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Brendan
Shannon, or Shando, as he is more widely known throughout
the republican community is a veteran republican.
Hailing from a West Belfast republican family whose
own involvement predated the peculiar phenomenon of
Provisional republicanism, 47 year old Shando has
a particular attachment to the values of traditional
republicanism. Listening to him speak it is impossible
to ignore his passion, a fervent belief that republicanism
is almost genetically inherited, situated in and transmitted
through the blood of his parents, both of whom were
staunch republicans 'of the old school.' James Connolly
stayed in his father's house on the Falls Road, beside
the Mill. He was there to talk to the workers. His
paternal grandmother kept the chair Connolly had stood
upon from which to address his working class audience.
An aunt, unfortunately, later broke it up and burnt
it replacing it with a more fashionable one. Shando's
father was attacked when he walked Leeson Street to
court his furture wife who lived in that area. That
was the "Devlin" era, when British Imperialism
ruled the roost and seemed to have no shortage of
supporters in the Falls. Shando's father took to carrying
his hurl from then on and often needed it. Republicanism
seemed thin on the ground in those days and according
to Shando it seems like the past is once again visiting
itself upon West Belfast and making republicans unwelcome
in their own streets.
For
many of us who were solely Provisional in constitution
and outlook, 1916 and the values that traditional
republicanism engendered while honourable is hardly
something that substantively shapes our political
perception or activity. More anti-British policy than
British presence, quite often Crumlin Road Courthouse
was as far as our attachment to the republican tradition
went. Once in the dock we were unable to curb our
eagerness to shout ‘guilty your honour’
loud enough so that the beak would be in no doubt
that we meant it and would then go easy on us. All
of the men and women of the GPO could not force us
to turn our back on the cretin and face in the spiritual
direction of Pearse and the certain frugality that
would accompany it. We were happy to be placed firmly
outside the MacSwiney paradigm of enduring rather
than inflicting. For those of us not attired in the
holy grail there was little essentially wrong with
that. Settling for a life sentence when ten years
was on offer seemed to be taking republicanism a step
- or a lot of extra years - too far.
Generally
speaking, this lack of being baptised and schooled
in the republican tradition may go some way toward
explaining why we ditched republicanism so easily
and ended up happily discussing what is the most effective
way to administer British rule and what type of RUC
would we put up with. For those carved from the quintessential
republican tradition such flexibility is a curse.
It is tantamount to taking the white feather. In its
dazzling white bosom there comfortably rests a fertile
disdain for the type of compromises and capitulations
that have come to characterise the republicanism of
Sinn Fein. Fidelity to the Pearsean notion is very
strong: For the 1916 icon any man who accepted:
anything
less by one fraction of an iota than separation
from England ... is guilty of so immense an infidelity,
so immense a crime against the Irish nation, that
one can only say of him that it were better for
that man (as it were certainly better for his country)
that he had not been born.
The
republican tradition demands a lot from its adherents.
We may dismiss them, find them out of touch, not living
in the modern world, glorifying the use of physical
force, incapable of dialectically comprehending leadership-led
revolutionary summersaultism and progressive censorship,
but we cannot wish them away. We armed them with guns
and legitimacy, we told them who it was legitimate
to kill, that one Irish person alone had the inalienable
right to kill all and sundry so long as it was predicated
on the intention to remove the British from Ireland.
And now they hang there as a mirror letting us know
that they are what we promised to be forever. The
image we see there is so unlike what we are now that
on occasion the impulse to lash out with the power
of the Armani to obliterate the duffle-coat is so
strong, that we might even kill or disappear them,
all the while seeking to forget that each time we
do so we kill and disappear part of ourselves. The
republican tradition visited us with a readymade answer
in 1969 and we embraced it. There is nothing we can
do that will erase our fingerprints from it.
Shando
professes loyalty to the republican tradition that
Provisionalism wishes would go away. He was interned
at the age of 17 and remained under lock and key until
21. In 1979 he was captured along with two others
in possession of IRA weapons and received a 12-year
sentence. He joined the blanket protest and stayed
on it until its conclusion in 1981, living through
the most intense and horrendous period in modern republican
jail history. He was released in 1986. He insists
that regardless of his past he is not a member of
any political or military organisation. His republican
activism these days is restricted to supporting republican
prisoners. For this reason he has attended rallies
organised by the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare
Association which is aligned to the 32 County Sovereignty
Committee. However, he claims that his support is
for all republican prisoners including those belonging
to the Provisional IRA. ‘I was in jail as a Provisional
IRA volunteer. I am not going to turn my back on their
volunteers who face a similar fate.’ In that
sense he will strike many as being both more honest
and loyal than the Provisional leadership who seem
clearly embarrassed at the mention of Provisional
IRA prisoners.
