I
have waited with quiet anticipation for the past
few months watching and waiting to see if there
will be any developments or changes to the current
status quo. If there is anyone willing to take that
first step in filling the black void I see clearly
everyday. And yet now several months later I see
that my initial surprise and bewilderment has given
way to quiet resignation to the fact that the writing
is staying off the wall. Yes on R.P.G. Avenue where
once the immortal words of Pearse were emblazoned
in white letters on a black background there is
now an empty blank wall.
At
first I convinced myself that it was all to do with
the restoration of the mural next to it, a tribute
to the prison struggle, which was repainted some
time ago. Those involved in the project were, I
thought, to do the same with this quote
But
the wall remains blank and there is no sign of this
being rectified. I have several theories as to why
Pearse's words have been blacked out from the Falls
Rd., none of which I claim to be the absolute truth,
but you have to wonder if shame has finally got
the better of some people and they've decided that
their hypocrisy has gone on for long enough. Maybe
guilt has been playing on the consciences of the
powers that be for using the words of one of the
fathers of modern Republicanism, who would surely
be abhorred at the connotations the label 'republican'
now holds for most people; extortion, racketeering,
money laundering and counterfeiting.
Perhaps
it'll be replaced with the popular slogan of "Building
an Ireland of equals" because after all that's
pretty much the equivalent of a free Ireland so
Patrick and the boys can all rest easy up on Arbour
Hill. Or what I feel is the most likely reason for
the writing coming off the wall is that it serves
as a painful reminder of some of the more embarrassing
episodes of the Provisional history and the troublesome
stubbornness of 'old-school republicanism' and its
refusal to compromise. It illustrates also how far
individuals have come, and how much their demands
have been eroded and have mutated from nothing less
than a free and united Ireland to electoral victories
and salaries at Westminster and Stormont.
The
writing may be on the wall for Sinn Fein and the
Provisional movement in respect to their criminality
and gangsterism but I feel that Pearse's words will
not be returned to their rightful place. Instead
they go the same way such slogans as "Not a
Bullet Not an Ounce," "No Return to Stormont",
and "No Unionist Veto" have before them,
erased not just from the walls but from memory as
if they never existed at all. After all a good thick
black paint is the revisionist's best weapon and
why rewrite history when you can just pretend it
never happened?
