Those Seanad Éireann statements on the murders in the North… March 12, 2009
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics, Northern Ireland, The North.6 comments
Tuesday’s response in the Seanad on the murders in the North.
Senator David Norris: [Independent] I had intended to raise several issues today. However, this is such a tragically important day that I will, like other Members, confine myself to the tragic events in Northern Ireland. I agree entirely with Senator Hanafin that these people are gangsters. Before coming into the Chamber, I heard a speaker on RTE radio claim they are not gangsters. What else are they? They operate in armed gangs to subvert the democratically expressed wish of the people of this island, North and South, and they care not a damn for the law or for family, decency or anything else. In my book at least, whatever about the views of callers to Joe Duffy’s radio show, they are gangsters.
As Senator Hanafin said, these tragic events constitute yet another poisoned gift from the people who gave us the Omagh bombing. These are people who, in the words of the great songwriter Paul Brady in his wonderful song, “The Island”, are “still trying to carve tomorrow from a tombstone”. They have nothing positive to offer, only death. It is as though the economic disaster we are all trying to face was not enough, they have to add murder, grief and misery. As an Irishman and a representative of this noble House of Parliament, it is my view that they have dishonoured and sullied the name of Ireland throughout the world. Their actions have brought shame on the country and will have negative political, economic and cultural consequences for us all.
We do not know who the perpetrators are but we know some of their characteristics. The first is arrogance. They have decided, with no standing whatever, that they can decide who is a legitimate target. How are they legitimate? Why are they targets? Who gave them this right? Then they appoint themselves as executioners. They certainly do not obey the laws of war in this regard; there is no chivalry there. Wounded people lying on the ground are finished off with an extra shot. It is an appalling situation. Another characteristic of these people is that they are totally lacking in imagination. They apparently cannot imagine the grief that will be caused to the families of these young people.
We were all so hopeful prior to the events of recent days. Only last week we celebrated the taking down of the bomb-proof shutters from the Ulster Hall so that it could be opened up as a place where people could listen to music and celebrate. I presume it will now be closed. Once again we are hearing phrases, such as “widespread condemnation”, we hoped never again to hear. I am sorry to say that those responsible for these attacks are completely indifferent to such condemnation. They are stupid people whose stupidity is shown by the fact that their actions are completely counterproductive. Why in every generation must ordinary, decent people, from both communities and on both sides of the Border, pay the price of the education of these moral imbeciles? They will eventually learn and will eventually say their actions were a mistake and were not worthwhile. In the meantime, however, decent people will have to pay for all the suffering they cause.
Senator Eoghan Harris: [Independent] There is an element of posturing in some of the condemnation we have heard. The Real IRA and Continuity IRA will do this again. They will kill someone else the week after this and the following month. We will be standing around here hand wringing. While Senators Fitzgerald and MacSharry speak for me on the moral issue, we should move on because we have a moral obligation to take our responsibilities. The Chinese have a proverb that says you cannot stop the blackbirds of evil flying over your head but you can stop them making a nest in your hair. We cannot affect what happens in Northern Ireland by hand wringing and condemnation but we can affect the Republic.
We should have done more in peace time to mend community tensions. The reaction to the killings was not uniformly fast and condemnatory of a murderous attack on human beings. There was a 14-hour delay from Sinn Féin, which was caused politically by the SDLP taking a green position on the activation of the special reconnaissance unit. This drove Sinn Féin into taking a 100% green position on the 50% green position. The result was that Sinn Féin was paralysed politically in the aftermath of the killing at the weekend. That is neglecting the peace process on the part of Sinn Féin, the SDLP and ourselves for not pressurising them to mind the peace rather better. Dr. Johnson said that a man is to keep his friendships in good repair and we must keep the peace process in good repair. It was not kept in repair; we wiped our hands of it.
I ask Senators to stop posturing and to join with me in calling on the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to do what can be done. From a security point of view, we have major emergency powers legislation available. I will not mention the “i” word because Senators are already preparing their speeches about how we should not ratchet it up and we must not overreact. I expect to read an exclusive interview with the Real IRA next Sunday explaining it all away. I have been through all this in my lifetime, with the bleeding heart stuff and the apologias. To those who are preparing speeches about not ratcheting it up, we have a moral obligation to shut down the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA on this side of the Border. We can do so because we know their names. The police and security forces and the Garda Síochána know their names and there are only 100 of them. They use safe houses, they have friends and relations and we can shut them down. We can use emergency powers so that they cannot run from the North. That would at least free up the chief constable in Northern Ireland to look after the security situation there as best he can. This will be borne on the bodies of ordinary policemen, Catholic and Protestant, over the next months because they will die. Many more of them will die.
We must do two things, first of all by shutting down the security situation. I will not use the“i” word but I remind Members that internment never failed in the Irish Republic.
Senator David Norris: Senator Harris has used it now.
Senator Eoghan Harris: It worked in 1922, it worked in 1939 and it worked in 1956. It failed in Northern Ireland but never here. We should put it to Sinn Féin that in the upcoming by-elections, unless they stop using weasel words and unless they come out cleaner and faster in their condemnation, they will pay a political price in the Republic for their weasel words.
