I
am reliably informed that Sinn Fein and the Republican
Army are going to be setting up "think tanks"
to discuss the way forward for the people who will
effectively, become ex-volunteers, once their final
act of decommissioning has taken place and the IRA
is stood down.
I
am told that they are spending vast amounts of money
in setting up reunions in hotels all around the
country for ex-members and current members to air
their views on the leadership's decision to stand
down their private army and thereby remove any excuse
for the Unionist parties not to involve themselves
in the discussions, with regard to the Peace Process.
Reports
state that these get togethers are going to culminate
in one massive all Ireland PIRA rally for former
Republican prisoners, which promotes the question,
why only former prisoners? (I have to wonder where
all the money is coming from anyway, oil, maybe?)
Is
it the case, that if you were falsely imprisoned,
and a whole lot of Republicans were, or were arrested
while involved in an operation, that you are more
highly thought of, than someone who was never arrested
or imprisoned? (Strange criteria?)
It
is also widely rumoured, that special medals are
being minted to be presented to all of the ex-volunteers
who performed in active service from nineteen seventy
until the present day, which also promotes a few
questions.
Apart
from being an ex-prisoner, what will the qualification
for the award of such a medal, be?
Will
there be different medals for different ranks?
Does
it mean that Martin will receive one and Gerry won't,
as Gerry has always denied being a member of the
said army, but then, perhaps that's where the prisoner
angle comes in, well, that is something that Gerry
could never deny being.
What
about the people who were killed by the security
forces while on active service, or even the ones
who were not on active sevice, but were killed as
part of the Brits' shoot to kill policy, will they
be awarded posthumously?
What
about the families of Ten Dead Men? Will there be
a special medal for wives, mothers, fathers, brothers
and sisters, who had to watch and endure, while
their loved ones died, slow agonizing deaths?
Will
there be an extra special medal for Paddy Magee,
because according to the bold Paddy, on his yearly
tours on the anniversary of the Brighton bombing,
his actions did more to bring about the Good Friday
Agreement, than anyone's. (A sin to aswer for?)
Will
there be medals for the Sinn Fein volunteers, Mary
Lou McDonald, Bairbre de Brun and the volunteer
from the RUC, (whose name escapes me at the present
moment, just goes to show how interested I am, in
the membership of Sinn Fein.) I mean, the guy from
the RUC must have saw active service, albeit he
was probably shooting at us, at the time, but does
that really matter?
What
about Scap? Will he be able to return from his hideaway
somewhere in Europe, to rapturous applause from
the attending faithful, to receive his award, as
surely, he, along with others in the upper echelons
of the Republican movement did more to bring about
the defeat of the Republican Army and thereby facilitate
the Good Friday Agreement, than anyone.
Or
even Raymond Gilmour, wouldn't he be entitled to
a medal? Well, he did serve in the Republican Army
in the years stipulated and did see active service,
so why shouldn't Ray turn up to receive his gong?
Could
I just say, that, I believe that Sinn Fein have
learned an awful lot from the Brits in the ten years
of eating scraps from their table.
Firstly,
they have learned that the people whom you are elected
to represent only matter when it is time to re-elect
you.
And,
secondly, that there is nothing to quite get the
masses more excited than a good old fashioned award
ceremony, just look at the Oscars or the BAFTA's.
Pomp and Circumstance, jingoism and jamborees, it
doesn't matter whether you win or lose, it is the
taking part that matters. Even if you lose, never
admit to it, just have a massive party and pretend
to everyone that, although it appears that you lost,
you actually won, and to reinforce the myth, issue
everyone who took part in the campaign with a medal,
so that in the years to come they will be able to
show it to their grandchildren and say "I fought
in the war and we won, see, look at the medal I
received, you don't get medals for losing."
But,
believe me when I say this, we did lose the war
and we lost it due mainly to a leadership, (not
them all), who were cutting deals with the enemy
long before any discussion had taken place amongst
the rank and file as to whether we would even accept
discussions on a ceasefire.
So,
one final question that I feel must be asked. How
many, hand on the heart Republicans, do you think
will accept an invitation to their synthetic awards
ceremony?
I
know one, who definitely won't.
Tiocfaidh-Ar-La!
