Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 74 - The IRA: Freedom FIghters or Terrorists?

Episode Date: February 12, 2018

The Irish Republican Army. Guys and gals who have, since their inception, been viewed as a liberation force by some and a terrorist group by others. They fight for the liberation of Northern Ireland from whom they view as British oppressors. But, as you’ll find out today - their case isn’t so simple. Their cause not obviously just. They’ve been lighting up Northern Ireland and England with bombs and gun fire for damn near 100 years. Why? Does Northern Ireland even need or want liberating? We dig deep into Ireland’s history and the formation and latter evolution of the Irish Republican Army on a boom boom edition, of Timesuck. Wanna be a Space Lizard" Go here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get a download link for a new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits. Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Want to try out Discord!?! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions: https://badmagicmerch.com/pages/contact Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG, @timesuckpodcast on Twitter, and www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast And, thank you for supporting the show by doing your Amazon shopping after clicking on my Amazon link at www.timesuckpodcast.com

Today, we're going to be talking about an IRA, an individual retirement account. Your guide to financial freedom and retirement free from the stress of monetary concerns. Compound, tax-free interest. Ride that Dow Jones. No, don't turn this off. I'm kidding. Please, don't turn me off. We're going to be talking about something much more exciting, although it will not help

your financial future nearly as much to learn about today's real subject, the Irish Republican Army. Those guys and gals who have since their inception been viewed as a liberation forced by some and as a terrorist group by others. They fight for the liberation of Northern Ireland, from whom they view as British foreign oppressors, but as you'll find out today, their case is not so simple. Their case, not obviously just. They've been lightened up Northern Ireland and England with bombs and gunfire for damn

your 100 years now. You know, and they're still around. And why? Why are they still around? Does Northern Ireland even need or want liberating currently? We dig deep into Ireland's history and the formation and then ladder evolution of the Irish Republican Army today on a boom, boom edition of Time Sun. What's going on Time Sunkers and Space Lizards Happy Monday.

Thanks for all the recent reviews and ratings. Wow, over 2700 now on iTunes alone. That's a lot. Thanks for all the reviews elsewhere and uh, into the thousands and thousands of you who now listen on the time suck app. Gonna talk about that in a bit I'm Dan Cummins aka the suck wizard aka old dirty suck master aka He who sucks the most high aka all of the fun titles you guys keep throwing my way and you're listening to time suck Recording from the suck Claire with assistant general suck master Josh Crel. Huge thanks to the over 1200 of you who have signed up to be space losers now. Keep an eye on your Patreon emails for new posts regarding updates.

You know, posted a lot of common problems, you know, fixes for those in various posts. If you look down like how to link your Patreon account, I do a lot of step by step things. And we're going to be doing some video tutorials and Recording this in the past again due to my tour schedule Hopefully hopefully Google has stopped f**king with the suck now if it hasn't Please hit up Google on social media such as at Google on Instagram and just you know try to demand that they release the time suck app update You know just put hashtag free the suck see if we can get a little hashtag Social media campaign all posted at them just for them to release the update or at least just, you know, tell the team a bit of extra what's going on. They've been the worst.

But we're on it. I actually bought a Google Android phone. I don't I don't have that as part of my plan, but I bought one so I could figure out how to use the Google Play Store so I could help out you Android users. And man, I got to say on the app level, Google fucking sucks compared to Apple. I know they're better as a company in some ways, but man, they're way behind with apps. I fucking hate them. But there are some things we can do. And I'm going to talk about that here in just a second. I hope those of you who did get to hear it did enjoy the first secret suck episode. It was on Thursday. We're going to be refining that, making it better.

And I thought we had a nice little start, so I really appreciate that. And yeah, and on Google, so what I did is I got that phone and I figured out kind of what you can do. What you can do is you can go to Patreon. Here's how you get until Google releases the update. Here's how you can listen to Secret Suck in the easiest, most convenient way. Okay, if you're an Android or an iOS user

who doesn't want to use the Time Suck app, we're also just smoothing out a couple little glitches that most people haven't experienced, but a few people have. So we're working on everything right now, just to have it really run smoothly real quick. Bit of a extra team has been working their butts off. But here's what you can do.

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And we'll just be, I'll be posting that every week on Patreon as well just to keep that feed going. For Android users, there truly isn't an equivalent in Google Play music to the Apple podcast app because Google is fucking terrible. There are a company of nothing but monsters and child murders. Or so I've heard. However, you can download a very popular app through the Google Play store called Podcast Attic.

It's the best one I found. It's free. On the home screen, you will find a plus button, little plus sign to run it by a circle on either the top toolbar or the bottom toolbar, depending on how you kind of went into the app. Click it, just click that little plus button. And then there are options to add a new podcast, these big colorful boxes. The second one down on the left says RSS feed, YouTube Twitch Channel,

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So I did all that and it worked great. And then for you Android users and tell Google stops holding the update hostage, you can just go to timestockpodcast.com on either your mobile or on the web, and you can do your topic voting and you can do the sending audio messages. So you can do that because Google has nothing to do with the web version so they can't fuck with us. Yeah, so not delivering all the space

of the perks to Android users in one convenience spot yet because our hands are tied, but you still get everything right now. And please, if you have any problems, check out the Patreon post for how to fix them first. It still doesn't fix it. Email bitelixer time suck app at bitelixer.co. They're great at getting back with fixes. And also a quick note on the podcast app in general for all users, just to refresh episodes, pull down on the episode list, just like you just grab your screen, scroll it down, and that will refresh the episode list

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feed Detroit, February 16th of the magic bag and Ferndale minutes coming up this week, swap cast with the boys from small time murder, couple tickets left, standup shows been sold out for a while. Minneapolis is next March, second and third. Siss if it's brewing, few tickets left only for the Saturday early show. Grab those quick. If you want them, Brad, California, Cleveland, Ohio, coming up in March, Brad and Prove March 8 through 11th, hilarious in Cleveland March 22 through 24th, two great clubs, gonna be fun shows you don't wanna miss.

More tour dates at Dancomans.tv, more announcements to help you guys out at the end of the show, time now for the Irish Republican Army. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUT [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUT [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ When he is on the aisle right very wildly, some seithem is honorable and courageous group of freedom fighters refusing to lie down against overwhelming odds in the battle for the unified island, free from British rule. Other seithem is no better than ISIS and his guided group of terrorists fighting for a non-sensical and outdated ideal. They claim to fight for a unified island no more Northern Ireland under the bomb of the UK, under the Thames, one big island under Irish rule. How many Irish listeners are agitated right now at the patronizing accents I've tried to sleep

into this podcast. There's a fairly large contingent of Irish time suckers. How furious are you right now that I was unable to completely figure out your Irish accents but it sounds good to my ears and I'm proud of myself. Even though it's terrible. How native all the native Irish Catholics do they really have any more legitimacy to the claim for the island at this point than the normal invaders? Who does Ireland really belong to? How much longer am I going to try to keep this as axing to app before inevitably cracking and falling into some kind of American redneck, Mishmash. We'll turn the stand, the roots of the IRA and the conflict with Britain. We have to dive into a brief history of Ireland.

Not going to go into too much detail in any one era. Got to save in-depth research for future sucks on Irish historical figures and groups like the Druids. But let's get into their origins. Let's timeline it right now. Let's get into this shit. Shrap on those boots, soldier. We're marching down a time-sub timeline.

All right, so here we go, a little timeline. Get into the history of who the people in Ireland used to be before we can examine why there's a conflict now. 8,000 BE, what is that? I don't know. No, 8,000 BCE, roughly 10,000 years ago, historians estimate that Ireland was first settled by humans kind of.

Initially it was just genders, who we all know are human-ish at best. Redheads have long been understood by scientists to have, you know, most, but not all human attributes, missing, of course, the ability to reason, quietly consume alcohol and defend themselves against sunshine, the force of nature that literally gives life to most organisms, but spell certain death or at least a lot of wrinkles and possible skin cancer for weak, fragile, clown hair having ginger motherfuckers. Kidding, of course. Just wanted to fire up some of you firecrotches.

Love you, peeps, love you. Anywho, actually, the original settlers were contrary to popular belief, most likely, not Celtic. Celtic also an acceptable pronunciation for that word to all of the pronunciation police out there listening. I prefer Celtic because I like hard consonant sounds, which is partially explains my affinity for profanity. Fuck, mmm, like it.

Hey, Lucifina, a DNA ancestry research conducted at Trinity University in Dublin and Queen University has revealed at least two waves of migration to the island in the past millennia. And the Celts were not the first wave. This is important to note in this episode. When a group says they're fighting for their land, did they really have it first? You know, like whose land is it really?

I think it's a very interesting thought to keep in our heads in this episode. Like America, Americans fought to liberate themselves from the British, but we were not the first to settle this land. We being, you know, those of a European descent. The American Indians have a far more legitimate claim to America than Americans do, but they don't have, you know, they didn't have the right immune systems and weaponry a couple hundred years ago to hold on to it. Again, just an important note regarding what it means to be Irish or what it means to

be of any culture. Analysis of the remains of a 5200 year old Irish farmer suggested that the population of Ireland at the time was closely genetically related to modern day populations of southern Europe, especially Spain and Sardinia. That's right. I would not have thought that, that the Sardinians originally snuck over to Ireland. Yeah, this farmer's her ancestors, originally migrated from the Middle East to cradle of civilization The Kels would later arrive from Northern Europe now I should also note that before humans made it to the Amelisle back in 11,000 BCE

Ireland was settled of course by leprechauns They lived happily enjoying the rainbows and shit and gold and green top hats and all that's fun stuff And they were undisturbed alongside pixies and unicorns for good 3000 years before humans showed up. And then you know, around 8,000 BCE leprechauns were tragically hunted for their sweet leprechaun meet into extinction. Pixies went into hiding only to return occasionally

to inspire Disney characters. And unicorns were sold into sexual slavery where they remain. Now this is the kind of stuff traditional educators are afraid to talk about, mostly because it's fucking nonsense. Around 4,000 BCE, it is estimated that farming made its way to Ireland.

No one knows who figured it out. Maybe people living in Ireland or possibly some more evolved non-ginger showed up and showed those backwards redheads how to use simple tools. Again, sorry, not sure why that is so fun for me to do. Farming marked the arrival of the new Stone Age, around 300 BCE Iron Age warriors known as the Keltz. Yes, here's the Keltz. They came to Ireland, Ireland from mainland Europe. Yep, the origin of the Galic culture that is so important to modern Irish identity. The Keltz have had a huge influence on irland and there is a lot of renewed interest

in their culture many famous irish myth stem from stories about keltic warriors uh... the current first official language of the republic of iran or irish or gaelic stems from the you know the keltic language uh... today by the way only roughly one percent of uh... the irish still speak gaelic uh... little random trivia about the keltz roughly 1% of the Irish still speak Gaelic. A little random trivia about the Celts, since modern notions of Irish culture seem to be based in Celtic pride, the Celts were something else.

It was said that the Celts would strip completely naked before going into battle, something meant to impact their enemies psychologically, seriously. Very terrifying, too, where the appearance and the gestures of the naked warriors in front, all in the prime of life and finally built men and in and all in the leading companies richly adorned with gold torques and omelets, wrote the Roman, uh, Polybius, uh, he's 218 BCE, when he lived in an account of a battle fought against the Romans by the Celts, man, naked warriors. I can't believe that it in at least like Tyler Wiener's up,

or something. You know, I feel like that would be distracting, running into battle with your junk bouncing around, or maybe it was worth it because it was distracting to the enemy, you know. It would be especially distracting to the enemy if they had boners. Think about that.