Senator David Norris: On a point of order, I do not believe for one second that anyone in this House was guilty of posturing and I ask Senator Harris to withdraw that suggestion.
An Cathaoirleach: A point of order must be on procedure. The Senator has already contributed.
Senator Eoghan Harris: I said there were bleeding hearts in this House who would try to stop the security measures I proposed.
An Cathaoirleach: Senator, please. I am calling Senator O’Reilly.
Senator Joe O’Reilly: [Fine Gael] I come from a Border county and have three young boys in school in a Border town. We breathed a collective sigh of relief ten years ago when the peace process was unveiled and the events of recent days have been greatly traumatic for those of us in the Border area, as they have been for the rest of the country. It has been particularly traumatic and disturbing in our area that these atrocious, reprehensible murders have taken place.
Those who perpetrated the murders do not have a democratic mandate. On top of this, they do not have the right to appoint themselves arbiters of the country’s destiny or executioners. They do not have this right in moral law nor do they have a democratic basis for that.
There must be significant co-operation between the police forces on the two sides of the Border to deal with the issue. We must literally seal the Border. I ask the Leader of the House to speak immediately with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform after this session to ensure that even if there is disruption, every cross-Border movement is checked. The Border should be checked and sealed off. There should be very rigorous support of the Garda Síochána for the activities of the police force in Northern Ireland. There should be no ambiguity or lack of co-operation in the matter. There must be an open, transparent and high level of police activity on this side of the Border. Will the Leader specifically ensure that happens and is visible in the coming days?
My next remarks are distinct from those of my learned colleague, Senator Harris, for whom I have great personal regard. To be very fair to the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland, as I was coming up today in the car the Deputy First Minister, Mr. McGuinness, very unequivocally condemned the murders and asked for co-operation with the PSNI, which should be welcomed. It was a very clear statement.
We need a very visible, open and outward sign of police support on this side of the Border and police activity along the Border. People must be apprehended. In so far as Senator Harris is correct that the names are known to police, there should be follow-up activity and people’s movements should be checked. A huge effort should be made on the part of this State. It is a crucial time in the history of the State and morality, Christian and religious ethics and the social and economic future of our country depend on this. Will the Leader seek a specific meeting with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and ask for that level of activity?
Senator Nicky McFadden: [Fine Gael] I fully endorse what Senator Harris said and I agree with him about posturing. The priority is that these people should be apprehended and brought to justice. The Continuity IRA has stated that as long as there is British involvement in Ireland its members will continue to murder people. The Senator is correct that there will be further murders. These people seem to attach no value to life. Even after the British soldiers had been shot, they were shot again. I have a 23 year old son who is the light of my life and I cannot imagine what it must be like for the poor mothers of those murdered. They were scheduled to go on a tour of duty that they thought would be dangerous but they never got that far. They were shot in cold blood on our soil, in our country. I abhor the idea that they can send a coded message to a newspaper stating that as long as there is British involvement in this country they will continue. We need to be very firm on the notion that there might be safe houses or any succour for these thugs in our country. It is a message that should go out loud and clear from this House.
Other than that I do not know what else we can do. We must condemn the action. I agree with Senator Harris that it took a long time for the so-called political representatives to come out. They did not deny it, they said they condemned it, but they did not say anything about the poor unfortunate pizza delivery lads. The implication was that they were aiding and abetting the people in the North. It is an absolute crime.
Senator Ann Ormonde: [Fianna Fáil] I agree with my colleagues in condemning the brutal murders in the North. I extend my sympathy to the families of those murdered and injured. The exercise is purely to derail the political process and put down a trap to lure the British troops back on to the streets. As many have said, there is no going back. As Senator Harris said, if the names are known, and they are known, they should be rounded up. There must be co-operation on each side by the police. Those people must be rounded up. There is no going back and that is reflected. I do not know what more I can say. Those people are a different breed. They will not listen to what we say today. They are not interested in what we are saying. They would have a big laugh at that. We must take action, and the only way to do that is through police and military co-operation North and South. That is the only way forward. I endorse many of the points raised by Senator Harris this afternoon.
Senator Ivana Bacik: [Independent] Like other colleagues, I join in expressing my outright condemnation of the brutal murders in Northern Ireland over the weekend and yesterday, and I express my sympathies to the families of those killed and injured in such a horrible way. We all thought we had gone back in time when we first heard the news. I heard it late on Saturday night and thought I was listening to an archive programme. It was so shocking and appalling to hear again the words: “Two soldiers have been killed in Northern Ireland.” It brought home to all of us how fragile and precious the peace process is and how we may have come to take it for granted in recent years.
Along with colleagues from this House and the other House, I have the privilege of serving on the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. It is a wonderful privilege to serve alongside Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the formation of this committee was a most historic development. It brings home to us the importance of these types of initiatives in preserving the peace process. In recent months we learned just how fragile our prosperity is but we thought that even if we were not leaving prosperity to our children at least we were leaving them a peaceful Ireland, one that we were creating and developing for them. Now we know both peace and prosperity are equally fragile and precious. I join again with others in expressing condemnation and the sympathy we all feel.
