But they were wrong, as "they" often are, on all three of those counts. And now most people, bar a few dyed-in-the-wool terrorists and wannabe extremists, are celebrating 25 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, which largely ended the most horrific violence of the euphemistically labelled "The Troubles".
From half a world away it is still difficult to believe what went on in Northern Ireland, and over the border in the Republic of Ireland and across the Irish Sea in England, in the three decades leading up to the agreement.
It is hard to get accurate statistics on how many lives were violently taken during the 30 years of The Troubles. But according to Ulster University’s conflict archive, more than 3700 people were killed, 53% of whom were civilians, and about 47,500 were injured. There were nearly 37,000 shootings and 16,200 bombings.
Among the non-civilians killed were approximately 1100 members of the British security forces, 300 republican paramilitaries and 160 loyalist paramilitaries. More than 500 of those killed were 19 or younger. And more than 250 people in England and the Republic of Ireland died as a result of bombings or shootings there.
Tensions have always been high in the north of the island, whether you go back to the arrival of the Presbyterian planters from Scotland and Anglicans from the north of England in the 17th century, or skip forward to the turmoil over the partition of Ireland in the early 1920s.
The drawing of the border at that time between the North and what became the Irish Free State was extremely problematic, slicing communities, farms and even houses in half, and spawning discontent across the generations since.
That frontier continues to cause issues today. Even though the fortifications of the past have mainly gone, we need look no further than the difficulties which have arisen in implementing Brexit as evidence the border is still problematic.
It beggars belief that British soldiers were originally sent to Northern Ireland in 1969 to act as peacekeepers and protect what was then the Catholic minority from Protestant mobs. That, of course, backfired badly, and acted as the catalyst for 30 years of disgraceful and seemingly unimaginable bloodshed.
There are too many awful outrages to list here, be they ruthless murders, revenge killings, or innocent people being blown to bits. To name just a few though: Bloody Sunday in January 1972 in Derry’s Bogside in which 14 were shot dead by British soldiers; the August 1979 Warrenpoint ambush which left 18 soldiers dead; bombings in London’s Hyde Park and Regent Park in July 1982 which killed 11 bandsmen and soldiers, and seven horses.
That’s not to mention the hundreds of other bombings of pubs and shops and restaurants, which killed locals and wrecked local businesses, and the kneecappings and executions of informers.
And perhaps the worst of all, the appalling Omagh bombing in August 1998 — after the signing of the agreement — in which a splinter group of the IRA massacred 29 people from all walks of life. Who knew such evil could exist?
That the Good Friday Agreement ever came about is testament to the hard work of many on both sides of the sectarian divide, including those who whipped up hatred, and those who murdered and sanctioned such killings.
United States President Joe Biden quite rightly said this week the agreement was not "inevitable", but the result of years of compromise and discussion. Not so long ago, there were those who believed the only hope for the province’s future was to take children off their parents when they were born and raise them overseas.
Peace in Northern Ireland remains fragile, something to keep working at and never to take for granted. And definitely something to be celebrated.
