Gary's Soapbox: Corbyn's Talks with the IRA

Corbyn controversially invited Sinn Féin Party President Gerry Adams to London in 1984, a move from which then-Party Leader Neil (now Lord) Kinnock "did everything in his power" to disassociate himself.A second meeting in 1996 was cancelled following pressure from the Labour Party.Corbyn responded by saying "dialogue with all parties remains essential if the peace process is to continue". He has been strongly criticised by Labour and Conservative MPs for holding meetings with former members of the PIRA in the Palace of Westminster, to discuss topics such as conditions in Northern Irish prisons and the PIRA ceasefire. In an interview on BBC Radio Ulster in August 2015, Corbyn stressed his opposition to "all bombing" and welcomed the ceasefire and peace process, although he did not express a direct opinion about the actions of the IRA specifically.

As the British were not Bombing the Irish I think we can safely say that Corbyn stressed his opposition to bombing many times.

Everyone criticised Corbyn for talking to the IRA but Thatcher was already talking to them in 1981 about conditions in NI Prisons, whilst telling the general public "We don't talk to terrorists"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-16366413

These talks continued after and led to the peace process. Prior to that we had 36 years of Bombing, killing, kneecappings, british troops being killed. So whilst im not suggesting that Corbyn started the peace talks he was clever enough to realise that nothing would be solved unless people did talk. Thatcher had to drop the "We dont talk to terrorists" line to get the problem resolved. If she had carried on we would still have bombs going off in London now. It didnt matter how many troops they put in NI it didnt put the IRA out of action.

It was the same regarding the ANC and Nelson Mandela, Corbyn also advocated talking to the ANC, the Tories wouldn't talk to them at one stage, there is no need to cover that here as the rest is history.

Was Corbyn wrong to talk to the IRA? If he was then it goes without saying that the Conservative Government and Thatcher were wrong also.

Is he a terrorist sympathiser? He has said may times that, he is against injustice, killing, bombing and believes that sometimes you have to talk to people to get issues resolved. That's not a unique view, most of the UN and EU and NATO prefer to talk rather than just blowing people up. We'll they do when the country can fight back, like russia, if its just a small country .... like Iraq, we just blow them up, or invade, especially if they have oil.

Some claim that because pictured with Gerry Adams that makes Corbyn a Terrorist Sympathiser ...many others were talking to Gerry Adams as well so this is a fallacy as well.