[Loy]

Sternn-FYI, my sons live over there now. And my attitude about the IRA comes from the "average man on the street"...from over there.

And since you're so up with the IRA, you probably know this already, but I'm gonna remind you anyways-there are some fairly large Irish communities over on this side of the water. Not Irish as in "oh, my grandpa was Irish, so now I'm Irish and have an excuse to be a drunken jackass", but Irish as in "born and raised". One of those lesser communities happens to be here in Seattle. You know which Micks come over here to Seattle (aside from the Naries and Boggies you guys tend to snort your noses at)? On-the run-IRA members who'd be executed the moment they started going by their real identities again. I've spent many a night (and many, many, MANY more dollars in alcohol upkeep) with them (mostly 'cause they were trying to see if I was good enough for a "Homeland" girl...and I was OK'd after they found out that I was also of a "Bitch Race"), and they struck me the same way all those sailors and soldiers I met growing up.....10% idealists, 20% desperate, 70% dim-witted psychopaths that needed to be removed from the genepool in order to save the evolutionary course.

But since (I'm guessing) nobody else has ever told you this, I will-there's a HUGE difference between being proud of your heritage (along with this pride comes a knowledge of your collective history, understanding what you've gone through culturally, etc) and cognative dissonance. Please learn to differentiate between the two.

PS-might I suggest taking a note from the Sinn Fein? At least they had the balls to grow the fuck up, take responsibility for their mistakes, and start being productive.