Can you imagine a bunch of jacked, muscular dudes fully erect, charging you with swords and spears and shit. That would definitely give them a psychological edge. You'd have to assume that if you didn't kill them, best case, you getting raped on the field of battle, worst case killed, actually worst case raped, then killed, best case killed and raped, terrifying. And I guess they really were ripped too. Just ripped naked floppy weiner showing or you know, raging, boner, sporting warriors. Ancient sources say that the the killets were jacked. They detested being overweight and actually

had penalties against it. They were like Spartans. An ancient student of world history, a name of forest, wrote that the they endeavor not to grow fat or potbellied and any young man who exceeds a standard measure of the girdle is punished. Oh, men suck from me. I tried and suck in my gut for pictures, but I don't know if I would meet that girdle that girdle measurement that standard. I doubt it. I doubt it. I'm rocking a serious 34 waistline right now. I bet that's over the line. The Celts were also interested in druidism, or there's more commonly known now cosplay. I'd like to dress up and weird costumes, pretend to be a mis-series.

Sorry, again, I actually like cosplay. Not for me, but I love costumes people come up with. Anyway, Robert, Robert Tung Twister, Robert Wizen Youski of the University of Warsaw, fucking Polish people and their dumb fucking names. Notes that an AD, sorry, my wife is Polish. That's why if you've new to the show, Polish stuff comes up, I'm gonna take a shot because it's fun for me. And they do have the fucking worst names.

Wizen Youski, I mean, it's way too many vowels, all right? Just put a fucking decent like like wise and then ski, wise ski. See, that's not bad, but you gotta fucking throw 17 other vowels in there. It's unnecessary, all right? Somebody talk to the Polish name committee and tell them to change everything. It's Smith or Johnson from here on out. You're either Smith or Johnson. No more skis, no more fucking crazy, but sh- S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S, no more fucking crazy, but sh- sh- sh- sh- ski.

It's f- garbage. Okay, anyway, uh, in 8043, Pomponious Mella wrote about the Gauls as follows, and yet they have both their own eloquence and their own teachers of wisdom, the druids. These men claim to know the size and shape of the earth and the universe, the movements of the sky and of the stars, and what the gods intent. One of the precepts they teach, teach obviously to make them better for war has become common knowledge namely that their souls are eternal and that there is a second life for the debt.

Oh man, so that's interesting. They had an after life. And the old Romans thought that that was just kind of, you know, to get them to fight harder. Like, hey man, go, kind of like, I guess, you know, modern day or as Islamic fundamentalist warriors, man, get out there and get out to fight harder. Like, hey man, go kind of like, I guess you know, modern day, what is it? Islamic fundamentalist warriors, man, get out there and get out there and fight. It's okay if you die. It's good for you actually. You get to go straight to heaven.

The Keltz had a little bit of that back then as well, apparently. And yeah, yeah. And now the Keltz really get going in Ireland, and then contrary to the beliefs of some, the Keltz race never had a cohesive kingdom though. They were a loose amalgam of tribes, communities, you know, various groups that came together for shared purposes such as defense, worship, trading, hunting.

Kind of, you know, unlike the classical civilization, degrees, and Rome, the Celts left behind, you know, very little that scholars today can classify with any degree of certainty. The Celts were primarily an oral tradition. I think that's part of why they're popular today. People have a sense of mystery. Interestingly note about the Celts, women held a high status in Celtic Ireland. Ancient tales from this era,

tell of women going to war long. Side their men, which made me wonder where they naked as well. I didn't come across that, but if the dudes were naked, why wouldn't the women be naked in fighting? That seems even riskier for them, especially if you're rocking some big old Irish deacups.

Right, some of those milky white Irish decaps, that's the flopping out in the field of battle. It's got to fuck up your balance. When you're trying to let an arrow rip from the saddle, women also had a lot of control over whom they married. If they wanted to get married at all, the ancient custom of hand fasting meant that couples who intended to marry would live together for a year first.

At the end of the year, either party could dissolve the relationship. Too bad that custom isn't around today. I think that's a great idea. In 82 CE, the Irish narrowly avoided war with Rome. The Rome, the conquerors of Europe, but they never made it quite to Ireland. According to Roman historian Tastitus, Rome's military governor and Britain, Neus Julius Agra Cola, a very successful military campaigner,

turned his attention to Ireland. He defeated England's Queen of Budica in 61 CE, and then continued to subdue the entire nation, bringing under Roman rule, and then Tastas claimed that a minor Irish king who had lost his throne in battle, approached Agri Cola and offered to help him conquer Ireland. Fuck Trader.

Agri Cola considered an Irish invasion, and even drew up a loose battle plans for a takeover. But then he had to deal with the mutiny within his own army and a Scottish rebellion. Once he subdued the picked uprising in Scotland, another ancient, you know, kind of tribe, the picks, he was recalled to Rome by emperor, demit, demit, demit, demit, demit, demit, demit, demit,

demit, demit, demit, demit, demit, demit, demit, and then that was the closest the Romans ever got to Ireland. However, there is some evidence that Ireland may have attacked Roman forces in Britain. Numbers, Roman coins and artifacts have been discovered in Ireland and they may have come back from ancient Irish raids or the rating of various British Roman towns taking some loot back to Ireland. Not only did Raiders take coins, they also took people, they brought slaves back to Ireland, one young boy slave taking one of these raids went on to win his freedom

and become one of the most important figures in Irish history, palladium patric. Better known as St. Patrick, the patron saint of leprechauns and St. Patrick is famous for, of course, bringing leprechauns back to life with some black magic so that Irish gingers could feast on their sweet, sweet tender meat once again and live like the savages they were. Legend holds that nothing tastes as heavenly as leprechaun ribs marinated with some pixie tears. And that's how we got the recipe for Shepherds pie. Now you know, of course, that's nonsense.

No, St. Patrick's regard is a founder as the founder of Christianity within Ireland. Following the arrival of St. Patrick and then the arrival of other Christian missionaries in the early to mid-fifth century, Christianity took over the indigenous religions of the Isle, the Druids are out. They began replacing and or absorbing old pagan and Celtic traditions and beliefs by the year 600 CE. This reminds me of what we learned way back in time, sucks seven. Getting the Halloween origins episode, getting into that mixin of pagan and Christian mythology. Well, Irish Christian scholars are now selling in the study of Latin, which I need some Latin, right? Growing up, that would have helped

my pronunciation. A ton, Greek and Christian theology and various monasteries throughout Ireland, the arts of manuscript illumination, metalworking and scopes are flourished and produced such treasures such as Ornate jewelry and the book of Kells an old calf-skin book of the Christian Gospels bound in 384 CE and then the Viking showed up right at the end of the 8th century CE and during the 9th century Vikings from what we now call Scandinavia Began to invade and then gradually settle into a mix with Irish society Man the Vikings might be talking about them very soon some Viking Viking topics been climbing the charts on the topic, uh, voting portion of the app. Uh, the first attack by the Vikings in Ireland was recorded to have happened in 795 CE by Irish monks in the annals of Ulster, the burning of race through by the heathens and ski was overwhelmed

and laid waste. Fucking heathens ruined shit for locals, burning villages to the ground, laying entire towns to waste. 988 CE, the Vikings founded Dublin, Ireland's capital city. Thought that was interesting. Dublin is easily the most known Irish city in Ireland among Americans and it turns out it was founded by Vikings. Following the defeat of the Vikings by Brian Boru,

the high king of Ireland at Clonturf. Now in 1014 Viking influenced fades, but they had a presence, you know, pretty heavy presence in Ireland for a few centuries. Despite that, only about 3% of Irish DNA is now scanned in avian, according to some DNA studies I found online. So, you know, maybe they didn't rape and pillage as much as the legends say, at least not in Ireland. Scotland and England have a much higher percentage of Norse ancestry. Maybe, maybe it's against their religion to mate with genders. I don't know. I don't know. Don't get all riled up for people. Just tossing out ideas. Just tossing out possibilities. Or maybe DNA tests aren't testing for the blood of the right kind of Scandinavians like

the Norman Scandinavians. Let me explain that. 12th century saw the arrival of the Normans in Ireland. The Normans are associated with Southern France, but before that, the Normans are believed to have hailed from Scandinavia. All of that reminds me of last week's time suck about the colonial devastation of Africa. We're all Africans. Isn't genealogy interesting? I mean, seriously, people say stuff all the time like, you know, I'm a quarter French,

I'm a quarter Irish, a quarter British, another quarter Swedish, but really you, you might just be a hundred percent Scandinavian. You know, your British, French, Irish and Swedish roots might all hail from the same tribe of people from like a thousand years ago. I mean, we're all the same in the end, aren't we? You know, one of the main reasons racism is just so fucking stupid. We're all just a hundred percent meat sack, right? The British and Irish historically, you know, fought tremendously, but also if you go back, you know, a thousand, two thousand years, you know, share many of the same ancestors, the DNA of Irish and British

people very closely linked. Okay, so back to the Normans. In the 12th century, the Normans invade Ireland, begin a long, long period of English rule, subjugation, exploitation that would lead centuries later to the formation of the IRA. At that time, Ireland was a collection of several kingdoms with a high king overseeing all. And then Pope Adrian IV gave the okay on invasion to the English king Henry II, and Henry allowed Norman mercenaries to take over most of the Isle, and then King Henry sent in his own large army to control all of the Isle.

And then the Normans built Walt Towns, Castles, churches, increased agriculture, commerce in Ireland, and while the Norman invasion marched the beginning of foreign rule, the Irish were initially treated more as a colony by the Normans. The culture remained largely gaelic. Brits who settled into Ireland fell into Irish customs, generally sided with locals against their British rulers as they, you know, became acclimated to the land. You know, so I guess what I'm saying is

despite a new foreign presence, Irish culture not destroyed at that time. If anything, the country was ignored for the most part initially by Britain. Pay us some taxes, give us some of your goods, and we'll leave you alone to be Irish and shit. And then that would all change in the 16th century. In 1534, King Henry VIII declared himself

head of the church in England, and he ensured that the Irish parliament declared him King of Ireland in 1541. He paved the way for the British culture to spread into Ireland, and by the way that Irish parliament was, you know, underneath the crown. So I don't want you to think that like Ireland was independent at that time. They weren't. They had their own parliament, but, you know, basically

the British parliament can kind of overrule them when they needed to. Okay. And he paved the way for British culture to really spread the island like never before. He created a huge religious cultural rift that has yet to this day to fully heal. He so I mean, really, if you want to blame anybody, like any one person for the IRA, easily, it is King Henry VIII, no joke. He so deced for its future formation in several ways, including his formal condoning of what was called British plantations. Now quick backstory on King Henry VIII before I explained with the panty plantations are Henry the eighth is famous mostly for having six wives

And a disagreement regarding an oling one of those marriages led to the English Reformation which was the split When the Church of England moved away from Rome and the Pope so basically Henry or Hank is I'd call him One in one of his marriages, you know, annulled. And the Pope was like, enough. You can't just keep getting new wives all the time. And Hank was like, yeah, I hear you, but fuck that. I'm the king, and I wanna do what I wanna do. And then the Pope was like, nah bro, no can do.

Church won't allow it. And then King Henry was like, fuck that shit. I'll start my own church. And it's gonna annull whatever the fuck I want it to annull. And it's gonna, and no, whatever the fuck, I want it to a no. And then the Pope was like, uh, please don't, please don't do that, please do not do that. And Hank was all, hmm, already done, bro. Already done, son.

