Unity Amongst the Dissidents? July 26, 2012
Posted by Garibaldy in Northern Ireland.trackback
The Guardian reports a statement claiming that three out of the four main dissident Provisional-DNA paramilitary groups have united under a single leadership and struggle. The groups are the Real IRA, RAAD (which shoots alleged drug dealers in the north west but recently throw a bomb at the cops during a police operation in Derry and threatened to do so again) and the coalition of smaller groups often referred to in the media and on the walls of Belfast and elsewhere as ONH. The Continutity IRA(s) are seemingly absent from this coalition. Apparently the group aims to annex the title “IRA” to itself, and refers to itself as such in the statement. I’ve collected some of the bits from the statement itself from the Guardian article below
The new group said: “In recent years the establishment of a free and independent Ireland has suffered setbacks due to the failure among the leadership of Irish nationalism and fractures within republicanism”.
“The Irish people have been sold a phoney peace, rubber-stamped by a token legislature in Stormont.”
It demanded “an internationally observed timescale that details the dismantling of British political interference in our country”.
“Non-conformist republicans are being subjected to harassment, arrest and violence by the forces of the British crown; others have been interned on the direction of an English overlord. It is Britain, not the IRA, which has chosen provocation and conflict.”
Did we enter a timewarp? It’s astounding that these people still don’t seem to get the role of 1 million-odd unionists in all this, never mind the fact that there is no support for what they call the “necessity of armed struggle in pursuit of Irish freedom”. Then again, given some recent reports about the shooting of a member of the 32-County Sovereignty Committee, we might take all this with a pinch of salt.
From the statement…
‘leadership of Irish nationalism‘
‘nationalism’?
Let slip the truth there alright.
I would guess they mean the sellout to the troika by the main nationalist parties.On an aside it is interesting to see the parallel between these elitist militarists and the vanguardist extremes of some of the far left.It boils down to not seeing mass support as anything much beyond being cheerleaders for the anointed ones.
The Price case has implications on a very wide scale. Most of the ex prisoners are not amnestied but out on licence. This allows for blackmail sometimes covert sometimes overt.The Boston college saga is probably even worse. I think of the unfortunate Eamonn Collins caught by the Murdoch empire and nasty people.Collins was a political dissident.
I think they mean the north – there has been a concerted attempt to make Catholic/nationalist/republican synonymous, and this is the linguistic culture in which they are operating.
It’s a dig at the SDLP and Sinn Féin, especially the latter, whom they would never refer to as republican.
I’m reminded of a passage from ‘TLR’ where a Dublin Republican explanded how he left a splinter group led by ‘ Ructions O’Doyle’ when he realised Doyle was a ‘Headbanger even by our standards’
I would caution that the article is by Hendry McDonald. A recent article by him on RAAD claimed over 300 people had been forced out of Derry and dozens shot. His figures were slightly over the top- by about 75%.
The statement is quoted here.
http://www.politics.ie/forum/current-affairs/193417-new-ira-formed-report-henry-mcdonald-guardiann-6.html#post5607654
McDonald also has this account of how he got the statement
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/26/republican-dissidents-statement-real-ira
He did something similar another time, about being given a memory stick taped to a toilet or something IIRC. Statement also online on the Guardian website too.
http://newsombudsmen.org/columns/getting-the-figures-wrong-on-derrys-vigilante-violence
Until the Northern Ireland government stops harassing republicans and nationalists this is going to go on and on. Marian Price is just one complaint out of thousands – as any one who lives in the North knows. A proper solution needs to be found to break the significant remnant of the discrimination in Ulster. The Stevens Inquiry needs to be published – the British government needs to own up to its part in the troubles and pay compensation – and a truth commission should be established. Without a decent solution there’s going to be terrorism in the North for at least another generation.
All I can do is hope that these people don’t succeed in their endeavours and that the young people who join their ranks see sense sooner rather than later.
The anorak in me suggests that RAAD and the RIRA in Derry would be one and the same thing, no?
The I.O. in me wants to know whether the East Tyrone ex-PIRA people are part of this new amalgamation?
Dissidents can only gain traction when there is alienation, otherwise they remain small and a nuisance. Stupid things like the victimising of Price only feed into this sense of alienation.Sinn Fein becoming “respectable” may gain it plaudits amongst the middle class but alienates the abandoned youth in the ghettoes.
an ould stickie talking about “these people”, shure nothing has changed
i think i read somewhere ONH denied being a member of this new grouping.
I cant really see this making any difference. The merging of a number of organisations riddled with spies and having no discernible public support wont lead to a super-sized organisation with tight security and the people behind it.
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