It ain't so! I don't support and have never supported the IRA TERRORISTS (and that is not an easy thing to do in Irish Chicago)! But I can't believe an Englishman was supporting this release or at least rationalizing it and I wanted to get his goat!
Thanks for the explanation and your PM which I appreciate. However, if your comment above is referring to Bootneck, I suspect you have misread his posts. It would be a cold day in hell before he would condone the release of a convicted terrorist on compassionate grounds (Boot - please jump in if I'm putting words in your mouth, mate).
I remember being in Chicago in 1995 for St Patrick's Day with about a dozen friends. We watched a huge parade go by for what seemed like forever, the Guinness was flowing and I was having a really good day. Then a Sinn Fein float went past, and I was simply stunned at the tumultuous applause and the amount of money being thrown into collection buckets. A friend noticed my face and the fact that I had turned my back on the parade and asked why, so I told him that it was a rather creepy feeling to see money being collected that you know will go to buy guns, ammo and semtex for people who have nearly killed you, twice.
I also remember being at a bar called the Old Shillelagh in downtown Detroit on St Pattys Day a couple of years later. A folk singer was singing some Irish songs. He asked how many people in the bar were of Irish stock, and about 20% of the hands went up. He then asked whether there was anyone else there who was not American. Along with about 10 or so other people I (perhaps unwisely) raised my hand. When he found out I was from England he was very unpleasant, called me a ****, and played a song called "Fuck the British Army", as a result of which the entire bar stood and cheered.
I can accept that someone from Ireland might not like someone from England. After all, half the world hates England - a legacy of our colonial past that one just has to live with. But I did wonder why in a bar that was 80% American almost everyone would get up and cheer a provo song. Was it (a) just that being Irish for a day felt cool? Was it (b) the same kind of mob mentality one sometimes sees at big rock concerts when the guy on stage makes a political statement and the whole audience roars approval (whether they actually agree with him or not)? Or (c) did they really support the aims of the IRA, and the means by which they were attempting to achieve it?
I suspect the vast majority there probably wouldn't know a Provo from a prom dress, so a combination of (a) and (b) seems most likely. But I still wonder, if there is this level of latent support (or lack of condemnation) at grass roots level, what does that imply about the level of support higher up, among the people who actually shape policy? Or do people just not care as much if their country is not directly impacted by a particular terrorist group? After all, how many people on this board have views about the aims of Eta? How many would roar their approval at a song that criticized the Spanish army?
I can scarcely believe how much I have typed just because you mentioned Chicago!