Originally Posted by
Harley's Dad
I'm glad to learn that there was/is so little support for the IRA in the Republic - I'd holidayed there before the Troubles, but never dreamed of discussing politics with the people I met. But having served three times in the Province between 1972-74 I can assure you that there was very widespread active and passive support for the IRA among the Catholic/Republican population there. Apart from the bombings and shootings aimed at us, we were frequently faced with crowds throwing petrol bombs, bricks and other missiles, with the local population making no attempt to quieten things down. Although we were there to try to save lives and keep the peace (at considerable risk to ourselves) we had no acknowledgement of this at all in the pro-Republican areas - rather the contrary.
I'm sorry to hear that you and your fellow soldiers suffered that from civilians just for doing your job, but I would like to reiterate and emphasise something I said earlier: Ireland, both the Republic and the North, is a very different place than it was in the 1910s/1920s and in the 1960s-1990s, respectively. While IRA sympathisers are indeed a slim minority of Irish people, it must be admitted that pro-IRA sentiments were more widespread in the North during the Troubles than they are now, and the same goes for the Republic during the War of Independence and (to a lesser extent) the Civil War and the period afterwards, up until the Republic of Ireland Act in 1948. As far as I'm aware, IRA support in the Republic steadily declined from then on.
On a related point, I just thought I'd point out simply as a matter of interest that most Irish people do draw a distinction between the IRA of the War of Independence era and the Provisional IRA (and all the other versions of the IRA who have sprung up over the years). Generally speaking, we do consider the PIRA, CIRA, RIRA etc. as thugs and gangsters and terrorists. But the IRB/IRA of the 1910s/'20s are generally considered freedom fighters and are lauded as heroes. Having an ancestor who fought against the British during the Easter Rising is a major point of pride for many families, including my own - so much so that the number of men and women who claimed to have fought in 1916 is many, many times the number who actually did. Sadly I have no way of knowing for sure whether or not my great-grandfather did actually fight, but he certainly claimed to and it's a claim my family holds with pride to this very day.