AHC: Prevent the rise of extremist parties in Ulster post 2000

[James G]

The Ulster Unionists and the SDLP signed the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and brought peace to Ulster. Twenty years later, both have become near extinct. Now we have the DUP and Sinn Fein.
How can the latter two extremists be stopped?

[stevep]

Jun 22, 2018 8:44:03 GMT James G said:

The Ulster Unionists and the SDLP signed the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and brought peace to Ulster. Twenty years later, both have become near extinct. Now we have the DUP and Sinn Fein.
How can the latter two extremists be stopped?

  To be blunt I think you need to really defeat the IRA and also any similar attempt by similar head cases on the unionist side.  At the very least you need to avoid the blanket pardon for criminals.  This not only let a lot of extremely dangerous and in many cases evil people back onto the streets but also gave their groups a lot of prestige and power.   We hear less about anything on the unionist side but there's probably something going on there.  However the IRA is still behind a lot of criminal activity and seeking to prevent the Catholic minority getting full integration into the N Ireland community. 

  PS - Unfortunately there may be a big problem with this - see Spanishspy's post war-nerd-used-systems-disruption.

[James G]

That seems a reasonable idea. Having the prisoners let out does appear to have given Sinn Fein / IRA a lot of cred.