I do not believe this is empty posturing. It is important that we all speak out. They may be only words but words have been hugely important both in stirring up hatred and anger in Northern Ireland and in creating peace and dampening down sectarian motivation. We cannot underestimate the power of language. It is an important and powerful gesture for us all today, on both sides of the House, to express universal condemnation of these awful attacks. If there is one sign of hope it lies in the response of the communities in Northern Ireland and in the incredible outpouring of sympathy and support for the families of those killed and injured. That is hopeful and optimistic and I believe we can build on it.
Senator Eugene Regan: [Fine Gael] I wish to add my voice to the unequivocal condemnation of the killings in Northern Ireland. We are all shocked by these events which are a blast from the past and is something we thought we had left behind. The people killed are Mark Quinsey, 23 years of age, Patrick Azimkar, 21 years of age, and Constable Stephen Paul Carroll, 48 years of age, and one can imagine the misery that has been created for their immediate families.
I have some inkling of this because my own grandfather was an RIC sergeant who was shot in an ambush at Tourmakeady in 1922. I know from my own experience the effect this had on my father and it goes down through the generations. We thought after all the killings in Northern Ireland that time would heal and we would leave this all behind us and yet here we have to confront the same situation again.
I will make three points to show what we can do. There is no doubt that in the atrocities of the more distant past, the people responsible were seen as heroes. The atrocities of the Troubles were sanitised for the purposes of securing peace and the Good Friday Agreement. However, there are actions we can take. We can condemn such atrocities and this is what the House is doing today. We can condemn the callousness of shooting pizza delivery people because it is beyond contempt. With regard to co-operation on security measures and police co-operation in a European-wide context, we have held back from co-operation, from signing up to particular measures at European level, because of sensitivity with regard to Northern Ireland. The issue of hot pursuit is something which is adopted by all other member states and recognised in terms of mutual co-operation between their security and police services. We do not accept that principle here because of sensitivity towards Northern Ireland. We have to be honest and face up to the problems we have. The political context is different now and it allows for such co-operation. If that was the one single issue that came out of this, this Government could sign up to those type of security measures which are a general feature of police co-operation in the European Union.
I refer to the little bit of anti-British propaganda, whether at football matches or otherwise and politicians can slip into this mode. There is a tendency to have that jibe at Britain and Britishness and that type of anti-British propaganda is what gives some comfort to those who perpetrate these atrocities.
Senator Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.
Senator Paul Coghlan: [Fine Gael] Of course we all condemn these senseless and mindless acts which have resulted, sadly and unfortunately, in the murders of an innocent policeman and two innocent soldiers, all lawfully going about their business in the North of Ireland. We are all in agreement on this matter although we may express ourselves differently. Some are more passionate than others, as indicated by Senator Bacik. Language is, of course, important, but perhaps some of us do not express ourselves with the same depth of feeling and passion as others. That is natural, however, since there are different styles and we are all human. It does not in any way lessen our feeling of condemnation and our duty to do what is right.
I honestly say to Senator Harris that we keep our friendships in good repair and that is the way we shall go forward, of course. Since we are, unfortunately, entering this sad new era which, hopefully, will pass quickly, perhaps the Leader might arrange for the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to come to the Seanad so we might have a debate and receive an update in this regard. I do not accept we are not doing everything in the South to apprehend these people whom I believe to be few in number. Perhaps their identity is known and the intelligence is good and it would be good to hear from the Minister in this regard.
In fairness, Sir Hugh Orde praised the Garda recently for helping and assisting so much, particularly in regard to the prevention of appalling assassinations in Castlewellen. I should like if the Leader could arrange for the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to address this House.
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I’m sure we all have our own views on what precisely constitutes “posturing” and what constitute a dignified and heartfelt expression of sympathy and solidarity with those who were murdered.
Libertas in Britain and their unconventional plan to take the EU by storm…before they tell us precisely what they intend to do with the EU… March 11, 2009
Posted by WorldbyStorm in British Politics, European Politics, European Union, Irish Politics.11 comments
They say no plan survives first contact with the enemy, so how very surprising that Libertas UK should put as its nominal head former British Army lieutenant colonel, Robin Matthews, a man who argues that:
“Whatever you do with elected commissioners or an elected commission, they must be accountable to the people. Libertas is seeking such a mandate at the ballot box and that is our first task before we look at exactly ways to reform the commission, president or whatever,”
Fancy that! The plan to win the war comes after the engagement with the people. Quite an innovation in politics. Indeed brilliant in its own way.
Uncertain about voting for eurosceptic… I mean eurocritical… Libertas? Concerned that their approach is too critical, or too sceptical. Leave your worries behind… for all will be revealed after you make the crucial vote. Trust us, the Chairman will see all is right.
And curiously all this is based around a sense that ‘…more democracy is needed at EU level’. What that democracy is to be used for, bar this hugely vague concept of ‘reforming’ ‘whatever’… is entirely open to question.
The Chairman took up this theme, as his is wont.
