Car Bombs Will Not Achieve Freedom

Militant republicans seem sure to be responsible for the car bomb which exploded outside Newry court house last night. The huge bomb neither killed nor injured anyone which is at least something to be thankful for. The mortar bomb attack mounted by militant republicans in Newry in February 1985 and which resulted in the deaths of nine RUC personnel, did not free Ireland and this latest attack won’t achieve that either. The people who planned and engineered last nights device and those who risked their own and others lives delivering it to the courthouse where it was detonated, are at best misguided.

Violence by republicans achieved many things in Northern Ireland. In seventy years of the olde Unionist Stormont the only piece of legislation that a nationalist was ever able to succsessfully get passed, was regarding the protection of birds. Many people still choose to pretend that blatant sectarianism against catholic/nationalists did not exist. There are also many who would say that all those things are in the past and should be forgotten so that we can all make money and prosper happily together now.

The fact remains that we can get a clearer understanding of our present and where we hope to be in the future by taking account of our past. That’s not to say we should forever dwell in it but, it’s vital that we acknowledge it, learn from it and move on.

Catholic/nationalists were discriminated against in; Housing, education, employment, health and all aspects of life here. Nothing would ever have changed had it not been for the campaign by militant republicans. Those who try to minimise the positive achievements of the conflict are either British/unionist propagandists or are deluding themselves.

Those who profess to be nationalists and who attempt to belittle the achievements of the conflict here are numerous also and they have their own selfish interests for this. Tugging the forelock and bending the knee to the landlord can get a guy a good job still in this day and age. If he/she continually minimises and tries to rubbish republican efforts and successes then it can keep him/her in a job or secure further promotion. This is all the more ironic since they more than likely would not have had access to a university education or a career in the first place had it not been for the sacrifices of militant republicans. Still, for some it is better to live in self-imposed denial rather than accept that all that they own is the direct result of the sacrifice of those who own nothing.

That having been said, it is now obvious that the campaign for a 32 county socialist republic was never going to succeed and it is more than highly doubtful now that it was ever genuinely intended to. That ideal was surrendered along with IRA weapons and all the other sacrificed golden cows of republican ideology, and was replaced by a campaign for parity of esteem and the acceptance of Northern Ireland governed by locals on Britain’s behalf. As soon as the hunger strikers had been deemed to have sacrificed enough and reached the point where enough votes could be delivered for the New Sinn Fein leadership to get elected, then it was a forgone conclusion that the IRA would be disbanded and dumped. Jobs in Stormont would be the new goal.

This achieved, the New Sinn Fein leadership held yet another meeting and decided that it would be best to make a clear differentiation in the publics' mind between those who professed to fight for Irish freedom in the past and those who profess to fight for Irish freedom in the present. The Sinn Fein leadership which had always condemned the “politics of condemnation”, now labelled militant republicans as “Dissidents”. The British Government; MI5, RUC/PSNI, unionist politicians and all elements of the embedded media fell into line and agreed that this label would be used at all times and in all reports. This was no small achievement by New Sinn Fein and one that is worth thinking about.

So the embedded media and all the usual suspects in politics and the British security services rushed to comb their hair for the cameras and to rant and rave about the Newry court house bomb. Dissident this and dissident that was the order of the day. The old tactic of telling us how lucky the old pensioners were, not to be blown to bits and the children playing nearby and the disabled people who had just passed the spot was rolled out. They even added a new Polish element where a young Polish couple and their baby were interviewed about how lucky they were not to be killed! How all these people had been outside Newry court house late at night and had miraculously survived without a single scratch is beyond me, but it was on television so it must be true!

That car bomb should not have been left outside that court house. Not one more single shot should be fired by any republican of any hue. Ireland sadly will not be freed from British shackles (chains and monetary) by more violence and more loss of life. An Ireland completely free from British control and influence is impossible. No amount of car bombs or mortar tubes will change that now.

It is a tragedy that British/unionist leaders could not have brought themselves to give universal suffrage equally to all here in 1969. They would have never voluntarily given civil rights and equality to catholic/nationalists. It had to be fought for and achieved on the backs of the thousands of dead from all sides involved in the dirty, filthy conflict. All those dead and injured victims could have been avoided it now seems.

Given two choices in relation to Ireland, Britain has historically always chosen that which is worst for the Irish. Sadly it now seems that the New Sinn Fein leadership were slowly but, surely negotiating to ensure that there could be no viable alternative to their new arrangement with the British. Violence is no longer an option to achieve freedom and it is highly doubtful that it was ever intended to achieve anything other than New Stormont.