>The IRA were not on the scale of Islamic terrorism...

Seriously? When I was a child the Northern Ireland troubles were in the news every single day! At times it was a constant stream of bombings and executions. There were roadblocks in the street run by paramilitaries. Whole communities were controlled by these organisations and their fundraisers. The scope may have been restricted to England and the island of Ireland, but in these areas it was all out. The scale of Islamic terrorism in the UK does not even come close

Not wanting to defend IRA but often they warned in advance before attacking purely civilan targets, didn't they?

Yes a lot of the time. I also deliberately didn't mention the IRA by name, as there were a number of groups involved on both sides. A counter example would be the 'Real IRA' and the Omagh bombing where it appears the telephone warning was designed to move more people into the path of a bomb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omagh_bombing

Thanks for sharing.

And thanks for being thoughtful in the way you present it.