“Almost 80 per cent of laws that change the daily lives of Britons come from Brussels, and those laws are drafted by unelected, unaccountable civil servants. Brussels does not want to answer to the people of Europe. We want to bring the EU back to its people,” said Mr Ganley, who told reporters he would not fund the campaign with his own money.
Which rather begs some questions… surely accountable or not civil servants locked into a political structure have at least some element of a line to take from their political masters, masters who have the grace to present their aims, good bad or ugly before us at election time… before the vote is taken…
Meanwhile should the selection of a former British Army officer as head of the sister party to Libertas Ireland appear, well, just fractionally contentious in a political context (particularly one who was BA’s spokesmen in Helmand province… yikes) this is standard operating procedure for the Chairman.
In a move that surely, surely he thought twice about before taking he is reported as appointing four – count ‘em, four – defence industry ‘figures’ (as the Irish Times so delicately puts it) to head up his communications company Rivada Networks. By ‘defence industry figures’ we’re talking about:
…a former chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff during the Iraqi invasion, Gen Richard Myers; former chief of the UK defence staff, Lord Charles Guthrie; and two former senior officials in the US department of homeland security, Michael Jackson and George Forseman.
The appointments come hot on the heels of his decision to contest the European elections this year on behalf of Libertas.
The politics of this are remarkable… Myers is better known as ‘the principal military adviser to George Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq’. How the Chairman thinks this will play next time out at the elections is quite a mystery. If he wished to burnish his credentials as a good mate of the defence industry he could hardly do better short of driving a tank down O’Connell Street.
But it’s all grist to his mill. Euro-critic who vociferously denies he’s eurosceptic while entering negotiations with profoundly eurosceptic parties. Supposed supporter of the European project who hangs out with the US defence industry. Contradictions? Not to the Chairman.
And how is the British polity responding to this new arrival? Well, in a curiously low key fashion. The Guardian diary section had a short piece on it. But why should that surprise? This is a different world from the heady days leading up to Lisbon I. The news is bad all over, the economy in freefall, the smell of violence in the North. Small party started up in a field with many rivals is almost not news at all. And hardly surprising that they should treat it in a jokey fashion:
Shortly after the launch, Ganley’s party was registered as New Dawn for Europe: Libertas.eu, but it could all be a bit confusing come the June elections. Maybe they should change it. Kilroy Silk tried Veritas to no avail. Civitas is gone, snaffled by a thinktank. Backwards would be Satrebil. Just helping.
Outrageous lese-majeste, I think we can all agree. And no mention at all in the Times newspaper.
But with the might of the US military establishment close behind him who can doubt that the Chairman will have the last laugh… who indeed?
The lonely lonely passion of Paul Gogarty… And what was that Patricia McKenna said? March 11, 2009
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics.10 comments
There’s something approaching the near-heroic about Paul Gogarty’s latest pronouncements. I have no idea whether his most recent contortions did indeed encompass a most public beating of the breast at press offices at the Convention as described by Miriam Lord, but such uncertainties aside it merely adds to the mythic imagery of a man divided by his position.
The latest cause of his ire was the party deciding (or voting, to use the technical term) to establish a reference group to develop educational policy and strategy. The problem being that it was one P. Gogarty who is, or rather was until this afternoon, spokesman on education.
Now, let’s be clear, there’s one or two close enough to the top inside the GP who also, albeit more softly, parade their disenchantment at being on the inside looking out rather than the outside looking in. Not the TDs or Senators, but the next rank down (although those familiar with the current campaign to retake a GP seat in Dublin may well be surprised by the profoundly social democratic noises being made, somewhat at odds with the line on ‘you’d all be making tough decisions if you were in Government’ expressed by John Gormley at the weekend). They remain though. They remain.
How seriously to take this? Not at all I suspect. Gogarty will go on his not entirely merry way, but he will also remain in government. Not that his stock has risen much in the last month or so. Indeed one could argue that while never high, although high enough considering that he seems one of the few elected TDs who will have a fair shot at keeping his seat at the coming bloodba… I mean, of course, the next election, it has hardly ever been lower and in its own curious way mirrors the current direction of the markets.
There is something almost admirable about his ability to argue that…
…the “storm in a teacup” over his position as education spokesman had deflected from the positive message coming out of the Green Party conference.
How true! How very true! Although he slightly neglects to mention that it was he who held the teacup directly underneath what appears to be a whirlwind. Small, granted. But a whirlwind nonetheless.
One can only imagine the rictus of pain on John Gormley’s face when he uttered the near immortal line:
“He’s a good bloke. I respect his viewpoint. He expresses himself very directly and we appreciate that. So we’ll see what happens.”
