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A
recurring theme of articles in The Blanket
is addressed to the repressive measures meted out
to republicans critical of the Good Friday Agreement.
The perpetrators as might otherwise be expected are
not always the British who favour the agreement but
those who subscribe to state republicanism. Since
the agreement was signed in 1998 the list of republicans
who have been threatened, intimidated, brutalised
or killed has continued to grow. Paddy Fox in Tyrone,
Greg Trainor and John Nixon in Armagh, Kevin Perry
in Downpatrick, Joe O’Connor in Ballymurphy,
Mickey Donnelly in Derry, Marian Price and Tommy Gorman
in West Belfast, a range of members of the 32 County
Sovereignty Movement, members of Republican Sinn Fein
…
In
January an article featuring in this journal, Hammering
Dissent, dealt with the case of a young Downpatrick
republican who was shot and beaten by the Provisional
IRA. At the time we did not speak with the victim,
his parents instead expressing their abhorrence at
the attack on their son. Despite Sinn Fein attempts
at intimidating them into remaining silent, Francie
and Geraldine Perry defied the local power structure.
It was not an easy choice to make. Geraldine in particular,
despite her obvious determination, was fired with
nervous tension, the stress visible in her demeanour.
But refusing to be cowered into a corner both she
and her husband spoke openly and with no small measure
of courage. They were aware of the technologies of
power that could be used against them but the need
to protect their children was stronger than any fear
that such technologies may have roused in them. And
while later, Francie Perry felt compelled to issue
a statement challenging a whispering campaign being
mounted against his family by Sinn Fein, both parents
had hoped that with Kevin hospitalised the worst had
come to pass and that he would be subjected to no
further attacks.
What
peace of mind they had managed to acquire since their
son’s release from hospital was shattered earlier
this week. Kevin was visited by a number of state
republicans and told to make himself available at
local shops. He refused to go. Knowing that the standard
procedure in such arrangements is for the assailants
to strip the victim and inflict humiliation on him
in the manner of the H-Block screws, Kevin broke his
silence and talked to The Blanket.
There
is no way I am turning up to be humiliated and degraded
by those people. To be hooded and made to stand
with my trousers around my ankles for them to sit
and laugh. If they wish to talk with me they can
see me at home. If they really wanted to speak to
me why didn’t they do it last December when
they came to my home? They talk with guns and hammers.
I don’t agree with them, don’t support
what they are doing but at the end of the day I
just want to get on with my life. My family have
lived in fear since the shooting and beating last
year.
When
asked why he thought his assailants had come back
almost six months after the attack on him, he stated
that:
nothing
has occurred since between me and them. It is simply
about them wanting to let me know that they are
still the boss, that they have the power to send
for me when it suits them; that if I am a good boy
in their eyes and keep my views to myself they will
ignore me. But if I speak out or disagree with any
of them then I know what is in store for me.
If
state republicans have any confidence in their own
position, they should express it openly. If their
case is strong they will see the numbers of those
who criticise the strategy which they endorse shrink
in number. Rather than fearing critique they should
welcome it, viewing it as the pores through which
any living political project can breathe. But the
manner in which they seek to suppress those within
the republican community opposed to their position
suggests a doubt about the merit of the path they
are pursuing. The dead hand of leadership-imposed
censorship cannot stifle every thought. Has the experience
of the totalitarian states of Eastern Europe and South
America not demonstrated that the more determined
power is to murder those who critique it, the more
convinced of the need to critique it such opponents
become?
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