Let
me begin by congratulating all my good friends at
the Angrytown News, especially Mairtin O Milliunai
on what is surely the most significant launch in
the history of Irish publishing. How they were able
to raise the funding necessary in such a short space
of time for such an ambitious project, and on time,
is something I will never know. We can only be grateful
to them as well as to those fine folk at the Bulgarian
Finance Ministry that the media neglect of the republican
movement is finally at an end.
It
seems that every time I come to pen a column the
enemies of the peace process are at it again, trying
to undermine the search for peace and justice. It
would appear that our enemies wish to do to us now
what they failed to do during the Hunger Strikes
© - that is to criminalise us. The pretext
of course was the robbery of the Northern Bank in
December. Out of all the many organisations who
could have carried out a large scale paramilitary
cross-border operation involving hostage taking
in Poleglass followed by extensive money laundering,
for some inexplicable reason the police decided
to blame the IRA. Remarkably the accusations persisted
even after the IRA had clearly pointed out, not
once but twice, that they had not been involved.
Even this was not enough for our critics and so
several of our leading political figures volunteered
to assess this denial and expressed the view that
in their opinion the denial was accurate. All this
at a time when the IRA had made the unprecedented
offer explicitly to do something really quite significant
indeed. Gerry Adams has even been accused of having
links to the IRA, a suggestion he was forced once
again to deny while taking the salute at Strabane
on the weekend. Let me make one thing clear. I accept
that mistakes have been made and that many disagree
with some of the methods that some of us used from
time to time to prosecute the war, to raise funds
or, occasionally, to get a date; however, to call
these things crimes simply denies the legitimacy
of our struggle. We will not dishonour the memory
of those ten brave men by accepting the oppressor's
definitions of "crime" "theft"
or "unlawful carnal knowledge".
The
main architect of this campaign is Michael McDowell
of course. As we have repeatedly pointed out he
has been a consistent opponent of the peace process
and is also only doing this in response to our recent
successes. The Irish people must not allow the future
of the country to be hijacked by a fringe party
which, remember, has only 8 seats in the Dail. Nor
should we allow policy to be dictated by the sort
of control freak who wants to regulate when people
can drink or what they choose to burn in their gardens.
Even the People's Observer has become the subject
of his scurrilous accusations. Enough is enough.
The management has taken legal advice and has decided
to stand up to him. Our lawyers tell us that to
even consider bringing a libel action against a
serving Minister, we would need to have money to
burn. Instead, we have made a list of all the times
he has made rude remarks about us and have sent
it to the Taoiseach to let him know what his Minister
gets up to when he's supposed to be working.
On
a lighter note, in my other capacity as the PO's
food and drink critic, it is my privilege to give
our recommendation for the week, and the award,
together with a gift certificate courtesy of Davison's
Butchers and Laundromat, goes deservedly to Magennis'
Bar and Carvery. I had the opportunity to road test
the facilities a couple of weeks back with some
friends from Alex Maskey's election team and they
could not have been more helpful. To give you an
example, one of the lads was complaining that he
was going to miss Desperate Housewives and the staff
offered to tape it for him over one of their own
security tapes. I also have to complement them on
their hygiene, it is without doubt the cleanest
pub I think I've ever seen. Also, a little known
fact is that Magennis' has the most extensive bathroom
facilities in Belfast, with a toilet capable of
accommodating up to 73 people simultaneously. Some
of the customers tell me when they tell people that,
the response is one of complete disbelief.
As
republicans of course I tell them that this week
we know how that feels, don't we?