Despite
being ‘a life long republican’ he now lives
in fear that he may be killed by the organisation
to which he gave so much of his life, merely because
his political beliefs are no longer shared by his
former comrades. A mere few hours before I interviewed
him the PSNI had called to both his home and workplace
to warn him of an imminent threat to his life. When
I spoke with him he was articulate and witty. When
I expressed my dismay at The Blanket having to meet
him in a secret location, he quipped, ‘better
than in a secret grave.' The fact that we knocked
around together in prison helped relax him but beneath
the garrulous surface it was easy to detect an anxiety.
He genuinely fears becoming one of the disappeared.
He doubts that the practice has stopped as ‘very
few people are persuaded by Sinn Fein that the Provisional
IRA did not disappear Gareth O'Connor.’
I
put it to him that the Provisional IRA may be less
concerned with attacking dissident republicans per
se and may be motivated as a result of the recent
Real IRA killing of Danny McGurk in the Lower Falls.
People are unhappy at the death and the Provisionals
may be responding to local pressure. And while his
name was certainly not amongst those doing the rounds
with the dogs on the street as one of the culprits
the Provisionals may feel that with his standing within
the republican world lending weight to Real IRA prisoners,
they should mop him up as part of the internal housekeeping
for which the British state seems willing to provide
a certain latitude. He responded by saying that this
was nonsense. The animosity of the Provisionals towards
him results solely from ‘my refusal to agree
with them anymore.’ He illustrates this by detailing
his history of harassment at the hands of the Provisional
IRA.
I
was kidnapped by the Provos seven years ago and
was accused of being a member of a dissident organisation.
They told me that if I became in engaged in any
military activity against the British they would
kill me. Four years later I was summoned to meet
them and when I agreed to go they told me that I
was not to be seen in the company of more than four
dissident republicans at any one time otherwise
they would view this as evidence of membership of
and loyalty to such an organisation and they would
kill me as a result. You wouldn't get that type
of law in South Africa under the apartheid regime.
I take the Provisional threat very seriously, Gareth
O’Connor is missing and Jo Jo O’Connor
was murdered.
He
claims that since 1995 he has more or less been at
the receiving end of hassle from Provisional republicans
who find it impossible to tolerate republicans who
continue to hold the beliefs that the Provisionals
themselves once killed and died for. I asked him when
did he begin to have doubts about the direction in
which the Provisionals were going.
When
the peace process took off and the ceasefire was
called I supported the strategy and was actually
involved in heated exchanges at republican family
meetings with those who expressed reservations about
the direction of the movement. I took part in one
of the first Sinn Fein protests up at Stormont during
the peace process so it is not as if I am opposed
to politics. It is the type of politics that I call
into question. When was this ever part of the republican
outlook? I will support solid and sound politics
but not this farce. I was a staunch supporter of
the peace process but that was when it still had
a semblance of republicanism about it and we could
stretch ourselves to the point of believing that
it might be possible to advance republican objectives.
Can any one truly say that republican objectives
have been moved forward by all of this? It has become
apparent that the leadership have been lying through
their teeth. And now it has come to the point where
they are prepared to kill and disappear those who
refuse to accept the lies and are upfront about
their opposition.
He
did, however, at the time express concern to one senior
republican and was told that 'we either have everything
or nothing, Give it six months.' Now, nine years on
‘it is blatantly clear that we have nothing.’
Not prepared to wait as long as many others he severed
his links with the Provisionals in 1995 when the six
months passed and the only thing being discussed was
the Framework document.
I
was a member of the Sticks at 16 and I left them
because they called a ceasefire and it was clear
that they had got nothing. But I am not some rabid
militarist. I actually supported the political strategy
which the leadership promised would deliver. I did
not leave the Provos because they gave up the war,
I left because they give up republicanism.
I
mused to myself that he could now claim to have left
the Sticks twice. Resentment also formed part of his
narrative.