Uh, and that was it. And then I have a nation of Protestants. So unfortunately Ireland, still firmly a Catholic island, right? Very much so in culture. And now, Hank doesn't care for Catholics. So he officially bans it. No more Catholicism.

It doesn't go away, but he wants it to. Irish Catholics have to maintain a connection to Rome and secret now, priests who refuse to pay allegiance to him and turn their back on Rome or killed. So he lets his new English Protestant friends head on over into Ireland and basically just take whatever they want

from Catholic Irish people already live in there. The seeds of discontent really start to be sewn. The Protestant settlers, settlers could have their quote unquote plantations, free land or Scottish and English Protestants kind of pilgrims heading over there. And the Irish Catholics, you know, not surprisingly, they don't care for that. You know, so this migration and land grab would last until the late 17th century, and from that period on Protestant Catholic, kind of British Irish conflict would become a common theme in Irish history.

The 17th century was a bloody one indeed for Ireland, indeed, culminated in the imposition of a harsh regime of penal laws to further disempower Catholics, denying them, for example, the right to take leases or own land above a certain value at all, continued to outlaw the Catholic clergy, which did still exist in Ireland. Irish refusing to give up the religion and basically outwardly saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're Anglican, but in reality, it continued to be Catholic. The new laws forbid higher education and entry to various professions for Catholics, impose oaths of conformity to the state church, the church of Ireland during the 18th century,

strict enforcement of the penal laws eased. But by 1778, Catholics held only about 5% of the land in Ireland. Wow. You know, to go from the overwhelming majority, you know, we're all of it to about 5%. Irish Catholics have been virtually just completely and totally disenfranchised. And their Irish Catholic descendants would later form the majority of the IRA. Okay, so before the IRA, Irish Catholics and some Protestant nationalists tried to stand up for themselves politically.

In 1782, a parliamentary faction led by Henry Gratton, a Protestant, successfully agitated for a more favorable trading relationship with England and for greater legislative independence from the Parliament of Ireland. And again, so it wasn't even just the Catholics. He's Protestant. Some of the Irish Protestants also wanted to be a little bit more free from Britain. However, it did not work. Little was accomplished despite Gretens' efforts.

London still controlled much of what occurred in Ireland. And then a decade later, inspired by the French Revolution in 1791, an organization called the United Irishman was formed with the idea of bringing Irish people of all religions together to reform and reduce Britain's power in Ireland. Its leader was a young Dublin Protestant named Thielbald Wolf Tone. And Tone wasn't interested in trying to work things out politically. He was ready to go to war.

Well the United Irishmen were the inspiration for the armed rebellion of 1798, despite attempts at help from the French, the rebellion failed. Tone was captured in battle by English soldiers. He was tried, executed for treason, and in 1801, the act of union was passed, uniting Ireland politically with Britain into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. So they'd like reformalize it. And they call it the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. I they'd like reformalize it and they call it the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. I love how the name great is added to Britain and Ireland gets nothing. Like I wonder if anyone when they were, you know, they'd lost, but they were kind of coming up with the name was like, um, can it be called a great great Britain and awesome island? Or maybe Great Britain and impressive island? Maybe impeccable island. No, can it be at least called Good Island? No, not even like Great Britain and pretty good island. Can we have so so

island? That's all we can have is so so island. So it would be the United Kingdom of Great Britain and so so island. You know that one doesn't really roll off the tongue now does it? Sounds worse than just island really. How about we stick with just island? Now does that. That's fine. Yeah, then in 1829, more political efforts are made towards Irish independence. One of Ireland's greatest leaders, Daniel O'Connell,

known as the Great Liberator was central in getting the act of Catholic emancipation passed in parliament in London. He succeeded in getting the total ban on voting my Catholics lifted. And they can now also become members of the parliament in London After this success Oconnell aimed to cancel the act of union and reestablish an Irish independent parliament You know, so maybe like to be part of the Commonwealth

But they would have you know way more independence. However, this was a you know a much bigger task to accomplish For Oconnell and his approach to nonviolence was just not supported by all of his countrymen. And then, you know, political issues such as this were overshadowed by the worst disaster in tragedy in Irish history, the great famine. Now, potatoes were the staple food of a growing population of Ireland in the 19th century. When blight, it's a plant disease, struck potato crops nationwide in 1845, 1846, and 1847 disaster follows.

Potatoes are suddenly inedible. People begin to starve to death, especially since it had been centuries since they'd hunted those leprechauns and their sweet leprechaun meat into exchange, and they're really fucking regretting that now. And the British government stepped in and makes it worse. While hundreds of thousands of people are suffering from extreme hunger, Ireland is forced to export abundant harvests of wheat and dairy products to Britain and further overseas.

Kinda reminds me of Stalin's Ukrainian famine, right? Starving the farmers who are feeding your nation. And a lot of people do starve. Between 1845 and 1851, roughly a million people starve in Ireland and two million more people in those six years just get the fuck out. It is leaf and another five million gingers died, which would almost kind of be sad, you know, if they mattered. Sorry, sorry, you get no, but for real, a million died and two million left.

And over 150 years later, the population of Ireland still has yet to reach its pre-Famined level of approximately eight million. Today, there is still less than 7 million people on the island in its entirety, that's counting Northern Ireland and the rest of the the island itself. So really thought there was more people in Ireland than that, by the way, on the on the aisle of Great Britain, over 65 million people. And the UK is about three times the size of Ireland geographically, but it has over nine times the population. So after the famine, Ireland continues to lose a lot of people to immigration, especially to the United States. And they've been turning our nation cities into drunken shit shows every year on March 17th ever since. There was a little

effective challenge to Britain's control of Ireland after the great famine until the efforts of Charles Stewart Parnell at the age of 31, he became leader of the Irish home rule party, which became the Irish parliamentary party in 1882. While Parnell did not achieve home rule, you know, the fight for self-government, for Ireland, his efforts towards this movement earned him the title of the Uncrowned King of Ireland. And the impetus he gave to the idea of home rule was to have lasting implications. It was really fucking up the Irish independence cause. Now was the residual effects of King Henry VIII, oh, Hank split from Rome, right? He'd opened up the door for Protestantism

in Ireland. And then he encouraged Protestants to move to Ireland with his, the whole plantation program we talked about. And then Northern Ireland, closest to the UK is where most of these initial Protestants settled. And now they've been there for a few hundred years, you know, and they've been breeding. There's been a lot of Protestant penis in and out and back in and back out of Protestant vagina action happening, right? They've also remained culturally tied to England.

They've created a majority culture of Protestantism on the island in Northern Ireland. And now they have no interest in succeeding and suddenly becoming the minority in a country that overall is still largely Catholic. So fucking Hank, man, he messed everything up with his constant need to bang a new wife. Isn't it crazy that it's like the butterfly effect?

You know, like that action, this reverberation is still being felt today. People still dying today because that it's like the butterfly effect, you know, like that action, this is the reverberations is still being felt today. People still dying today because that guy was like, no, I want to fuck who I want to fuck. It's crazy. So in the late 19th century and Ulster, a province of Northern Ireland, the majority of people are Protestants. They're concerned about the prospect of home rule. They favor the union with Britain, the unionist party, based on remaining with England, it's formed in 1891. By the early 20th century, it was led by Sir Edward Carson and he threatened an armed struggle for a separate Northern Ireland if independence is granted to Ireland. So shit's getting more complicated. You know,

you got one group of guys being like, hey man, if you don't give us our independent, we're fucking out. We're going to cause some shit. We're going to war. We're going to fight. And then you have this other group going, hey, if you can let these guys out, we're going to go to war. And then the home rule bill actually is passed. I didn't know this man. Ireland came very close to being, you know, its own nation back in 1912, but it doesn't quite make it into law. And then basically the home rule act is suspended, you know, just kind of shelved because of World

War one in 1914. You know, first famine slows down the movement and then now a war, a world war slows down the movement. Well, the Irish nationalist convinced themselves that home rule is going to be granted after the war if they support the British war effort. And so John Redmond, the leader of the Irish parliamentary party, encourages his people to join the British forces and fight, and many do just that. However, a minority of nationalists don't trust the British government, and their distrust

leads to one of the most pivotal events in Irish history that Easter rising and the Easter rising really leads to the IRA. On April 24th, 1916, Easter Monday, two groups of armed rebels, the Irish volunteers and the Irish citizen army sees key locations in Dublin. The Irish volunteers led by Padregg Pierce Pierce and they'd been training for the defense of islands since 1913 under the pretense of defending British led Ireland, but really they'd been preparing for this moment. They've been dying their hair black for several years and then one day they wash it out and

it's fucking ginger. It's fucking sneaky ass ginger army has been built and right up on their British noses. No. The other group of rebels was the Irish citizen army led by James O'Connelly. I just added a no. His name is James Connelly. I've been reading so many Irish names this week. I'm just adding an O in front of everyone's name.

This group also began forming a 1913 and it formed out of a labor union strike. ICA leaders organized a militia force to protect workers interests in Dublin. Well, on April 24, 1916, the conflict began when Irish forces attacked Dublin castle in Dublin, seat and symbol of British power. It was a royal residence, home of the Viceroy of England, the British monarchies, Irish representative. Other rebels took over the post office where the proclamation had been read. They raised the Irish tri-color flag, Padreg Pierce, read the proclamation of the Republic, which declared an Irish Republic independent of Britain. The proclamation opened up with In the name of God in the dead generations, Ireland, through us, summons, or children, to our flag and strikes for her freedom. Battles ensue with casualties on both sides and among the civilian population, the British,

or caught by a surprise, but after the initial tax quickly regather, turn the tide in their favor, they outnumber the Irish rebels 10 to 1. So the Easter Rising doesn't last long. It finishes on April 30th. The rebels surrender at the GPO, that post office. They take in five days earlier and been defending against British police soldiers in militia. 485 people lost their lives in the struggle over those few days, over three quarters of those killed.

We're non-rebell and just over half were civilians. And initially it looked like the cause for Irish independence suffered a huge set back with this loss. The majority of the Irish public was not in favor of this attack, not in favor of this uprising. They were opposed to it. However, the British fucked up. Public opinion turned back in favor of the rebels when the British administration responded

to the uprising by quickly executing many of the leaders and participants in the rising. It kangaroo court trials quickly executed all seven, you know, dudes who signed the proclamation and seven others were hastily court-martialed and executed, including Pearson Connolly. Now, the British had turned them into martyrs in the fight for Irish independence. Two of the key figures who were involved in the rising, who avoided execution were Amon Devallera and Michael Collins. Michael Collins, if his name sounds familiar, he's the dude who wrote Jurassic Park. Apparently, he wrote Jurassic Park while going on to fight for Irish independence. And

really interesting here, Jurassic Park is about the fight for Irish independence. So I made me like that movie, you know, even more, the dinosaur island represents Ireland. And Jeff Goldblum represents British imperialism. Laura Dern represents Scotland. The plant eating dinosaurs represent the people of Ireland. And the velociraptors are the IRA. And that big pile of shit that Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum investigate in the movie represent Irish redheads. All right, I'm done.

I really, I really have no problem with redheads. That was a long way to go, just to take another cheap shot at them. Other than I did have an Irish redhead for a stepmom and I was not a big fan of her. That part's true, actually. But actually I find, yeah, I don't wanna say anything more about redheads. I think there's a lot of Irish redhead for a stepmom and I was not a big fan of her. That part's true actually. But actually, I find, uh, yeah, I don't want to say anything more about redheads. I think there's a lot of beautiful redhead women.

