There
has been an increasing amount of speculation of
late about possible British State collusion down
the years with middle ranking and senior members
of the Provisional Republican Movement (PRM). Before
we try and unravel this conundrum, it might help
if we put aside any prejudices we may hold against
and disappointments with the Good Friday Agreement
(GFA). Over the last decade and more, a considerable
momentum has been built up which has resulted in
British State collusion with Loyalist paramilitaries
being brought to the fore of the political stage.
The most infamous case, amongst many, to gain prominence
of late has been the now deceased senior UDA/UFF
‘intelligence officer’ Brian Nelson's
link with the British military's intelligence-gathering
unit the Force Research Unit (FRU). The main driving
force behind these exposures and the calls for Public
Inquiries into State collusion with Loyalists have
been the families of the victims of this collusion
and behind the scenes the wider PRM have given what
help and advice they could.
However just when it seemed the work of the families
was beginning to bear some fruit with the publication
of the Cory Report and the belated announcement
by the British Government that there would be a
public inquiry (of sorts) into the murder of Pat
Finucane, something occurred which members of the
PRM leadership must have been dreading. For what
had been over looked or more likely deliberately
pushed to one side by the leadership of Mr Adams
and his colleagues was that once this Brit-Loyalist
paramilitary collusion came into the public light
of day, it was only a matter of time before people
would pose the question: if the Brits were colluding
with senior loyalists, why would they have not been
doing the same with senior Republicans?
Such theories have long been bubbling just below
the surface within hardline Republican areas of
Belfast and on the internet, but by and large the
PRM leadership managed to dampen any such talk down
within their core communities. However the pressures
considerably increased after the Stakeknife allegations
became so persistent, and when Stakeknife was finally
named in the press as being Fred Scappaticci, a
senior, long term member of the PIRA security department,
the bubble burst forth. The naming of Scappaticci
as an FRU informer/agent of influence was followed
by a flood of accusation that named other Republicans
as informers/agents of influence. These accusations
were often totally unsubstantiated and they periodically
continue to this day. Nevertheless, in some quarters
this hardly mattered; what was of prime importance
was that this particular genie was well and truly
out of the bottle, to which it was never going to
be returned.
At first the PRM leadership denied any Collusion
between the British State and any of their membership.
They were ready to admit the odd informer here and
there as this was a matter of public record, but
to suggest that anything more serious went on was
condemned as felon setting by leading Republicans,
with all the menacing implications these two words
can conjure up within Ireland. When this failed
to satisfy many former members of the RM, the leadership
then resorted to past form and tried strong arm/smear
tactics against those who were either raising this
issue publicly or asking questions about State Collusion
with the Republican movement. In the end the movement
became somewhat Machiavellian and few outside of
the small leadership loop really knew what the actual
position of the PRM on this issue was. Names, at
times, were being chucked out into the proverbial
Belfast gutter like confetti; some of these names
seemed to have emanated from within the PRM leadership
itself, presumable on the pretext if you throw enough
people's names into the public gutter as being possible
informers/FRU agents of influence, then some of
them will turn out not to be and by not being so
will discredit all of the accusations. As I said,
Machiavellian!
Things have quietened down somewhat of late; cooler
heads may have prevailed both within the PRM and
amongst the 'dissidents'. Perhaps some ‘dissidents’
are beginning to realise that now is not the best
time for this debate to explode into the public
arena, as at the moment the Adams leadership clique
is juggling enough balls in the air without expecting
them to add more. For if they were to do so, the
odds against them dropping the lot would not be
good and if they were to do this, more that just
this leadership would come crashing down. Now it
appears Mr Adams and co are pretty confident of
keeping the balls marked GFA and standing PIRA down
in the air, especially if they get a little off
camera help from the most unlikely of allies. Although
even on this they have looked a little shaky of
late. But to attempt to force into their somewhat
arthritic fingers, additional juggling balls marked
Republican Collusion would be more than the most
gifted juggler from Moscow State Circus could handle.
