@OffTheMap
@Trappedinthecastofawhodunnit
@FluffyCloudsOverhead
As I have already pointed out, I think the conflict is a mixed bag. In the case of Bloody Sunday, for example, I think it was born out of the Parachute Regiment having this tough ethos - they were the wrong type of unit to be using for that type of job. The British army put a lot of effort into gathering intelligence from the 1970s onwards, there was a General called Frank Kitson who worked on counter insurgency doctrine and realised counter insurgency is really difficult for conventional armies to fight as it often makes things worse, so you need an approach based on intelligence and infiltrating agents. So really I would say the army evolved over time so that the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) did more riot control, while the army gathered intelligence and used special forces more, while ordinary infantry did a lot of patrolling and manning road blocks. There’s a lot of secret stuff that’s not really known and accusations of collusion with loyalist paramilitaries but overall I think the army did a fairly decent job in difficult circumstances, unfortunately to the the extent it made them overconfident they could manage community relations in Iraq in 2003 (at least that’s what they said officially, whether anyone actually believed it probably not).
I think also the Republicans have very much “won the peace” and did very well out of prisoner release schemes as part of the Good Friday Agreement and have a large amount of international sympathy, especially from the post colonial lot, particularly on MN (👋🏼)- so they can impose their narrative in a way other parties can’t. And now we’ve got a whole generation too young to have lived through the troubles who listen to Kneecap and thinks it’s all just great craic. That's what I massively object to.
Also this is just a minor point. Two of my grandparents were born on the Island of Ireland (I'm still 100% English, spiritually speaking). So I have looked at it from many different angles, I still come to the same conclusion.
The British were far from blameless, and there were serious failures and things that still need properly accounting for. But I don't think that makes the IRA's campaign any more justified, nor does it mean the British Army's entire role should be reduced to the worst things it did. The history is complicated; the moral accounting shouldn't be selective.