Monday, February 08, 2010

The Troubles of Northern Ireland

The Troubles (a title that reflects the culture's tendency towards understatement) extended from approximately 1966 to approximately 1998. But by the nature of the conflict, its difficult to set exact dates on either its beginning or its end.

The two most well-known atrocities that happened in Northern Ireland were Bloodey Sunday of 1972 and the Omagh Bomb of 1998.

In the time between those two incidents: Latin America's most benevolent democracy was hijacked by its own military; a revolution in Indo-China began with women and girls tossing flowers at their new leaders and ended with piles of human bones that stretched into the horizon; In Iran, a tyrant was overthrown and their new leader oppressed the women, persecuted the intellectuals, and led his people into a long victorless war; an explosion spread a radioactive cloud across the Berlin Wall and it burnt over Europe like a lamp; In China's Gate of Heavenly Peace, the students and workers clashed with the army in their nation's capital.

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