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Perhaps
it was naivete, but with the bad press Sinn Fein had
taken over the ongoing party intimidation in the Antrim
estate of Rathenraw, there was an expectation that
wiser heads within the body would have prevailed and
acted as a foil to the rampant intimidation currently
directed at those who have parted ways with the Adams-led
nationalist party. Spin reversals in the media, preceding
briefings by what the Irish News described
as ‘a senior IRA source’ denying that Sinn
Fein’s military wing was involved in threatening
residents, suggested that the politicians behind the
harassment may have had their horns pulled in. Yet
today, the chairperson of Rathenraw Community Association,
Paddy Murray, has been the recipient of further abuse
and death threats over the phone.
While
there is no solid evidence that Sinn Fein was involved
a number of journalists suspect that it was. Moreover,
the Murray household was visited by the PSNI this
afternoon and the family was informed that the police
had information that the Provisionals would be expelling
them from their home over the coming days. Again,
while it could be PSNI mixing or the result of inaccurate
information being received, the fact that Sinn Fein
militia men surrounded the Murray home on Friday last,
one of whom wore a balaclava, means that the PSNI
warning cannot be lightly dismissed.
The
fears of Paddy Murray and his colleagues on the Rathenraw
Community Association are compounded by the fact that
during Friday’s intimidation the high profile
Sinn Fein councillor for the area, Martin Meehan,
admits to having been in the estate. This was shortly
after he had informed two local Antrim newspapers
that the ‘Republican Movement’ would not
tolerate the ongoing problems in Rathenraw estate:
‘action would be taken against those involved.’
Furthermore,
whatever reassurance Paddy Murray and his family may
take from today’s Provisional IRA comments the
militia’s discourse as reported in the Irish
News was replete with language similar to that
used when the organisation lied through its teeth
while seeking to evade culpability for the October
2000 shoot-to-kill murder of Ballymurphy Real IRA
member Joseph O’Connor. Dismissing claims that
the IRA had issued death threats against either Mr
Murray or other members of the Rathenraw Community
Association, the senior IRA source said:
In
recent days the media has carried allegations about
IRA threats against individuals in the Antrim area.
These allegations are total nonsense. They are being
said by individuals seeking to promote themselves
and pursue personal agendas.
In
October 2000 the same body said:
In
light of the speculation and allegations surrounding
the killing of Joseph O'Connor, the IRA wishes to
state that it was not involved in his death. The
IRA leadership extends its condolences to the O'Connor
family. Malicious accusations suggesting IRA involvement
are designed to heighten tension and promote the
agenda of those opposed to current IRA strategy.
Then,
as now, Sinn Fein representatives were unavailable
for television interview. Paddy Murray insists that
the campaign of harassment has moved up a level with
Sinn Fein’s Martin Meehan claiming that a criminal
gang was involved in the intimidation of people in
the Rathenraw estate. Meehan asserted that there are
those within the estate ‘who are using the name
of the Republican Movement to cover their anti-social
and anti-community actions.’
Speaking
to a West Belfast paper of dubious record the Sinn
Fein councillor insisted that:
The
area is being plagued by a control freak, a 'Fagin'
type character who uses young people to create havoc
and do his dirty work for him. This dirty work involves
intimidating other residents, attacking homes, stirring
up tensions and trying to control basic day-to-day
life in the estate. The activities of this figure
and his cohorts are anti-social, unacceptable and
definitely anti-republican.
Initial
media reporting - since reversed - irritated former members of Sinn Fein who are now at loggerheads with the autocratic party.
When Aine Gribbon and Paddy Murray sat at my kitchen
table at the start of this week, they spoke about
their fears of how the loyalists might react to the
nonsense that Sinn Fein was pumping out to the media.
Aine Gribbon, having stood on three or four occasions
as a Sinn Fein election candidate, states forcefully:
I
can hardly be described as anti-Sinn Fein but I
am very worried that the councillors for Antrim
are setting Paddy up for attack. Because they are
intent on portraying him as the bad guy in all of
this, he is now open to attack by loyalists. Sinn
Fein could have turned up at the public meeting
held on the estate last Wednesday but failed to
do so. Why? They chose to have a go at him in the
media where they knew they would not be forced to
explain themselves.
At
a press conference held on the Rathenraw estate on
Tuesday, Aine Gribbon further claimed that the local
community was bewildered at the Sinn Fein attitude.
One
irony of the dispute is that Paddy Murray is doing
no different now than he was when a member of Sinn
Fein. Why is Sinn Fein so concerned now? If true that
he is a Fagin type control-freak, is that only a crime
when it is done for someone other than Sinn Fein?
It seems strange that a party characterised by control
freakery from the top down would find the practice
such a problem - unless of course it is not doing
the controlling.
That
this dispute has been allowed to fester so long is
symptomatic of a broader Sinn Fein tendency to abhor
diversity, difference and dissent. The party structure
is so rigid that it finds it almost impossible
to make the necessary adjustments that go a long way
to resolving such issues. Every hint of movement outside
the preordained synchronicity is viewed as a major
threat to the leadership. Diktat by control freaks
is without doubt a problem plaguing Rathenraw. But
the control freaks are politicians, none of whom live
in the estate, who see Rathenraw as merely a pond
from which votes can be fished at will.
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