Who
are the real Nazis now in Ireland? That's what unionism
must be asking in the wake of the Love Ulster protest
riot, and what will dissident republicans' next
move be?
The
more sinister long-term consequence of the Dublin
city centre street battles between dissident republicans
and the Gardai is that it is the first step in a
process to import the Northern Troubles into the
South.
The
ultimate goal of militant republicanism is a 32-county
democratic socialist Ireland, and this year being
the 90th anniversary of the failed Dublin Easter
Rising could well be the spark which lights the
flames of a hate campaign against the Gardai.
This
would be a carbon copy of the running street battles
which republicans sparked in the late Sixties with
the Northern RUC and B Specials in an attempt to
de-stabilise the North.
That
erupted into a generation of sectarian slaughter,
but with the Provos' political wing, Sinn Fein,
eclipsing moderate nationalism as the dominant voice
for Northern Catholicism.
Bertie
Ahern's Fianna Fail coalition government must be
praying the Dublin rioting can be branded as a 'one
off' confrontation and scenes of hand-to-hand fights
between dissidents and police are not a taste of
things to come from the republican family –
with a Southern general election expected in less
than 18 months.
The
Dublin riot was also an 'up yours' to Provo Sinn
Fein boss Gerry Adams from the rival, but lunatic
fringe movement, Republican Sinn Fein.
A
week before the riot, Adams had told a packed Sinn
Fein Ard Fheis in Dublin republicanism must embrace
unionism. Clearly, this was a massive bid by the
dissident Continuity republican movement to deeply
embarrass the Adams leadership ahead of any talks
to re-establish the power-sharing Executive with
unionists at Stormont.
There
have also been allegations known Provo Sinn Fein
activists were among the rioters. If these allegations
are proven, it will be further evidence of a split
within mainstream republicanism between those who
favour the Adams purely political route, and those
who still want some form of armed struggle.
More
confrontation and rioting by dissident republicans
could derail Provo Sinn Fein's plans to increase
its representation in the Dail to between a dozen
to 15 seats – making the Provo IRA's political
wing a prime candidate for a coalition government
partner with Fianna Fail.
Okay,
so there's big talk south of the border about a
supposed Rainbow Coalition involving Fine Gael,
the Progressive Democrats and even the Green Party
– but not a mention of the Shinners! Even if
Provo Sinn Fein is excluded from the so-called Rainbow
Coalition, it could still leave the IRA's political
wing holding the balance of power on both sides
of the border within two years.
Similarly,
with Provo Sinn Fein dominating the nationalist
map north of the border, leaving Republican Sinn
Fein and the INLA's political wing, the Irish Republican
Socialist Party, as electoral non-entities, the
only place the Continuity movement can gain credence
is in the South.
The
real danger is that the Continuity movement begins
an orchestrated campaign of attacks on Loyal Order
parades and Protestant church property in the Republic,
forcing the Orange Order and Royal Black Institution
to shift annual parades or church services north
of the border.
Such
a campaign would create an enormous policing headache
for the Southern security forces, and could also
threaten moves to get loyalist terror gangs like
the UVF and UFF to decommission and disband –
especially now that dissident loyalists seem 'back
in business' with their covername, the Red Hand
Defenders.
The
key questions which both Ahern and the unionist
leadership must now seriously find accurate answers
to are – where will the Continuity movement
strike next, does this spell the end of Protestant
parades in the South, and is the dissident campaign
short-term to mark the Easter Rising, or long-term
to de-stabilise the Republic?
Irish
President Mary McAleese and leading Clonard priest
Father Alec Reid both became embroiled in rows over
unionism being compared to Nazism.
But
as republican renegades reigned volleys of missiles
down upon the Gardai, unionists across the island
were sitting smugly asking – who are the real
Nazis now in Ireland?
The
only conclusion unionists could reach from the Dublin
debacle was that an element remains within republicanism
which does not want to do business with Protestants,
but wants to exterminate every trace of their very
culture.
Then
again, republicans would like to conveniently forget
how Dublin remained neutral during World War Two
whilst Hitler's armies rampaged across much of Europe.
And
didn't the IRA want to help the Nazis invade the
North as part of a brainwave to eventually invade
England? If they had succeeded, how many Irish people
would have died in Nazi death camps across Britain?
And
never, never, never forget Sir Oswald Mosley, the
leader of Britain's notorious Blackshirt movement
– the British Union of Fascists - was a committed
supporter of the militant Irish republican cause.
Makes
you wonder; scrape away the green paint from some
republicans and you seem to find a black swastika
staring back.