I'll just stop there for my wife listens. It's like, what the fuck? Why are you talking about redhead women? Okay. And, uh, I highly doubt any of you are still with me. So I, I will stop as well and let you know that Michael Criteon wrote Jurassic Park. Michael Collins, he did not write Jurassic Park. Michael Collins was an early 20th century Irish freedom fighter and politician and he and

a moaned of De Valera were not done fighting for Ireland when they were not executed. In December, the December 1918 elections, the Sinn Fein party led by a moaned De Valera, one majority of the Ireland based seats in the British House of Commons. Now, the House of Commons, by the way, is a lower house of the two-house British Parliament, which is comparable to Congress and the U.S. kind of. Elected officials representing the needs of various political populations gathered to vote on legislation, the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons is the Prime Minister. Technically the Prime Minister has to be appointed by the King or Queen, but it's really just

a formality. The British crown, it doesn't have any real political power anymore. Just a vestige from a former life, a relic kept for the sake of tradition, national pride. UK government is such an interesting mix of old and new monarchy and modern democracy. Like it functions, but it's strangely complicated. I studied British government years ago, in London, where I studied for a semester. I remember the professor, who is a a British professor a lot of times basically saying the equivalent of like, yeah, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

It's odd. Like they still have the house of lords that works with the House of Commons, the Parliament to pass laws and some of the seats in the House of Lords are hereditary like going back to actual lords. Like you have to be born into the right family to get a seat in government in that particular seats. But now some of the other seats are appointed, but not voted on. It's very confusing.

One foot in the past, one foot in the present, the house of the Lord is called the Upper House of Parliament, but really has far less power than the lower house, which is people who are voted in. Anyway, anyway, very complicated. On January 21, 1919, the Sinn Fein members of the House of Commons gather in Dublin to form an Irish Republic parliament called, uh, Du-Yerren. Du-Yerren. And they unilaterally declared power over the entire island of Ireland.

And now we have the IRA. They were like, fuck your House of Commons. We've built our own. Now what followed, uh, Du what followed do yearns declaration is known as the war of independence the Irish Republican army is formed the army of the newly declared Irish Republic and it begins to wage guerrilla war against British forces from 1919 to 1921 the IRA morphed directly out of the existing Irish volunteer army now it started officially on January 21st 1919 that was the day Ireland officially formed a breakaway government declared independence.

At the same day, two members of the British organized armed police force, the Royal Irish Constabulary, were shot dead in RIC in County, uh, tip array by IRA members acting on their own initiative. The IRA was convinced that a free Irish Republican only began by force. Some have been preparing for this action since shortly after the Easter Rising incident. From necessity, they adopted a guerrilla campaign, a conventional war on a large scale, kind of open conflict situation was not feasible, given their lack of men training and arms. They were seriously outmaned, seriously outgunned, and then they were also organized initially

into numerous small, small, fragmented, fiercely independent units who acting on their own initiative launched frequent low level surprise attacks. So it wasn't initially a terribly well organized organization either, just like these bands of freedom fighters independently led but all fighting for the same cause. And you know, they would attack and then just slip back into, you know, civilian population. They were never a traditional army. It was never a traditional war. It wasn't two armies fighting in an open field. The volunteers attacked government property, carried out raids for desperately needed weapons

and funds and to disrupt the British administration, assassinated prominent individuals. Their most significant single target was the Royal Irish Constabulary. This police force was the eyes and the ears of Dublin Castle. Had the prime responsibility for maintaining law and order and its members were vulnerable, increasingly unpopular in Ireland and the best available source of arms. So the IRA would ambush, ambush, you know, RIC patrol cars, toss a grenade inside one, you know, kill everybody, take their weapons, that sort of thing, assassinate an RIC officer from an apartment window

have some of the other grab his gun disappear uh... they drove the r.i.c. mad the r.i.c. couldn't fight back if they couldn't find the enemy you know the civilian population was at first shocked by the ira's actions but rapidly came to support them at a patriotic sentiment and because of the repressive nature of the british government's response the r.i.c. uh... soon needed reinforcements and the RIC special reserve was formed,

temporary constables recruited 1919, largely from Irish World War I veterans. And their uniform gave rise to the nickname of black intans. And they were basically a British-backed militia. Now, interesting trivia for real trivia here. Today, a black int tan is a pint of half Guinness and half bass ale and Irish style in an English ale. But because of its association with Irish soldiers fighting to help the British, and many parts of Ireland, it's still called

a half and half to this day due to the negative association with the old black and tan militia. Well, the more the IRA attacked the RIC and the black and tans, the more frustrated those groups got unable to find IRA members, they started taking their frustrations out on those suspected of harboring IRA members, just innocent civilians. And innocent civilians start to be killed. They started destroying businesses such as dairy creameries. They suspected of being used to fund IRA efforts. Violence towards citizens turns public sentiment further against the British support

increases for the IRA. On September 20th, 1920, and RIC officers killed in a small seaside town of Belbragan near Dublin. So here's an example of the IRC really overreacting to attacks. And obviously, you know, never cool to have one of your officers gunned down, but, but this is very, very not cool how they responded. They break in, loot, and burn for pubs, just fucking burn them to the ground, burn a hosiery factory, and also burn down 49 homes in retaliation because they think that, you know, some of those people were supporting the IRA. After the attacks in Belbriggand, other similar incidents, Sinn Fein's strategy of making Ireland ungovernable by the British is beginning to work.

The Sinn Fein government backed the IRA campaign, Michael Collins, a leading figure in both Sinn Fein and the IRA played a pivotal coordination role in all of this. He provided volunteers with funds, arms, equipment appointed their officers, encouraged them to act, identifying targets, issuing instructions, offering military advice, his most critical contribution lay in the provision of intelligence, using military advice, his most critical contribution laying the provision of intelligence using his sources, his network of informers. They even penetrated Dublin Castle and the police forces, his squad, a group of hand-picked agents, eliminated many of Dublin's detective constables, the G-Men, and the IRA was never

a huge military organization over the course of the war for independence. Only 15,000 total volunteers were actively involved. With around 3000 in service any given time, they provoked Westminster into more brutal and repressive retaliatory responses. They rallied more IRA support via Sinn Fein publishing propaganda relating to the police atrocities. Their publications were confirmed by independent journalists printed in British and American newspapers and a mounting course of criticism begins to rise and Britain and America regarding

the British government's actions. Okay, so the violence in Ireland peaks on November 21st, 1920, bloody Sunday, the first bloody Sunday in Ireland's independence battle. Not the later one in 1972 that you two would go on to sing about on this bloody Sunday, every woman in Ireland had their period at the same time. They have been building towards this training for years, staying in the same homes, getting aligned.

You know, they wanted to make an incredible statement of solidarity against the British, and they all had their periods heavy flow tossed their bloody knickers in the face of British police officers many of them died instantly have discussed a few died of blood poisoning and a couple perverts died of food poisoning. Was that too far even for the suck? I don't know, I guess I'll find out soon enough was a meme else. And the battle is over. No, Britain packs up leaves the island, grants you know, freedom and never returns.

Of course, that didn't do. I have it. Of course, that was made up on this bloody Sunday, grants freedom and never returns. Of course that doesn't have to happen. Of course that was made up. On this bloody Sunday, Michael Collins IRA squad, gunned down 19 suspected British Army intelligence officers, living in civilians in Dublin houses and hotels. Damn it, 19 in a day. It's a lot of assassinations. Well the incident illustrated the quality of his informants and the continuing devastating capability of the IRA.

Sadly, it immediately stung the security forces of, you know, the British security forces into brutal retaliation, hours later, newly recruited members of the police force fired indiscriminately into the crowd at a football match in Dublin, killing 12 innocent people. Do to the Dublin football shootings, Irish public sentiment turns further against England. Now, in response to the Dublin football shootings, Irish public sentiment turns further against England. Now, a response to the escalating attacks to British Army, given the powers to intern persons on suspicion without trial by the end of 1920. A consequence of the arrest which followed, 4500 by August 1921, was that large numbers

of volunteers go on the run. They became in effect professional revolutionaries now, differentiated from their part-time colleagues and with no prospect of a normal life until the British rule is ended. And Munster, especially the organized themselves into flying columns, they're called mobile units of about a hundred men based in remote camps or safe houses, ideally suited to guerrilla warfare, and they attack the IRC with increasing relentlessness and effectiveness. Despite their success, by mid-1921, Sinn Fein, the leadership of Sinn Fein favors negotiations with the British, instead of continuing to fight

for total independence. They're worrying that the continued violence is gonna break the volunteers, gonna break the, they have a lack of men, you know, they don't have as many men, arms and funds. There was an increasing buildup of British troops in Ireland. They doubt the capacity of the Irish people to endure a lot more fighting and all the retaliatory attacks, you know, that are involved.

And they know that the British are sick of the insurgency and the relentless guerrilla attacks. And they just basically feel like, okay, now it's a time to kind of, you know, make a move, get a good deal done, you know, one that will not require IRA surrender and imprisonment. So in December 19, 21, a treaty assigned by Michael Collins and the Irish and the British authorities, a clear level of independence is finally granted to Ireland kind of. They were initially only given the original Guinness Brewery and Dublin.

And for a decade, that was enough. And many of the Irish felt they got a good deal, actually. They were able to drink stout Irish beer to discounted rate. And that felt in their drunken state as good as freedom. Ketting, of course, being ridiculous. Now, with the bar again table, it was agreed that the Northern, largely Protestant portion of Ireland was still belong to Britain. The contents of the treaty would end up dividing Ireland both geographically and politically. Ireland was divided into Northern Ireland,

six counties and the Irish free, free state, 26 counties established 1922 and not all of the Irish freedom fighters are pleased with this decision and division, of course. And this division has kept the IRA alive to this day. Without this division, there is no reason for the IRA. So people were so divided about the treaty in Ireland that a civil war follows from 1922 to 1923 between pro and anti-treaty forces with former brothers and arms in the fight for the Irish independence, Michael Collins, who was pro treaty. Obviously, he was the guy who broke the deal. And then there was a moan, Dave Lera, who was anti-treaty. And now they're on opposing sides.

So now the IRA has split into two. Anywhere from 2000 to 5000 die in the fighting that follows. Eventually, Michael Collins pro-treaty forces are able to pressure Dave Lera's anti-treaty IRA forces into a cease fire. But not before Collins himself is shot and killed in an ambush by anti-treaty forces on August 22, 1922. And then the consequences of the civil war can be seen to this day. The two largest political parties in Ireland have their roots in the opposing sides of this civil war. There's a Finnegale, the pro-treaty party, and then there's a Fienna, Fienna, Fienna, Fienna,

foil, anti-treaty. You should see these words, by the way. Fienna foil is FIA and NNA, F-A-AXET-Mark-IL. Mm-L. That's fun. A period of relative political stability follows the Civil War. And then the IRA just go away.

And everyone gets along and the British and Irish work together to create lucky charms. The Irish cereal made with the tasty marshmallow bites. Those represent the Irish, they made those. And the British create the shitty crunchy wheat puffs or whatever the hell those things are. And they split the profits evenly. Yeah, right. Following the ceasefire of 1923, the IRA morphs into the organization we think of today, basically.

