Measures included it being temporary and the full 9 counties. That was not the legislation though.
Partition was inevitable, however the form of it wasn’t. Nor was how it would work in practice post implementation.
Here’s what McGuinness was on air to shill for. I remember hearing about these murders. It was the lunchtime on the Monday after Meath beat Dublin in 1997 and young Paul McGirr died playing a minor match for Tyrone. The Provos murdered two random RUC men out on the beat in Lurgan town centre.
For what. So they could administer British rule in Ireland.
The children of two murdered police officers have spoken of the “heartache” they felt growing up without a father on the 25th anniversary of the attack.
Constable John Graham and Reserve Constable David Johnston were shot dead while they were on foot patrol in Lurgan, County Armagh, on 16 June 1997.
“It was probably the day our childhood ended,” said Abbie Graham, one of Mr Graham’s three daughters.
Both families have made a joint appeal for public help to find their killers.
“It’s not a historic event for us. It was 25 years ago, but it’s something that affects us every day,” Ms Graham added.
The gun attack was blamed on the IRA and it happened just weeks before the group’s 1997 ceasefire.
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers both had very young families at the time and a total of five children had to grow up without their fathers.
Abbie Graham and Mr Johnston’s son Louie were both just seven years old at the time and they shared vivid members of the day their lives changed forever.
‘Would the bad men come after us?’
Image caption,
Abbie Graham said she has never been able to move on from her father’s death
Ms Graham’s last living memory of her father is watching him cradling her baby sister on his knee, feeding her peanut butter on toast in the kitchen table of their family home in Richill, County Armagh.
She recalls saying goodbye to him that Monday morning as she set off for school.
“Up until the age of seven, our childhood was happy, it was normal. We had relatively little to worry about,” she said.
She was in primary three at the time and her sisters were aged 10 and two.
“I couldn’t believe that somebody wanted to hurt Daddy… he was so well liked,” she recalled.
"I asked my mum at the time: ‘Would the bad men come after us?’ She said: ‘No they’ve got your Daddy, that’s what they wanted’.
“But I just couldn’t fathom that at the time and still can’t fathom it now at this stage, how somebody could do that to another living person, and to another person’s family.”
IMAGE SOURCE,PSNI
Image caption,
Constable John Graham left three young daughters
Ms Graham was very close to her father and said she has never been able to move on from the heartbreak of losing him.
“I can tell you now, if Daddy was here, we would probably have plans this weekend and not because it’s Father’s Day, but because he was my best friend then and he would still be my best friend now.”
‘I love you Daddy’
Louie Johnston recalled a similar scene in their family home in Lisburn, County Antrim, on the day of the fatal shooting.
“The last memory that I have of my dad was giving him a hug and a kiss goodbye on our stairs,” he said.
Image caption,
Louie Johnston said growing up without a father had been very difficult
"He was getting ready for work, I was getting ready for school and we said: ‘See you later.’
“I said: ‘I love you Daddy’ and I went out the door to school, and that was the last I’ve ever seen of my dad,” he said.
He recalls coming home later that day to “a house of despair” after the shootings, and was met by his tearful mother and carloads of mourners in their street.
Mr Johnston said his family have spent the last 25 years in “unimaginable pain”.
“It’s been very difficult without your dad. Every Christmas, every happy family event, there’s been a vacancy.”
Media caption,
‘My last memory of my dad was kissing him goodbye’
Both families have said they still hope that those responsible will be successfully prosecuted, and have appealed to witnesses who may have been reluctant to come forward during the Troubles to help them get justice now.
The officers were on patrol in Church Walk in Lurgan when they were shot from behind at close range.
Police believe the gunmen may have been wearing wigs to disguise their identity.
The killers fled the scene in a getaway car - a green Rover 216 which was later found burnt out in Lurgan’s Kilwilkie Estate.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) joined the families’ appeal, saying the RUC officers were “young men murdered while serving the local community”.
IMAGE SOURCE,PSNI
Image caption,
Mr Graham, who lived in Richhill, County Armagh, was 34 at the time of his death
“My appeal today is aimed at the local people of Lurgan who were in the area of Church Walk on the day of the murders,” said Det Supt Stephen Wright,
“I believe that someone must have seen the gunmen before or after the attack or will know who these individuals were.”
He added: “I want those who know who was involved that day to search their consciences and come forward to the police,” he said.
