This being the last edition of the Irish Republican e-magazine The
Blanket, I thought I might mull over my own thoughts about this
publication and my connection with it. For me it is impossible to
separate The Blanket from its co-founders and editors Anthony and
Carrie McIntyre. On a personal level, these two have enriched my life;
on a political level, they are comrades of the highest calibre, honest,
straight and sound. As an editor Carrie was every writer's dream:
supportive when necessary, but not one to alter or interfere with your
copy; all she demanded was that the writing be literate (in my case at
times my dyslexic copy must have taxed her somewhat!).
Whilst her husband is well known for his courage and steadfastness, Carrie
is his equal. It is often overlooked that at times she also came under
the most unwarranted smears, about her nationality, political sincerity
and such nonsense. In a short space of time there were two attempts
to silence them, first a picket
organized by members of the Provisional Republican Movement, when the
McIntyres refused to be silenced after the Provos shot dead the
Belfast commander of the RIRA,
for doing something that the Provos had spent the best part of four
decades doing, i e engaging in armed struggle. This was later followed by the McIntyre's home being raided by the RUC, who
confiscated the
computer the Blanket was produced on.
The former attempt to censor the McIntyres by picketing their West
Belfast home made some of the Provos staunchest supporters shuffle
their feet with shame, not least because Carrie was six months
pregnant at the time and Anthony had served 18 years in jail for his
work as a Provo volunteer, four years of which he spent on the Blanket and no-wash protest. When
a section of the Provo leadership endorsed that picket, it signaled to
many that they had begun to lose touch with their core support base
and the street. For Anthony McIntyre, a man who had spent four years
on the Blanket was hardly going to bend to a mob of howling banshees.
As to the magazine itself, it was without doubt the most openly
democratic magazine in Irish republican history. That Sinn Féin
refused to make use of The Blanket to reply to our critiques of the
Adams leadership strategy, preferring instead to set the smear and
slander brigade on to the McIntyres, was yet another misjudgment and
mistake on their part. I have absolutely no doubt, despite the
personal attacks made upon them by certain Provos, the McIntyres
would have opened The Blanket to them; indeed a fair amount of what
was published was an attempt to provoke the Adams leadership to open
up a real debate about where they were taking the Provisional
Republican Movement.
Whilst some may be sighing with relief at the thought of seeing the
back of The Blanket, it is the right time to put it to bed. Irish
republicanism needs to go through a process of rebirth; to continue
to fight what are in reality old battles, which are centered on where
the Provisional leadership of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have
taken the movement, would be counterproductive in the extreme. We have
had that argument and debate, indeed it was The Blanket's raison
d'être. It will now be for history to decide whether we at The Blanket were correct in our analysis or Mr Adams and his leadership clique.
Those Republicans who stand outside of the Sinn Féin political
ferment need to look extremely carefully at the last 38 years of
struggle and sacrifice, and when doing so try not to concentrate solely
on individuals, and questions of leadership, but consider how the
Republican Movement can move beyond what can only be described as a
conspiratorial style of organization and practice. Such organizational
methodology is perfectly logical if the movement is to continue down
the road of being a military conspiracy. Although if the Provisionals
were unable to complete the national revolution after 38 years of
armed struggle, it is difficult to see how any present or future
incarnation of armed republicanism could do so. For say what you might
about some of the questionable decisions made by the Adams leadership
in recent years, the generations that made up the ranks of the Óglaigh Na hÉireann were amongst the most determined, steadfast
and self sacrificing group of people ever to call themselves Irish
Republicans.
However instead of simply recruiting into its ranks the vanguard of the Irish
people, perhaps Irish republicanism should consider turning outwards
democratically
to the Irish people as a whole, and to the democratic progressive
political forces within Irish society, whether they be the trade
unions, leftist political organizations, NGO's, community groups, etc.
If so, Republicanism must lead by example and have democratic
structures that are open, accountable and beyond question. Then we
might finally witness the emergence of a United Democratic Socialist
Republic of Ireland. Tiocfaidh ár lá.
Read more of Mick Hall at his blog, Organized Rage.
