History question - Did we call the Irish Republican Army "Roman Catholic Terrorists"?

[sabrina 1]

64. Lucky for your brother he was able to get out. Just being a young, 'native irish/catholic' teenager

was dangerous for a long time there. My friend who was born and raised there, was subjected to daily harassment from the soldiers starting when she was merely a child, on her way to school.

I went to Belfast also before the peace process began and saw the war zone myself. There were guns trained on 'strangers' walking down the street. At one point we saw a crowd gathered, they were very quiet. I asked someone if something was wrong. She told me that a 12 year old child had been shot the night before. And she added, 'caught in the crossfire'. There was barbed wire separating this section from the 'protestant' section. Soldiers were chit chatting with those on the protestant side.

The army was supposed to be there to 'keep the peace'.

I got to know a soldier who was assigned to NI and asked him how he felt about it all. He said he didn't feel they belonged there and felt a lot of sympathy for the native Irish people.

We also had guests at our home from both sides of the conflict. THEY were neighbors and friends. Things are never as black and white as they are painted to be.

The student and his girlfriend, both Protestants, had a good time here, but I learned later that he had joined the RUC, not to fight, but as a doctor. His neighbor, the Catholic girl, told me she had begged him not to join as it would be very dangerous. They cared about each other as human beings.

He was killed in a convoy a few years after joining. And his Catholic neighbor, herself died in her '30s, most people believed from the stress and the fear and heartache of it all.

War is evil. Good people are mostly the ones who suffer, innocent people.

Very shortly after, the Peace Process began. I know that they both wanted that to happen so badly and I wish they had lived to see it.