Border
Bandits has a desperado ring to it which is probably
why it was chosen as a title for the Spotlight documentary
that recently shone its beam into the West Tyrone
town of Strabane. When republican South Armagh refused
to be paraded as a model of British defined normalisation
it was labelled Bandit Country. The evocative inflexion
signalled by banditry conveys a sense of society
where the social law of gravity is lawlessness.
What
made Strabane newsworthy, from the point of view
of the programme makers, was its identification
as the site of a high incidence of robberies over
the past number of years. When the Blanket interviewed
PSNI boss Hugh Orde and asked him about the campaign
being waged against DPP members throughout the North
he responded by saying he had on one occasion made
a late night journey to Strabane to monitor the
situation for himself. The Blanket hadn't specified
Strabane; the town was already taxing the mind of
Hugh Orde. A location meriting chief constable's
time was nominating itself as a candidate for concentrated
police and media attention. Not much to feign surprise
at then when Spotlight turned up.
So
did the much trumpeted BBC exposé leave the
public better informed about what agencies were
behind the Strabane incidents or was it the type
of one eyed journalism we have come to identify
as being generically inseparable from the peace
process?
Border
Bandits seemed preoccupied with the IRSP's Willie
Gallagher. It left little room for doubt as to whom
it had elected as prime suspect. Gallagher's own
party has alleged that the programme makers 'deliberately
and maliciously inferred through inference, innuendo,
omission and half-truths that Willie Gallagher and
the INLA were behind all of the robberies outlined
in the programme.' Yet any one who is even remotely
tapped into the sub-discourses in Strabane knows
- as must the programme makers if they were serious
in their investigative technique - that a number
of armed organisations in the border town are suspected
of being behind the robberies including two of the
various self-styled IRAs - Provisional and Continuity.
Watching this documentary would not, however, have
led a viewer to conclude this. Featured on the programme
was a young couple who had been held hostage during
a robbery at a bank in nearby Lifford. No mention
was made of the fact that during a subsequent bail
application by a person charged in connection with
the hostage taking and robbery it was alleged that
the operation was carried out by the Continuity
IRA. In relation to the Iceland robbery the local
Strabane Provisionals are being openly slagged,
'buy one get one free.'
Like
much journalism hobbled by the peace process it
seems these are matters best not aired in public.
Support the peace process and you can rob the country
blind - oppose the peace process and both the police
and media will hound you. But it can hardly be robbing
per se that they are concerned about. Their concern
is calibrated in direct proportion to whether those
robbing support the peace process or not.
The
manner in which the programme makers went about
making the documentary raises cause for concern.
According to local Strabane republicans the opening
Spotlight gambit was to inform them that a documentary
was to be constructed detailing community attitudes
towards the PSNI and the DPPs. However, the IRSP
allege that 'a contact in the BBC informed us of
the true intentions of the programme' - which was
to do a 'hatchet job' on Willie Gallagher, a former
republican prisoner and a subject of documentaries
stretching back to the 1970s. Shining the spotlight
on murky areas within society is a vital function
of any media worth its salt. Often, surreptitious
methods have to be employed. But when the media
oversteps the mark to the point that because of
the methods it uses it becomes untrustworthy, it
produces a situation whereby 'whistleblowers' and
others who can increase public awareness will not
come forward. No matter how honourable the motives
of journalists on the job, trading trust in for
a scoop merely clogs up the system of newsgathering
further down the line. What is the next republican
approached by Spotlight going to think?
Willie
Gallagher readily accepts that a 'flippant' comment
by him in the wake of a robbery at Strabane's Ulster
Bank branch has brought a torrent of unwanted attention
down on his head. His 'good luck' to the robbers
remark was made, he claims, solely to rub the noses
of the PSNI in it for having raided his home and
arrested him. Nevertheless, the former republican
prisoner and hunger striker was clearly angry at
the BBC's Spotlight team which he alleges misled
him. Gallagher argues he would have no problem appearing
on documentaries and in fact assisted Spotlight's
Kevin Magee on previous occasions. However, once
he came to believe a 'hatchet job' was under way,
he was not willing to place his head on the block
for the axe man.
Gallagher
was also scathing of Sinn Fein's Pat Doherty who
appeared on the programme to bewail that despite
the dogs in the streets knowing the identities of
those behind the robberies the police had made no
arrests. Which, in keeping with Sinn Fein's approach
to virtually everything, is not altogether true.
Local Sinn Fein Chairman Jarleth McNulty publicly
complained in the media about the arrests of five
Sinn Fein members for the Iceland robbery. According
to Willie Gallagher, Pat Doherty 'knew before he
was interviewed that the programme was a felon setting
exercise against myself and either wittingly or
unwittingly facilitated and contributed to that
agenda.' Now why would that surprise anyone? Old
Policeman Pat has consistently wanted the robbers
that do not belong to his party brought to book.
Hush - no mischievous probing; robbing for the peace
process is okay. It is said that Policeman Pat's
party will even force others to cough up the mortgage
for you if you are caught.
Ultimately,
Gallagher contends that 'British Military Intelligence
and PSNI Special Branch have been involved in a
concerted campaign of demonisation, marginalisation
and isolation of anti-Belfast agreement republicans
which has been aided and abetted by some sections
of the media.' As a result, the IRSP fears that
Gallagher is being set up for arrest or worse. Given
the PSNI proclivity for going after republicans
that will not shortly be queuing up to join it,
the party's fears are understandable
Strabane
is one of the relatively few non-unionist areas
not to have fallen to Adams' nationalists. Recently
the IRSP convened a rally which brought 1000 people
onto the streets. Unheard of for an event not organised
by the Provisionals. The INLA and the Real IRA clearly
have a significant presence in Strabane. The only
republican lifer released under the Good Friday
Agreement to subsequently have his licence revoked
without currently facing any charges is from the
town. Strabane is also the hub of anti-PSNI campaigning.
According to the IRSP five of its activists have
been charged only to have the charges withdrawn
at a later date. The party claims that this is tantamount
to British state policing of anti-agreement republicans.
It points to a host of other cases from Tyrone,
Armagh and Derry where the PSNI falsified evidence
to fabricate cases against anti-agreement republicans.
Many
robberies take place throughout the North. But for
some reason the policing function - in its wider
sense which involves agencies other than the police
- has homed in on Strabane. There appears to be
an attempt to create a moral panic which in turn
will heighten public tolerance towards state abuses
as the policing agencies attempt to close down an
obstinate area. It suggests that the British state,
aware that the Sinn Fein leadership will finish
off shafting republicanism, is determined to ensure
that no republican acorns lie around from which
republican trees might once again grow.
Against
such a background, the media can perform a vital
democratic function by monitoring the centres of
power rather than merely serving them. Its outlets
should address themselves to all abuses of political
power and not merely manipulate representations
of events through a peace process prism that shines
light only on activities judged unhelpful to the
powers behind the peace process.
