u/One-Marzipan-6641

Me and a fellow member were having a debate about his time as COS.

I didn't think it was impressive the other member who seemed genuine & a good Republican believed he did a good job.

I don't think it was impressive at all, but I did not fully blame him as I believe McGuinness & Adams were going over his head and making many decisions the COS should have made, it was when some awful botched operations went ahead, and McKenna who was a great Brigade O/C in Tyrone would have known better about letting operations like Enniskillen or Shankill fish shop go ahead. The member argued McKenna would not let Adams tell him what to do or be his puppet, but then if that is the case (I don't think it is) McKenna has to take the blame.

Initially I believed he was an Adams puppet, the more I looked however it seems like they had a similar relationship that Adams & Hughes had, it started very well but soured around the early 90's. The biggest disrespect was Adams giving James Gibney the go ahead to give the keynote speech at Borenstown. This part of the speech

"We know and accept that the British government's departure must be preceded by a sustained period of peace and will arise out of negotiations. We know and accept Ithat such negotiations will involve the different shades of Irish nationalism, and Irish unionism engaging the British government either together or separately to secure an all-embracing and durable peace process. We know and accept that this is not 1921 and that at this stage we don't represent a government in waiting. We're not standing in the airport lounge waiting to be flown to Chequers or Lancaster House; we have no illusions of grandeur. Idealists we are, fools we are not."

This really pissed off McKenna & other on the Army Council & Executive, who believed the IRA could make the British withdraw, and McKenna had a heated confrontation with Adams, as the speech should have been cleared with by the Army council, but Adams just bypassed it, and around this period McGuinnes & Adams just bypassed the Army council a number of times.

The other member also said the reason for the lack of IRA operations happening & recruits not joining was that war weariness had set in by the late 80's, but then how do you account for the fact in 1988 the IRA killed 23 British soldiers, the most they had killed since 1979, and the year after killed 25, that's more than they killed in 75, 76, 77, & 78, and the IRA was extremely active, carrying out at least one attack a day and sometimes as many as four or five in a day between 1989 - 1994, but there was an over reliance on rural units especially South Armagh & East Tyrone, despite Loughgall being a huge blow the brigade was still very, very active. If it wasn't for the South Armagh Sniper in 1993 no British soldiers would have been killed, which would have been the first time that happened since 1970, and in 1994 just 1 soldier was killed, of course by the South Armagh Brigade

An the IRA's over-reliance on killing RUC between 1983 to 1988 made Gaddafi complain to the IRA that they should be killing soldiers, and in 1992 Gaddafi publicly broke ties with the IRA, which lost them their biggest arms supplier.

This to me seems like a very poor job done by the COS, and from what I've read & heard he was not the one in control, whatever one thought of Sean McStofain or Seams Twomey they clearly were in control of everyone and had a certain presence about them that told you they were the leader.

What are some of people's less popular, not very well known labels, nothing like Pig Pen, Hard Trax, Tidy, Nukleuz, Tripoli, Aztec, Nile, etc?

Probably my one of my favs is called White Records, it's a sub-label of the Progressive House label Ouch! Records, it's a mid to late 90's label that produced harder Trance & Hard House mash-ups like one record called "Dizzy - I Can't Wait" uses the vocals from Li Kwan's "I Need a Man" over the arrangement of DJ Misjah & DJ Tim's "Access". Some other really good ones are" Bad Boys - Don't Do It" which is a harder mix" of "Chapter 9 - The Swindle (Cocaine)", "Misterman - My House" this is just a hands in the air banger, "Tix - Up Side Yer Head" sounds like a remix of Brain Bashers -Night Moves, and JB Project - The Blue Ep, these are all musts for anyone into mid to late 90s Hard House. https://www.discogs.com/label/29674-White-Records-2

A spin of the white records labels is the Muppet series, not a label (according to Discogs) just four records all very good records the best is "JB Project - Real Life" which samples Queen - This is The Real Life. https://www.discogs.com/label/1880687-Muppet-2

Another is Triebhafte records which is mostly stuff released under different Baby Doc aliases. "The Combat Force - Assault" which TDV played a lot in his last few mixes & "Emmy Black - Blitzkrieg Europe" (especially the Baby Doc) are thumping Hard House/Hard NRG tunes.

https://www.discogs.com/label/7854-Triebhafte

Nu Recordings - I'm not sure how rare this is because it had Billabong - No Good For Me on it, which got a lot of play especially from Rachel Auburn, TDV & Pete Wardman, it was a Hard House mix of Prodigy's No Good Start The Dance. but lots of other bangers like Tiki - Jump For Joy, Deulalli - Suck This, Bleep & Booster - Don't Stop/Cocaine, Bleep & Booster - Bassin Authority, Mad Matt - Wanna (Shag) & Billabong - NU Style, and Mambo - Do You Want Me (Remixes) are all pumping Hard House records.

