>>I don't think HMG ever quite knew what to do about the IRA. I certainly wouldn't. If they were, as they said, soldiers that implied they had to be treated as POWs. If they were criminals they had to be accorded British justice. And of course the result was an ever shifting a somewhat schizophrenic policy that satisfied few. And then there was the fact that the IRA, the Provos, the UVF etc were all engaged in truly criminal activities both in and out of the UK.
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>and was financially supported in part by some Catholic Irish-Americans...

An Irish friend informed me on that matter.. It seemed that the US government was directly involved in financing the IRA. He mentioned Ted Kennedy . Only after 9/11 this stopped for self-explanatory reasons.