Bear
with me readers because what I am about to throw
before you has not as yet fully formed in my own
head as a concrete or conclusive opinion. Sort of
"Who done it"? and "Why do it"?
I
have been keeping a vague eye on this bank robbery
business. I say "vague" because to tell
you the God's honest truth I've had it up to here
with the goings on with Provisional Sinn Fein and
the Provisional I.R.A (the later being an Army I
once proudly belonged to).
Call
me old fashioned if you like, but there used to
be standards, codes of conduct, that sort of thing
when I was a Volunteer (stone-age I hear my children
say).
Robbing
a bank, various methods, go in ask for the manager,
tell him that you were "liberating funds on
behalf of Oglaigh na hEireann", that things
would go well so long as he did as you requested.
That worked as soon as you showed him your "credentials"
tucked in waistband. Jump over the counter, announce
who you were and do the job. These methods saved
P O'Neill the bother of putting out a statement
claiming responsibility.
The
"liberated" funds would buy weapons, feed
Volunteers on the run, help look after the families
of those in gaol and keep the war machine ticking
over...remember we were at War then.
The
War is over we are told. Guns paid for from those
bank robberies are to be melted down, some already
have been. So this "big one" is not about
buying guns, Provisional Volunteers are not on the
run nor are they in prison (with the one or two
embarrassing exceptions), so what is all this money
needed for? Was it just irresistible, were some
who think the "suited men" are getting
too much evening up the score (in which case it
was an "unofficial operation")? If so,
are heads to roll?
Is
the rumour true that Gerry Adams needed the funds
to begin his Presidential campaign? (Nothing is
beyond my realms of disbelief at this time!) Is
the money to pension off those who still cling to
the hope that Republicanism will survive despite
the conversion of the "leadership" to
Constitutional Nationalism? Is it to be a pension,
a medal and a handshake?
Gerry
Kelly said it was "wrong". Did he mean
it was wrong to rob a bank? Did he mean it was wrong
to rob a bank for "the Cause", or was
he saying it was wrong because it put Sinn Fein
in bother with their political masters Bertie and
Tony? The quagmire thickens. Martin Mc Guinness
uses the word "criminals" and some speculate
that those who did the job were stood down before
the operation and then reinstated once it was over,
technically a "criminal" act.
Again
call me old fashioned but Republicans always claimed
and stood accountable for their actions, successful
or disastrous. "Bloody Friday" was a total
tragedy, a nightmare with nightmare repercussions.
It was claimed and apologised for (useless apology
we all know).
"La
Mon"? Where to begin apologising? Does the
reader see where I'm going with this? Lives versus
money, and so much energy is going into denying
the theft of money. The men in suits dodge around
the question and answer with questions or not at
all. "It didn't come my way," scoffed
Gerry Kelly at one press interview. No, Gerry, but
by the cut of you a lot is going your way. You are
far from the 19 year old lad who walked into Brixton
Prison with neither in you nor on you (and I mean
that as a total compliment). It is coming your way
in other ways.
The
Provisional Movement claim to be Republican but
seem somehow lost in a mad rush to get as much money
from whatever source possible: governments, pubs,
clubs, shops, banks, schemes, scams, skulduggery;
and lost to them in all of this: integrity, principle
and credibility. It seems to be everyman for himself,
get on the bandwagon and you're a sorry eejit if
you don't.
I
remember Jack Hermon quoted as saying "everyman
has his price". Not every, perhaps many.
I
am reminded also of a line from a Yeats poem.
"A terrible beauty is born".
From
where I see it, "A terrible beast is born".
