Why Northern Ireland has no flag
For whatever it’s worth as an adjacent topic. I went down the rabbit hole during covid and read a bunch of books on the troubles.<p>Hands down one of the most interesting topics I’ve come across in years and was one of those times where I kind of assumed in the back of my mind I knew at least the rough outline of what it was about before but after all I could think was how badly I was wrong.<p>It was also a really interesting read intellectually considering the backdrop of say the US in 2022 and how you have groups forming now who claim to say “violence is the only way forward” while also having this debate about “is it OK to protest out the front of somebody’s house”.<p>The PIRA were a lot of things to be sure but they were notoriously calculating and rational behind most of their decisions in a way that is particularly unusual amongst insurgent groups. Just watching how that thought process started and evolved throughout the 30+ year war and how society changed around them is one of the most interesting stories I’ve come across in a while and one that’s continued today since the transition to peace and now that they actually have political power for the first time from the election the other week in a way they never had before.<p>What you end up with after going through the story is this wild set of case studies that  cover a whole range of topics that go from theoretical to applied real quickly like justice, political power, morality, propaganda, security and strategy. It’s not wrapped up into a particularly neat package with clear good and bad sides and by the end of it everyone is covered in shit and all anyone wants is to just live a normal life.