Terrorists...or freedom fighters?

The IRA is a group of citizens in Ireland who are strongly against the English occupation of Northern Ireland. Willing to use physical force to drive out the English, they have been in various wars tracing back to their history as "The Volunteers." There were quite a few bloody acts done on both sides during the Irish war for indapendence.

So what are everyone's conclusions? To me it appears similar to the U.S. occupation of Vietnam when we denied the Vietnamese the right to rule themselves (after halting the free elections).

I don't know everything about this group, and I was interested in hearing from people like Arto-Geoff who live in Belfast. I would also like to hear from someone from England on what they think about the subject, and how England views the matter.