My
father brought guns in to the Falls in 1969. I remember
him taking them out of a dirty oily bag. Then sound
people got their hands on the weapons. Now that
they are in the hands of dirty oily politicians,
they are being given away and I am forced to ask
what did my father ever bother bringing them in
for to begin with and why did I have to go to jail
for possessing them? I missed my kids growing up
as a result of being in jail, they missed their
father – all because of holding onto guns which
the leadership have now given up. And to make matters
worse, these people are prepared to let Scappaticci
run about but kill me.
But
could he not stand up and reject the physical force
tradition as others including many of us at The
Blanket have done - this might get the Provisionals
off his back?
It
hasn’t got them off your back. My political
beliefs are the same as they have always been. If
the British state is here through force of arms
then the Irish people have the right to resist them
through force of arms. This is the exact same sort
of beliefs I had when I was with those who head
Sinn Fein today.
But
does that not mean that he is going to give succour
and perhaps support to those groups that continue
to wage armed campaigns which invariably result in
defeat and leave a trail of human misery in their
wake?
I
merely want to get on with my life and bring up
my kids. While I do not actively support any of
those involved in physical force republicanism I
refuse to join in with all the hypocrites and condemn
any republican carrying on armed struggle. The position
I hold on this was for long enough the position
of Sinn Fein and I do not see why I should have
to abandon it to suit the agenda of those who have
given up their republicanism. Fascism is what characterises
the Provos today. The war we fought was to secure
democracy and now we are further away from democracy
within these communities than ever. The very least
I expected to obtain from this war was to be on
equal terms with the unionists. Now I am further
down the food chain than anybody. Touts and drug
dealers get a better deal in republican communities
than republicans who oppose the present strategy.
Druggies, thieves and rapists can walk the streets
unharmed but if you are a dissident republican then
you are scum.
Would
he not go to the mainstream media and try to highlight
his case?
Are
you serious? The media have been abominable. They
simply do not want to upset the apple cart. The
media are prepared to turn a blind eye while we
have the absurd position whereby the Provos are
prepared to kill so long as it is in defence of
the peace process. What sort of process is it? We
had the debacle at Stormont where the Alliance pretended
to be Unionists for an hour to keep the whole farce
up and running. And they are going to kill me -
a republican - to maintain that.
Is
there no one in authority he can appeal to or put
pressure on in order to get the situation resolved?
The
British Government stink. They are prepared to turn
a blind eye to my murder. Tony Blair and Hugh Orde
have both said that the IRA ceasefire is intact
despite Orde conceding that they killed Gareth O’Connor.
It means the IRA have a license to murder their
own people but nobody else.
The
British Government not being the type of authority
I had in mind I asked him had he considered approaching
his local MP?
Gerry
Adams has the power to put a stop to this. He can
call them off and prevent my murder and that of
other republicans who oppose the direction in which
his movement has gone. At one time I saw myself
getting up at 6 o’clock in the morning to go out
on his election campaign to ensure that he would
be elected. And to what end? If he wishes to he
can ensure that I or no one else is murdered or
disappeared. I have spent my life fighting injustice
and I am in contact with others who feel badly let
down by the way this has worked out. We cannot stay
silent on these matters. People in authority just
turn a blind eye to all of this. There is a need
for those of us opposed to what is happening to
come together and build a republican group that
will defend the rights of people in these communities.
There are many problems in them but they cannot
be solved by disappearing and killing people. If
you are not in the Sinn Fein clique you are no better
than human waste. Your life is of no value to Sinn
Fein if you are not a member of the ‘yes’
gang. Sinn Fein have given up their beliefs and
are now motivated by power. The ideals which lay
behind our struggle are no longer sacrosanct.
It
was with a large measure of regret that I left Shando
to make the journey back home. We had spent many years
in the H-Blocks winding, mixing, debating, backstabbing,
furiously disagreeing with each other - myself and
Tommy Gorman tortured him remorselessly as he lay
in bed incapacitated by the flu. It was what he would
have done to us given half a chance. It was simply
all the usual things that prisoners do to put in the
hours. Most of it was jovial. Our interview two days
ago was the first time ever that sombreness dominated
the exchanges. What saddened me most was that he was
the same Shando from the jail, professing the same
ideas and sentiments. And now he lives in the shadow
of fear because in his view he was not prepared to
succumb to groupthink because some dictator ordained
that it should be so.
Shando
holds to an analysis that I have long since abandoned.
But on this I find common purpose with him: whatever
the problems that afflict these areas capital punishment
is infinitely worse than any of them. That more than
anything else should be resisted. If the power structure
is prepared to kill us for speaking out against it,
all the more reason for speaking out.
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