Wikipedia entry for the Birmingham pub bombings 1974...

This is the only time I shall ttt this.i

a question that might be asked is why and how did Ireland and Britain manage to not descend into even more terrible widespread division and bloodshed.

every country in the world has a certain number of people who are capable of terrible things, this percentage varies depending on the genetic health of the population.

Britain and Ireland managed to avoid chaos, the conflict was given a very British name...the troubles.

i think there is alot of hate crime, both ways,  that is not reported as nutters
will just join in, or try to top it


sure it went on then, and sure it goes on now

i doubt you would ever get accurate figures for support for these organisations

but there were elections in northern ireland which gives an idea of the level
of support


members of immigrant communities in england tend to join into our main
political parties so no such indication exists

You don't have to be a terrorist to be sympathetic to another cause. During the troubles I certainly knew several people who were deeply involved. I went to several fund raising nights where money raised was used to fuel the fire. I was disgusted when someone was killed but they were my side and I would never have gave information, not that I knew much.

I would suspect a lot of Muslims in the UK would be similar. If their next door neighbour preached hate, do you think they would report it? Of course not, they might disagree with the views but deep down they are all on the same side. They might be disgusted by atrocities but they might also donate funds that might be channeled to buy weapons.

It's human nature to be defined in a group. Them or us mentality is very common throughout the human species. I guess it comes from hunter gatherers were resources were at a premium. If you didn't compete then your group simply died out.

Agree with Oval, even if we were funding opposite sides!

Hmm, that is kind of encouraging, the main difference between the troubles and now is that, the english and irish were really quite similar people with similar cultures. Ffs they used to ring us and warn us about attacks, how polite is that?  I know many moslems and we do have cricket in common but not shaking hands with women! (That is just the moderates) Come on, I am as chauvinistic as the next man,but full body veils, wtf?

The Birmingham bombings are an atrocity that remains in the mind. In 1974 I was 22, a squaddie who had returned from my first tour of NI (Derry) in October that year. After the tour we flew back to Germany where I was based and then went on leave to the UK. Plane to Luton (which was a sh!t hole even then) coach to London and then train to Brum. First point of call was the Tavern as very close to New Street station. For those that don't know the Tavern is accessed by going down steep steps from the road. The bomb went off at bottom of steps so rescuing people was delayed. Whoever planted the bomb wanted to cause a lot of misery.

I lived In West Brom then, and still do. I honestly can't remember any retribution against Irish people. The best barman West Brom has ever had (and the best I have ever come across anywhere) was a chap named Frank who was Irish (he's still remembered fondly by anyone who knew him, Google it). He condemned the IRA (if it was them) for what they had done. Nobody ever gave Frank any grief over the bombings.

Fast forward a good few years to 9/11 (2001) when I'm a lecturer at a college in Digbeth. Somewhat ironically Digbeth is well known as the main Irish centre of Birmingham. The college serves quite a high percentage of Asian students (mainly Pakistani's) and Somalis. The general vibes coming those students was one of contempt for al-Qaeda. It's relatively easy to get a feel for what students think and a-Q were widely condemned by them.

Fast forward again to 2015 when I retired from the college. I took voluntary redundancy. One of the reasons was my perception of a general yearly increase in aggressive muslim students: more radical, less respectful, blatant lie telling, cheating, etc. Not all students by any means but a huge increase since 2001.

In these parts now I don't think there's any ill-feeling what-so-ever towards the Irish but there are huge concerns over muslims. Go back to 1974 and it was the other way around.

The Comedians use to be on back in the day with their irish jokes.