The reason for the small individual cells was security. No one man knew more than a handful of other IRA fighters. The British didn't get them all by a long shot. The solution was a political one not a militery one. Smitty will know more about the military action than me I'm sure.Otern wrote:The guys at the top did their thing, sure.Montegriffo wrote: Americans were certainly less keen to bankroll terrorist organisations after that but seeing as the good Friday accord was 2 years earlier than 9/11 we can dismiss your ''day that changed the world'' scenario on this occasion.
A concerted effort by first John Major and later Tony Blair was responsible for the ''end'' of the troubles. When a state has mature leaders willing to negotiate and compromise like fully grown adults all kinds of seeminly intractable situations can be resolved. Electing a tantrum loving man child is less likely to acheive such end results.
Basically it was ''ended'' by a lot of hard work over several parliaments, a cross party willingness to work together and a real fatigue for violence and the senseless muder and maiming of innocents on both sides of the divide.
But in the nineties, it seems like most of the IRA-actions were done by rather small cells, that could operate individually. Did the Brits get ALL of them, or did they just call it a day and quit fighting? Seems like a hard thing to achieve, but somehow, these small independent cells have also stopped their actions.
Many of the actions of the IRA were criminal. Drug trafficing, robbing banks, extortion etc and many of these activities are still going being carried out by the same people.
Ultimately power sharing in Stormont is what stopped the killing. It is still a fragile truce and there are still occasional acts of violence. This is why talk of a hard border between Eire and Northern Ireland is so important in the Brexit negotiations. There are now over 275 crossings while there were only 20 during the troubles. Ramping up security, checking passports, searching cars etc is going to be seen by some as a return of British control and interference. Northern Ireland is currently being governed by direct rule from Westminister due to the major parties being unable to form a working coalition and May's slim majority in parliament is propped up by the DUP and many republicans will be nervous about the influence they hold over her.
It is still a fragile peace which is why Eire is threatening to veto all future EU deals unless they get guarantees over the border staying open and NI effectively staying inside the customs union with free passage of goods and people between NI and the EU.
