The Blanket

The Blanket - A Journal of Protest & Dissent
Dilseacht (Loyalty)

 

Mick Hall • 29 December 2006

It is often demanded of the Republican dissidents that they produce a fully drafted political program, and that they put this before the nationalist electorate. Of course, the Shinners jest when they make such demands, for they are well aware that those they so contemptuously term "dissidents" are firmly within the Irish Republicanism tradition, whilst they themselves teeter on its brink these days. Otherwise, why would they spend so much energy attempting to discredit the Dissidents? After all, they have few local councillors; and no TDs, MPs or MLAs. No matter, for the Shinners understand clearly from their own history, it's the potential of any group that poses the threat. The more so if it represents an idea seeped in history whose day may well come again, given a slight change in the current situation, or if it opposes a seedy republican organization which is well past its sell by date.

Those who follow Ruairi O'Bradaigh are set in the most traditional of Republican moulds and with RSF have a full political platform which includes abstention form the Dail and Northern Assembly. Indeed it is a program Gerry Adams is extremely familiar with, as he spent years trooping around Ireland calling on young volunteers to go to war under its banner.

Thus Mr Adams, of all people, understands what a potent brew O'Bradaigh's program can be to young patriotic minds, and he must be conscious of the fact that if his younger SF members were to study RSF Éire Nua, it might make them question who the actual dissident is when it comes to Mr Adams and Ruairi O'Bradaigh.

O'Bradaigh sticks rigidly to the terms of the oath he swore to the Irish Republic as a young volunteer, which is after all the whole purpose of swearing an oath of allegiance. Gerry Adams flip-flops all over the place, having long ago carelessly tossed his own oath of allegiance to the Irish Republic, along with his honor, into the dustbin of history, whilst demanding of his membership that they abide by their loyalty — not to the Republic, but its mockney President, Gerry Adams.

Adams proclaims to his northern party membership that all has changed, changed utterly, and Republicans must recognize the State they live in and its institutions, including, it now seems, the PSNI or to use its former name, the RUC.

O'Bradaigh see little real political change of the sort he has spent his life fighting for, simple yet more political maneuvers and shenanigans by Perfidious Albion, designed to pull the teeth of the Republican Movement and confuse and disorientate Irish patriots. O'Bradaigh notes the butchers-apron still flies above the institutions of the State-let within the north east of Ireland, and at their master's whim the British army and the PSNI still patrol the streets and hamlets of a part of nationalist Ireland.

Loyalist bigots, the heirs of those who have tormented the nationalist working classes since the northern state-let's inception, still block the way to full democracy, refusing to sit as equals with Adams' republicans in the gerrymandered State-let's Stormont Assembly, whilst demanding that it is Irish republicans and the communities from whence they come who must compromise and bend the knee, as if they were the guilty party and the obscenity that was Northern Ireland between 1922-69 never existed.

Adams exclaims it might seem so, but all that is needed is trust in the British and all will be well, for they have no selfish intent or strategic interest, for that is all in the past. Tell that to the Iraqi people, one might howl back in fury as Adams demands of his party just one more compromise, although of course he uses the Neo-conservative/New-Labour doublespeak to cover the fact that he is asking of his 'republican family' that they become Quislings, without a thought to the fact that if compromise was the road to take, Ireland would have been free long ago. Stoops and chuckies of all types have always cried compromise, trust the British State whilst they themselves lived high on the hog, leaving it for the Irish working classes to pick up the tab for such crass stupidity.

It might seem a tough choice, the bearded one cries, but once it is done we will all feel better and we can get on with the rest of our lives, as if he were a branch-man advising his prisoner to admit their offense, get it off their chest and they will feel much better. (Even though it will mean they serve a forty year stretch.)




 


 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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The Blanket - A Journal of Protest & Dissent



 

 

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Index: Current Articles



2 January 2007

Other Articles From This Issue:

The Final Step
Anthony McIntyre

Of Animal Farm and Similar Stories
Tom Luby

'Securocrats', 'JAPPS' and other 'enemies of the peace process'
Liam O Ruairc

YO HO HO
John Kennedy

Dilseacht (Loyalty)
Mick Hall

Joe & Roy Johnston: 'Water Running Uphill'?
Seaghán Ó Murchú

Concerned Republicans
Dr John Coulter

Telling Moment at Toome
Martin Galvin

Toome Debate
Anthony McIntyre

Wrap It Up
John Kennedy

KKK Taking Root?
Dr John Coulter

British Army Step Up Recruitment Attempts
Republican Socialist Youth Movement

Is This Anti-Americanism, Or What?
Father Sean Mc Manus

Finding Christmas in Uganda
David Adams

That Which Cannot Be Denied
Mick Hall

Has Regime Change Boomeranged?
M. Shahid Alam

Chile: The Ghosts of Torture
Tito Tricot

Biblical Basics
Dr John Coulter

Headbangers
John Kennedy

Across A Table
Anthony McIntyre


12 December 2006

Chile: The death of a Murderer
Tito Tricot

35 Years of Silence
John Kennedy

Perpetual opposition haunts DUP
David Adams

Sucking Up to Sinn Fein
Dr John Coulter

Circling the Wagons
Anthony McIntyre

Spin Cycle
Carrie Twomey

The Hypocrisy is Pathetic
Seamus Kearney

'Provo leaders should wake up to the truth'
Carrie Twomey

Prison Protest Held in Newry
Republican Prisoners' Action Group (RPAG)

Get It Together
Dr John Coulter

The Liar is Dead. Long Live the Liar
Anthony McIntyre

Throw Away the Key
John Kennedy

The State's Bar Must Always Be Higher
Mick Hall

Zionism: Pitting the West Against Islam
M. Shahid Alam

Mental Madness
Dr John Coulter

 

 

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