Listening to the BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan show
on Friday morning it was refreshing to hear so
much air time given to a caller whose suggestion
was simple but appealing. What was needed, he
suggested, was a big stick with which to literally
beat the Stormont MLAs out of the Assembly. He
delighted his listeners. Later the same day when
Michael Stone made his move, ostensibly to achieve
a similar outcome, things no longer looked so
funny.
Although
Sinn Fein leaders had earlier been flagging up
a threat they claimed to be under, it seems they
got the source of it wrong. Dissidents may have
had Sinn Fein leaders in their sights, but by
dint of Friday's actions they were of a loyalist
not a republican hue. One former internee from
the Lower Ormeau Road humorously threw some light
on the confusion. Stone, he claimed, was the closet
thing to a republican in the building last Friday,
being the only person trying to achieve the traditional
republican goal of bringing down Stormont.
Stone
has since been charged with attempting to murder
Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. But how much
of an actual murder attempt was it? From the TV
viewer's perspective, the only thing Stone set
about with murderous intent was a revolving door.
Sinn Fein's concerns, however, are somewhat understandable.
They more than most would feel at risk from Stone
given his previous assault on them.
There
are some willing to explain away the storming
of Stormont as Hugh Orde did - "a sad publicity
act by a very sad individual." The PSNI boss
is probably right. Still, it is an expensive price
to pay for publicity. The length of time Stone
will spend in prison for Friday's 'gimmick' will
be no less than the stretch he would receive were
he to have killed Sinn Fein leaders. His life
sentence imposed for the Milltown murders will
kick in. A further life sentence for the murder
of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness would prove
negligible. As well swinging for a sheep as a
lamb, it makes little sense for Stone to have
himself punished through the imposition of a life
sentence for the Stormont operational debacle
when he could have 'earned' it for the most high
profile assassinations of the Northern conflict.
And what better site for it than one saturated
with the glare of the international media?
As
it transpires, it was a case of tragedy repeating
itself as farce. In appearance, although hardly
substance, it was the most ridiculous coup spectacle
since 1981 when Lt-Col Antonio Tejero Molina stood
brandishing a firearm while delivering a fascist
rant in the Spanish parliament. Current images
of Stone depict a pathetic figure trapped in revolving
doors alongside an unarmed woman who having seized
a gun from him proceeded to rap him around the
head with it. Even the text message wags were
quick off the mark. 'The revolving doors at Stormont
have now been fixed. There was a big stupid Stone
jammed in them.' A different sort of wit suggested
it was proof that gunmen and bombers could indeed
get into Stormont without being elected. Unlike
his Milltown foray, this time round the notorious
Stone had shrunk to a pebble.
At
the time of the Milltown attacks the thought crossed
my mind that Stone did not really intend killing
the IRA and Sinn Fein leadership figures he claimed
to be seeking. It was not malign intent he lacked
so much as nerve. With a touch more courage and
a little less dedication to self-preservation,
he could have got closer to his targets. He opted
to launch grenades and fire shots from a distance,
confident that he could keep the mourners at bay
long enough until he was captured by the state.
The unarmed IRA volunteers who captured and disarmed
him before being cuckolded by the RUC showed more
courage than he did. It seemed he was content
to be credited with making the effort to wipe
out the leadership of the Republican Movement
in full view of the media's cameras. After that,
few in the loyalist underworld were going to accuse
him of a botched operation. His hero status was
guaranteed.
In
similar vein he launched his Stormont operation.
The purpose of writing anti-Sinn Fein graffiti
on the wall before going inside was to allow himself
to be spotted so that he would never have to complete
his mission but hope to take the credit for having
attempted it. Anybody serious about launching
a crucial operation does not compromise it by
stopping to daub walls. Even West Ham's football
thugs used to leave their calling card after,
not before they did the business of battering
and gouging some opposing fan
If
it is gimmickry, then as soon as the buzz withdrawal
symptoms kick in Stone will feel the need to trump
his Stormont assault. What can he do but turn
to cannibalism or something equally grotesque?
Initially fearful of broadcasting such sentiment
in case it put ideas into his head, the fear abated
when the thought emerged that perhaps he could
eat Andre and Ihab Shoukri and die from food poisoning
as a result.
