It’s Guerilla warfare mate. Did you think it would be more honourable to flight them on an open battlefield with their tanks, bomber planes and heavy artillery. A good motto is if someone comes into your house or backyard and imposes their will on you what do you do? Do you challenge them with a fencing duel? The RIC were nearly wholly responsible for the internment over 2500 men and women. Those people lived in a police state where subversion and suspicion were rife and sometimes only suspicion was necessary to get you interred.
What are you on about?
I said two things, if you want it to be considered an act of war, then behave that way. They didn’t.
I also wondered how “provoking a war” is a legitimate viewpoint. The justification for the war has always been the SF election win. It seems some people like Dan Breen deciding to take things into his own hands. This is a man who said he fought for freedom, not democracy. And a fan of the Nazi party. Very interesting bedfellows.
When one goes out to murder I’d say a mask comes in handy 
god almighty, talking some waffle, obviously living a very sheltered life and easy for you to condemn freedom fighters for cowardly acts you’d want to travel north , research,as in speak to ppl who lived through the mayhem,I was in Kevin Lynch’s home in Dungiven when they brought his battered black and blue body back home,brave RUC/ British army thugs kicked and punched a dead man,that to me was terrorism so bloody wake up man,and stop discussing what you know fuck all about.
They didn’t have authorization for warfare from their superiors.
They wore masks and attacked police officers when they were hugely outnumbered. Dan Breen stated that he went out to kill.
In the aftermath, the attack split SF and the Volunteers. It was described as tantemount to murder by the Volunteer Chief of Staff.
50 years later Breen even said that it was never recognized properly and he didn’t care.
It is revisionism on all of your parts to see any glory in what happened.
The brits were worse than the Nazis mate. They let us starve not long before that. Hitler got his ideas for concentration camps from British in Boer war. Look what Churchill did to the Bengalis during world war 2 ffs
It’s a legitimate viewpoint when you’ve tried for 800 years to be free, both politically and otherwise only to be ignored, beaten and murdered for being Irish.
There’s no glory in it. That’s not what today is about.
It’s ok for you to use it as a stick to beat Sinn Fein with.
Absolute Cuntish behaviour Tim
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I am you know. I am genuinely curious why you brought up the Geneva convention, as if Britain being signatories made any difference to their behavior. The crown forces and RIC were torturing and executing prisoners before Soloheadbeg and after Soloheadbeg.
It’s similar to the nonsense argument denouncing the old (or new) IRA targeting civilians. A rational person would ask how those on their high horse on such matters would explain their logic to the hundreds of thousands of dead civilians of Dresden, London, Hiroshima, etc.
There is no valour in war, Tim. If you engage in war, you engage to win. The history of warfare the world over is nobody plays any attention to “rules” in the effort to win.
“They went down into the mire… and down after them we had to go” Tom Barry
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Breen said this breen said that wake the fuck out,and relaise something, different units had autonomy, communication was awful,pony and trap, bicycles, telegram,and irrespective of what you think that’s the way war works,you take your chances, deal with the jlfall out later,and remember SF then and now answer to the army and the executive not the other way around,so breen and company didn’t give a gig who or what SF/ general public thought they had a job to do and did it,fuck me if that little action horrified you stay away from war books,look into the tan war in cork city / county see how informers/ loyalists/ spies/ service men and women were dealt with- drowning, hanging, strangulation,bate to death,and sometimes the OBE ( one behind the ear)
Fuck me the Geneva convention 1920 wakey wakey
Classic case of being easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Interestingly Collins was very quiet on the whole affair. Breen made it onto his famous squad later as did Treacy. What is clear is that there were multiple factions in SF. Griffith was a passivist. Seamus Robinson a veteran of the rising was sent down and was supposed to be leader of the column. There were official planning meetings for the ambush and in all likelihood private meetings between Breen, Treacy, Dwyer and Hogan. This is probably why no one can pin down exact motivations for what happened.
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Irish republicans don’t need authority from anyone can u not see ? IRA have absolute authority over its members end of,army council rules,voted in by the executive,from then on can do or say what they want,so if that unit was told stop those RIC men they could stop them any way they wanted,then breen and whoever has a get out of bed clause,end of discussion from me , obviously a west brit
Were Irish republicans not told to arm themselves by any and every means possible?
@Tim_Riggins you keep saying if it was an act of war, why didn’t they behave that way. They did behave that way. They shot them dead in cold blood. They learned from the best I suppose, looking on at the Crown Forces go about their business.
You’re also saying that it was a dirty business and was murder. Of course it was. Starting a war is dirty business and war is murder.
You think in some way this takes the glory away from Solohead. It doesn’t. The ambushers achieved their aims.
Bringing the Nazis into the conversation is interesting actually. There is a lot of comparisons to be made between the Nazis and the British Empire. Do you want to start with a few seeing as you mentioned them?
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It started the end of the British empire.
A few hard men willing to do what was needed showed the way.
I’ll drink to that
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The Irish brought down the Empire. That and their own greed. Sacrificing millions of their own from 1914 to 1918 in a war that meant nothing also fucked them. The balls they made of Versailles created the Nazis.
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I think @Tim_Riggins can empathise with the British decision to declare the GAA a dangerous organisation in 1918 and their decision to ban the games. If he was of that era he would have been one of the G men counting the numbers watching the game and trying to understate the figures to his chums in Dublin Castle. His stance is not surprising on many levels.
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Happy Independence Day lads!
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78 page supplement in the Irish Times today on 1919. Includes Minister Madigans speech from yesterday.
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Flat out handing out likes here this morning. Great reading, kudos to @Fagan_ODowd, @johnnysachs and @anon7035031.
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