Making Peace With Your Enemies but, Not Your Friends.

Barely had the first shovel of earth been dropped on the coffin lid of Derry man Kieran Doherty when the rush to issue the most vociferous condemnation began by those seeking publicity and the approval of some hidden higher powers. Deputy First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Mr. Martin McGuinness was among those issuing the first flurry. He stood up in Stormont Castle and without measure, spat venom at the republican militants responsible for the killing.

There was no sign of the experienced politician and chief negotiator who could diffuse potentially difficult disagreements and bring quiet understanding and diplomacy to a problem. The man who has spent the past twenty years becoming friends with and understanding the representatives of those who discriminated against, tortured and murdered nationalists/republicans for centuries, showed no tact or skills that might quieten things down. Instead he chose to attack and provoke a bad situation into something potentially much worse.

Mr McGuinness called his former comrades, “.... just a gang of people with no lives who represented nobody” and went on, "This is a gang of people who are opposed to peace, who are opposed to justice and who are opposed to political progress and these are a gang of people who believe that it's a legitimate political objective to destroy all of the good work that many of us in this house have been engaged in with the assistance of others over the course of the last 15 years,” No sign of an olive branch there then! Not much in the way of understanding or trying to calm things down. He didn't forget to get the "Dissident" word in either during the extended version of his rant.

If this attack was designed to please someone then the question has to be asked, who? Surely it is the responsibility, if not the imperative of any politician, to try to use all their skills and contacts to try to stop difficult and dangerous situation from getting out of hand. This is what Mr McGuinness constantly lectures us all about. His work, (he oft tells us), and all those in “This House” (?) has always been to talk to each other and to negotiate an agreement through listening and understanding. Why is this not the case then with his former republican comrades?

Spiteful bile aimed at those who feel,(rightly or wrongly) disenfranchised and angry, is not the way to a resoloution. The nouveau riche and powerful, who mock those outside of the Stormont establishment view and who cat-call at them for having "no lives," are not trying to help the situation. This tactic was utilised for decades against Mr McGuinness's own party and it achieved nothing but, more misery.

It's very easy to be happy with your lot as you look through the tinted windows of your chauffeur-driven car at the world. Never having to pay a food bill or consider the expense of having a life can skewer a mans view. It can remove him from being in touch with reality. It can also make a man fight more fiercely and viciously than he ever has before, to protect and preserve his new way of life and all that it offers.

I don’t know who Martin McGuinness was trying to appease and please with this scathing and inflammatory attack. Throwing petrol onto the barely simmering embers of trouble, is exactly the opposite of what is needed to be done. He is not stupid and he knows that very well. So why did he do it? Did he simply get a rush of blood to his head and in the sumptuous halls of Stormont decide to issue a unilateral proclamation, or did he just lose the plot? Maybe it was just to get a pat on the back from his boss, Peter.

The truth about the background and circumstances of so many killings here will never be known for sure. Counter insurgency tactics were a huge part of MI5’s war here and nothing has changed in that regard except that they have relocated here and set up home permanently now. The essence of MI5’s modus operandi is to divide; confuse and mislead while they attack from within. They have proven themselves very adept at such things in the past. All we can know for sure is that we surely don’t know.

Maybe in the coming days and weeks someone with a titter of wit will try the art of diplomacy and quiet understanding to rid us of this blight of violence. Mr McGuinness has told us all many times that, ”You do not make peace with your friends – you make peace with your enemies”. Let’s see if he will calm down and follow his own advice when it comes to dealing with his former comrades, or if that advice is only meant in reference to the British and unionists.

Besides all the depressing stuff - I hope you all have a great March.
White Rabbit, White Rabbit, White Rabbit.