Vanishingly unlikely. Boston is full of Irish people, so for an Irish terrorist group to set off an explosion where they're more likely to injure Irish people than elsewhere makes no sense. If they were to set off a bomb in the US, which has never happened, the obvious target would be a courthouse or US attorney's office.
I'm Irish and intimately familiar with the politics of terrorism, FWIW.
Well, then you know Irish terrorist groups placed quite a few bombs in places like Manchester, i.e. a city with closer links to Irish people than almost everywhere else in England.
To be fair, these attempts backfired spectacularly, losing them a lot of support in these areas very quickly.
This idea is completely inane. The Volunteers declared war against the England that was on their soil in 1916, that they would shift suddenly to a war against the U.S. is ridiculous. Also, purposefully killing civilians gathered en masse without warning is more along the lines of British Army terrorism (Bloody Sunday, Amritsar), not the Irish volunteers who give warnings and tend to attack military targets, back when they did so.
Also, the ruling came somewhat unexpectedly, a few hours before this happened. That's a short space of time to set up a bombing of a marathon. This bombing was obviously planned for days, if not weeks in advance.
In my lifetime (I'm 30, from Manchester), I lived through two bomb attacks a few miles away from my home, one in the centre of the City, and another in a nearby town in the main shopping street that killed two children. They didn't 'tend to attack military targets'; they were terrorists.
Terrorism is either bad, or it isn't. Don't dress the IRA up as something they aren't so that you can sit on the fence.
I think the IRA harmed a lot of innocent people, harmed their own cause, and that bombing civilians, warning or not, should be condemned. However the poster did mention that warnings were given if bombs were placed near civilians and your own link for the Warrington bombs does confirm that.
I also think if you played the loudest instrument on earth while marching in circles outside David Cameron's church you'd be arrested.
Terrorism is not one thing, or even very well defined. The ANC were terrorists, the American revolutionaries were terrorists, and the Haganah were terrorists. Is it so black and white?
And what was Drogheda, when the English massacred an entire town? Or shooting up the crowd in Croke Park? Or Bloody Sunday? The English have carried out terrorism against the Irish for centuries. It's an English war of choice. The English stole my family's land, gave it to settlers, and now English troops still march up and down Belfast. If you choose to go to war with a country and try to subjugate their people, expect the consequences. Don't cry that some of the war of your choice blew back to your homeland.
All terrorism is bad. Including both sides of the NI debate, the ANC and Apartheid government of South Africa, Hamas and the IDF all of which have deliberately targeted civilians.
But although the IRA did kill civilians, this generally wasn't their goal and they took steps to actively prevent that. Re: Eniskillen, read your link. Neither you nor I know the truth. Re: Harrods, acknowledged.
Kidnappings and murders in Ireland and NI were done on both sides, the IRA disarmed when the RUC, a British state run organization that also collaborated with terrorist paramilitaries was disbanded.
As I said, nothing was done without warning. PIRA gave more then a half hour warning before bombing Harrod's despite three civilians killed. Enniskillen was aimed at a patrol of troops.
As I said, the Volunteers did not set bombs to kill civilians, warnings were given ahead of time. A very benevolent attitude I think against an enemy which invaded their country, flooded the north part with settlers, and whose army was shooting civilians in the street when Enniskillen and Harrod's happened. If England doesn't want to be in a war, the solution is simple - remove English troops from Ireland.
Odd that you mention Enniskillen, where they murdered 10 civilians, one police and no military personnel and injured 63 more and issued no warning. "Aimed at a patrol of troops" is a lie.
Today US supreme court has ruled to give tapes containing testimony to Irish police: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/15/ira-tapes-police-su... .