Who do the YES campaigners think they are?

[Westsidex]

So to answer the original question

"Who do the YES campaigners think they are"

Winners sounds a bit of an arrogant term but from what I'm reading this morning thats the way its going.

Well done Ireland!

We will never hear the end of this.

Westside.

[themanofwar]

another triumphant campaign for the government

[EIFII]

Éamon de Valera & John Charles McQuaid the then Archbishop of Dublin have a lot to answer for in my opinion & the whole constitution should be thrown out and redrawn. It has been nothing but trouble for this whole island.

Would have been so much better had 1916 never happened, Ireland should have followed the path of enlightened home rule within an evolving federal structure in the UK. And now we are meant to be celebrating the chaotic and dispiriting events of 1916 - only a catalogue of errors and arrogance from all involved, which impoverished the Irish nation for 50 years economically, culturally and morally. It is no accident that Ireland plunged into 20 years of senseless murder and unrest following the 1966 50th anniversary commemorations.

[celticden]

I was in the town last night and we were bullshittting about it ,its funny though they talk about equality and being forward looking and all this when they still look on escorts and clients as being sub-human that there mentally disturbed or something they can't there thick head around a girl wants to make a good amount of money in a short time on her terms instead of minimum wage shitty job and guy just wants sex and bit of company

[dob]

Would have been so much better had 1916 never happened, Ireland should have followed the path of enlightened home rule within an evolving federal structure in the UK. And now we are meant to be celebrating the chaotic and dispiriting events of 1916 - only a catalogue of errors and arrogance from all involved, which impoverished the Irish nation for 50 years economically, culturally and morally. It is no accident that Ireland plunged into 20 years of senseless murder and unrest following the 1966 50th anniversary commemorations.

Enlightened home rule????
Redmond going cap in hand to British governments begging for some thing that wasn't theirs to give, the self termination of the Irish people. Arrogance was from the unionist British side, demanding the loyalty of a people they openly hated. The unionist were ready for civil war over home rule only for the insane madness of 1914-18 intervening. But then they lead the way for bigotry and intolerance with their own tin pot home rule regime at Stormont.
I would think the hostile bigoted one party Unionist rulers of NI had more to do with the IRA campaign than the 1966 commemorations.

[nonpareil]

Would have been so much better had 1916 never happened, Ireland should have followed the path of enlightened home rule within an evolving federal structure in the UK. And now we are meant to be celebrating the chaotic and dispiriting events of 1916 - only a catalogue of errors and arrogance from all involved, which impoverished the Irish nation for 50 years economically, culturally and morally. It is no accident that Ireland plunged into 20 years of senseless murder and unrest following the 1966 50th anniversary commemorations.

British mistakes and arrogance in large part helped precipitate 1916 and the 6 or 7 years that followed.
First Ireland was supposedly a "home country" of the UK but was run and garrisoned as a colony.
From the 17th through the 19th and into the early 20th century Ireland was (governed by Westminster) largely run for an Anglo -Irish ascendancy elite while most people were property less and living in grinding poverty.
A home rule bill had been passed but was suspended for the duration of WW 1 but would have faced severe challenge from Tories and Unionists (both NI and British ) anyway.
Both Irish volunteers and their rivals the Ulster volunteers largely ended up then fighting and dying in the mud of Flanders, in essentially a stupid squabble between 19th century empires.
The IRB, a revolutionary organisation usurped what remained of the Irish volunteers and 1916 ensued.
To compound their mistakes , the British executed the leaders and provoked widespread public support for the revolutionaries and Irish independence.
After WW 1 with no sign of Home Rule as promised appearing, on the outbreak of the "guerilla war , the British authorities used terror tactics to cow the population (the burning of Cork city centre and Malahide amongst others) and thereby increased support for nationalists and independence yet again.
If the British had been more even handed and ready to compromise then there might have been no Irish independence.
NI was and still remains a deeply divided society.
In 1969 , it was a gerrymandered, indeed apartheid society, run for one section of the population..Those divisions long predate 1916 going back to at least the 1600s.
Again there, something was going to give and again British stupidity such as Bloody Sunday 1972 and internment without trial acted as recruiting banners for the IRA.
Intransigence, stupidity and a lack of willingness to compromise on all sides, Nationalist, Unionist, Republican, Loyalist and British led to much from 1916 to the fairly recent "Troubles".
It is easy to look back from the present with 20/20 vision and rose tinted spectacles and say this or that should not have happened.

