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

[H2O Man]

113. My older son has

Uris's "Trinity" on his massive bookshelf of Irish literature (actually, it sets next to my 2004 book on the contributions of Irish immigrants to the culture of NJ/NYC/PA/upstate NY!). He and his younger brother published a book on the Native American history of the northeast (comparing the 12,000 + year archaeological record to the oral traditions as taught by Onondaga Chief Paul Waterman, one of their grandfathers); it includes information on the fascinating relationships between the Iroquois, Lenapi, Irish, and Scotch-Irish. (By no coincidence, those four bloods flow in our veins.)

My grandfather was born in Ireland in 1874. His father brought his family to the US in 1879. My great-grandfather's cousin was a close associate of Michael Collins. He and his cousin, Joseph Brennan, would serve as the first two secretaries of finance in the Irish Free State. Tim Pat Coogan has noted that had Eamon de Velera accepted my great grandfather's cousin's input on Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Free State's constitution -- a plan that the Protestant minority was willing to accept -- decades of violence would have been avoided.

I've given my son my copies of documents from the Royal Irish Academy, authored by our grandfather (x7), who was a participant with the United Irishmen in 1798. These include a poem he wrote while imprisoned, sentenced to be executed. Richard was a "hedge master," who taught seven languages, science, and math. He advocated freedom by way of public education -- a dangerous thing at the time.

When a scholar is sentenced to hang, side-by-side with those who took up the gun, because he taught literature, I think that makes clear who the "terrorists" were.

The OP might as well have asked: were the Indian people who kicked England out of India "Hindu terrorists"? And were the Vietminh who kicked the French out of Vietnam "Buddhist terrorists"? But I suppose the actual answers to those questions might disrupt the world-views of some of our good friends here on this forum.