And onto some of your points (more in a latter post when I am less tired):

1) Whose country was it – well both sides actually since Ireland was part of Great Britian at the time because of the act of union. One side wanted to break the union, the other side to keep ireland within the union; and even before the act of union Ireland was never really a “united” country; more like a collection of petty kingdoms. Brian Boru’s “unified” Ireland never really existed.

2) As to the croker incident, no arguments there. The Black-and-Tans and the Auxillaries were just as bad as the IRA; a complete bunch of Thugs and murderers.

3) What about the pregnant wife who saw her husband killed – a few days latter she mis-carried because of what see saw; Even in modern “catholic” Ireland that can be considered a sin.

I could go on, but the night is late and I have an early start tomorrow.

To call these men scum and compare them to al qaeda is a joke, tell me this what country where these men murdered in? and what RIGHT did these men have on being in that country?

1. Murdered – some in front of there wives.
True, however the fact that there wives were not harmed showed these men were not malicious. in fact at one the Lieutenant Donald Lewis MacLean was taken to the roof of his home so as not to be shot in front of his wife.

2. Scum who had no regard for law
Of course not you idiot, who in there right mind would obey a law that was imposed by foreign invaders?

i could go on and on but I wont.. just read the following (which is the retaliation by the english)

Dublin were scheduled to play Tipperary on November 21st, 1920. On the night before the match the leader of the Irish revolutionary forces Michael Collins had ordered the assassination of the “Cairo Gang”, 14 British intelligence officers sent to infiltrate his organisation under the guise of commercial travellers. In revenge, one of the British auxiliaries involved in the operation recalled that they tossed a coin over whether they would go on a killing spree in Croke Park or loot O’Connell Street instead.
Despite the unease in the city on the morning of November 21st, some 10,000 spectators went to Croke Park for the match.
The ball was thrown in by referee Mick Sammon from Kildare at 2.45 pm. Shortly afterwards an airplane flew over the ground and a red flare was shot from the cockpit. Black and Tans then raided the ground and an officer on top of the wall fired a revolver shot.
The crowd thought at first they were firing blanks but then machine gunfire was fired in increasing volume. The crowd stampeded towards the Railway wall, furthest from the gunfire.
Two of the players, Michael Hogan and Jim Egan, failed to make it off the pitch. A young Wexford man who attempted to whisper an act of contrition into the dying Hogan’s ear was also shot dead.
The casualties included Jeannie Boyle, who had gone to the match with her fiancee and was due to be married five days later, and 14-year-old John Scott, so mutilated that they thought he had been bayoneted to death. Another two victims were aged 10 and 11 respectively.
The ball was thrown in by referee Mick Sammon from Kildare at 2.45 pm. Shortly afterwards an airplane flew over the ground and a red flare was shot from the cockpit. Black and Tans then raided the ground and an officer on top of the wall fired a revolver shot.
The crowd thought at first they were firing blanks but then machine gunfire was fired in increasing volume. The crowd stampeded towards the Railway wall, furthest from the gunfire.
Two of the players, Michael Hogan and Jim Egan, failed to make it off the pitch. A young Wexford man who attempted to whisper an act of contrition into the dying Hogan’s ear was also shot dead.
The casualties included Jeannie Boyle, who had gone to the match with her fiancee and was due to be married five days later, and 14-year-old John Scott, so mutilated that they thought he had been bayoneted to death. Another two victims were aged 10 and 11 respectively.

I think you said it best Gary Leeson…………………………..
“scum that were the Al-Qaeda of their day; Scum who had no regard for law, mankind and God. Who killed unarmed men because they were too scared to take them on face-to-face as armed equals”

Zach