Getting it so unbelievably wrong for decades... and still going strong

According to a report in the Belfast Telegraph the Oirish-Americans of Boston who provided the guns and ammunition used in the slaughter of innocent Ulsterfolk seem to remain an ignorant bigoted old bunch; probably even more so than the people who actually live in Northern Ireland. I don't know if they buy the propaganda through laziness or sheer stupidity, but lets look at a few quotes from people the Tele says "never viewed unionists as the enemy."

Joe Dillon, who promoted "the cause" for decades in the US, seems to hark back through rose-tinted glasses for the days of slaughter and mayhem, of civilians being blown to pieces.

Maybe the relative peace and eventual turning of public opinion against murder leaves a bitter taste in Joe's mouth because deep down he knows he was in the wrong for so many years but doesn't want to face that uncomfortable truth? Much better to bandy about accusations of being sell outs and ramble on about the 'struggle for Irish freedom' (never mind the other uncomfortable fact that people of whatever religious persuasion in Northern Ireland are as free as anywhere else in the western world).

Follow up:

A man described as "a major player in supplying weaponry to the IRA for over a decade" voices opposition to decommissioning so the threat of violence can still be used to "keep loyalists under control" before regurgitating some standard Noraid/Sinn Fein rubbish.

"The fact that stuff would still be in a dump and was still available would tend to hold back certain elements - the Ku Klux Klan element - in the north. These people, loyalists, are basically cowards and any thought that there may be retaliation against them tended to keep them in control. They didn't even think too much of the police. The police certainly weren't doing it - the police were taking part in it."

Former IRA gun-runner "Matthew" on IRA decommissioning

I'm guessing he picked up the well rehearsed KKK reference and the crap about the police off a cheap pamphlet being handed out in an Oirish bar on Paddy's day. Looking at what he said, I can't help but be reminded of the opening lines of SLF's Each Dollar A Bullet.

He then goes on to say that 9/11 (bad, obviously) but the IRA's decades-long murder campaign (good, apparently) "are two totally different situations." OK Matthew, one was longer and more drawn-out, provoking fear and mistrust for decades and killing thousands. The other was a short, sharp shock involving the sudden slaughter of tens-of-thousands. The only differences are time and scale. They're equally reprehensible actions from people who were unable to further their cause through rational debate (even with America on their side) so resorted to violence to get their own way, like a child throwing its toys from the pram - in a tragically deadly way.

The worst of it is that I'd bet that aside from longing for the slaughter of thousands of innocent men and women, these folk probably lead fairly ordinary lives. Organisations that spread this sort of rubbish about Northern Ireland, and especially those that continue to do so, are dangerous, and their brainwashing is just as responsible for the murders as those sending the guns. The question is how to go about putting the record-straight, and how to get people to listen to what they don't want to hear?