Imagine that from Tony Soprano (changing some nouns and verbs as we go and altering the accent no doubt) and you’ll probably get a sense of the true import of the words… ‘So we’ll see what happens’… hardly a ringing declaration even for a ‘good bloke’. Actually, a tad sinister when one thinks about it. Let’s see what Gogarty has to do to come back into the good books. Perhaps some public protestation of support for the government, perhaps bearer of bad news after the Budget. Who knows…
But this points to an interesting dynamic both within the Green Party and a little further abroad. There’s a concept of a sort of ‘internal exile’ that has developed, perhaps since Trevor Sargents remarkable falling on his sword over coalition – only to be resurrected near immediately as a Junior Minister, take that Lazarus! – which sees Party members depart not very far, say… oh… ten or twenty meters in order to engage in rather public displays of penitence. It’s great craic though to see how limited this exile is. You might disagree with being the leader who enters a Fianna Fáil coalition. So you stand aside – and then serve at Cabinet in that coalition. You may have profound problems about the educational approach of the GP in the coalition. So you step down when… well, really why did he step down? But you don’t walk from the party, or Government. Or the chairing the Oireachtas Education Committee. Or stop voting with the Government. Perish the thought. And so on…
In the past it was more the Patricia McKenna wing, or would that be more accurately described these days as winglet (you know what they are, the upturned pieces at the end of wings on commercial airliners that… hey, hey… save fuel no less!) considering the new very very realistic Green Party we’re coming to know, than the ‘leadership’ tendency, that might have indulged in this sort of thing. But sure, everyone can engage in it. It’s a wonderful world where big, but not particularly painful, gestures replace actions. And it’s far from restricted to the Green Party.
Ah… speaking about Patricia McKenna, some of us will have had cause to find our spoons hovering over the porridge this weekend as we read the remarkable… no, astounding news that one P. McKenna had argued that:
“…[the Greens had to be] very careful about the message we send to the public”.
Surely this can’t be “Former MEP Patricia McKenna”… scourge of the party leadership, convinced opponent of the coalition, fearless articulator of… okay… you get the point…
Surely can.
Ms McKenna pointed out that the education cutbacks had already been decided in Cabinet and discussed and supported and it would be a “very bad signal now” for the party to turn around and oppose it.
And she went onto say that the Greens
“need to pull our weight”.
Okay, that’s a half step back to the previous incarnation, presumably she means they should do some pounding of fists on the table, but even so… what the hell? I’ve never been, and I’ve noted this previously, much of a fan of McKenna for various reasons, but this takes the biscuit. She’s making the opposite journey to Paul Gogarty. Remarkable stuff. Perhaps that’s what is meant by collective decision making and consensus. Or perhaps not.
Meanwhile:
Party leader John Gormley said “no one can predict which way motions are going to go at the Green Party conference. It doesn’t work like that. People make up their own minds”.
Oh yeah. People certainly will.
Finally on this topic for the moment, let me utter my own mea culpa… I had thought that the signs were pointing towards Gormley announcing that the Republic would be eschewing the European Defence Agency, as has been long hoped for by the GP. No such luck (although I’m told that something may happen… well, sure… something always may happen). Instead we were treated to the news delivered by the Minister of the Environment that the Government intended to reverse the changes to the Equality Authority. Sort of.
What can I say? They both have an ‘E’ in the acronym…
A few thoughts on these events in the North… March 10, 2009
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Northern Ireland, The North.32 comments
In a way there is little more to be added to Garibaldy’s points on the murder itself. A crushing blow to a family. But beyond, unfortunately as ever, there lies a political context.
The idea has been raised that the flaws in the Good Friday Agreement have been in some sense demonstrated by attacks by RIRA and CIRA. If that’s the standard we’re setting then it is far too low. I have no problem arguing that the GFA is problematic, but I’d also argue that it’s the least problematic of all possible solutions actually, as distinct from hypothetically, on offer. Therefore I’d expect, if not in fact demand, any critique to at least address actually realisable and not hypothetical alternatives.
In any case there is no great mystery to any of this. A United Ireland is not feasible given the current disposition – not of the British, but of Unionism. I think an evolutionary process on both parts of the island can – and I’m talking decades here – bring the two parts together into a some form of partnership deepening into eventual unity. Now the logic of that suggests that the Unionists have to be the main focus of activity with Republicans and Nationalists engaging with them constructively.
All that said I can’t for the life of me see how shooting two British soldiers or a PSNI constable is somehow representative of an process that will lead to any greater engagement with unionism. One of the most remarkable aspects of dissident Republicanism has been, at least in its public utterances, a complete blindness (or deliberate aversion) to thinking about how Unionism can be accommodated. CIRA and RIRA and their vestigial political elements seem to be essentially expecting some deus ex machina to do something, anything, to resolve the situation in their favour. In a way that deus ex machina is expected, paradoxically to be the United Kingdom who are meant to assume their apparently historic role in persuading Unionists to somehow not be Unionists. That ain’t going to happen either. But that is the basic logic of the programme they have embarked upon, a logic which can be seen to be intrinsically flawed on many different levels.
Add to that the central random aspect of this violence belies its political and strategic incoherence and poverty. Because even if violence is ramped up, and let’s not overstate how easy it is to attack successfully police and army, or otherwise it would be a daily occurrence, a further paradox is that it will – as it largely did during the 1980s – lose both its shocking immediacy and news value and its capacity to further political change. One of the crucial mistakes of dissident Republicanism is to ignore the realities of the most recent phase of the conflict, one where despite considerable societal mobilisation PIRA was unable to move beyond a bleak stalemate. That formations with a fraction of the power, capability and broad societal support of PIRA at its height should think that somehow their much lower level attacks can reap the whirlwind they seek is bizarre. Even as exemplary and gestural violence this is so limited. And it’s not as if – unlike the 1969 to 1972 period – the state(s) is (are) unaware of this. The one message coming across loud and clear is that the army will not return to the streets.
