david shaffner wrote: > The IRA factions that allied themselves with the Free State > became the Irish Defense Force and the Anti-Treaty factions were > outlawed and are the ancestors of the Provos. This is a false dichotomy employed by those who wish to praise the old IRA of 1916-1921 while condemning the modern Provisional IRA. It conveniently ignores the fact that it is an undifferentiated old IRA (ie: both pro and anti treaty units) operating in the territory that became Northern Ireland that is the major ancestral component of the modern Provisional IRA. -- SIABAIR (Old Irish) /shabba/ 'ghost', 'phantom', 'spectre'