Plot twist, he just wanted the world record for most recently deceased
this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2026
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Even marked by a starting pistol for accuracy.
charged with murdering McWhirter in addition to nine other victims. They were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1977 but released in 1999 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
They killed 10 people and got out 22 years later?
I'm not going to get too into the politics of the troubles, but I think it's kind of worth remembering that this did happen in the context of an armed conflict, morality gets fuzzy.
Thinking about it in the context of modern conflicts, let's say a Palestinian or Lebanese group assassinated an influential Israeli businessman who was vocally advocating for Israel continuing their operations, or perhaps a Ukrainian group assassinated a Russian oligarch.
Or hell, the guys who shot the United healthcare CEO or Charlie Kirk.
In some theoretical future where there's some kind of peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine/Lebanon, or the US has gone through some kind of civil war to overthrow MAGA types, would it seem so unreasonable to want those people to be freed as part of the negotiations?
Or looking further back, let's say members of the French or Polish or whatever resistance in WWII had assassinated a German businessman who helped fund the Nazi war machine, wouldn't we have expected them to be freed after the war?
And I think likely that's a similar kind of light at that least some Irish people would view these guys in.
And of course, depending on what side of the conflict you were on, you may not see things that way. If you were a Nazi, or if you support Israel or Russia or Trump, you'd probably think of those assassins as nothing but criminals or terrorists, but as the saying goes, one man's terrorist is another's freedom-fighter
McWhirter put a bounty on them. I think whatever motivated this is more complicated than they just killed people.
It was one of the most controversial parts of the Good Friday Agreement to pardon people on both sides of the fence, but deemed a sort of necessary evil to obtain peace. A lot of ex-paramilitaries ended up as taxi drivers doing tours of Belfast and a lot of our older politicians in Northern Ireland are well known to have killed people. It sucks but it's the price of peace. Derry Girls' final episode dealt with it really well. I'm from the post-GFA generation so it was hard to get my head around it growing up but the alternative is far worse.
Yes. The only difference between a terrorist and a soldier is their budget.
And whether or not they win. The leaders of the 1916 rising in Ireland were terrorists at the time. Now there are monuments to them.
Those 9 other victems don't even have names in your quote, should we really even count them? Look, he's a good kid caught in a bad situation. He said ten hail Marys and even considered saying I'm sorry!
And that’s not even counting the Our Fathers.
That article is wild. Dude basically painted a target on his back.
Very provoked so fair play I reckon
Interesting how much I have thought of the troubles lately. I’m not romanceasizing more considering how much propaganda was used in the fight for freedom, the media was a bigger tool of perception in hindsight
A lot of deaths could have been avoided. My view on the aggressor has certainly shifted in recent years.
Who do you consider "the aggressor" in the case of The Troubles? Surely not the IRA, right?
He got caught up in some troubles
did he deserve it tho? 🤔
If anyone cares about a pub bet.