In the context of how difficult it has been to bring Unionism to accept the GFA (and lets be clear a minority of Unionism doesn’t accept it) it seems to me simply pointless to pretend that we can just wipe the Agreement away. That ain’t going to work either, any alternative will have to be an evolutionary development from the GFA. And all the talk of being ‘anti-GFA’ is frankly also pointless unless those who argue that can clearly map out paths from it to other destinations.
It’s not that one can’t be anti-GFA, that’s indeed an entirely tenable position politically. But for it to have any substance it necessitates being able to explain how we can move from a process that is now heavily invested in by not merely the governments, but more clearly from the response of the last day or so, the populations of North and South.
And here is the truly problematical aspect of this for dissident Republicanism. The Good Friday Agreement may well be built on the rather shaky foundations of two separate votes in the two parts of the island, but those votes now carry a political legitimacy, certainly the greatest degree of such legitimacy in our lifetimes, as the expression of the Irish people. Those votes have been further legitimised by elections subsequent to the GFA. Martin McGuinness used the term ‘traitors to the island of Ireland’ to describe those who carried out those acts (and Hugh Orde appeared momentarily nonplussed). It’s an almost Jesuitical formulation in its ability to incorporate many different meanings, but it is hard not to share at least some sense with him that the contexts generated by the GFA, imperfect and all, give some substance to the idea that there is now extant a consensus on this island, a consensus that exists because eventually the Irish people on the island were asked for their affirmation of the agreement, that is inherently different to that which existed prior to the GFA.
The Upsurge in Violence and the Lessons of History March 10, 2009
Posted by Garibaldy in Northern Ireland, Terrorism.24 comments
So after Saturday’s attack on soldiers and pizza delivery drivers that resulted in the deaths of two soldiers, we now have a policeman murdered in Craigavon. The first attack was carried out by the Real IRA, and it seems likely it carried out the second shooting too. Having said that, Craigavon has been a centre for dissident activity, and several groups are active there, both paramilitary and political, and so it could be another group. Three deaths. Doubtless those responsible believe that this represents a great success, that it proves that they are serious players, and that in doing this they have asserted Ireland’s right to freedom in a way parallel to that of Easter Week.
All this of course is rubbish. They have not struck a blow for Irish freedom. They have not brought unity a step nearer, and have in fact put it further off by increasing the resolve of unionism and British public opinion. They have not raised their reputation among the massive majority of the people of Ireland who reject their means, or increased national consciousness. What they have done, however, is raised their status in the eyes of the politically-bankrupt who think that the republican struggle involves threatening traffic wardens in west Belfast, or detailing your exploits (such as punching an MLA and being out of your head) on Bebo.
What, then, is the republican struggle in the eyes of these people? We know it is about independence. But what sort of independence? An independence achieved by uniting Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter? An independence achieved through the political mobilisation of the mass of the people of Ireland? Apparently not. The RIRA and its associated political group, the Thirty Two Country Soveriegnty Movement, has deliberately avoided forging a political programme beyond national sovereignty. It is, then, an independence that will be forged through a deliberately apolitical campaign of violence. They are back to the view held among some in the wake of the Treaty that politics automatically meant compromise and defeat, that only the gun was reliable (although having said that, I don’t think that this strain was as strong as some historians would have us believe). Even to take these people on their own terms, independence movements in Ireland have always been at their strongest when they have mixed national with social and economic politics. And if we look elsewhere, most of the successful struggles for independence in the second half of the twentieth century did the same. This retreat into naked militarism seems to fly in the face of both Irish history, and that of other countries.
In the twenty first century, the dissident worldview is simply unsustainable. We are in an unprecedented situation. While the MI5 base in Hollywood and the garrisoned troops are regularly pointed to as examples of how nothing has changed, the reality is that all has changed. Utterly. The political institutions of the northern state enjoy almost total acceptance among the population. The structural circumstances that led to the Troubles have gone; discrimination in jobs and housing, unequal political rights, a powerful reactionary loyalism opposed to and able to frustrate any form of compromise have left the stage. It is also hard to believe that the state could carry out an action that would cause a massive upswing in alienation and support for violence on the scale of the Falls Curfew or internment. The effort of the dissidents have until this weekend called to mind Marx’ famous dictum about history repeating itself. However, this weekend, tragedy has replaced farce. We can only hope that the tragedy does not spread to encomapass more people, through a heavy-handed state response, or loyalists carrying out sectarian murders, or the dissidents succeeding in killing more people.
UPDATE The Continuity IRA has claimed responsibility for the murder of the policeman. If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time it has killed a member of the security forces since it was formed in 1986. Let’s hope it is the last. RSF clearly has more politics than the Real IRA, though I strongly suspect the programme espoused by Ó Bradaigh et al scarcely reflects the type of people who join the CIRA in the north.
