There is only ONE Ireland and that encompasses the whole Island. Bits of earth on the Island of Ireland claimed by other parties are nevertheless still Ireland. I did spend some time in the Emerald Isle and forged many friendships among Irish Catholics. In fact, I will be in Dublin in September by way of London and Milan.

“the last refuge of the terminally ignorant” No you are the ignorant one. Any support for the IRA is not only makes you a despicable person, but also completely ignorant of how offensive such blatant support of a terrorist organisation, that has killed innocent pub revellers in my city, 30 years ago this coming November, is to any British person. You are a terrible human being. There is no other way to describe you. Who else would not think twice about supporting a group that in 1998, killed an eight month old child, in a pram. Please, go away. You clearly lack any sort of knowledge about Ireland, despite you claims to have lived there. By the use of Catholic, you have clearly stressed your racial prejudice against none-Catholics. This is probably why you sprout such nonsense about Britain. As at the end of the day, you’re a racist little bigot, that can’t stand a none Catholic nation.

Gentleman, Before this devolves into utter chaos, please step back and take a deep breath. We appreciate all of your POVs, and we would really hate to start deleting posts - or posters. Thank you for your cooperation SysOps

-I will certainly no longer be replying to any of Arditi's quite unacceptable and provocative posts, I believe my points on the subject have been made quite clear.

Point taken. But may I point out that such support for the IRA and such antagonistic views cannot be appreciated. I find it hard that you are able to allow Arditi’s comments to continue, as they are of no discussion value. They are simply here to aggravate British posters. Hence the continual denouncing of the British economy, military and the support for an organisation that has caused unimaginable grief and anguish, inside Britain. He has touched a nerve, for obvious reasons. How would American posters feel, particularly New York posters, if he was to support Al Queada? They’d be outraged, as I am. I will try and keep my temper, but every person has there limits.

Please note that I merely stated an opinion and only responded when directly attacked.

Please expand on a few things for me here, thankyou. 1-You support the IRA, however the majority in northern Ireland wish to remain a part of Britain. Given this then how can any sort of terrorist action (I'll come to the terrorist part later) be justifiable and indeed how can any action that is aimed at re-unification without majority support be justifiable? 2-You claim that the IRA were not terrorists. This is contary to what the facts say, the IRA have carried out bombings and kidnappings of civilians with the express purpose of causing fear in the civilian population that they hope would sway the government. This is the definition of terrorism. How can the IRA be described as anything other than this? 3-The British army in Ireland has behaved as terrorist. How so? All actions taken in Ireland by UK forces has always been in accordance with the law and civilians have never been targeted, this method has cost the lives of many British service men and women. Can you give me any occasion in which a British man or woman has acted, upon orders from there superiors, in a manner fitting that of a terrorist? 4-The monarchy is a dellusion of power. Simply can you prove this view for me? 5-You claim Britain is not powerful. Please can you expand on this and post facts, figures etc to back it up thankyou. If you truley believe what you say and it is not pointless Brit bashing then you must have reasons you believe it. If so you will have no difficulty in answering the above questions using facts. Thankyou for you time.

Rule: "The Irish republic is only maintaining its economic growth by committing to colossal income tax levels to minimise taxes on Commerce and Industry, it could never hope to rival the economic prowess of the UK." Incorrect. Ireland has one of, if not the lowest tax reigemes in the EU. Our income-tax rate is 20% (lower band) and 42% (upper band). People on the minimum wage don't pay income tax at all. To say that we pay higher taxes so that US corporations pay less is incorrect. We pay less taxes than most overall 'cos we believe in small government. As our Tainiste (deputy prime minister) said: "we're closer to boston than berlin"

Aren't "freedom struggles" an anachronism in modern, democratic societies. I don't understand why an Irishman in Ulster would want to break from GB, when he can exercise his franchise and vote for a autonomous form of governance much as the Scots have done. Is all that republicanism worth the strife and economic doldrums of years past? As far as Germany is concerned, the emergence of coutries such as Poland, Czech rep. etc. as manufacturing hubs- producing high quality products will be a bitter pill-especially since the very same EU will enable companies to shift operations. Soon GNP vs GDP will be the true measure of economic standing.

-I was simply quoting from an interview with a prominent Irish economist on Newsnight Scotland who said that the Irish economy was able to grow extensively in the 1990's by adopting the said methods of taxation to attract foreign investment, it's high level of external trade is signalled by a high share of combined exports and imports of goods to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which was just under 100% in 2003. Arditi aught to check his facts, the Irish economy only grew at 1.5% in 2003 and inflation is at 3.5% it is critically important to note that the use of the GDP measure may not give the most an accurate indication of living standards for Ireland. GDP measures the total output produced by factors of production located in the Irish economy. Therefore it includes the substantial profits made by foreign multinationals, much of which is repatriated. Gross National Product (GNP) adjusts for these repatriations and may give a better indication of income and hence living standards for the Irish case. The difference between the two output measures is stark in the Irish case with GNP accounting for just 83% of GDP in 2003.