Any help from the man who has quietly been giving
advice off stage would undoubtedly cease, because
he would be doubled up with laughter having turned
his attention to the clowns who had entered the
peripherally of the circus ring. Far better all
round then to carry on watching the current pantomime
and wait to see the new show the next time the circus
hits town.
The demand for a full examination of and a public
debate about whether British State collusion with
Republicans took place or not is not something that
is going to go away. The fear which any talk of
State collusion strikes in the upper reaches of
the Provisional Republican Movement is patently
obvious for all to see and with good reason. For
if the British were running a number of agents of
influence over and above the normal type informers
that the RUC Special Branch, etc ran at lower levels
within the movement, then rightly or wrongly it
would for some answer the conundrum that many Republicans
have long puzzled over since before the first ceasefire
and all that has happened since, i.e. IRA military
disasters like Loughall, the second ceasefire, the
recommendation by the Adams leadership of the Good
Friday Agreement, acceptance of Ministerial seats
in a Stormont Government with all this entails,
decommissioning overseen by British nominees and
perhaps finally the standing down of the IRA on
the British State's terms.
Although the aforementioned is what makes this subject
so dangerous, there may well be perfectly logical
answers to all of the above questions which have
nothing to do with British Collusion with agents
of influence in the PIRA. However, unless this matter
is at some time in the future fully aired, some
will prefer to accept the collusion theory as to
why the war was lost, instead of the simpler explanation
that once Adams and Co found themselves on the peace
process treadmill, they could not quite keep up
with the momentum at which the British were driving
it. Thus, despite SFs best endeavours they were
unable to keep it to the course they believed all
parties had agreed to chart, refusing to recognise
that the British, behind their backs, had originally
charted a totally different course, which was intended
at the journey's end to see SF shipwrecked on the
rocks. Thus, Sinn Fein have found themselves forever
going through the next door the British have opened,
before they (R.M.) had enough time to firmly shut
the door they had just past through, let alone pause
to collect their thoughts, before deciding whether
or not to proceed any further. Thus they ended up
reaching the stage when the series of doors they
thought they were required to pass through one at
a time, all swung open at the same time, having
evolved from a series of interconnecting rooms into
a single long corridor with a gale blowing down
it, which drove the SF leadership helplessly forward.
Those who have accepted that armed struggle is no
longer a viable option as far as either removing
the British presence or bringing about democratic
and economic equality in Ireland, have to place
the interest of working people at the fore-front
of their strategy. This in reality means electorally,
in the majority of Ireland's constituencies, north
and south, working people at this time have little
real choice for all of Sinn Fein’s imperfections
but to rely on it to represent their political interests.
Those on the Republican left, whilst having been
proved perfectly able to correctly analyse the failings
and mistakes of SFs current leadership, have been
less successfully in building an alternative political
party or even an embryo of such an organisation.
Thus, in the foreseeable future Sinn Fein will be
the main political advocate for Ireland's less well
off economically. This being so it is surely not
in the interest of the Republican left at this time
to help discredit and bring about the demise of
this party. For I say again, if the Adams leadership
is brought down it would not be all that comes crashing
down; the generations of Republicans who have invested
so much in this struggle over the last three decades
and more would in the main close their front doors
and withdraw from political activities, angry and
demoralised. The wider working class Republican/nationalist
communities, especially in the North, would be left
with no one to represent their interest politically.
In all probability the likes of some sort of SDLP/FF
combination would move in to fill this void, returning
to the days when middle class ‘nationalist’
parties patronisingly represented the working classes.
Surely it would be far better to hold fire and see
what opportunities open up when the PIRA is stood
down, when hopefully there will be a far more level
and democratic playing field. Plus, the socialists
within Sinn Fein may well feel more able to abandon
the iron discipline that they see as obligatory
whilst PIRA still exists in its current military
formation. Apart from satisfying our own curiosity
is there any real urgency to push this matter of
British State Collusion with Republicans to the
hilt at this time? Tiocfaidh ár lá.
