO was formed only in 1985/86.

Legitimate targets

First we must ascertain who exactly the Provisional IRA regarded as “legitimate targets”. Something which is not as straightforward as one would assume.

Of course the Provisional movement regarded the Army, RUC and UDR as so-called “legitimate targets” but that particular list does not end there.

For as well as all serving soldiers and police, the Provos also regarded all former members of the Armed Forces (resident in Northern Ireland) and former police officers as legitimate targets too.

Add to that list all members of the judiciary, all serving and former members of the Prison Service, all members of the Ulster Unionist Party, the Ulster Democratic Party, the Progressive Unionist Party, the Conservative Party (at least after 1975), members of the Royal household and so-called “collaborators”, ie civilians employed in a clerical role, or as “searchers”, by the RUC and Army, those employed as cooks or cleaners in Army barracks and police stations, those who supplied foodstuffs and other goods/services to the Security Forces and those who built, maintained and repaired police stations, Army barracks and UDR bases.

In fact, the list of so-called “collaborators” was extended in the late 1980s to such a degree that even those who supplied building materials or sub-contracted to those involved in “Security work” were regarded as “legitimate targets” by PIRA/Sinn Fein.

Continue reading @ It's Still Only Thursday.



➽ Follow It's Still Only Thursday on Twitter @0nIyThursday

3 comments:

  1. Ahh! now I see where they are going with this. The gist of the final installment and its conclusions is probably going to suggest that loyalists only targeted Republicans -give or take a few accidents and informers along the way -but the manipulation of the statistics will show conclusively that Loyalists were much more effective.

    Plus they stretched the IRA's range of 'legitimate targetes' to included civilians and children.

    It will be mildly interesting to see how they manipulate the number of loyalists legitimate targets such as 'All Catholics', 'Any Taig will do', 'Kill'em all and let god sort them out' etc.

    On a more serious note, no doubt this crap will serve its propganda value and arm idiots with false facts to fuel their delusions -after all how can one reason with the unreasonable?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Christy,

      Where else could it have been going? Fuck knows why they see the need at revisionism and any halfwit knows you can make statistics mean whatever you like.

      I wonder if the author of that page is a mate of Coulters?

      Delete
  2. It is drivel. Where do you start with such nonsense? Christy is correct that their campaign focused on anyone who was Catholic, anyone who may be a member of the Pan Nationalist Front which included those who had the gall to play Irish Traditional music whether Catholic or Protestant.

    Their great rationale and excuse for killing random Catholics was that it forced the IRA to call a ceasefire. This was an excuse thought up 30 years after they started the practise.

    This is flawed as many loyalists admitted that sectarian attacks by the IRA like Kingsmills etc. was the spark that made them join a loyalist armed group. It is flawed because if the killing of innocent Protestants persuaded them to be violent why would they expect the killing of innocent Catholics to have the opposite effect, ie. Persuade Republicans to stop killing?

    Like the article containing questions on collusion as if any answer to those questions is relevant to a conclusion on the matter, it is drivel.

    They used to flaunt their collusion and sectarianism. Like the unapologetic killing of any Catholic civilian or the montages plastered on walls. Now, when the dust settles and they look like the bogeyman, a great attempt at revisionism is made.

    The Loyalists apologised for killing innocent people. In their minds any Catholic was guilty and a legitimate target due to giving so-called succour or community support to the IRA or to teach republicans a lesson. They spent 40 years of the Troubles describing Catholics as guilty and how else could they be legitimate targets?

    Their apology for killing any innocent people in my mind isn't as wide as the Republican apology to non-combatants because they never released a statement disavowing their engrained view that Catholics were guilty and deserved to be slaughtered during the troubles. They never said their categorisation of Catholics as legitimate targets was wrong. In fact they said the ramping up in the 1990s of targetting innocent non-involved Catholics brought peace.

    This drivel has been called out by loyalists as unacceptable revisionism. If only they'd stop with the romper room diplomacy and had a long, hard look at themselves.

    ReplyDelete