I grew up in the era where bomb scares were common. Most of the time, they were either hoaxes or false alarms.

The most serious was the attack on the Brighton Hotel, in order to assassinate our Prime Minister of the time back in 1984.

The USA allowed funds to be raised on its soil supporting the IRA's campaign, here in England and Northern Ireland for years.

Is it time for an apology?

Us Iranians haven't gotten a sorry yet either about the 80-88 war and 2 coupès, and I'm part of the ignorant younger generation, the older generation had to sleep through the US bombs being dropped by Iraqis. Iran-contra affair ring bells?

Us Kurds haven't gotten a sorry yet about the chemical weapons sold to Saddam which were used to gas Kurds with.

The point is; get in line sister

You know what OP you just reminded me, I heard a radio call in a few years back about the Warrington bomb attack, Liverpool here by the way. This guy called up and tried to justify the attacks by saying "at least the called up and warned people first".

I doubt they'd issue an apology for anything tbh, did they ever issue an apology for the Gulf of Tonkin?? Hmm something new for me to look up.

lol your funny. what about the british government financing loyalist paramiltarys??? what about m15 having agents in both loyalist and republican groups allowing murders to go ahead. how are we supposed to move on when people like you hold onto the past.

btw a few hoaxes mean f all, try growing up in the thick of it.

Seems to me, though some will disagree with great enthusiasm, that not doing that any more would be a better "apology" than saying, in some grandiloquent speech, "We're oh so very sorry...".

Actions speak far louder than any word spoken by a politician trying to score "good guy" points.

First the US funds the IRA & then Al-CIAada, history repeating itself, no... never....

Lol im really starting to get sick of all these lies, its like immortal technique says, 'Everything i was ever told, was a lie'

The one thing that contributed to The Troubles lasting so long was the funding from the US for a minority of murdering scum whose sole real interest was the exploitation and manipulation of their own communities.

It's pretty telling that once that funding dried up in the aftermath of 9/11 the para-militaries were forced to the negotiating table and the ongoing peace process that the vast majority are now enjoying and working towards maintaining begun.

Oh, and of course wrongs were committed on both sides.

But an official apology would serve no purpose whatsoever and as Seagull has stated surely it's far better everyone concentrates on the peace process and helping Northern Ireland move forward.

We did issue an apology for our wrongs during the Queens recent visit to Ireland.

""It is a sad and regrettable reality that through history our islands have experienced more than their fair share of heartache, turbulence and loss ... with the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we wish had been done differently, or not at all."

Okay, the words "We are sorry" don't appear there, but it acknowledges the fact that we regret some of our actions.

I personally don't expect Mr Obama to issue an apology whilst he is on his Euro visit.

However, at least some acknowledgement of their wrong doing would help imo....or it didn't happen..

I served in Northern Ireland with the Army in the middle of the 70's when it was still in quite a foment (when hasn't it been), what I've got for you is firstly a point of hearsay.
I dated a woman who lived on the Protestant side of the Shankhill Road. A main road divided by a corrugated fence down either side to keep the two factions apart. She swore to me that many a time they would cross over sides to hurl bottles and stones to inflame the situation. At least one time at the behest of the news, in her instance the BBC. Not the first time such stories have arisen. That's just an old sweats tale.
However if credence can be given to such 'eye witness' testimony and news outlets were complicit in what on ATS might well be called false flag operations. Then at what level do you think your own government could be complicit. I could say more but I am bound for life by the Official Secrets Act.
Set in context the world had, at that time, many 'squabbles' and President Bush hadn't made his, to paraphrase "if you're not with us you're against us" diatribe. Which of course sets the whole world on the false dichotomy set by the Abrahamic Middle East. They wish this of course to destroy the notion that anything else other than momotheism can survive. It serves both sides.
America at that time was only partially down that road, so came to a compromise. Which when such compromise existed was one of the better parts of America. So as far as the law goes they are in the clear. Here I quote in part from wikipedia.

Noraid or the Irish Northern Aid Committee is an Irish American fund raising organization founded after the start of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1969. The organisation's mission statement declares that:[1]

Irish Northern Aid is an American based membership organization that supports through peaceful means, the establishment of a democratic 32-county Ireland. Our Strategy: To develop a broad coalition of supporters for Irish Unity through organizing and educating the public, our members, political leaders, and the media. To support the current Peace Process, including the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement which was endorsed by the vast majority of the Irish people. To support a process of National reconciliation and equality for all the citizens of Ireland. Membership: In keeping with the principles of the 1916 Proclamation, Irish Northern Aid is open to anyone who shares these values.

Unionist politicians and the British, Irish and United States governments have accused Noraid of being a front for the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), involved in fund raising for IRA arms importation from North America since the early 1970s.[2][3][4][5] This accusation has always been denied by Noraid. Noraid's former leader, Martin Galvin, was banned from the United Kingdom in the 1980s.[6]

In May 1981, the U.S. Department of Justice won a court case forcing Noraid to register the Provisional Irish Republican Army as its "foreign principal", under the Foreign Agents Registration Act 1938. A compromise was reached which allowed Noraid to include a written disclaimer against the court ruling stating the document had been signed under force and that Noraid maintained that the IRA was not its "foreign principal". Federal attorneys agreed to this, and Noraid resumed filing its financial returns in July 1984.[7]

The group was supportive of the peace process and the subsequent Good Friday Agreement. It is nowadays highly supportive of Sinn Fein.


So in one sense your argument is invalid. However you're on a conspiracy site and when we look at it there's no way you could take the American government to International courts for reparation. However how complicit the American people are in their own, and by extension the whole world's downfall is a question only they can answer.

For some reason Irish-Americans like to become police officers. The money raised for the IRA was amassed by police officers. Police officers rarley apologize. Good luck, one man's terrorist is another man's hero.

You took know notice of scotland in that opening thread. We still to this day have many catholic, celtic supporters, waving banners at football matches, singing rebel songs through minutes silence and supporting the IRA with many chants like " I hope you die in your sleep maggie thatcher " there is no need for this bigotry.

Personally I prefer a better relationship with the Irish of Ireland than any apology from anyone.

As for America.. like most nations she will always serve her own interests and it is always right to keep that in mind..

Whether people like to admit it or not, the Troubles were a VERY dirty war.

Not only did we have our "allies" supplying money, but also supplying arms through the back door.

Then we had the intelligence services who often operated at cross purposes, and at times, various factions were backed, then targetted according to the vagaries of the day and what their goals were.
This in turn led to the creation of "the det" and cross border incursions, which went VERY far south on more than one occasion by special forces, and also by "the det"

There were also assasinations of so-called "hard liners" who wanted to derail the peace process, and in those instances, the intel services worked hand in hand with certain paramilitary groups.

I think it's very easy to blame the US, and certainly they were guilty of supplying money, arms and in some cases intel, BUT at the same time we should in no way think that our own "security services" were blameless.

It's interesting to note that if PIRA and other factions were around today, then according to the rules laid down by both the US and UK governments, they should actually be called al qaeda.