Thinking about it in one important respect your right and I'm wrong. Don't know the details because I was a child when the 'troubles' started in the late 60's but as well as being in a majority, which makes a big difference in the FPTP voting system anyway they had found ways of at least partially disenfranchising a good proportion of the Catholic minority. That was how things started with civil rights marches that were attacked by Protestant/Unionist thugs and the British army was sent in to protect the former. Then the IRA felt threatened because the Catholics welcomed the army protection so they started attacking the army to drive them away from the population and also attacking civilians, both Protestant and Catholic.
You had a period where thugs on both sides were attacking 'enemies' but increasingly the Protestants seemed to accept the inclusion of Catholic rights as long as the attachment with Britain was maintained. The 'Catholic' terrorist groups became the primary source of violence, both with attacks on civilians and security forces inside N Ireland and increasingly also on targets on the mainland of Britain itself. Terrorist groups on both sides of the divide also got heavily involved in criminal activities during this period to fund their activities and possibly also to help lure in new supporters.
60
@La_Niolue
Thinking about it in one important respect your right and I'm wrong. Don't know the details because I was a child when the 'troubles' started in the late 60's but as well as being in a majority, which makes a big difference in the FPTP voting system anyway they had found ways of at least partially disenfranchising a good proportion of the Catholic minority. That was how things started with civil rights marches that were attacked by Protestant/Unionist thugs and the British army was sent in to protect the former. Then the IRA felt threatened because the Catholics welcomed the army protection so they started attacking the army to drive them away from the population and also attacking civilians, both Protestant and Catholic.
You had a period where thugs on both sides were attacking 'enemies' but increasingly the Protestants seemed to accept the inclusion of Catholic rights as long as the attachment with Britain was maintained. The 'Catholic' terrorist groups became the primary source of violence, both with attacks on civilians and security forces inside N Ireland and increasingly also on targets on the mainland of Britain itself. Terrorist groups on both sides of the divide also got heavily involved in criminal activities during this period to fund their activities and possibly also to help lure in new supporters.