Their leadership may have signed a treaty to stop fighting, but they still consider the war to be fucking on. They still want an island free of British control. They want Northern Ireland. You know, most isn't good enough. And many Catholics living in Northern Ireland, they still want this as well. So fucking King Hank, man, the mess he has made attacks and recruitment continue by rogue IRA fighters against Protestant targets over the next few years, especially in Northern Ireland, leading to the organization being declared illegal in 1931. The Catholic Church even denounced as the IRA.

The Roman Catholic bishops issue a pastoral letter declaring that the Irish Republican army is sinful and irreligious and no Catholic can lawfully be a member of them. An excommunication order is given and extended to members of all organizations outlawed under the Public Safety Act. After a series of IRA bombings in England in 1939, Doyle Aaron, the lower house, the Irish parliament, took stringent measures against the IRA as well, including a provision for internment without trial. The bombings were masterminded by Shemus O'Donovan.

Now that's an Irish name. Shemus O'Donovan. What's your name? Shemus O'Donovan. I'm Shemus O'Donovan. I'm Chinese. I'm clearly Chinese. shay miso donovan shay miso donovan i'm uh... shay miso donovan i'm chinese i'm clearly chinese

uh... that's very irish name and explosive expert in ira member since the war of independence shay mis orchestrated what was called the sabotage plan or s plan against england a two year ira rain of explosive terror on british soil and ira identities become very uh... intertwined with bombings and this is when they begin, you know, truly began, became their main way of attack. Shamist plan, various bombings in the British cities of Manchester and London, they bombed

the main power supply and for Birmingham, they bombed the main gas lines for Williams, Deacon's Bank and London in response to these and other attacks. All power stations, gas works, telephone exchanges and the droidwitch transmitting station are put under police protection. They bombed the London Underground, mined the gap, the city's subway system, the Tottenham Court Road Station, and the Lycester Square Station were bombed in February of 1939, plans to blow up Buckingham Palace were reported by the Times to have been found in Belfast. Belfast, the Irish government responded by passing the Trees and Act in 1939. They gave them the power to execute members of the IRA.

The Offences against the State Act is also passed in 1939. Give them the power to detain IRA suspects without a trial. So now they could just capture, detain, execute suspected IRA members. The legislation does little though to slow the violence. Seven separate IRA bombings occur in just one day in 1939 on March 31st. On May 5th, tear gas bombs explode in two Liverpool cinemas causing 15 injuries, four bombs explode in Coventry, two more bombs explode in London. On June 9th, letter bombs exploded in 20 English post boxes.

Every post box in London was searched for further IRA devices. And these are just a few of the many, many examples from this bomb are going off in England virtually every week, all through 1939, railway stations are bombed, banks are bombed, bridges and power stations are bombed. In a few years, over 600 IRA members are imprisoned during the two-year S-plan during this time. There were 300 IRA planned explosions. Incredibly only 10 deaths in 96 injuries result from these attacks. The IRA wasn't trying to kill in these attacks. They were trying to destroy infrastructure and wreak havoc on Britain's economy. And for a while,

pretty effective. And then organized attacks cease temporarily. Five IRA leaders are executed, increases in the securities surrounding rich infrastructure. Targets in Britain made it a lot harder to blow shit up. English police also seized large quantities of rock explosive material from the IRA in 1940. The seizure of war material and inability to get newly acquired war material into Britain under wartime restrictions made bombings even more difficult. The campaign also generated a good deal of anti-Ira sentiment in England, which increased the British public's suspicion of Irish people in general.

That makes sense. Making sneak attacks even more difficult. All these factors lead to the IRA attacks tapering off around early to mid 1940. By mid 1947, the IRA will be down to about 200 members in total. In the 1949, the IRA convention, the IRA orders as members to join the political party, Sinn Fein, which would now become the civilian wing of the IRA. While Sinn Fein publicly denies association to this day, they are still thought to be tied to the IRA and have been long thought to historically been tie very closely to the IRA.

Between 1951 and 1954, the IRA began to really rearm itself with armed raids on British military bases in Northern Ireland and England and stealing guns. Over the next few years, the IRA divided into various factions, each carrying out an occasional raid here, bombing there. They also reorganized into a more or less cohesive military unit by 1956 planned what would be called Operation Harvest Fighting what they called a border campaign on the 12th of December 1956 the campaign is launched with simultaneous attacks by around 150 IRA members on targets on the Irish North Irish border in the middle of the night a BBC relay transmitter is bombed in dairy a courthouse is burned and

A BBC relay transmitter is bombed in Derry, a courthouse is burned in, uh, Mahirafelt as was, uh, a B specials post near Newri and a half built army barracks at Inus Killing was blown up. A raid on it go, uh, barracks in Armagh is attempted as well. The IRA issued a statement announcing the start of the campaign saying, Spitter headed by allens freedom fighters, are people of Canada to fight to the enemy. Either this national liberation struggle, a new Ireland will merge upright and free, and a new Ireland, which will build a country fit for all the people to live in. That then is our aim. Our independence united, the democratic artist republic,

from this which we'll fight until the invader is driven from all soil and victory is ours. Exactly like that. Oh, fuck, you didn't just feel like you were in Ireland for a second? I did. Kind of. On the 14th of December in IRA column under Sean Garland, detonated four bombs, one of which blew in the front wall outside Linasca, are you, are you see station before raking it with gunfire?

Further attacks on Darlin and Roslia, RUC barracks on the same day or beaten off. The RUC being the royal Ulster Constabulary successor to the RAC. Roughly 9,000 of these police officers will be injured during the troubles. Another series of IRA attacks that lasted for years, we'll talk about soon. On the 30th of December, an IRA forced attacks at Darl and RUC barracks again killing RUC Constable, John Scalley, the first fatality of the campaign. And then in 1957, the IRA intensifies their efforts, committing a total of three hundred and forty one attacks in Northern Ireland, just in that year.

But then by 1958, the frequent capture of IRA members and waning public support, people are sick of the fucking bombings. The movement begins to fade away again and attacks cease by 1961. Although it had peedered out by the late 1950s, the campaign was officially called off on February 26, 1962 and a press release issued that day, the IRA Army Council stated the leadership of the resistance movement has ordered the termination of the campaign of resistance to British occupation launched on 12 December 1956. Instructions issued to volunteers of the resistance movement has ordered the termination of the campaign of resistance to British occupation launched on 12 December 1956. Instructions issued to volunteers of the active service units and local units in the occupied area have now been carried out. All arms and other material have been dumped and all full-time active service volunteers have been withdrawn. Foremost among the factors motivating this course of action has been the attitude of the general public's minds

Have been deliberately distracted from the supreme issue facing the Irish people the unity in freedom of Ireland The Irish resistance movement renews its pledge of eternal hostility to the British forces of occupation in Ireland It calls on the Irish people for increased support and looks forward with confidence in cooperation with other branches of the Republican movement To a period of consolidation expansion and preparation for the final and victorious face of the struggle for the full freedom of Ireland. What an interesting way to call off the fighting. That was a very violent way to call off fighting. That's hilarious to me. Look, we've done fighting for Ireland because not enough of you fuck us already to fight for us as well. So it's time for peace.

But hopefully you'll come to your senses and we can get back to fighting very soon. We can get back to killing as soon as possible. We would love nothing more than to mow down every British Protestant man, woman and child. It was a very least, send them to hell or back to England. But today is the time for peace. Hopefully tomorrow will be the time for fighting again. We're really hopeful that we'll be fighting again soon. Or even later today we could fight as well if that suits you.

We're ready to fight the drop of hat. Yeah, so they're very, very still ready to fight. And then in 1969, the violence does pick up again. And it was all because of an early 20th century comic book, Pudian Juju. And Pudian Juju started the NRA part back up. A young IRA member, shameless, so Donald McFlandigan on McRiley, Donald McDonald picked up Poodie and Juju issue 82 fools.

Goed, excuse me, fools. Gold and Poodie town in that issue. Poodie, Barles, Juju's life savings, it buys 100 acres of barren land in Oklahoma, specifically because it looks like he had seen a rainbow rainbow in there. See, Poodie had become convinced there must be a leprechaun hiding some gold in the dust bowl, brushy planes outside of Tulsa. He started mining and also partition the land in the little mining camps to encourage other hopeful prospectors to move to a place.

He petitioned the US Postal Service to call Poodie Town. And this did not set well with Juju. First off, Poodie had just wiped out Juju savings, which was mostly built out of inheritance. He'd recently received from his antting tanks passing from a tragic accidental overdose of high fructose corn syrup the year prior. When she'd found seven boxes of twinkies that were set to expire the very next day and ate them all in one sitting because you ain't done supposed to let the food go twice now here.

And you feel that? That's a direct quote. And Juju was going to use that money to have a giant twinkie sculpture made out of Aunt TingTang's remains, built to commemorate her untimely death. And Juju was pissed. And then Pudy wrote some salt and Juju's wound by not at least having the decency to call his money camp Juju town or at least TingTang town. It was his aunt's money for God's sake and juju screamed to Poodie, put your lunch box surely.

And then Poodie knew he gone too far. And he said, sorry, juju, I'd done for sure. Thought we'd both be more rich and the money wouldn't be missed. And juju said, two little, two little Poodie. And then they'll have to really hard for no reason for a very long time. Because the author of this issue had a firm deadline couldn't think of a better way to end the story

due to being distracted by working on a new book for a religion he'd recently invented to recover from from financial ruin. Yes, that author's name was Elrond Hubbard. An old shameless O'Donnell McFlandigan O'Donnell McFlandigan O'Donnell McDonnell read all that and assumed that the pot of gold represented Irish independence and Pudi represented the IRA and Judeo represented the Anglican british oppression and elrond hubbard represent british government and the crown and elrond wanted him to think a unified ira state comprising the whole island was fools gold in a possible dream and he wasn't about to let the brits confuse him like they did putt putty and he

was going to bomb the fuck out of them and that is how he would spend ant-ting-tang's money on arms, the ant. What's he doing? If you're confused by the last few minutes, you should be. If you're a first-time listener, well sometimes odd characters make time suck cameos, and by some times, I mean a lot of times. Hashtag keeps suck weird. Anywho. Enough of that nonsense for now.

