Hierarchy of perpetrators

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

18 May, 2023.

Hierarchy of perpetrators

Kenny Donaldson (May 12) writes that “diminishing the effects of terrorism is not the preserve of one section of the community”. However, Mr Donaldson would seem to suggest that ‘poking (their neighbours) in the eye’ is the preserve of the nationalist community alone. The flying of Para flags on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the spectacle of unionist politicians hobnobbing with present and former spokesmen for loyalist terrorist organisations, acting as pallbearers at funerals of convicted murderers, or selecting candidates for election who have made inflammatory and grossly sectarian statements, apparently do not count.

Mr Donaldson refers to ‘up the Ra’. chants by a young FAI women’s team and by some Armagh supporters. The infamous Windsor Park hatefest during the 1993 Northern Ireland v Republic of Ireland match, the threats to Catholic Northern Ireland players and the Billy Boy-type chanting by Northern Ireland fans over the years merit not a mention. While all sides involved in the conflict committed atrocities, and all honour their dead regardless, there was stark difference in the treatment by the state and the judiciary of various categories of perpetrators and defendants. Thousands of republicans and nationalists were convicted of offences by non-jury courts, often on foot of confessions extracted under torture, sometimes on the word of supergrasses or double agents, or as in the case of the Birmingham Six, dodgy forensics. Those convicted served thousands of years in prison. Conversely only a handful of British troops were ever charged with murder; those convicted were handed over to BA ticket of leave ‘custody’ and on ‘completion’ of derisory sentences were re-instated with back pay, even promoted.

State agents and agents provocateur involved in murder and torture and who were responsible for many of the 2,000 deaths to which Mr Donaldson refers were given immunity, spirited away and given new identities.

Just as there was a perceived hierarchy of victims, there was and is a hierarchy of perpetrators.

BRIAN PATTERSON

Newry, Co Down

With many thanks to the: Irish News letters page for the original story.

Conveniently labelled

I have only one real and direct response to Kenny Donaldson – ‘Glorification of terrorism again to the fore’ (May 12) – the only ‘terrorists’ in Northern Ireland during the period of 1921, when its parliament was set up, were, initially, the infamous B Specials, followed by the members of the RUC, aided and abetted by the British army and the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. The people who were very conveniently labelled as terrorists were ordinary citizens taking direct action to achieve their ordinary civil rights denied to them by the so-called democratic process. For 50-plus years they tried that ‘process’ but the gerrymandered state that was Northern Ireland ensured that they failed at every turn.

Incidentally, whose ‘land’ was Mr Donaldson referring to in his statement that “physical terrorism ravaged our land”?

PETER PALLAS

Bantry, Co Cork

With many thanks to the: Irish News and the letters page for the original story.

Ireland may not be perfect but it is on right path to be free and prosperous

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

 17 May, 2023.

 

“Ireland unfree shall never be at peace” were the climactic closing words of the graveside oration of Patrick Pearse at the funeral of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa on August 1 1915. These seven words, however, have now very different connotations in the contexts of the north of Ireland today.

With the definitive end of the Troubles, of the peace process that came from the St Andrews Agreement in October 2006 and the assembly elections in March 2007, the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin formed a government. These parties represent people who have been divided for generations, split by the religious and political lines that fuelled the decades-long conflict since partition. While basic everyday needs are common to both, what they can’t have is one section of the community having cultural supremacy over the other. The peace process is fragile and, like the Good Friday political agreement, must be protected. The Brexit negotiations have shown the United Kingdom political parties have miserably failed the north of Ireland. With the current protocol plans incorporating the Windsor Framework agreement, a solution will be found not on the basis of victory for either, but on the basis of agreement and a partnership between both for the betterment of Ireland.

Sinn Féin’s rise is shaking up Ireland’s politics. There are increasingly loud calls to prepare for a border poll under the terms of the GFA. One outcome of which might be the unification of Ireland, free from partition and free from UK sovereignty over the north of Ireland. Rooted in the military campaign for a united Ireland, Sinn Féin was long an outsider in politics due to its political association with the Irish Republican Army. With the conflict in the north largely over since the 1998 peace deal, the movement has reinvented itself to appeal to a new generation of voters. Now, in a historic shift, it has become the biggest party in the north and also leads opinion polls in the south. That makes its demand for a referendum on unification harder to ignore. Unionists could demand a border poll to show confidence in unionism. The UK and Irish government could actively, on the back of the Good Friday Agreement, encourage the DUP more forcefully, set out a vision for unity and call a border poll to put the issue to bed. A prerequisite to the referendum is for the Irish government to form a citizens’ assembly and then publish a White Paper informed by its recommendations, setting out plans for Irish unity which will form the basis of debate during the unity referendum. The aim would be to develop a range of options about the future structure of Irish unity and how it would operate. It would allow people to have a clear idea of what they are voting for. It would be an important preparatory work to ensure that reunification is a success and begins with certainty. Unionists must be challenged to do likewise. Ireland may not be perfect but it is on the right path, to be free and prosperous to build for an all-Ireland future anchored to the EU.

With many thanks to the: Irish News and James G Barry, Templeogue, Dublin for the original letter published in the Irish News today.

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