Almost
37 years after loyalist gangs backed by armed police
and B-Specials stormed the Falls and set fire to
nationalist dwellings, the unthinkable is happening
again. This time in the midst of West Belfast's
Ballymurphy estate, from where the nearest loyalist
is about half a mile, nationalist homes are being
burned by other nationalists and people are fleeing
a la the refugees of 1969. Were these activities
taking place in Larne there would be a nationalist
political outcry, led by Sinn Fein and the SDLP.
Yet when it happens in their own backyard, the response
has been pretty muted. The unionist political parties
have said even less. Perhaps their attitude is that
every nationalist should incinerate another and
in turn be burned at the stake for it.
What
is going on in Ballymurphy, and which has provoked
such widespread silence, is nothing short of a pogrom
against an extended family, some of whose members
were involved in the brutal knife killing of local
father of six, Gerard Devlin. Armed with the mindset
of the racist those behind the incendiary attacks
are targeting people because of the family they
happen to be born into and not because of any individual
culpability they might bear.
Ironically,
the most outspoken and persistent condemnation of
the arson attacks has come from the extended Loughran
family, currently mourning the loss of their relative,
Gerard Devlin. Its dignity, resilience and character
in adverse circumstances are far removed from the
'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no truth' posture
adopted by nationalist politicians and the so called
community press. Having experienced the pain of
recent bereavement the Loughran family seem determined
to ensure it arrives at the door of no one else.
In
his television interview Thomas Loughran, who was
injured in the same incident which saw Gerard Devlin
lose his life, framed his narrative in religious
imagery. His late nephew was, he said, surrounded
as Jesus had been by the Jews in Mel Gibson's The
Passion of Christ. A Jewish analogy can also
be constructed to help narrate the current pogrom.
The events at the homes of the Notorantonio family
echo Kristallnacht when Jewish property was destroyed
in a blitz of violence perpetrated by Hitler's Nazis.
The
police, who in 1969 participated in the burnings,
this time refrained. They have positioned their
considerable manpower and resources in the area
but seemingly only for the optics. Their contribution
to preventing arson-bent gangs has been negligible,
their very visibility underlining the absurdity
of their presence. Perhaps they are being faithful
to the parity of esteem concept. Useless in loyalist
Garnerville, useless in republican Ballymurphy,
it seems they couldn't catch Asian bird flu were
it to afflict West Belfast.
Viewing
events, there are some who see the burnings as the
product of a local anger, the catalyst for which
was a gruesome knife murder, rather than local republicans
seizing an opportunity to exact vengeance on a family
they have long been at odds with. Perhaps. The PSNI
tend towards such a view. When I interviewed the
police chief overseeing the Ballymurphy incidents,
Peter Farrar, he was emphatic that he had no information
leading him to believe that there was any group
other than hoods involved in the arson attacks.
His view was that the perpetrators were young people
with a specific knowledge of the back garden system
of Ballymurphy, enabling them to strike at will
and to evade police detection.
Sinn
Fein's position is not that far removed from the
PSNI. Eager to stillborn any suggestion that the
IRA might be involved, the party has been floating
the idea that hoods and 'Sticks' have been behind
the burnings. While there seems to be nobody buying
into the notion that the Sticks are to blame, the
idea that hoods might be responsible was reinforced
in the nascent stages of the arson attacks when
the local dogs in the street were ready as ever
to bark out more than a name or two. The bulk of
the people on the dog radar screen considered arsonists
are not even republicans never mind IRA members.
They have been a thorn in the side of the IRA for
years and would be more than capable of pursuing
a course of action independent of anything the IRA
wanted.
Against
this is an alternative view which raises doubts
about matters being so straightforward. The firebombing
spate exudes the appearance of being methodical
and organised; planned arson, coordinated arson,
reasoned arson, rather than the random outburst
or spontaneity that instant anger gives rise to.
Outside
a Belfast courtroom on Thursday, a solicitor for
two men accused of murdering Gerard Devlin, claimed
on their behalf that the burnings were being organised
by Community Restorative Justice. The head of CRJ,
Jim Auld, was quickly out of the traps to dismiss
this. Auld would seem to have facts on the ground
to back him. Even in the undergrowth there are no
whispers that CRJ personnel are involved.
But
the IRA has not proved immune to such murmurings.
The Notorantonios are adamant that the organisation
is behind the attacks. They point to incidents where
they claim IRA members issued threats directly to
family members, telling them to leave the area and
shut down their business properties. The grapevine,
both local and further afield, is abuzz with rumours
lending weight to the claims of the Notorantonios.
People in the Short Strand, Ormeau Road, Markets,
Andersonstown and Twinbrook say matter of factly
that it is 'the Ra.' Some of those have arrived
at their judgement as a result of the way in which
the Sinn Fein press has glossed over and underreported
the arson campaign. Locally, the dogs in the street
have audibly shifted the pitch of their bark over
the course of a week. Some republicans are strong
in arguing why the IRA would be orchestrating the
pogrom, although weak in citing evidence that would
lead a detached observer to share this view.
With
each passing day, as the burnings continue unabated,
the suspicions that a hidden hand is at play have
been bulked out with substance. On Friday evening,
if the account of Charlotte Notorantonio is accurate,
that hand was displayed. Her home was petrol bombed
while she was inside it. She maintains that for
days IRA figures had allegedly been observed peering
through the windows to ascertain if the house was
occupied. When her daughter left the house, the
assailants struck. Unbeknown to them Charlotte was
at home, saw the attackers approach and ran out
to confront them. She says she recognised one of
them as an IRA member. Her daughter on her return
journey to the family home claims to have identified
a number of IRA members known to her pulling off
masks as they ran through a nearby alleyway.
If
it is true that the IRA is involved, it would confirm
the view of its republican critics that it has lost
its way completely and has now become the very ogre
it initially arose to defend communities against
- a hideous mutant that burns nationalist families
out of their homes. If it is not involved it, like
the PSNI, has done little to halt the pogrom. If
Sinn Fein homes were subject to such sustained and
focussed attack, the republican community would
be mobilised post-haste. Were the homes of the murderers
of Robert McCartney to be treated likewise, Sinn
Fein would have intervened immediately - and rightly
so.
The
community of Ballymurphy faces being dragged towards
an abyss. An outrage on the scale of the murder
of the Quinn children by loyalists some years ago
is an outcome that is beckoning if the current torching
of homes is not halted. The only honest response
that republicans and police could offer in the aftermath
was that they followed the 1969 example of Jack
Lynch: both stood idly by.
