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The British Army's Bloody Sunday massacre in Derry on January 30, 1972 raised the stakes dramatically in the north of Ireland. Since you could now get shot dead for peaceful mass protest, it made more sense to many young people from the nationalist working class to join the IRA and engage in armed struggle with the state responsible for the killings. The stakes were also raised in the south of Ireland, as mass mobilisations there against the killings and the whole British presence in the north led to the burning of the British embassy in Dublin. Over the next few years, however, the Dublin government managed to get the initiative back. They were very much in control again by the time of the 1981 hunger strikes; now mass protests in Dublin would be batoned off the streets. A few years ago I wrote a piece trying to get to grips with what had happened, with how the southern state responded in 1972 and how they got back the initiative. Folks might be interested: https://theirishrevolution.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/the-burning-of-the-british-embassy-40-years-on/ Phil _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