“I am appealing to anyone with any knowledge of what happened that day, whether as a witness or from personal involvement, who have not spoken to police previously to do so now. It is not too late, if anyone now feels they are able to talk to us, we are ready to listen.”
Home Rule only got on the table because the then Labour government were in crisis and had lost their majority. They needed the IPP who had been ignored for a number of years until then… You said that negotiation and constitutional politics have served the nationalist cause more… It hasn’t. Westminster has never been interested in appeasing Ireland unless it had to out of necessity and even then, the Unionists voice nearly always trumped the nationalist one. The British have nearly always acquiesced violence, which has emboldened both sides even further over the years. The partitioning of Ireland was one such incident. The provos had to bomb their way to the negotiation table in the end also
Liberal surely?
Correct. Apologies to all experts on the era.
Who seeks out tax?
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The Liberal party in uk were pro home rule since 1880 or thereabouts. The last home rule bill introduced was the third time they tried to make it law. They even removed the Lords veto ahead of the third bill so it would get through.
They dropped it like a hot snot once they didn’t need the IPP. The parliament was famously deadlocked and the IPP became king makers and the only reason it got back on the table.
McManus left the country to avoid paying Irish taxes.
The obscenely rich have that option because they’re obscenely rich and can live somewhere like a mansion in Switzerland.
The same gombeen cap doffer here who sees no problem in the obscenely rich leaving Ireland to avoid taxes yet still demanding a say in how the country is run is the same lad that wants people to give up their pension entitlements after a lifetime of serving the country. 
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As usual, he completely missed the point being made about Bruton being money hungry but hey 
Or from Leitrim ?!
Prime land - Leitrim?
Yeah right.
Deary me, Ramsey MacDonald wants a word on when Labour got in….
“The only reason” - the IPP held significant sway over Westminister for decades. On and off they propped up the government and helped cause the constitutional crisis. This was not a temporary quirk as you make out, it was constant thing.
The only thing that the 1918 election did was turn Irish nationalists a darker green. The IPP, unlike Sinn Féin, did not pretend that Unionism did not exist. The subsequent War of Independence, Government of Ireland & the Treaty resulted in the South losing all dialogue with Ulster Unionists.
In practical terms in advancing a “Republic”, the WoI can be credited with that becoming the sole aspiration of nationalists. Subsequent to Dominon status, it was negotiation, diplomacy and politics that led to the Balfour Declaration, the Anglo Irish Trade Agreement, the Irish Constitution, Irish neutrality and the declaration of the Republic.
To get on back firmly on the point, we waited decades until nationalists and unionists were back at the same table. You might say now that this has not advanced towards a Republic. The nationalist vote has barely moved in 25 years. The Census results are a disaster. I put that down to the “leaders” of Northern Nationalism though and their warped priorities.
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It was a joke about Leitrim people getting prime land in Meath .
The 1920 Government of Ireland Act was a form of Home Rule.
It just so happened that there were few nationalist voices to debate the thing, let alone negotiate it.
RIP Vinny
You are as deluded as Mr Bruton.
The 1916 proclamation was written with all faiths and backgrounds in mind… The shortcomings are a different conversation but it was the Unionists who were vehemently opposed to home rule, who wrote their covenant in blood, who first landed guns. And then created a protestant gerrymandered state for a protestant people…so your tripe about the south losing dialogue is laughable auld revisionism. Unionism is , and always was, about domination and while republicanism has always been shortsighted towards them , there was never the same desire to subjugate them.
Your lovely list of negotiated triumphs leave very little to be desired… Whether it was home rule, partition, civil rights, sunningdale… Violence, or the threat of violence, won out. Unionists , and later loyalists, have always been facilitated by Westminster in spite of any nationalists discourse or policy… And all that has ever said to anyone is violence works. That’s the lesson of British administration in Ireland during the 20th century. Thankfully, we seem to be moving very far away from all that…
But don’t be pissing on about constitutional gains and if we were good Paddys we would have gotten a Scottish style referendum at some stage.
William Gladstone was a real stalwart of the Home Rule movement. A bit of Leaving Cert History.
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The Proclamation written by a few lads and militarised by a thousand or so lads.
The 1918 “manifesto” failed to acknowledge the reality of Unionism.
Ever since we have been gradually been getting back to the table with them.
Reality- there is no 32 county Republic.
The Hawardan Kite started it all from his Welsh holiday home
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