In
December, having agreed to decommissioning and the
standing down of the IRA, the Republican Movement
was once again witness to the Unionists pulling
the plug on the GFA. Since that time events have
gone over the top and overtaken common sense in
Northern Ireland.
We
have a bank robbery that no one has been charged
with; while the Chief of Police, NI and the Minister
of Justice in the Free State have named the organization
responsible.
Then
we have the killing of Robert McCartney in a bar
brawl and once again we are told who responsible,
but no charges. According to the "dogs in the
street", it was done by, among others, members
of the IRA and Sinn Fèin members. Catherine
McCartney was quoted by the BBC as saying "this
is a social justice issue...these men murdered my
brother - everyone knows who they are, so they have
to be held accountable. The only people who can
hold them accountable are the judicial system."
The
IRA conducted an investigation and expelled three
of its members thought to be involved. These members
have been instructed to go to the authorities and
make statements and their names have been given
to the McCartney family. The President of Sinn Fèin
has expressed solidarity with the McCartney family,
received a list of names from them, identified the
Sinn Fèin members on it and handed it over
to the Ombudsman’s Office. Seven members of
Sinn Fèin have been suspended and the President
has warned them that if they didn’t make full
and truthful statements an expulsion process against
them would be started. The President also stated
that there should be no intimidation, people should
come forward and those responsible for Robert’s
death should take responsibility for their actions.
Given
that some of those involved in the wrongful death
of Robert McCartney were members of the wider Republican
Movement this would only put responsibility on the
organizations if they had ordered or sanctioned
the killing and this is not the case. Do these organizations
bear any more responsibility for the “off duty”
actions of its members than the RUC did when one
of its members killed people at the Sinn Fèin
office on the Falls Road? Didn’t a High Court
judge recently rule that a landlord is not responsible
for the action of unruly students who happen to
be his tenants? At the day, the IRA cannot, except
by force or ‘illegal’ paramilitary means,
make anyone do something they choose not to do.
However, the McCartneys don’t want physical
action taken against those involved. They want those
responsible punished through the courts; as in the
end is it not up to the judicial system to hold
those who commit crime accountable? Recently the
Taoiseach told the Dàil that Tony Blair informed
him, in January, that the British Government would
not co-operate further with the Barron inquiry into
the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings. What is the
Dublin Government doing? Taking it to the European
Court. Not in the McCartney case, however.
Here
we have the case where the organizations, whose
members were involved, doing, short of “illegal”
means, the proper thing, yet those in the establishment,
both political and media, have turned this from
a criminal issue into a political issue – why?
If everyone – the McCartney family, the Justice
Minister, the Chief Constable, the Ombudsman’s
Office and “the dogs in the street” -
knows who’s responsible have there been no
arrests or charges? Could it be that the “bashing”
of the Republican Movement has a higher priority
than making people accountable to the judicial system?
Why does the McCartney family refer to this as a
social issue and not a criminal issue? Are they
not politicizing the issue by going to Dublin, involving
NI politicians and, reminiscent of the Peace People
and FAIT, going to Washington, DC?
So
whose agenda is being worked?
The
Free State political parties - who would like to
stop the Sinn Fèin electoral success and
fear a United Ireland.
The
SDLP – who would like, once again, to be the
number one Nationalist party in the north.
The
Unionists parties – who would like to collapse
the peace process and not share power with Republicans.
The
RUC/PSNI and Judicial System – who would like
to keep the pressure on and discredit the Republican
Movement.
The
British secrocrats and Conservatives in Britain
– who are against the breaking up of the Union
and an independent, unified, free, Irish Republic.
-OR-
Could
all of this actually have nothing to do with the
death of Robert McCartney? But is, in reality, a
behind the scenes, choreographed means of the Republican
Movement’s Leadership riding itself of the
IRA. The Leadership may feel the IRA has outlived
its usefulness, has become a liability and a hindrance.
They may well now feel they can dump a discredited
IRA with a minimum chance of a split and charges
of a “sell-out” or a further climbing
down on Republican Principles…
Who
authored the P. Ò Neill’s “prepared
to shoot” statement and for what purpose?
Just
some thoughts.
