Are you aware that there has always been a way out for the U.K regarding the Irish Question. ?

It is a complete myth that the UK has ever wanted to retain Northern Ireland after the secession of the other 26 counties that now make up the Republic of Ireland. Irish history is obviously controversial with right and wrong on all sides, and everybody leans to one side or the other, but everyone should at least try and look at history impartially.

Just before World War 1 the UK government was about to put through parliament a bill that would give all of the island of Ireland home rule within the UK. This caused a massive number of people from what would later become Northern Ireland to declare 'a solemn league and covenant' to defend by force their 'protestant Ulster nation' against British or Irish forces seeking to put them under 'catholic Dublin rule'. The bill was suspended due to the outbreak of the world war and both sides paramilitary forces basically being absorbed into the UK armed forces for the war with Germany.

At the end of the world war the UK had decided to give home rule to Ireland, but everyone knew that forcing 'Ulster' under 'Dublin rule' would mean all out civil war in Ireland. It was decided a compromise was needed that would allow all-island home rule, while protecting the Ulster protestants from their (perhaps unfounded) fear of catholic domination from the south. Ireland would be given home rule, but it would be a federal arrangement, with a Southern Ireland Parliament and Government, and a Northern Ireland parliament and Government, with each sending members to an all-Ireland Government. This deal was not acceptable to Southern Ireland's people or politicians, and these were the circumstances that started the Irish War of Independence, in which Southern Ireland declared the entire island of Ireland to be an independent Irish Republic. During the war the UK government had policies for treating the 'Irish Republic's' leaders that would today be condemned as not only heavy handed but even barbaric. But in the end the situation was largely as it had been prior to the war; the Irish Republic was not recognized by a single state on Earth but the British Government had no ability to control what it viewed as Southern Ireland.

Following this conflict the UK and leaders of Southern Ireland (the declared but unrecognized Irish Republic) agreed to allow all of Ireland to form it's own state, the Irish Free State, that would be as independent as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa (which were all independent but still formally within the British Commonwealth). The State was to be formed by both the Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland parliaments voting to establish it. The Southern Ireland parliament duly did so, but Northern Ireland voted out, so only Southern Ireland became the Irish Free State, and Northern Ireland kept the same arrangements as it had previously (ie: within the UK). This was seen by both the UK and Irish Free State as a temporary situation, and the UK actually refused Northern Ireland's request to change it's name to Ulster as it did not wish to separate the identities of both parts of the island of Ireland.

The new Irish Free State was seen by Irish protestants as being influenced by the catholicism and against protestants, and Northern Ireland was seen as being pro-protestant and anti-catholic. Large numbers of Free State protestants and Northern catholics moved across the border, which only entrenched the problem, and large numbers of both moved to mainland Britain, particularly to north-west England (Liverpool) and west Scotland (Glasgow). The Free State had a mainly agricultural economy which did not grow, while by contrast the industrial based Northern Ireland became richer. Any lingering hope of Northern Ireland's protestant majority changing their minds and joining the Free State ended when the Irish Free State voted to become the Republic of Ireland and included in it's constitution special status for the catholic church.

The UK has always recognized the right of Northern Ireland to secede from the UK and join a united Ireland, and has always had a policy of neutrality on the issue. The current situation is absolutely right, where both the UK and Republic of Ireland support the right to equality, justice and peace of all people in Northern Ireland, and their right to freely-determine whether they want to be part of the UK or part of a united Ireland. British law actually compels the UK to seek to hand Northern Ireland over to the Republic, the very day that Northern Ireland's people vote for it to happen. The only problem in such a situation is that the Irish Government may not want to take Northern Ireland, which is difficult to administer and which now has a poor economy that needs external help (something that would be a far higher drain on a small economy like Ireland than a large one like the UK).

"All the lives lost over the years" were not because the British Government wanted to "retain power" or because the Irish Government wanted to get it. The bloodshed over the years has been because 2 sides of a divided community in Northern Ireland could not live together in peace. It's ironic that perhaps the people of Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland, both largely secular and tolerant peoples, now have much more in common with each other than either does with the still divided and religiously intolerant people of Northern Ireland.

I was not aware of that. I dont think all those 3000 or whatever people died just because of the British government. It was also due to Loyalist and Republican paramilitaries fighting it out, often independently of either Dublin or Westminster. Its a complex issue and trying to identify one side as right and the other as wrong is unhelpful. If the whole of Ulster had gone to Eire in 1922 then it is likely that Unionists in that part of Ireland would have launched a terrorism campaign against Dublin. Either way there would have been terrorism.

I suspect Britain has wanted "out" of Northern Ireland for many many years, but unfortunately for them there were a large number of people living in Ireland who wanted nothing to do with the Republic

for some of those it was bigotry, for others it was a dislike of the Catholic religons grip on the republic, for others its was the devil they knew, rahter than the devil they feared.

lets face it had the republic really wanted to resolve the issue it could have taken a differnet view on things such as abortion, divorce.

So in short I dont think it was the fault of the British goevrnements.. I think it swas the fault of those livign in Northern Ireland and elswhere who wer unable to accept that change or accomodation was required

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I'm sorry but all those lives were lost because Catholic IRA morons were killing people. Not because of anything else. Oooh I don't really like the government so I think I'll kill someone from the next street because he's a different religion to me. Bunch of wankers