Comments: 4

• Ellis from OhioOppression results in awful things. We need to take responsibility for our colonialism.
• Noel from London, United KingdomThe original comments above are supposed to be from a person who 'abhores' all violence but yet excuses the violence of the state in his rush to condemn the reaction of people to that same state oppression. I grew up beside the imposed border in rural, North of Ireland during the time of this song and was a teenager during the hunger strikes which were preceeded and accompanied by some of the harshest years of the war. Bobby Sands, Christy Moore and the Volunteers of the IRA had the total support of the community at that time. Bobby Sands and his nine companions laid down their young lives in sincere pursuit of a cause that was and is legitimate. The peaceful protestors for civil rights who were clubbed off the streets by bigotted police and loyalist militias turned to violence enmasse after Bloody Sunday when 31 were shot by Paratroopers with live high velocity bullets. So please do not sit in a corner and pontificate about stuff you know little about. The war in the North of Ireland was a legitimate struggle and singers like Christy Moore articulated the genuine grievances of a disenfranchised and voiceless people. Bravo to the comments from the writer above from Portugal about Thatcher supporting a heinous war criminal such as Pinochet. There are also so many examples of British atrocities during their colonial oppression of many countries, they are well known and it's pointless me mentioning them here. I however like a quote from last year by a UK Politician in response to David Cameron celebrating the British Empire, 'Empire was simply about us going into other peoples county and killing and stealing their stuff'. Enough said
• Karlgroucho from Lisbon, Portugal(apologies or typos)unfairly tried and convicted and the original murder case was at that stage(1977)still officially open.
  And whilst I too reject the killings and tactics of Bobby Sands and the I.R.A,I can still acknowledge that Northern Ireland was not a' supposedly ' repressive state,it was in actuality a very repressive state if one was either Catholic or an Irish nationalist-this is beyond dispute as even a casual glance its history shows.
  And speaking of 'irony',which the writer also does,he conveniently omits the IRONY that then British prime-minister,Mrs.Thatcher permitted the political hunger strikers die rather then let them,for example,wear their own clothing,etc whilst just a few years later she made it her raison d'etre to rehabilitate Chilean dictator,Pinochet,who was a known and proven fascist,torturer and dictator......irony indeed !!!!
• Karlgroucho from Lisbon, PortugalThere's so much misinformation in these comments,that I hardly know where to begin ....
  And as a sort of 'disclaimer',let me say that I personally oppose ALL acts of violence-
  The writer states how regardless of ones view of the death penalty that Sacco and Vanzetti were at least guilty of murder-this 'fact' of his is now disputed by many,so much so that in 1977(some 50 years after their trial),Massachusetts governor,Michael Dukakis,issued a proclamation to the effect that both men had been ihhhhhdhdh

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