Martin Sheen proud of uncle's IRA past

[MMI]

In other words, the "Continuity IRA" consists exclusively of bigoted diehards who refuse to recognise reality, and psychopathic criminals intent on smuggling arms, dealing drugs, and running brothels in between bank robberies and private score settling.

[leo9]

In other words, the "Continuity IRA" consists exclusively of bigoted diehards who refuse to recognise reality, and psychopathic criminals intent on smuggling arms, dealing drugs, and running brothels in between bank robberies and private score settling.

Part of it is undoubtedly that the IRA had a lucrative criminal network in their heyday, and some people are bound to be reluctant to lose all that lovely money. But random assassinations don't further that: as any mobster could tell you, the last thing you want to do is cause needless trouble and draw the attention of the law.

A fanatic is defined as one who redoubles his efforts when his cause is lost, and this is a horribly clear example. Ireland probably will be reunited one day simply as a casual piece of administrative convenience, when the population is sufficiently integrated that nobody cares, and the factions of the Troubles are as much of a historical curiosity as Lancastrians versus Yorkists in England. But it won't be reunited under Catholic Sharia because that is passing away in the Republic, and the irridentist ex-IRAs, like militant Islamists in the Middle East, are fighting for something that no longer exists.