Quote Originally Posted by Sir C View Post
This always seems to me to be the missing part of the argument. I mean, if you chuck bricks at an armed man, what response do you expect?
Well yes. But I'm pointing out the irony that the outrage about it stems from an expectation on the part of the republican rioters that - despite all their anti-Brit rhetoric - the British wouldn't behave like that because they're generally decent and you can lob bricks at them with impunity. So, in fact, the whole thing relies on an underlying assumption by rabid republicans that the Brits are generally decent and not likely to open up on them - even when they deserve it.

And generally, of course, they'd have been right. However, Paras are a bit different.