I’m afraid, Alex, you’re concentrating on what the Greeks called ‘adiaphora’ – inessentials, matters of indifference.

You’re also confusing tactics with principles, as indeed a lot of Irish republicans did during the Troubles.

Thus, insurrectionary violence isn’t a principle of Irish republicanism, though you could be forgiven for thinking it is. On the contrary, as soon as a political path became available to them, republican leaders looked for a way to end the armed struggle.

A political path to what, you might ask. Very simple, Alex, the core aim of republicanism and something you missed entirely: self-determination for the Irish people.

Kevin Madden: Derry’s basic mistakes and lack of workrate have nothing to do with tactics

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You see, republicans regard this place as the last remnant of England’s first settler colony, a place which England (and it is still England) annexed and has no right to rule.

English governments have consistently blocked Irish self-determination, most obviously in 1919 after the overwhelming vote for independence. In his masterly book Fatal Path: British Government and Irish Revolution 1910-22, Ronan Fanning concluded: “There is no shred of evidence that Lloyd George’s Tory-dominated government would have moved beyond the 1914-style limitations of the Government of Ireland Act 1920.”

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