In 1969 the violence did pick up again and it would last for 28 straight years. And what would become known as the troubles. A civil rights movement had formed in Belfast in January 1967 drawing inspiration from the campaign for equal rights in the United States led by civil rights leader dr. Martin Luther King subject of time suck episode 42 since the creation of northern Ireland in 1921 the Ulster Unionist party UUP had held power in northern Ireland now the UUP drew its support from the predominantly Protestant Unionist loyalist community and many of the policies It enacted marginalized and discriminated against

the Catholic nationalist minority. In the 1960s, the Catholic working class in dairy lived under pretty dreadful conditions. Halgina's terrible. They tended to be very heavily unemployed. For the most part, they lived in an area which has now become known as the bog side. The people of the bog side actually represented the majority of the population in the city of London, dairy, aka dairy, and yet they were politically impotent. They were seen as second-class citizens. They had no control over

their own city because of the gerrymandering in the local government system, and that's what led to the becoming foot soldiers for the civil rights movement. And they started protesting in the streets, peaceful protests, organizing marches. But then riots began breaking out, riding, continuing to be commonplace, and dairy and bellfast throughout the summer of 1969, a period which also saw the first deaths of this new conflict on, well, new but also very old. On August 12, 1969, a protest sparking, spark riding in the Catholic Boxide area and two days of serious violence broke out across Northern Ireland with the police unable to cope with the scope and scale of the disturbances,

Northern Ireland's government at Stormont requested that the British Army be sent in to restore order. Initially envisioned as a brief intervention, Operation Banner was to become the longest continuous campaign in the history of the British Army, only coming to an end in July 2007. By the end of 1969, various no-go areas have been established. Peace walls are being built in Belfast and dairy, separating Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods, just these huge walls, separate neighborhoods, paramilitary

groups on both sides begin to re-emerge, the IRA being the biggest. In theory, the British troops were sent to dairy in Belfast to maintain order and to protect the Catholic minority in theory. However, the army soon came to be seen as a tool of the Protestant majority by the minority Catholic community. This is reinforced by events such as Bloody Sunday in 1972 when British forces opened fire on Catholic civil rights demonstrators, Marching and Dairy, killing 500 genders and more importantly, 13 actual people. This is the bloody Sunday, uh, Bono or the song about. And of course, I made this

shit up about 500 gingers. Gotta hope you know that. Okay. January 30th, 1972, let's talk about bloody Sunday in the bogside area of dairy, Northern Ireland, British soldiers shot 28 unarmed civilians during a peaceful protest march. 14 people die, right? I said 13 earlier, I was 14. 13 die outright right there immediately, but another guy actually dies four months later and his injuries, or his deaths was attributed to injuries from bloody Sunday. Many of the victims were shot while fleeing from the soldiers and some were shot while trying to help the wounded. Other protesters were injured by rubber bullets or batons

and two were run down by army vehicles. Two investigations were held by the British government about the shootings. The wigerie tribunal held in the immediate aftermath of the incident largely cleared the soldiers and British authorities of blame. Described the soldiers shooting as a border non-reclist but accepted their claims that they shot at gunmen

and bomb throwers. The report was widely criticized as a whitewash and in sixteen years later the civil inquiry was established in nineteen ninety eight to re-investigate the incident and following a twelve year inquiry uh... civil report was made public in two thousand ten concluded that the killings were both unjustified and unjustifiable uh... it found that all of those shot were unarmed that none were posed a serious threat, that

no bombs were thrown, and that soldiers, quote, no one Lee put forward false accounts to justify their firing. On the publication of the report, British Prime Minister David Cameron made a formal apology on behalf of the United Kingdom. Bloody Sunday increased Catholic and Irish nationalist hostility towards the British Army and exacerbated the conflict, support for the IRA rose, and there was a surge of recruitment into the organization, especially locally. The troubles are generally agreed to have finished with the Belfast,

or good Friday agreement of April 10, 1998, between 1969 and 1998 estimated that well over 3,000 people are killed by paramilitary groups on both sides of the conflict. Some of the most significant tax attacks of the troubles include the Birmingham bombings of November 21, 1974. That's when bombs went off and two central Birmingham pubs killing 21 people, injuring 121 others. In 1972, the official IRA declares a ceasefire that has lasted ever since, technically, a splinter IRA group the

Irish national liberation army has kept the violence right on going uninterrupted. On August 27, 1979, the IRA killed 79 year old Lord Montbatten, a British naval officer who was one of church hills, favorite naval commanders in World War II, and the second cousin once removed the Queen Elizabeth. He was killed while on vacation, dude survived two world wars on the sea and then the IRA blew up his fucking boat. Three other people were killed with him, Lady Braeborn, the elderly mother of Montbatten Sun and Law, two teenagers, a grandson of Mountbotten and a local Bowman. The same day, 18 British soldiers, mostly members of the parachute regiment are killed by two

remote controlled bombs in the Warren Point ambush at Warren point county down. And the explosive weren't the only tactic the IRA used to try and force change 10 IRA members starved themselves to death in a hunger strikes in 1991 in a bill fast prison. Man, I've never understood a hunger strike. I, in 1987 IRA prisoners in North and in North Irish prison launched a hunger strike as a protest against a revocation by the UK government of a prisoner of war like special category status for paramilitary prisoners in Northern Ireland. They just wanted to be seen as soldiers, they wanted to be seen as soldiers fighting a

legitimate fight not as terrorists. Well the strike is called off the 40 deaths when the government seems to offer to concede to their demands. However, the government then renegs on the details of the agreement. So the following year IRA prisoners call another hunger strike. And this time, instead of many prisoners striking at the same time, the hunger striker start fasting one after the other, after the other, after the other in order to maximize publicity over the fate of each person. And then 10 IRA prisoners die in a row. Holy shit. Talk about dedication to a cause.

I am not dedicated to any cause enough to starve myself. I cannot imagine, I mean, I just, you know, I'd love to say I'm more noble than that or more heroic. Uh, I can't, I definitely can't imagine being the 10th guy to do that, right? You've watched nine comrades in the struggle starve to death. And now it's your turn, turn. Man, and you know they're offering you food, right? They don't want you to starve, that they're trying to get you to eat. You think they'd be start off and you're some good food. Man, once they started doing that to me, I'm fucking done.

Well, it's gotta be such a rough way to go, man. It's such a slow way. I still understand how instinct doesn't kick in on day six or seven at most. You know, and you still don't eat food being brought to you. Ah, there's no way I could have that willpower. I wouldn't make it two days, you know? It may be I try to be tough, you know, you can take your oatmeal You can shove it up your ass. I'm not cabing in on my principles not not damn comments. No way. No how

No, oh, hmm, you can take you can take that butter biscuit. You can go fuck yourself buddy. This guy doesn't quit Ah shit, is that sausage gravy? Is that sausage gravy with a lot of pepper on those biscuits? Oh man, is that sea salt? Oh god, the apple cider? Son of a bitch! You know what, nice try. Nice try, but it's not gonna happen.

Oh man, two over medium eggs? Home fries? Let's fresh catch them. Fuck! Whatever, whatever, you know what, whatever. I'm strong, I'm a little dizzy, I'm strong, but I'm strong. A hot turkey sandwich with real mashed potatoes, freshly carved turkey gravy made from drippings,

cranberry jelly, and a whiskey ginger, and a dutch apple pie, and a fucking root beer float, and devil's food cake made from scratch with a good dive of dark chocolate. All right, enough, I'm so hungry, I don't remember why I went on a strike in the first place just get it over here get over here pass it over uh... give me ten minutes to eat and i'll just say whatever you want me to say uh... and then after the hunger strike more bombings uh... there's a theme of this episode is

bombings on april 10th 1998 the good friday agreement uh... is reached that ends the troubles the agreement you know reached uh... was that northern island was part of the uk and would remain so until the majority of the people uh... of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland wished otherwise. Should that happen, then the British and Irish governments are under a binding obligation to implement that choice. Also irrespective of Northern Ireland's constitutional status within the United Kingdom or part of the United Ireland, the right of the people of Northern Ireland to identify themselves and be accepted as Irish or British or both is recognized. So they can hold British or Irish citizenship or both.

And the IRA agrees to end their fight. I gotta say that does seem like a pretty good deal. Right. I mean, you understand what I'm saying? The citizens living in Northern Ireland, who wish to remain part of the UK, get to do so. So they win. But if the Irish Catholic pro-unified kind of Ireland minority should ever become the majority. They can vote to unify with Ireland if the rest of Ireland wants them to be a part of them still, right? You know, so either way, if you're an Irish citizen, you know, you get to live where you want on the island, you know, north or the rest and you get more recognition. And it's been peace ever since, right?

No. Not even six months later, a car bomb goes off and Oma, a little city of about 20,000 in Northern Ireland, carried out by a group calling themselves the real Irish Republican army, a provisional Irish Republican army splinter group who opposed the IRA ceasefire in the Good Friday agreement. And that bombing kills 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, fuck, and injures some 220 others. More casualties in this attack after the ceasefire than an anyone single attack during the

troubles. And the violence continues to this day. Is it going to end ever? Let's hop out of this timeline and really talk about that. Good job, soldier. You made it back. Barely. Okay, a lot of information today, and there's so much more, some form of the IRA has been

active for almost a hundred years now, and the fight for the entire island to be under one rule, a rule free from British influence has never completely gone away. Last of this day, and we'll look into the current status of the IRA and examine if it still has aspects of being a revolutionary group, or at this point, it's just a bunch of terrorists. I mean, the majority of the population doesn't want a revolution. How do you justify continuing to fight for one? But before we dig into that, let's check in with the idiots of the internet.

The idiots of the internet. The idiots of the internet. The idiots of the internet. Okay, before we get into idiot, idiotic, I can't comment, say, I think it's worth sharing some comments that are not necessarily idiotic under a video called the Republic's dissident youth, Ireland's young warriors uploaded by my favorite YouTube channel, Vice.

It's a video from 2015 about a group of militant teens who operate under an IRA Splinter group. Right, there's so many IRA Splinter groups. Kids who are willing to die to get British influence out of Northern Ireland. And here's what some people have to say, user Matt Hopkins posts inspirational, intelligent and brave young men and women. I'm a Brit, but these people have more morality, strength of character and courage than any Brit kid. Iris, people need to understand that Ireland will never be free until the entire 32 counties

are united as one and the two Brit puppet parties, which have dominated Irish politics for the last few decades, are rejected wholesale at the ballot box. Wake up Irish people, reject your puppet masters. So interesting posts, a British sympathizer to the IRA costs. Another sympathizer is user king of all goyms who posts good lads, keep up the honorable fight, respect and support from Texas. Then, we get to use your Thor 117, who is not a sympathizer, and who posts. These fools are not warriors in any sense of the word, and they disgrace this country with their carry on. They have no idea about what they are fighting for.

Shinfane, the IRA, are all one and the same. All scum, the bomb double in the city, killed innocent civilians, robbed banks, credit unions, post offices, post offices, every week or every other week during the troubles. As it stands today, more ons like these are no better than neo-Nazis. They claim to be Republicans and that they have no issue with all the murder, theft

and other criminal activities that their own worthless little groups act out against the people of this nation. The basic truth is the rich, steaming buffet of bullshit that these kids have been served to get them into line with this mindset has no relevance. The existence of these fools only causes

more problems than it solves. And there are a lot of posts like that one. A lot of posts comparing the IRA to ISIS and other terrorist groups. And also a lot of more support posts like user andabolic horse who posts brilliant, I'm from the UK, get the English out of Ireland. So the Irish fight for independence, still a hot button, still a hot button right now, important issue across the pond of videos about

the IRA regularly get millions of views. So many people on each side of the debate, a lot of respect for the use in the comments section, plus a lot of people basically saying enough already, you guys are fucking terrorists. And then there's the comments of users like Andy Aguilar, who thinks he saw the whole situation. I love that. I love that when there's been a struggle for like decades, if not centuries, and then some dumb shit on YouTube,

thinks they can just throw out a sentence and just fucking wrap it all up. And he just says, why don't they move to Ireland from Northern Ireland? Question mark. God, good job, Andy. You did it. You figured out what no one else could

for the past 100 years. Way to oversimplify an incredibly complex issue. You fucking dumb bastard. Now, when I just walk around Northern Ireland with a megaphone for the next few weeks, just clear everything up for everybody. Just, you know, just go attention Irish, who want to join up with the rest of Ireland.

I have figured out what you need to do. You don't have to keep fighting. You don't have to wait. Just uproot your lives and move. No big whoops. There's room for you to live in Ireland. There's lots of forms in land. Please just move south. No biggie. An independent Ireland already exists. Just head south and find it. You're welcome. Love Captain Oblivious. Just Captain Obvious idiots like this. You know, someone doesn't like everything about the country. Why don't I just fucking move to a different country?

This is perfect for them. I love how that's an option in people's heads. You know, like, you know, you don't like your country. Well, just fucking move. You know, if there's one thing this world is full of, it's amazing opportunities waiting in other countries. You don't like working at 7-11 in Tennessee? At no big whoop.