[EIFII]

Enlightened home rule????
Redmond going cap in hand to British governments begging for some thing that wasn't theirs to give, the self termination of the Irish people. Arrogance was from the unionist British side, demanding the loyalty of a people they openly hated. The unionist were ready for civil war over home rule only for the insane madness of 1914-18 intervening. But then they lead the way for bigotry and intolerance with their own tin pot home rule regime at Stormont.
I would think the hostile bigoted one party Unionist rulers of NI had more to do with the IRA campaign than the 1966 commemorations.

Yes, enlightened home rule. Ireland was handed a golden opportunity to shape the 20th Century with all that followed in the rest of the British Empire, specifically India and East Africa. Most unfortunately for Ireland, Britain and many others around the world, this opportunity was squandered.

[justfrank44]

Yes, enlightened home rule. Ireland was handed a golden opportunity to shape the 20th Century with all that followed in the rest of the British Empire, specifically India and East Africa. Most unfortunately for Ireland, Britain and many others around the world, this opportunity was squandered.

Maybe you could expand on that as I am guessing that more than a few of us are not clear what your on about.

[dob]

Yes, enlightened home rule. Ireland was handed a golden opportunity to shape the 20th Century with all that followed in the rest of the British Empire, specifically India and East Africa. Most unfortunately for Ireland, Britain and many others around the world, this opportunity was squandered.

Tory and unionist hyper intransigence put the kibosh on that in 1886 and 1912-14.

[EIFII]

British mistakes and arrogance in large part helped precipitate 1916 and the 6 or 7 years that followed.
First Ireland was supposedly a "home country" of the UK but was run and garrisoned as a colony.
From the 17th through the 19th and into the early 20th century Ireland was (governed by Westminster) largely run for an Anglo -Irish ascendancy elite while most people were property less and living in grinding poverty.
A home rule bill had been passed but was suspended for the duration of WW 1 but would have faced severe challenge from Tories and Unionists (both NI and British ) anyway.
Both Irish volunteers and their rivals the Ulster volunteers largely ended up then fighting and dying in the mud of Flanders, in essentially a stupid squabble between 19th century empires.
The IRB, a revolutionary organisation usurped what remained of the Irish volunteers and 1916 ensued.
To compound their mistakes , the British executed the leaders and provoked widespread public support for the revolutionaries and Irish independence.
After WW 1 with no sign of Home Rule as promised appearing, on the outbreak of the "guerilla war , the British authorities used terror tactics to cow the population (the burning of Cork city centre and Malahide amongst others) and thereby increased support for nationalists and independence yet again.
If the British had been more even handed and ready to compromise then there might have been no Irish independence.
NI was and still remains a deeply divided society.
In 1969 , it was a gerrymandered, indeed apartheid society, run for one section of the population..Those divisions long predate 1916 going back to at least the 1600s.
Again there, something was going to give and again British stupidity such as Bloody Sunday 1972 and internment without trial acted as recruiting banners for the IRA.
Intransigence, stupidity and a lack of willingness to compromise on all sides, Nationalist, Unionist, Republican, Loyalist and British led to much from 1916 to the fairly recent "Troubles".
It is easy to look back from the present with 20/20 vision and rose tinted spectacles and say this or that should not have happened.

A helpful summary of events from an Irish perspective

Unfortunately displaying a typical Irish victim mentality - the Irish yesterday showed themselves to be courageous, taking control of their destiny. Such a pity this was not in evidence earlier....
Mistakes and arrogance were as evident in the Irish position as in the British... And I argue led to a settlement that was the worst possible outcome for Ireland, and one that as a country we are still paying the price for today.
Just imagine the impossibility of a Unionist militia resisting home rule with British forces in Ireland enforcing home rule as the will of the democratically elected Westminster Government. Unionists fighting the forces they were meant to be loyal to?
And the old story Unionist position in mainland UK forever weakened by the rise of the Labour Party and the introduction of universal suffrage.