Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihu1m.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!ihu1m!gadfly From: gadfly@ihu1m.UUCP (Gadfly) Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: Northern Ireland Message-ID: <224@ihu1m.UUCP> Date: Tue, 15-Jan-85 17:08:45 EST Article-I.D.: ihu1m.224 Posted: Tue Jan 15 17:08:45 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 16-Jan-85 05:40:06 EST References: <307@bonnie.UUCP> <1087@pyuxa.UUCP> <1168@ihuxm.UUCP> <141@abnji.UUCP>, <241@calmasd.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 55 Keywords: IRA -- >> ...The British refused to recognize this body [Irish Parliment], >> and for the next two years the IRA fought a >> guerrilla war against the British Army, which the IRA finally >> won. Sort of. Six counties were still in British hands, not all >> of the IRA was very happy with the treaty, and a civil war >> started almost immediatly after British withdrawl from the Irish >> Free State. >> Cheryl Nemeth What happened was that both the British and the Irish were pretty worn out. The IRA, with widespread support in the north and south, had beaten back the British forces rather decisively, but the British would not admit defeat. A lot of negotiating took place, and it pitted Ireland's politically naive Eamon Devalera (who became Eire's 1st president) against England's Lloyd George. In this arena, Ireland didn't have a chance. George boldly bluffed that England would never give up, and that if the IRA did not make peace then and now, he would commit more and more divisions to the fight until the tide was turned and the IRA was forced to surrender. Devalera, apparently unaware that the English after 4 years of WW I had little stomach for more of the same, lost his nerve, and gave up 2/3 of Ulster in exchange for a British pull-out from the rest of Ireland. Of course, it might not have been a bluff. The Irish knew quite well how the English could fight on and on in totally untenable situations. It had happened in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey, in which many Irish (and Australian) regiments were massacred. The memory of Ireland's "Wild Geese" at Gallipoli was a particularly poignant one. The rebel song "Foggy Dew" has a line commemorating the senseless pouring of battalion after battalion of light infantry against Turkish machine guns in support of the landing at Suvla Bay. "'Twas England bade our Wild Geese go That small nations might be free. But their lonely graves are by Suvla's waves And the fringes of the great North Sea. Oh had they died by Peirce's side, Or fought with Cathal Brugh, Then their names we'd keep Where the Fenians sleep 'Neath the folds of the foggy dew." There are 5 other verses chock full of romantic and religious imagery. I used to know them all. -- *** *** JE MAINTIENDRAI ***** ***** ****** ****** 15 Jan 85 [26 Nivose An CXCIII] ken perlow ***** ***** (312)979-7188 ** ** ** ** ..ihnp4!iwsl8!ken *** ***