|
Indeed
there we have it, the ‘truth’ straight from
the horse’s mouth. We should perhaps pay no heed
to the notion by those malcontents who suggest this
man Tohill is under extreme pressure, fearful (rightly
it seems) for his own life and is likely to accept
‘guarantees’ for his own safety in return
for a retraction of his initial claims that the Provisional
Movement were involved in said abduction.
Sorry
to drop this soggy biscuit of cynicism into your Latte
Grande which you’ll no doubt be sipping while
pondering the shadowy machinations of British Security
policy, but maybe as decent human beings we should
reflect objectively upon the equally dirty business
of propaganda and (as importantly) counter-propaganda.
Being
the sensitive issue it is for SF, paramilitary policing
does not quite square the circle in regards to the
Good Friday Agreement (and its obligation to desist
from such activity). It’s the kind of craic that
may be accepted by your average Falls Rd Joe soap,
but doesn’t go down too well with your expansion
into the Malone Rd voter base – where UTV reports
of knee breakers with baseball bats is guaranteed
a gasp of bourgeois incredulity.
If
every SF press release (followed by a next day seven
page exercise in political head-nodding by the Andytown
News) were to be taken at face value then it would
be true that the Provisional Movement were not involved
in the following: the murder of Joe O’Connor,
the murder of Andy Kearney, Brendan Rice’s abduction
in Co. Down, Stephen Moore’s abduction in Belfast;
The abduction and possible murder of Gareth O’Connor.
Or if we want to delve further back into the archives;
the murder of Jean McConville (which some may remember
was also initially denied) or the murder of an innocent
postman in Newry during a PIRA robbery around the
initial stages of the ceasefire. The latter was of
course originally denied but then later accepted with
the footnote that the unit involved was acting “without
orders”.
Who
is SF’s Press Officer up at Stormont now? I would
guess that this person’s CV contains a period
of employment as a second-rate side show conjurer
who was sacked due to his inability to even vaguely
mystify a gullible 6 year old.
I’m
sorry, but a party that insists every so often that
it’s members should ‘suspend belief’
in order to get it through the next crisis has already
broken with any revolutionary credibility. “A
revolutionary must stick to the truth like a finger
sticks to the glove,” Che Guevara once said.
Pay heed to that.
McGuiness’s
comments that these accusations were an attempt by
Unionists/Brits etc to have them ejected from the
Agreement rang so very hollow around Stormont’s
imperial halls. No doubt everyone was expected to
make the same mental back-flips which created the
image in ones mind of suited NIO ministers charging
into Kelly’s Cellars to beat, bind and gag a
struggling Bobby Tohill in the hope of embarrassing
SF and ruining the peace process. I half expected
McGuiness to make a desperate try at ‘jedi mind
control’ by donning a cloak Obi-Wan style and
casting a sorcerous hand across our screens whilst
saying in a low voice; “the provisional movement
had nothing to do with this alleged abduction….our
stance is very clear on this kind of activity….”
Undoubtedly
if said ‘operation’ had actually been successful
then one can clearly envisage the news of an abducted
and possibly ‘missing’ Mr Tohill featured
along with the usual shrugs, denials and dismissals
emanating from Connolly House.
Index: Current Articles + Latest News and Views + Book Reviews +
Letters + Archives
|