https://www.discogs.com/label/7267-NU-recordings

Chris C's Mind Over Matter label. Not super rare or anything but a good few records on it that are super rare. Like ChrisC - White Wolf/Third Stroke, Chris C - Soul Of An Angel - which is a remix of Many More -Hand Of God, Sebanelli - Slither/Ruby Red, Many More - Dream On (Chris C Mix), and Ganesh - The Last Hurrah.

https://www.discogs.com/label/316191-MOM-Recordings

Suck Discs - This is such a label of it's time (1999 to 2001) there's plenty of bangers on it but I rarely see much people play them in HH mixes. Blow Brothers Love (Sister Suck Remix)/ Razor Babes - The World Is Listening is the 1st release and is pumping HH at its best theres also a white label version that just has the Blow Brothers side, the 2nd release is just as good as the first Blow Brothers - House (Sister Suck Mix) which is just a single side release but well worth it, there's loads of lesser known Champion Burns records on it, two great Madam Friction records on it - Sex Maniac/ Jump and I'm Addicted, also Bob Burns Jnr vs BK - Feel Like Dancing/ Yeah That's Right is another stomper.

https://www.discogs.com/label/10264-Suck-Discs

I have at least another 20 labels in my mind, this is just to get the thread started.

For instance, he make the argument

> He (some author) also contrasts the complexity of IRA devices with the comparatively basic ones manufactured by the UVF and claims that the latter organisation “never set out to acquire the same sophisticated knowledge”. This misses the point. The IRA were up against one of the world’s most sophisticated armies, which could rely on the support of state technology labs as well as its own engineers. Attacks on patrols and armoured vehicles led to the deployment of new tactics and various iterations of counter-IED and ECM equipment with codenames such as Joker, Sifter, and Chimp, to minimise the threat from devices initiated by command wire, radio signals, and infrared beams. The IRA in turn developed anti-handling devices, under-vehicle bombs, armour-piercing drogue grenades, and radio pulse initiators in a technological war of measure and countermeasure.

>The UVF by contrast merely had to deliver bombs to Catholic targets such as pubs, clubs and shops and get them to explode reliably. Their technology was sufficient for this purpose. There were no armoured vehicles to penetrate, no hardened sangars to defeat, and no foot patrols to ambush. Some have taken the simplicity of loyalist devices to indicate a comparative lack of skill or intelligence on the part of the bombers – the “thick Prod” theory."

I agree with this to a point. The UVF only needed very basic devices to complete their sectarian operations, whereas the IRA & INLA had to manufacture their claymore mines, culvert bombs attached to 100s of feet of detonating cord, grenade launchers, drogue bombs, mortar bombs, mercury titl switch bombs, radio controlled bombs etc to ambush British & RUC patrols, attack government buildings, city centres, and military buildings & infrastructure. The UVF & UDA just needed a beer keg full of explosives with 10 second black fuse.

What disagree with is the Loyalists ability to carry out simultaneous bombings, like the ones in Dublin in 1972, Pettigo, Clones & Belturbet in 1972, Charlemont in 1976, & Dublin & Monaghan in 1974. These were military precision attacks that had to go off at exactly the right time, not the same time, but about 30 - 45 seconds apart so a crowd running from one bomb would run into the other bombs that does take a high level of skill that I don't even think the IRA possessed, the IRA used the "come on bomb" tactic, a secondary bomb hidden near the first bomb to take first responders.

While I believe the UVF didn't need much help for their bombings in Belfast, after all it was the UVF in Belfast that began the first bombing campaign of the conflict when they bombed several places around Belfast in May 1969 & blamed them on the IRA to get rid of the PM at the time Terrance O'Neil, they also bombed several targets in the Free State between August & December 1969, although these were very simple bombs and a UPV member blew himself up trying to blow up a Donegal power station. Or for their bombings in the 1970s for attacks like the Rose & Crown, Conways, The Avenue, McGurks or the Stand Bar But we know for a fact their Mid-Ulster Brigade was full of RUC, RUC SPG, UDR & even one or two regular British Army members & possibly Nairac.

There were nights like the Charlemont attacks locals claimed "that the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) had been patrolling the village for a number of nights beforehand, but were absent the night of the attacks."

It seems soon ^ after this attack most of their top bomb makers around Tyrone, Armagh & south Anrtim got lifted, as from then on attacks on pubs, clubs & house were carried out with guns, sometimes with disastrous results for the UVF like the Ramble Inn attack were they wanted to massacre Catholics, but instead shot dead 5 Protestant civilians.