“After The Troubles: Republicanism, Socialism and Partition”: Meeting hosted by the Irish Socialist Network to launch new pamphlet – Wednesday March 18th, 7.30 PM March 9, 2009
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics.3 comments
Invitation to a
Meeting hosted by the Irish Socialist Network to launch new pamphlet
“After The Troubles: Republicanism, Socialism and Partition”
Speakers:
Tommy McKearney (Fourthwrite)
Colin Coulter (Sociology Dept, NUI Maynooth)
Venue: Teachers’ Club, Parnell Square
Date and Time: Wednesday March 18th, 7.30 PM
After many years of conflict, peace (of a sort) has arrived in the North of Ireland. But the post-ceasefire settlement has done nothing to address the dire poverty of working-class communities that bore the brunt of civil war.
The Stormont power-sharing executive will be required to carry out an economic agenda determined by London that rules out any redistribution of wealth. The movement that took up arms against the British state has been absorbed into the conservative political mainstream and now finds itself subject to a DUP veto.
The new situation poses many challenges for socialists and left republicans. Will the Sinn Fein – DUP coalition endure? What opportunities might exist for the development of class politics? How has Northern Irish society changed over the last decade, and how is it likely to develop in the coming years?
The Irish Socialist Network has published a new pamphlet, After The Troubles: Republicanism, Socialism and Partition which explores these issues. To launch the pamphlet, the ISN will be hosting a public discussion with former republican prisoner Tommy McKearney and Colin Coulter, editor of the recent collection Northern Ireland after the Troubles: A Society In Transition.
We hope you’ll join us for what should be an interesting discussion.
ICTU Protests Against Violence March 9, 2009
Posted by Garibaldy in Northern Ireland, Trade Unions.14 comments
John O’Farrell, of the ICTU, has posted the following information in the comments on WBS’ post on the recent murders. All who can attend them should do so. Having said that, I would urge the ICTU to organise protests in southern cities as well to show just how isolated those who support violence are throughout the whole island. From John O’Farrell:
Here is the text of adverts appearing tomorrow in the Irish News, Belfast Newsletter and the NI edition of the Mirror:
Organised by the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions
OUR PEACE – OUR FUTURE
Join a silent protest at the Massereene murders
Trade Unions stand together with all citizens in solidarity to prevent any derailment of the peace process.
The callous attack last Saturday night was an assault on every citizen who supports peace.
All workers and their families are invited to express their abhorrence at these murders and the direct threat to the peace process
Please attend our silent protests on Wednesday, 11 March 2009 at 1pm:
Belfast City Hall
L’Derry Guildhall Square
Newry Town Hall
By your presence show your support for peace and your rejection of those seeking to destroy that peace
Please bring trade union banners only
The Irish Left Archive: “Public Lecture by Comrade Hardial Bains: On the Occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the Internationalists in Ireland” – 1990, Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist Leninist) March 9, 2009
Posted by irishonlineleftarchive in Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist Leninist), Irish Left Online Document Archive.6 comments
hardial-bains-25th-anniversary-internationalists
A fascinating document this week from the CPI-ML, and I’m once more indebted to the donor, which contains the text of a lecture given by Hardial Bains on the 25th Anniversary of the Internationalists in Ireland, later known, of course, as the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist Leninist). The lecture was given in TCD on December 9th 1990.
It was, and the lecture references this, momentous times that led, to the expression of perhaps uncharacteristically optimistic thoughts by Bains (who in some respects was a Johnny Appleseed of anti-revisionism, for which read an almost unvarnished support for Stalinist nostrums).
For example…
In the sphere of the objective condition in 1990, it is positive that the bipolarisation of the world has ended, that is the division between Soviet and American blocs. It is positive that the democratisation of international life has begun, and that military alliances and the arms race are no longer looked at in a positive fashion.
He continues:
There are grave dangers too, because while the subjective factor at this time is till very undeveloped, the US, Britain and others continue pushing for solutions of problems between states through force. What Saddam Hussein has done can only be condemned, but what the US has done is equally condemnable. The use of the UN Security Council for the ends of the big powers is also condemnable.
Bains considers the world in light of some intriguing analysis…
The 1960′s were a period of relative expansion of capitalism after a brief period of decline. It began in the 1962-66 period and carried on. Its temporary revival made the new affluence of this period possible. This expansion was based on three main factors: first, the Kruschevite betrayal and the consequent opening up of Eastern Europe for investments by various capitalist countries; second the use of consumer credit and of the state as the instrument of creating money by incurring huge fiscal debts; and third, the intensified neo-colonial exploitation of the rest of the world.
Yet, for all that aspects of that are highly questionable (hard to seriously sustain the thesis that Kruschvite ‘betrayal’ led to opening up of Eastern Europe to investment in such a way as to make a profound difference) he makes some insightful points:
The result of this temporary expansion was a general euphoria, a feeling that capitalism had become young again and invincible.
And curiously, through the analysis weighted down as it is with the particular issues that exercised the approach of the Internationalist and CPI (ML) there appears to be some actually quite serious thinking going on.
Although, for those of us who knew the public face of the CPI (ML) what to make of the following?
