Why the IRA should beg forgiveness of ‘boy soldiers’ it sent to die

Anger at state, not ideology, drew many young people into conflict

The blatant injustice of Bloody Sunday and other incidents involving the security forces hardened attitudes in the nationalist community

Malachi O'Doherty

Different parties have offered different explanations for the paramilitary campaigns we suffered, in particular the campaign of the Provisional IRA.

From the late 1970s through the whole of the 1980s, British Government policy held that the IRA was a criminal organisation which had to be constrained by rigorous policing and a judicial system adapted to the emergency it presented.