John wrote: > IMHO it was Bin Laden that stopped the IRA in it's tracks .... > The IRA were funded (mostly) by donations from America (in the main part, from Boston). The destruction of the Twin Towers showed Americans of the true horror of terrorism. The result of the 9/11 atrocity was what caused the Americans to stop their funding of the IRA. Suddenly, the Americans realised that Great Britain was a friend and an ally that they needed and that the senseless struggle in Ireland was never going to be resolved by bloodshed.
This was undoubtedly a contributory factor, although whether one can claim that it was *the* cause of the cessation of hostilities I am not so sure about. There was a reduction of support for the IRA from many other terror promoting sources, eg, Colonel Ghaddafi of Libya wanted to achieve better relations with the West, and the US in particular, and (as far as we are led to believe) ceased supporting the IRA (remember the ship that was stopped off the coast of Ireland bringing arms from Libya as an example of early support?). There is one other thing of which I am quite certain and that is that we, the British public, will never know (or not until the 30/50/60 year secrecy rule allows publication of the facts) the true details of what went on behind the scenes to bring the conflict to an end. Roger
