So
said the Republic of Ireland Taoiseach, Mr Bertie
Ahern in the Dáil on March 21st 2006. Did
this belief of his, that the murder of a holder
of an Irish passport was carried out in collusion
with the UK Secret State, make him break off diplomatic
relations with the said State? Has he taken this
matter to the United Nations, or at the very least
demanded an independent inquiry to be conducted
by an organization such as Amnesty International?
Did he suggest to the European Union that it set
up a Committee of Enquiry into the accusation that
one of its member states colluded with death squads
in the Murder of Irish citizens and passport holders?
After
all, in his statement he went on to say, he had
no confidence evidence of UK State collusion in
criminal acts would emerge, as the British Government
still refused to hold a full public inquiry into
the 1989 killing of Pat Finucane. He concluded with,
"A planned limited investigation by the British
authorities, under the Inquiries Act 2005, allows
ministers to block evidence from being made public".
Thus
Mr Ahern and his government do not believe the Collusion
issue will be properly addressed under the system
proposed by the current British government.
What
Bertie Ahern is in fact saying here is the British
State refuses to play ball on any enquiry into Collusion
worthy of the name, thus by informing the Oireachtas
of this, he as Taoiseach has done all he can; or
rather all he is willing to do on this matter. Such
a statement displays the impotency of states like
the Republic of Ireland when they come up against
one of the major players in international affairs.
Whilst
we all realize despicable and arrogant treatment
is meted out to Third World countries on a regular
basis by countries like the USA, Russia and to a
lesser extent the EU, we hear very little from the
media when a member state of the European Union
behaves in a similar manner to a fellow member state.
This is what is happening here.
The Republic of Ireland's closest neighbor and its
main diplomatic and trading partner has been able
with impunity to collude in criminal acts on the
island of Ireland and the Government of the ROI
feels it is powerless to do anything about it.
Now,
these acts of collusion were not some minor infringement
of the law such as refusing to pay parking fines
the UK diplomats had run up whilst having a day
out at the races. What happened here was a section
of the British Secret State went about Ireland colluding
with loyalist death squads and to a lesser degree
individual Irish Republican touts in the murder
of the UK State's perceived, real and imagined enemies.
In
addition to this they also colluded in, or turned
a blind eye to further crimes being committed by
the members of these death squads, and indeed if
any of these killers were to fall into the clutches
of honest police officers, the Secret State did
its utmost to ensure they would walk free or receive
a lesser sentence.
Imagine
if in the past, the security services of Saddam's
Iraq, or today, the Islamic Republic of Iran behaved
in a similar way towards Irish people and started
setting them up to become the victims of death squads
much as the British State did in Ireland between
1969-97. United States' bomber planes would soon
be refueling at Shannon airport with the Taioseach
and his Ministers in all probability cheering them
on their way to rain down upon the Iranian people
tons of TNT. Yet when the British State is in the
dock it seems the Taoiseach is impotent through
fear of jeopardizing the relationship with the Republic
of Ireland's main trading partner or rocking that
increasingly leaky vessel called the Good Friday
Agreement.
For
Mr Ahern's government, on this issue, the clinking
of the cash register comes before justice and common
decency. Is it any wonder Politicians are regarded
by the general public, along with Publicans and
Prostitutes as the three most insincere and two
faced professions?
Sadly,
Irish history has a habit of repeating itself in
one form or another; and if the problem of the British
presence in the north east of Ireland is not brought
to a satisfactory conclusion for all involved, it
is an odds on certainty it will come back to bite
future generations.
The
matter of British State Collusion with Death Squads
and individual killers is not a matter for historians
alone. If those who participated in these crimes,
whether in the field or in the corridors of power
are not brought out into the light of day, then
sometime in the future such dastardly deeds may
well be given a further outing by the British State
machine, with all the horrors and heartache this
would again entail.
Mr
Ahern's failure to take this issue to the wire and
if necessary beyond is not only a betrayal of those
who lost their lives to these death squads, but
it may well add an unnecessary burden to future
generations of Irishmen and women.