The same is true for problems of workers and women [as it is of youth], or for the national question in various Western countries as well as the East, the Soviet Union and so on. These questions cannot be solved by merely expounding some correct views. And force can be helped by preaching some principles at it, by insisting from the sidelines that it reject everything which is evil and embrace everything which is good.
The attitude towards the Irish ‘national question’ is also interesting:
When I say we supported their [Irish] struggle, and continue to do so, without any reservation, I draw a contrast with those who gave it “critical support”. To wage an armed struggle is not a simple matter. There are problems which arise and mistakes which are made. But to carry forward this patriotic struggle has great significance. The British have historically divided many countries. Yet, they made a lot of noise for the re-unification of East and West Germany and shed a lot of crocodile tears. But what about Ireland, which is still divided? The Irish people, by carrying on their struggle, are not recognising this division which is being imposed by imperialism… those who criticise the patriotic movement or the armed struggle from various angles are making a very serious mistake. In my opinion, if you want to criticise them, join them. It is by joining them you can correct them, not by sitting on the sidelines.
There is a discursive piece from page 24 onwards that gives a real insight into the character of Bains, not least in the language which in some respects is as much a product of the campuses of the 1960s as of Marxist Leninism.
This text and these files are a resource for use freely by anyone who wants to for whatever purpose – that’s the whole point of the Archive (well that and the discussions). But if you do happen to use them we’d really appreciate if you mentioned that you found them at the Irish Left Online Document Archive…
The Irish Times knows who to blame for the collapse of the property market… March 8, 2009
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Economics, Economy.12 comments
An editorial in the Irish Times yesterday sought to consider under the title “When the house fell down” the plight of the property market.
So it was that the full might of the IT was brought to bear on… well us… supposedly:
…the truth is that we all lost the run of ourselves, believing in the “onward and upward” myth that sustained the property bubble for so long and thinking that there was nothing odd about the fact that, for a few years at least, the price of residential property in Dublin was higher than in Paris.
Did we? Did we really? Speak for yourself.
And who else was at fault?
At the height of this wholly artificial boom, fuelled by the construction industry itself…
Yes?
…property developers seemed invincible, no matter how grandiose their plans…
Continue…
…and the banks – with one or two exceptions – were falling over themselves in their rush to dish out hundreds of millions of euro in loans to fund the acquisition of overpriced sites in Ballsbridge and elsewhere.
But also…
Even a respectable State agency, Dublin Docklands Development Authority, got carried away by the Klondyke-style frenzy, agreeing to take a 25 per cent stake in the consortium that acquired the former Irish Glass Bottle Company site in Poolbeg for the staggering sum of €412 million in October 2006. It has now emerged that the agency and its private sector partners have stopped paying interest on their debt.
Things are different now.
…the developers are chastened men [sic]
And not just them…
The banks which indulged in reckless lending on a recidivist basis are now facing their own days of reckoning by making provision in their accounts for loans that will never be repaid.
And guess who else is to blame?
The Government must recognise and accept its share of the blame.
And why?
Not only did ministers ignore warnings that the property market was dangerously overheating, they added fuel to the fire by reducing capital gains tax on the sale of development land to just 20 per cent while continuing to dole out highly-lucrative tax incentives – such as those for buy-to-let apartments, hotels and multi-storey car parks – long after the construction industry had gone into overdrive.
The swine.
They must learn the lessons of these imprudent fiscal policies and ensure that there will be no repetition.
My oh my… What a bunch. What a terrible terrible bunch. Private sector, public sector. All of us. Can no-one escape the steely gaze of the Times? No-one at all?
Well, odd isn’t it that there is no mention of the media who have engaged literally weekly in whipping up a hysteria about rising property prices and values. No mention either that the Irish Times has its own little Property Supplement every Thursday (which I had the temerity to quote from not a day ago)… and a Commercial Property Section every Wednesday.
No considered analysis of headlines such as “Rare auction sale may set new level in D4″ which appears in… oh dear… the Irish Times and dates from… ooops… Thursday 5th March… long long after
…warnings that the property market was dangerously overheating
Odd that.
As if we don’t have enough problems… dissidents shoot dead two soldiers in the North. March 8, 2009
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Northern Ireland, The North.93 comments
No one has claimed responsibility, but it’s fairly obvious who is responsible for this attack. Beyond the human tragedy for two individuals and their families the sheer self-indulgent self-regard of those who carried this out is hard to underestimate.
There is no path from these acts that can credibly lead to the outcomes they desire. If anything it can only prevent further progress on those outcomes. They know that. We know that. And yet they continue.
That it happened and that it was taken to this level when previously dissidents have always drawn back from that last fatal action is disturbing. It is not that their project commands any greater support than it did six months ago, or indeed six years ago. It is that they feel comfortable at this point with carrying out fatal actions. It is strongly worth considering why they feel that to be so and what that presages for the future.
Still, the redundancy and futility of these acts in the context of the growing socio-economic impacts on working men and women on this island perhaps demonstrates their entirely reactionary and diversionary nature. There is no point in fighting a war when there is no prospect of winning it on the terms it is fought on. There is less point again when it is entirely the wrong war and wrong sort of war.
