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Mick Hall • 28 January 2005
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It
is often difficult these days to understand the
raison-d’etre of the PIRA, beyond that is to
act as a bargaining chip for SF in the never-ending
ceasefire negotiations. In many ways they remind
me of those British army old sweats, portrayed in
the old black and white movie The
League of Gentlemen, in which after being
demobbed at the end of WW2 they found life in civvies
street not all that it was cracked up to be, and
were recalled as a unit by their old CO to carry
out a spot of private enterprise, their target being
an over stuffed Bank vault. Ridiculous I know, as
this type of thing only happens in the movies.
I doubt many people expect the PIRA in the north
of Ireland to simply pack their bags and disappear
into the sunset, especially now that the likes of
the Rev. Ian Paisley has demanded they depart wearing
sack cloth and ashes. But it is increasingly difficult
to understand why they insist on maintaining active
service units in the south of Ireland. One could
understand them maintaining an administrative unit
away from the prying eyes of the British Security
Services, until such time as a deal is completed
in the north. But to justify having active service
units which by their very existence break the laws
of the ROI is another matter. The more so when one
takes into account the pan-nationalist-front, or
whatever daft name one wishes to call the alliance
of the FF government, PSF, SDLP and Irish America,
has served SF well since its inception. Having said
this, after recent events there can be little doubt
many in the south feel that this alliance will need
some blunt talking and tender loving care if it
is ever to be the same again.
In a recent issue of the Blanket, I wrote,
in an article entitled, The
End of the Road, that in the Republic of Ireland,
"a large and diverse group of public opinion
has been formed across the political spectrum, which
believes that PRM has reached the end of the road
as a dual organisation." I had formed this
opinion during the media brouhaha that had broken
around the PRM after the robbery of the Northern
Bank in Belfast. Whilst in the main the media repeated
Irish and UK government accusations that the PIRA
was responsible for the bank robbery, they also
highlighted the type of crimes that the PIRA active
service units were accused of perpetrating in the
Republic of Ireland, which ranged across the board
from tax evasion scams, money laundering and loan
sharking, armed robberies, pilfering from the docks,
counterfeiting designer goods, smuggling cigarettes
and highjacking freight.
Once the Provisional Republican Movement decided
to recognise the Dail and if elected enter it as
TD's, the current position and behaviour of the
PIRA within the jurisdiction of the ROI became untenable,
as its political wing had a clear responsibility
on entering the Dail to uphold the laws and institutions
of the Irish State. Thus it is not unfair to conclude
that to continue to have ASU's on the ground in
the ROI is not only untenable but totally unethical,
for what the PRM's military wing does in reality
if given the opportunity is rob the very same state's
citizens, plunder their businesses, and defraud
the ROI revenue service, whilst its political wing
has sworn to protect the same people and States
institutions. A contradiction of terms indeed.
Thus the belief that the PIRA should cease all its
activities in the ROI was not a view held by just
the usual suspects who have always opposed them,
but as I have already said, came from people across
the political spectrum and this group was growing
by the day. Thus there was a real opportunity to
bring pressure to bear on the PRM to stand down
all volunteers who live within the geographical
area that covers the ROI and cease all military
activity within the said same state. If the PRM
were to organise this, it would surely prove their
good will as far as decommissioning their weaponry
is concerned, and prove that if threats and demands
are not present, they are prepared to move forward
on the very complex and emotive issue of decommissioning
and standing the PIRA down. After all the darkness
brought about by the lack of progressive political
movement during the past month, for a brief period
it looked as if some light may be about to seep
in.
However instead of concentrating on what is possible,
many of the ROI leading politicians went off at
the most ridiculous tangent. At the head of which,
mounted on what looks to me suspiciously like Don
Quixote faithful barn horse, Rocinante, sits the
ROI Justice Minister Michael McDowell, safe in his
belief that the PRM is a kin to a windmill only
masquerading as a dangerous giant. Did he and his
faithful Sancho Panzas call for realisable demands,
and if so did they allow leading members of the
PRM enough wriggle room to act upon them? Did they
hell as like, they blundered in demanding that Mr
Mitchell McLaughlin condemns as criminals the volunteers
who ordered and carried out the killing of poor
Mrs McConville? They did this in the full knowledge
that if Mr McLaughlin were to do this, he would
be denying the whole history of his movement, be
spitting on the graves of Republican martyrs such
as the ten hunger strikers, plus the hundreds of
men and women who endured many prison protest down
the years, the purpose of which was to demand political
status and finally McLaughlin would be all but placing
the SF party President Gerry Adams head on the block.
As Adams was allegedly a senior Provisional officer
in Belfast at the time of Mrs McConville death.
Not surprisingly Mr McLaughlin declined to step
forward and help destroy the movement he has worked
tirelessly building for most of his adult life.
So, perhaps as Mr McDowell intended with his grand
standing, he has in reality achieved nothing as
far as moving the PRM into accepting the PIRA has
outlived its usefulness. The ROI's very own windmill
cruncher has achieved little, but his handiwork
has managed to achieve something, even if like many
opportunist politicians before him it was unintended.
He has managed to sow doubts in the minds of many
of the people in the coalition that has emerged
in recent times that I mentioned above. For if he
and those that support him in the media believe
what motivates many of these people is to publicly
humiliate and criminalise all those who have been
through the ranks of the PIRA, then they are badly
misled. The majority will simply not go down that
road, for how could they, as many within their ranks
were themselves at one time volunteers and feel
no need to apologise for being so.
They will not join the hounds who wish to denigrate
those men and women who chose to fight bigotry,
injustice and gerrymandering by becoming volunteers.
True, many these days may feel that another way
may have been more appropriate to confront the injustices
the nationalist population of the northern Statelet
faced on a daily basis. But hindsight is a wonderful
thing not available to those who were engaged in
the struggle back then. Yes, dreadful crimes against
humanity were committed during the course of the
frightful years the north of Ireland has passed
through. But armed Republicans alone did not only
commit these monstrous acts, the British State and
their allies in the Unionist Para-Militaries committed
their own sizeable share of crimes against humanity.
I see no evidence of Mr McDowell attempting to criminalise
them, nor the organisations they belong to. No,
he just wishes to dig back into the distant past
of Republicans. Hopefully there may come a time
when this will be possible, but even the most brainless
politician should be able to see we have not reached
it yet.
Our priority should be taking the gun out of Irish
politics, which is something most can at least agree
with Gerry Adams on. Instead of pillorying and placing
the PRM in the public stocks, would it not be more
appropriate to look for ways that will encourage
and pressurise them to stand the PIRA down? Perhaps
if people stop tilting at windmills, we could move
forward on a stage-by-stage basis. Is it an impossibility
to imagine two Irishmen, both members of political
party's that originally came from the same Republican
tradition, making an agreement that would see the
end of all PIRA activity within the borders of the
Republic of Ireland?
If they were to do so, would that not send a message
to the Unionist Community in the north of Ireland,
that just maybe the PRM is serious about taking
the gun out of Irish politics, and they are genuine
about decommissioning and standing their armed wing
down in the north of Ireland? A long shot perhaps,
but we could all do with a little sun light being
let into this process, as we have surely had enough
of these politically bleak, mid-winters days.
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All
censorships exist to prevent any one from challenging
current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress
is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and
executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently
the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships.
- George Bernard Shaw
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