Arse about face logic. The peace process was only possible because the comrades of the hunger strikers finally realised that their 'armed struggle' was not going to achieve its objectives and opened up channels of communication to the British government in order to bring the thing to an end. The peace that we enjoy today could have been enjoyed decades earlier had it not been for the stupidity and short sightedness of people like Sands and his comrades. Great men? Absolutely not. Men with great hatred and fanatic hearts, as Yeats said.
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It took the bomb and the bullet to get the Brits to listen. John Hume wasn't a violent man and i recall a peaceful protest in which he got smacked in the head with a batton.
The Hunger Strikers gained the support for Irish Nationalism to press on and force the Brits to talk and solve the problem.
Whatever way you want to look at it things wouldn't be the way they are today without the help of men like the Hunger Strikers and the IRA. What happened when the Irish government said they were going to send troops up to protect the people? They stopped short of the border and stood idly by.