I have deliberately held back this blog until my anger subsided to the point that I could focus on what was important and relevant.
I had originally written a blog in response to the killings in Antrim.
Then two good young men lay dead.
Then came Craigavon.
Now three good men are dead who should be alive.
The people who planned and executed these operations clearly have a high degree of technical proficiency.
The security forces on both sides of the border are, as these words blink to life, hunting for them
I know where they reside.
I know where they are hiding.
They are inside a delusional bubble.
They know they are correct. The rest of us on this island are wrong, but they are right, damn right.
Damn them.
On this site there is a piece I wrote for Magill in 2002 after the first decommissioning event.
It is entitled “Ricochets of history.”
In article I detailed my own family’s history in the IRA during the War of Independence.
I remain hugely proud of the struggle that my family took part in.
Like most people in nationalist Ireland I consider cogadh na saoirse to have been just and worthwhile, but that was 1920.
Context is everything. Absolutely everything.
Only those in the hermetically sealed belief system of the nutter cannot see that.
Imperial Britain held my father’s Mayo as part of their first colony.
It was an Ireland where the people starved outside the walls of the big house.
For the most part the native people, where they could, resisted by peaceful means.
It is the county of Ireland that gave a new word to the English language.
The “Boycott”.
However there was, morally and justifiably, a place in the world for physical resistance.
Only the colonialist or the lackey could see it otherwise.
These days representatives, both civic and military, of the British government, attend the commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising.
It is redolent of the cenotaph of Remembrance Sunday.
The ex-colonial power now pays homage to the insurgents of 1916 at the building where Padraig Pearse read out the Proclamation.
One of the classic processes of anti-separatist insurgency is the “asset to liability shift”.
The rationale is that the territory has been seized by the outside power for some benefit-perhaps raw materials, access to a port etc.
The insurgents, by their asymmetrical warfare, then turn that imperial asset into a colonial money pit and, perhaps, an embarrassment on the world stage.
Only a member of the Flat Earth Society (Marxist Leninist wing) could see Northern Ireland as anything other than a grotesque fiscal liability to the British state.
Among the mandarins of Whitehall the easiest way to get them gnashing their teeth, I am reliably informed by a fellow journalist in London, is to mention the problematic province to them.
Quite frankly the people who run the British state destest the place.
Asset?
Northern Ireland?
Yeah me neither.
Subsequently, there is nothing that these tiny delusional groups could do that would make Northern Ireland any more of a liability to Britain than it already is.
Finally the idea that nationalists in the North are in 2009 in any way “oppressed” by the local state is laughable.
This is 2009 not 1969.
Three good men are dead for no good reason.
Gunned down for no good reason whatsoever and that, dear reader, is murder.
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Victor Arbuckle
Thanks Phil- great analysis.
The cliche “is this what Bobby Sands died for?” gets trotted out by too many ‘war at all cost’ republicans.
The vast majority of those who fought for Irish freedom were inspired by the need for justice and equality for Irish people.
Ireland 26 or 6 county might not be the socialist Utopia James Connolly had in mind, but the days of institutionalised bigotry and state sanctioned terror have been gone for over a decade.
There is barely even a customs post to mark the border anymore. Yet, we still have some who want to kill others for an imaginery line on a map. The lives of all Irish people will be dragged down by a resumption of war… in what way does this improve the lives of anyone?
If Connolly and Sands died for anything other than improving the lives of ordinary Irish people- then they were wrong. I don’t believe for a second that either would support re-opening this wound.
The reality is that this is a power grab by a small number of emasculated revolutionaries. Their roles as local ‘big men’- feared and shown respect for decades- will have taken a hit in recent years. Those too inarticulate to thrive in civil politics might just be more comfortable with an Armalite than the ballot box… and are now acting accordingly.
Also, we cannot ignore the deathly dullness and boredom of normal peaceful towns. Many youths will have grown up infused with the legends of riots and shootings from the 70s and 80s. Many have a clear generational envy. The previous generation had a cause, whereas today’s 15-25 year olds have had nothing but humdrum job and mortgage issues with which to contend. Most of those who support R/CIRA simply want a return to the sense of victimhood (and the justification for violence which comes with it) which every previous generation of nationalists in the six counties has known. For a small % of the population- peace and justice is simply boring. For the R/CIRA men themselves, they are gambling on a restoration of their placxe in the hierarchy of life.
Nothing else explains these recent actions. There is no way to connect the dots in this story. There is no way to tell a tale which starts with these 3 killings and finishes with the acceleration of an independent 32 county Ireland.
March 15, 2009 at 12:24 am
paul
When the history books are read in 100 years time, will Martin Mcguiness and Gerry Adams be irish heros or irish traitors?……dicuss.
March 14, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Ryan
In the not too distant past, certain folk in the 6 counties had NO voice or representation in a so-called democratic society. Of course it was inevitable that blood would be shed and lives lost and ruined beyond repair. These were followed by days when you could not hear the voice of a democratically elected representative of a section of society on TV or radio.
Those days are gone. It has been a long and painful road but the good (and bad) folk of the Province now have genuine hope and ambition of a bright future for all.
Apart from a few. What is their aims? To get rid of British rule entirely? I firmly belive this will happen, whether in my lifetime or not, by democratic means. Not in this way it won’t. Did these eejits actually think for a second of the damage they are doing to their own ‘communities’ (whatever they might be)? The real possibility of Loyalist revenge attacks on innocent Catholics doesn’t bear thinking about.
The positive thing that can be taken from all this is the widespread universal condemnation of the whole tragedy, and the coming together of people who have suffered more than anyone can imagine over the years.
Peace and goodwill will always win through in the end.
March 12, 2009 at 9:40 am
joebhoy
My family hails from the north, Donegal to be precise. My Grandfather was involved in the struggles with the Great Inperlialist war machine.
A cornerstone of a homogenous country should be the right to self determination with the citizens within that country having the rights and oppertunities of any other citizen of creed or colour. It Has taken armed struggle with political means to secure Irelands Independace( 26 counties); The 6 counties today compared to the civil rights movements of the 60s bears no comparison. Great strides in housing, education and employment has ensured creed no longer plays a part in which job you get, or the oppertunities that are afforded you.
The so-called freedom fighters who once again want to delve the six counties into war and retribution do the heroes of Irelands struggles a great dis-service.
They are emabarking on a campaign that no right minded man woman or child wants to see in Ireland, That my friend is tyranny……
March 11, 2009 at 4:43 pm