Quote Originally Posted by Psychotic
Freedom in Northern Ireland? I'm confused, were the people there unwilling slaves or something?

If they hadn't used terrorist tactics I'm confident the vote would have been gained before the war.

Anyway, this is a thread about the positives of terrorism, so I'll say that terrorism can be an effective measure to bring about radical and important changes (Although those who are successful are called "Freedom fighters") in some circumstances, like with Gandhi or the French Resistance, but in some, like the suffragettes, it only serves to make a bad situation worse.
The explosion of the popularity & indeed, manpower of the Provisional IRA was only possible after the massacre on Bloody Sunday. The Provisionals were few & far between before then. It was only after the Catholic (and indeed some Protestant) Peaceful Civil Rights marches got banned and subsequently shot at by the British Army did a lot of Catholics take up arms.