Just go become a doctor in Montreal. They have a shortage of doctors. They don't even need degrees. They're waiting for you and your whole family and just community to head on over. Yeah, you don't like, you know, fucking mop and floors. That's okay.

There's a bunch of stockbrokers jobs in Bolivia right now, just for the taking. Just get over there. Just move your whole entire community over there. User Richard Gonzalez really supports the IRA cause. Even offers his help posting as a Mexican. I pay my respect to you, lads. And I'd be happy.

Help. I'm gone. Visit you lads soon. My support from East Los Angeles, California, hashtag, mechs, mechs, I wish alliance. I'm going to go out on the limb and say that old Dick and Zalas is never going to make it to bele fast. And how has been a Mexican Revival into this fight?

What battle for independence is Mexico fighting? Mexico has been free for almost 200 years. Or are you trying to give California back to Mexico? Mexico only had it, California, for like 25 years, and that was over 150 years ago. And you edited this message. How did you edit it and still write, I'd be be happy to help I'm gone, visit you lads. User Loannis, uh, Casas Boccas makes, uh, quite the pivot with his comments saying, the IRA are freedom warriors.

My mother's maiden name was Casey alert, vigorous. I sinny early Britannic tribe, land Kingslin Norfolk, Budukas tribe. Huh, okay. So the IRA are freedom warriors. Your first sentence while stating the obvious definitely makes sense. But then you try to connect your mother's made name to vigilance because the word case is similar to Casey

and Casey is Galic for alert. And that makes you part of their cause. And then you bring up Icini land, Icini, being a tribe of Celts, living in Britain, way back in the Roman era, a couple thousand years ago, near present Norfolk, and their leader, Queen Budica, revolted against the Romans,

and when she lost the revolt, committed suicide rather than be subjugated to British rule. And you think your genealogy goes back to her even though there are no birth records from that entire civilization because it completely disappeared from the records by the time the Normans showed up. But you're really stretching shit thin to align yourself with the Irish independence movement. Why can't you say you support him? Why do you have to try so hard to be part of their movement? I feel your pain. I've never been to Ireland, but my last name is Cummins and Cummins, a Scottish, uh, it's a Scottish name. And I had ancestors in

Scotland a few hundred years ago. And if you trace it back far enough, some of my ancestors definitely probably took a trip or two to Ireland. And one of them married an Irish woman. And, uh, you know, there's that and my grandmother's maiden name is Johnson as in John, as in John O'Reilly, a guy who definitely seemed at least part Irish I'm headed to pub in Boston, but I got to say it seemed like a pretty cool dude and I've also had sex with a few gingers And I wasn't even grossed out by it. So you know, so you know what fight to good fight. I'm right here with you I'm in the fucking trenches right right here same team same team So you know, there's that and I'm gonna end on end on a little reason now, instead of more idiocy.

A comment that leads to my conclusion about this episode. YouTuber Jonathan Hersh reposts, the northerners want to remain in the UK. So why not let them? Land and government belong to its inhabitants and citizens not abstract ideals like Ireland. Very interesting and important thought, not just idiocy today in the idiots of the internet. It is the intro that gets back. All right, so first,

well, these conclusions, where is the IRA at right now? Well, here's a little excerpt from an article in the Guardian UK from just two weeks ago, that a dissident Irish Republican terror group that severely remained a Catholic police officer in Northern Ireland and has been responsible for shooting dozens of young men and so-called punishment attacks has declared a ceasefire. The mainly bell fast-based real IRA splinter group organization said the environment is not right for armed conflict. Two other hard-line Republican factions, a new IRA, and they can continuity IRA, continue to back the use of armed struggle, and their opposition to the peace process in Ireland.

So yeah, I'd say the fight wages on still. Another big question to me is, is it worth it? You know, is the IRA and its various forms, you know, a terrorist group or a bunch of freedom fighters? Well, I guess yes to both actually. I mean, I think way back in the early 20th century, I'd say they leaned far more towards freedom fighters than terrorists.

They were, you know, in an oppressed group of people fighting for freedom and independence. Now, I gotta say, they lean a lot to me more towards terrorist group, you know, because they're not fighting for freedom of a culture anymore, you know. I think there's, it's like they're just fighting just to fight. I don't know, to pick it back on Jonathan Hertz,

you know, what does it really mean to be Irish? Think about the timeline we just marched through. You know, which Ireland are the IRA fighting for? Are they fighting for the pre-British plantation Ireland? You know, are you really fighting for a culture from the early 16th century? Do you really feel that connected to that? Or are you really fighting for a culture from the early 16th century? Do you really feel that connected to that? Or are you fighting for an earlier culture?

Are you fighting for pre-12th century Ireland? Are you fighting for Ireland before the Normans invaded? So, no, are you fighting for the Ireland that existed from 300 BCE to the 12th century CE? Is that it? You know, but what about the 8th century through the 11th century CE? When the Vikings were mixed into Ireland, are you fighting for the Vikings? Are you fighting for that? I mean, look, I get the logic. The British Protestants marginalized the Irish Catholics following Henry the

AIDS split with the Pope and the resentment lingers and discrimination has continued. But Irish Catholic is now the culture of minority in Northern Ireland. If somehow the IRA did convince the UK to give Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland and have one unified emerald aisle, it only makes sense that decision would kick off even more war. Right? That the Northern, you know, Irish, the Anglican, you know, equivalent, you know, they'd have their all militia. They'd be fighting now, you know, for Northern Ireland to go back to the way it was for them and for their parents and grandparents, go back to the UK. So again, what the fuck are you really fighting for? It reminds me of various battles in the Middle East and in the South and

Eastern Europe, you know, terrorist groups fighting for? It reminds me of various battles in the Middle East and in the South and Eastern Europe. You know, terrorist groups fighting for the land that their ancestors laid, can't claim to hundreds of years before the occupiers came in and took it. But is it still really your land? I mean, or did you lose it? You lost the fucking war. You know, except a new normal and move on at some point.

If you're not currently being oppressed, stop living in the past and killing innocent people over some vague notion you have over independence. You know, the living Protestants of Northern Ireland aren't the oppressors. There are people who didn't ask to be born in Northern Ireland any more than Catholic minorities did. You know, they're just there.

You know, they're just born there and they're just living their lives. And whether you like it or not, it's now their land just as much as it was, you know, is your land. Fight for equality, you know? Not just another setup for another civil war. You know, fight for, you know, political equality

So everybody minority group and majority group all get treated equally, but don't but for a takeover It just seems fucking silly at this point to me looking at it from an outside perspective, you know It's a it's a weird mindset man to want things to go back to the way they were long before you even born You know, it's our land. No, it's not actually used to be Sometimes it feels like, you know, fighting's our land. No, it's not actually used to be. Sometimes it feels like, you know, fighting that situation isn't brave or noble. You know, it makes about as much sense to me as like if I were to go back into Spokane to a home, I own in Spokane and then I lost. And what I consider unfair circumstances in the 2008 housing market crisis,

you know, I mean, what if I just shut up there tomorrow and, you know, just knocked on the door, people answered, I'm like, all right, man, get the fuck out. I used to live here. And I want things to go back to the way they were when I owned it. It wasn't fair how I lost it. So get the fuck out of this house. People who bought it fair and square. I don't know, that's just how I feel. It's just my opinion.

I don't live there. I don't really notice like, from an outside perspective, though, I gotta say, hard to feel that the armed cause of the IRA is still just. I thought I would come to a very different conclusion. I've always identified more with the Irish in the British, because supposedly I have a lot of Irish blood in me and I've always romanticized the Gaelic Irish culture. But maybe it's time to focus on improving life for all of people who live in Ireland and, you know, people who feel

marginalized through political channels and peaceful protests. Maybe it's time to make peace with the divided islands, right? It is just geography and we are all just meat sex. Okay, time for some top five takeaways. But first, last week I did wonder if the IRA characters in the FX series, Sons of Anarchy, those gun traders were based on reality for those other people who watched the show. Do the IRA have a history of smuggling guns? Well, after a little research, yes,

but the TV shows seem to have it backwards. In the Sons of Anarchy, the motorcycle gang buys guns from IRA members. Doubtful much or any of that has went on. There are numerous cases though cases investigated by the FBI and other organizations of the IRA smuggling guns from the U.S. back to Ireland. That appears to be very, very valid and true.

Future times like topic, Widy Bulger, the Irish mob boss, Johnny Depp played in black mass. He did claim to smuggle guns to the IRA, built it, supporting the cause of Irish independence, legitimized his criminality a little bit. The IRA dealt in a lot of guns, but doubtful they sold them to California biker clubs. Okay. Now time for top five takeaways. Time suck. Top five takeaways.

Number one, the culture not the original inhabitants of Ireland and Galik is not thought to be the original language. Ireland is an island that was settled in waves of different cultures going back several thousand years as opposed to islands like the Samoan islands, settled by one culture and inhabited by only one culture for thousands of years before Europeans found them just a few hundred years ago. So what does it really mean to be Irish? Number two, the first Irish Republican army fought the British in the 1919 through 1921 war of independence, and the group has been led by many men and fought under a variety of different

names ever since. The only thing that has unified the various IRA groups over the years is an entire island of Ireland unified under Irish Catholic rule. Is that cause number three? The IRA historically have been really, really into blown shit up. I now have a totally different appreciation for the Irish car bomb and alcoholic beverage composed of a half shot of Bailey's, a la Cour, half shot of James whiskey dropped into a pint of Guinness. Thousands of people have died from bombs. Most of them civilian since the IRA's inception. No exact count has ever been compiled,

but 3,637 deaths are attributed to the IRA during the period of the troubles, which accounts for only about a third of their total history. Number four, over 1 million genders were killed in IRA bombings in just 1986 alone, the least active year for the IRA and no one cares. And number five, new info, two-parter, part one. Number four of this list was complete horse shit. And part two, you two isn't the only famous Irish band to sing about the IRA. The cranberry song, zombie, is about an IRA attack.

It was inspired by the IRA bombing in Warrington, Cheshire, England on March 20th, 1993. Two children, Jonathan Ball and Tim Perry were killed. Lead singer and songwriter Dolores O'Reardon claimed that Zombie speaks about the Irish fight for independence that seems to last forever. The lyrics even say it's the same old theme since 1916, right? I love that song I love that cranberries album no need to argue that and everybody else is doing it so why

can't we college staples of mine fantastic 90s rock I'd sing along to the whole song of the zombie right it's the same old theme since 1916 in your head in your head that's still fighting With the tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their guns in your head in your head They are dying and then she goes to that fucking yodeling shit Right until today I thought you were talking about World War One. Nope the IRA Uh, who knew who knew I was singing about the IRA all those years Rest in peace to loris by the way, uh, she died on January 15th in a London hotel room. Ahtopsie results will not be complete until April. We lost. Fuck man. Another good singer. Another good vocalist.

Another good songwriter. Been a terrible last couple of years. We've had as far as that. Hopefully we can add rest in peace to the IRA soon. And that's enough. The war of independence is over. Time, suck, tough, five take away. The IRA sucked. Now, no way more about Irish history now. Hopefully do some more Irish sucks going forward until I can get that accent down. Now come on, see me, dammit. Come have a great time.

Charlotte, Atlanta, Birmingham, Huntsfield, Nashville, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, all coming up in April, everything but San Francisco in one big week. There's night after night, different city, most of the time, different state show after show. More info coming up at Dancoma.tv. Check out those dates, matches and tickets. The more stand up tickets, I can sell them more markets. I can return to later with some little live time stock tours. The Patreon account is live for those of you who want to sign up to become space lizards. Thanks to all of those you who have already done so man over over 1200.

