the thing about Ireland's paramilitary groups...

[waider]

...is that they don’t ultimately need an actual enemy. This is a feud between two groups that are ostensibly on the same side, i.e. loyal to the UK (hence Loyalist) and keen to keep things that way. There was a similar feud on the Republican side some years ago, involving the INLA. Or maybe it was entirely within the INLA, I can’t recall. I can’t even keep the acronyms straight in my head any more: IRA, CIRA, PIRA¹, RIRA², INLA, LVF, UVF, UDF, and god knows what else. And to add to that you’ve got the political party acronyms: UUP, DUP, PUP, SDLP. I don’t know if the group with "32 count(y/ies) sovereignty" in their name are a political party or a paramilitary group, either.

1. The Provisional IRA, as distinct from IRA "classic". Generally speaking any reference these days to the IRA without qualifiers refers to the PIRA, or "Provos".
2. This would be funny if these weren’t the guys behind the Omagh bombing. "rí-rá" is a Gaelic word in roughly the same headspace as "craic". Generally found in the phrase "rí-rá agus rúile búile", which means "did anyone get the number of the party that hit me?" or thereabouts. mopti might correct my spelling and/or translation as required.

Comments

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

We have armed gangs in the USA too; the difference seems to be that they're not very political. I wonder if there just aren't folks in any population who seem to gravitate to the armed thug lifestyle?

[candice.livejournal.com]

Not anymore, no. Go back to the civil rights movement though, and the Klan is an excellent example.

No

[mopti.livejournal.com]

Couldn't possibly comment on the translation, seeing as it's supposed to be my mother tongue. And I see no reason to comment on the spelling. Ar aighdh leat