Six
months ago, in the Call for a Congress of Republicans,
this author signed up “to stand against
the tyranny of abuse and intimidation employed against
anyone who has the courage and fortitude to speak
out against the wrongs and injustices they see,
or suffer themselves.” Thus, when Bobby
Tohill expressed the desire to report what he believed
to be a politically motivated campaign to vilify
his name, The Blanket felt obliged to do so. Tohill
believes that there are “a small number
of people” in a position of “high
authority” within the Provisional movement
who are trying to “demonise” him
through the Andersonstown News. Tohill notes
that apart from some titles of the Sunday gutter
press, it is the only newspaper in Ireland which
carries unsigned articles doing so.
Tohill
was referring to last Thursday’s edition of
the paper, which carried an unsigned article reporting
how he was convicted in court of the charges of
drunk driving. Tohill expressed “regrets”
about his actions, and admitted that what he had
done had been “very wrong”, to
say the least. The only mitigating circumstances
he could think of was that he was suffering from
post-traumatic stress disorder. (In the eyes of
this writer, it was actually criminally wrong, and
Bobby was very lucky to escape with just three years
driving suspension and a fine.) Bobby Tohill criticised
the article on two grounds. The first one is that
every month, dozens of people from West Belfast
appear in court for driving offences. The Andersonstown
News rarely reports those cases, so why would
they write a whole article about his court appearance?
What was so special about this case? The only reason
Tohill can think of is because of his high profile
following the Kelly’s Winecellar incident last
February. That brings up the second reason why Bobby
is critical of that article. The paper is implicitly
trying to connect a “personal and apolitical
problem” (drink driving) into the “political
equation” for the purposes of discrediting
him. For Tohill, there are no logical connections
between the two issues, personal and political,
and the paper illegitimately tries to associate
them.
“If
the Andersonstown News are so interested in my life,
why don’t they get in touch with me, and find
out what I am really about?” declares Tohill.
“And if they are so concerned about the
detrimental effects of alcohol consumption, why
do they advertise no less than 14 pages of alcohol
related promotions in the same edition of their
paper?” This was not the only contradiction
in the paper that Bobby pointed to. A couple of
pages later, an article quotes Mr Maskey referring
to Tohill as a “so-called victim”.
“They print that I am a ‘so-called
victim’, yet a few pages back, there is a photo
of the ‘so-called victim’ in hospital
with no fewer than 120 stitches!” Those
inconsistencies could just show poor standards of
journalism, but Tohill thinks that there is something
more sinister at work. “What was the purpose
of publishing that? I believe that is symptomatic
of a hidden agenda.” Bobby thinks that
those who wrote those articles are “pathetic
puppets” of certain elements within the
Provisional movement who have a “personal
grudge” against him, and are using the
paper to demonise him. He agrees with the description
of the Andersonstown News as the “propaganda
voice of banana Republicanism”.
Bobby
insists that “as an Irish Republican and
ex-Volunteer”, he has a lot of respect
for people from the Provisional movement apart from
the “small minority” who has a
grudge against him. He says that he fought for the
liberation of the Irish working class “inside
and outside prison walls” for “three
decades”, and is not prepared to allow
his life being wrecked by that small minority. He
reiterates that he is not a ‘dissident’,
and believes that armed struggle is “over
for good”. That said, he thinks that the
political direction taken by the Provisional movement
is “drastically wrong” from a broad
Republican perspective. He agrees with the peace,
but not with the process. He notes that he is popular
with the local community, and has received a lot
of support around the country and abroad. He is
confident that people will not be duped. “Everybody
can read between the lines and know what the truth
really is” concludes Tohill. Let the readers
judge for themselves.