It's been amazing. And again, five bucks a month to be a space lizard access space lizard features on the app for some. I'll get into that for a second and the website for everyone. A vote on topics send invoice messages to the secret suck. Listen to the secret suck on Thursdays. Get a new stand up album. Feel the heat for signing up the age of the space lizard. It is here.

Password for 20% and merch discount access to the space lizard merch is on Patreon on some of the posts. You can check out patreon.com slash time stock podcast for that secret info and explanations of how to use everything is on the Patreon site. And as soon as time allows in mid-fabuary, some video tutorials to make using it all as easy as possible will be done. And like I said, at the beginning of this episode, I have, if you want to listen to the start of this episode, laid out instructions on how to get, for you Android users, how to get the secret suck

installed in your other podcast apps. So you can have an easy listening experience, and then you can go to the website, timescookpodcast.com for the voting, topic voting, and for the voice message features, until Google Play their store finally releases the update. It has been maddening, but just know that BiddleLixer is literally messaging them through the, for the App Store portal, which is the only way

they allow themselves to be contacted every single day, and we are working every single day. And we are working every single day on trying to give you as many other options until that solved. Thanks to social media manager, Sydney Shives, events coordinator, and amazing patron saint of the at secret space, lizard social media accounts, harmony, velocamp, show notes, editor, extraordinary, Jesse Doberner, and the entire time suck team. Thanks for all the reviews. thanks for spreading the suck.

Every review helps every time, and you guys write the most wonderful things, and I read every review, helps so much. This Friday on TimeSuck, we're going to have a bonus topic, and it's going to be whatever one of the most recent vote on Instagram at TimeSuck Pocket, follow the suck to know it advance what the bonus topics are going to be and to be able to vote on them. Winter of the vote becomes that topic every time. And now time for some time, sucker updates. First update today, goofy one about the topic voting, sent in by Carl LaFong with all

the app and website troubleshooting. And I've been dealing with lately. It was a nice little breath of fresh air. A nice little fantastic reminder that many of you are having a great time with the app functions. Carl wrote in saying, dear spearfaced, beard puke-licken,

soft cock shaming Lord of the Suck. Being a space lizard has given me the ability to continually vote up haul notes as a time-sack option. I had no idea how much I wanted to know the true story behind Manator until I sought on the list. Keep up the great work and remember that pronunciation is a tool of the lizard illuminati

to keep the mushed mouthed proletariat down. Keep on sucking, Carl and Topanga. Oh man, well thank you Carl. I love the name Topanga by the way. Uh, it's random, but thank you. And yes, so many topics on the list. As of Tuesday, February 8th, when I recorded this episode, Jack the Ripper and Nordic Gods, man, neck and neck

to become the March 5th Monday time subtopic. Hollinotes only a few hundred votes behind with 12 votes. 12 votes total, not 12 votes behind. And thank you for the kind words regarding my mush mouth. And now a little doc holiday update. I thought was cool from Matthew Isaacson. Dearest Reverend Dr. Lord, whom suckest thy most, I love the doc holiday episode of the suck. Tombstone is possible

by favorite movie of all time. So I was happy to hear that it was somewhat historically accurate. Hell yes. The idiots of the internet portion really got my hackles up and hearing some dip shit talk trash about the confrontation between Dawkins Ringo had me yelling at the radio as I was driving home. User Don Stone should be hung by his thomas from a tree so that Luciferina can repeatedly kick him in Helios worthless Apple bag. While Bojangles impregnates him,

yes, Bojangles seat is so powerful that he can impregnate a man. Praise Bojangles with disciples of Nimrod. Hail Nimrod and keep on sucking because you serve our daisy indeed. And thanks for making me spit soda out of my mouth and nose with your mispronunciation of papyrus. Love your comedy and love the suck. Oh, man, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Matthew. And yeah, papyrus, papyrus, starting to feel normal now. I feel your doc holiday rage. I feel it, doc holiday. He would have modelled Donnie dipshit down. Okay, and now another, another doc holiday update from Tyrell Cruz saying, what's up, master succington? I've been listening to your comedy for a long time and been religiously listening to your podcast.

It's fucking awesome. Got my girlfriend listened to it as well. We love it. Quick update, at least I think. Doc holiday's famous quote of, I'm your Huckleberry may not be correct. He may have said, I'm your Huckleberry. This is interesting. Huckle are the handles on the side of coffins used by the pole bear. So docs basically saying, I'll carry you to your grave. Now I haven't researched this from what Tyrell said, but I just I threw this in right before recording,

just because that is fucking awesome, if that makes it even cooler. And then Tyrell says, I do have to say they'll huckleberry sounds cooler than the latter, and I've confirmed this is, and I haven't confirmed this is true, but it makes sense. You're doing a badass job, keep up with the good work.

Thank you, Tyrell Cruz. And he says, P.S., I don't think you've done any musicians yet, so I suggest Frank Zappa, the crazy jazz oddball of the 60s and 70s. Listen to the thing Listen to fish. It's crazy and hilarious. Well Tyrell, I did do Kurt Cobain. That was a while back and that was my only one and Yes, man, more musicians in the future. I have all always been fast and about Frank Sapa because he does seem crazy shit And I appreciate you just you know again, it's been a kind of a crazy week with all the tech stuff. I appreciate the kind words and And Huckle Bearer. I hope you're right on that. I hope that is true because that to me that actually does make it even cooler Like Huckle Bearer is fun and random, but if you're saying like I'll carry you to your grave. Oh, that's some badass shit

Okay Now a more serious email from Christina Carmato or sorry Camardo Regarding the Cobain episode. I was just mentioning she says hi Dan I've written it in the past about topics suggestions But never had much more to say until I finally listened to the Kurt Cobain episode I'm a counselor at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and while I deeply appreciate you advocating the line and urging listeners to call I have an issue with you calling Cobain selfish. Calling someone who commits suicide selfish or cowardly, I think is a drastically unfair criticism.

People who have severe mental health issues are in a constant and painful battle every single day of their life. It wears them down emotionally, mentally, and physically, and leaves to thinking that others will consider irrational, or leads them to thinking about actions that others will consider irrational or logical. But in these people's minds, suicide can be their only way out.

You called Kurt Selvich because he was leading behind a family and fans. While I understand Colin Selvich was leaving a family and responsibilities behind, I think it's selfish for people to expect him to continue living a painful life every single day just to deliver them more music since he was so musically gifted. So he's supposed to bear the weight of his daily debilitating pain for your appeasement? Who's the selfless person then? I, of course, do not advocate suicide, but find it very close-minded when people call it suicide victims selfish.

While it's a touch analogy, would you consider someone who dies from cancer selfish? Mental health issues like cancer are a disease. It's not feeling sad. It's a biological makeup of the mind that makes it work differently. Just like a cancer victim whose biology is making them physically sick, it's an illness of the body versus an illness of the mind, and I find that frequently illnesses of the mind are judged much more harshly because it cannot be seen or fully understood. A suicide victim was at a place in their life where death was the only way out. And like cancer, cancer victim who has exhausted all medical possibilities that failed, death

is inevitable for both people. I just want people including you to have more awareness of the seriousness that mental health issues can have on a person. You stated that after your wife left, you were having suicidal thoughts. Now imagine that pain and having it every single day for years. Sometimes a person's whole life. And to make it worse, you can point out the origin of your pain. For people with depression, there is no origin. Because of the makeup of your brain, you're just depressed. Like Kurt, you could have beloved fans, great career, wealth, fame,

and family, but yet there is always something constantly there in your head tearing you down. Anyway, sorry for the rant. The issue is just very close to my heart. And I wish to spread more mental health awareness to our society. So everyone has more understanding. Would love to hear your thoughts if you have time. Thanks, Christina. PSO fucking pump for becoming a space lizard. Well, Christina, I hope you are a space lizard. And I hope you're enjoying it already. And you know what? I appreciate that message because you really did make me think and really kind of made me change the way I do feel about suicide. You know, I think I even talked about in that episode where, you know, it is hard to

see what's going on people's heads. You know, mental illness isn't treated with the same respect as physical illness. And I didn't even realize that I was perpetuating that by kind of shaming the people, I guess, in a sense, or people that have committed that act because yeah, I was just thinking of it like, like, as the way I would think about suicide where I can't imagine leaving my kids But I'm not Mentally ill in that way. I probably have some shit going on You guys have listened to enough episodes. No, they're not completely stable

But I don't have that. I don't know what it's like to feel just depressed all the time and to carry that weight all the time And like a chemical part of your brain way and so just to say that selfish is oversimplifying a very complex issue, and that's not fair to the families of the victim to basically say, like, oh yeah, well, he was just an asshole who abandoned you guys. You know, that's not fair to like the family of Chris Cornell.

That's not family, if fair to the family of the Lincoln Park, you know, Chester Bendington, I believe his name is, you know, Leitzinger. So, yeah, so thank you, Christian. I will, I will actually work on being more tolerance and more understanding of of that particular situation going forward. And again, I and I know you're not saying I think I always thought in my head I was like advocating it in a way or endorsing it if I didn't come down on it I don't want people to just lightly take their lives But you know if they've been through that much pain,

I also don't need to shame them post-mortem. So thanks for bringing some awareness, Christina. Last one, real quick, from Jessica Cassias, immigration updates. Now, she says, master reverend of all the mother suckers. I love this podcast and have been on the episodes over a few times. Oh, that's awesome.

I know it's in the past, or I know in the past, our brother's subject about you doing an episode of immigration, and I'm definitely well aware of how touchy the subject is, especially's awesome. I know it's in the past, or I know in the past, I brought up the subject about you doing an episode of immigration, and I'm definitely well aware of how touching the subject is, especially right now. But my husband and I have been going through the process to get his papers for the last two years. And recently, my children and I have been without him since he was recently temporarily denied, and now is stuck in Mexico until further notice.

I want to give you our side. I have no issues in talking about it for the main purpose of educating people that don't see the whole picture and only know what they see on the news. When you're up for the task, let me know. Hail Nimrod. Give a pat to both jangles for me and Dan Lucifina be gone. Sincerely, your shortest red-headed sister, time sucker, Jessica Cassias, PS. I hope to hear from you soon.

Well, Jessica, I did just mess you real quick. And yeah, I am gonna do an immigration episode. I will do it. I've only been putting it off because some issues are easier to kind of narrate than others, and that one is gonna be a motherfucker. It's very touchy, and I wanna do it justice, and I feel like it's very important.

And with all the secret stuff I've been dealing with, you know, the next few weeks, it's just I'm not gonna have the brain space. I think to tackle it properly, but I do want to do that episode, will do that episode. Yes, so I hope to hear back from you. We can figure out a time to talk. And I know there's some other listeners

who are experiencing on a personal level as well. And it is something I think that is important to kind of educate people about. Because if you don't have anybody, you know, dealing with your life personally, it can be very easy to say, well, just get the fuck out. Just fucking get them out. And that's a very simplistic way of thinking. And that's not what we do here on TimeSuck. And thank you, Jessica. Hail Nimrod to you. Sorry, you're dealing with that

bullshit. Thanks, time suckers. I need a net. We all did. All right, everybody. Well, thanks for listening again. know that we're working on smoothing out everything with a secret suck Don't blow anybody up this week. Please don't do that and goddamn it keep on sucking Yeah!