We started it shortly after the birth of our daughter. Basically we have had a 7 year run, which is pretty good
for an amateur website.
We had no advertising, no grants, no funding. We ran a total of two
fundraisers, both to replace our laptop, first when we were raided by the
PSNI, they took the laptop off us, and the second one was when the first
replacement started to go wonky. No one got paid anything for working on The
Blanket, not the writers, not the editor. We use donated server space.
Everything about The Blanket has been a labor of love. We did it because we
believed in it. We ran into millions of hits, easily over 25 million. It's a
huge site, basically 6-7 years of material covering the peace process,
dissecting it, looking at it from unapproved angles. Much of what we were
saying has come to pass. I find it ironic now, reading Jonathan Powell's
revealing book which has vindicated our analysis, that when we started out
we were accused by SF and their supporters of having a British agenda,
because we spoke the truth as we saw it, and now we find out all the while
it was the British who were writing their statements, SF's and the IRA's! It
shows you how upside down it all was. We had no "British agenda". Our only
agenda was freedom of speech, the freedom to speak the truth as you saw it.
I would be most proud of the record The Blanket has left. It is not much but
it is a roadmap of sorts for the future. It was important to have people
writing down their memories, their analysis, their concerns, their
experiences, that would not otherwise have gotten a hearing. People's words
and thoughts that wouldn't have been published elsewhere, like Brendan
Hughes's, now live on because of it. Their words are a testament to what
this peace process has
meant for ordinary people, people outside the political class. It's also an
analysis of what happens to "social climbers with bombs", what they do when
they start to turn on their own people. It's all there, all exposed for
anyone to come and understand, to see what happened, to hopefully take
lessons from it and avoid it in the future. So I would be proud of having
been able to create a space for people to have their voices heard. Anyone
could write for us, it didn't matter if it was "party approved" or helpful
to the peace process or not. All you had to do was have the guts to put your
name to your words, to stand over what you said. And that I think encouraged
people. People needed to see others visibly articulating what they
themselves thought.
Now we see much of our analysis is common currency but for years it wasn't
so. We were vilified, hated. We used to joke about being "the most hated in
West Belfast", which we had to do as it was that bad. We predicted
decommissioning, the endorsement of the police, the atrophy of the
Provisional IRA, everything, The Blanket was writing about it happening and
it all came to pass. Yet at the time The Blanket was writing this, the
propaganda saying otherwise was in full effect. So we were heretics. You
couldn't say what The Blanket was saying because that would give the game up
and Gerry wouldn't get the support he needed to carry it through. So they
turned the hate machine on, did everything they could to stop people
listening to what The Blanket had to say, and now they are sitting in
Stormont, embracing the police, having concreted weapons, talking about how
the principle of consent is revolutionary thinking. They got the support
they needed, and now they don't care anymore, so it's ok if the grassroots
now hold our analysis; it doesn't matter now, it's too late.
Over the years we were picketed, threatened, raided. We lived in a climate
of fear. But it was worth it. If you believe in something, you face up to
it. I believe in freedom of speech. "I may not agree with what you have to
say but I will defend to the death your right to say it" - that is it in a
nutshell. The Blanket carried all sorts of opinions, much of it in direct
contradiction. Loyalists, unionists, republicans of differing shades, people
from around the world on different topics, it was a space where no "party
line" had to be adhered to, and I think our readers appreciated that. Living
in the Clinton-Blair era of spin over substance meant people had to look
elsewhere for voices of truth, people willing to speak from the heart and
not "on message". The peace process was so much spin and propaganda, and
mainstream media censoring itself for fear of being "unhelpful" to the
process. It was Orwellian, especially within the Republican community, where
night was day and day was night, and anyone who said otherwise had to be
silenced. The Blanket was an alternative to that.
I am also very proud of the stand we took supporting the Manifesto against
Totalitarianism. It showed our commitment to freedom of speech. It broadened
things out further. The profiles of the 12 writers who signed the Manifesto
and the debate that followed was enlightening. We were denounced by some for
doing so but it was important to do. We would not be worth a thing in terms
of being against censorship if we didn't say anything when this Manifesto
was published. We didn't present it ignorantly, we wanted to give our
readers more background so that it was an informed debate. I think it was a
bright moment.
When The Blanket started out, the internet hadn't permeated Ireland as
thoroughly as it has now. The internet's great value is that it gives
everyone with access to a modem a printing press. The space is always there
for those who want to pick up the torch and carry on.
Thank you all very much for your support over the years.