IS that enough for you? Are you happy now? All you who bullied the doubters with cries of Britlovers, war mongers, Provobaslters; you who kept us off RTE airwaves so that we would not doubt the validity of this peace process you who forced the Sinn Fein Hume consensus down everyone's throats; you who tolerated no dissent and heard no other voices but that of winsome northern nationalism; you who achieved the very pan nationalist front the unionists most feared - are you satisfied now?
Who are the architects of this abysmal mess we find ourselves in? Within just over a week two gardai were Kalashnikoved in Limerick, Sinn Fein recorded its highest ever vote in Northern elections since 1918, and the centre of Manchester was destroyed; and yet still we heard the clarion call that lines of communication to the authors of these horrors must be kept open. In fact, keeping Gerry Adams in business, incredibly, now seems to be the business of our elected politicians. Listen clearly. Talk of a split is a Sinn Fein IRA ruse de guerre to cause confusion and sow doubt. There is no split. None. And there will be none.
Semtexing Chums
Meanwhile, let us count heads. Who got us here? Gerry Adams did, along with his semtexing chums in the Army Council of the IRA. Well done lads. Nice job. But we'd expect this of you. You're only doing what you've always done. You've read your War of the Flea and those other texts of terrorist guerrilla war, and you're good at sowing doubt in the political centres you are opposed to. In fact, you're brilliant.
Who else is responsible this monumental folly, that the State should bent a knee to Cain and feast with him in high places? The first was John Hume, widely regarded as the god of Irish nationalism; the great statesman who sees his way so clearly through the problems of Irish life; whose hand can steer Irish nationalism into a lasting accord with Irish unionism in which neither side dominates and fairness governs all.
Excuse me? This is rubbish. John Hume is John Hume, not the Archangel Gabriel, dropped in from outer space, free of the prejudices and aspirations of his tribe. He is quintessential - a man of his tribe. That is why he is utterly detested by Northern Protestants. He is clever and articulate and fluent.
And at the moment, he is silent. Last week he was asked about his position towards Sinn Fein's silence over the murder of Jerry McCabe. He repeatedly declined to condemn Sinn Fein's attitude. For he never condemns Sinn Fein. Why is this? Has Sinn Fein got something over him that we are not being told about? Why has he got to be palsy walsy with these fine fellows the whole time? Disagreements are the stuff of political life. And if Sinn Fein has something over him, is it one of engines for the peace process?
What Peace Process?
Peace process. Ha. What is this peace process? These people kill whom ever they want and wreck cities, and we're told by the likes of Bertie Ahern and others that we mustn't boycott them; though they boycott whomever they want, just as they are this minute boycotting the Northern forum because it is full of unionists.
We know that the absurdly named "peace process" has no basis intellectually. Sinn Fein IRA were brought in from the wilderness so that their aim, a Britless united Ireland within the lifetime of a British government, could be achieved by peaceful means. This was garbage; but this, aided and abetted by John Hume, Tim Pat Coogan, Jean Kennedy Smith et al, was the main thrust of the "Peace Process", as seen from Sinn Fein's eyes, the only eyes that count. Why the jubilation amongst Sinn Feiners at the time of the ceasefire? Because they thought negotiations were underway that would bring about a united Ireland within the next few years.
Now they know this will not happen. It cannot happen because the northern unionists will not permit it. No discussion. Instead of concentrating on that central truth, we have allowed the Sinn Fein leadership to be feted as if it were the deliverer of peace rather than the tactical suspender of its fascist war. This frivolous witlessness reached an apogee in the astonishing decision of the Arts Council to give a grant to one of the most sinister IRA, terrorists of all, Danny Morrison.
Green And Nazi
Face this truth about the IRA. It is green and it is Nazi. Judge it by its record. No wonder Gerry Adams was the first to urge, let the past be the past, and by gones be by gones. We are here today standing on the stepping stones of the very bygones we are told are not important. We can make no judgments about the future, and the present is the accumulated past. No past, no present. Got it?
The past tells us that the IRA wants the surrender of democracy to the power of its guns; it will stop at nothing less to achieve its ends, regardless of what the people want. This is not aspiration which can be reasoned away over the coffee table. Individuals might have a change of heart, but not the IRA. It is what it is, an armed organisation fighting for a Brits out, united Ireland.
No doubt Gerry Adams wants an end to the war; but he has not abandoned his aspiration to end the northern state against the wishes of the people who live there and of the people of the Republic. His "peaceful" ambition is to take from the unionists what they will not surrender peacefully.
Do you understand this? There is no middle line, no meeting place between unionists and those who wish to deunionise them against their wishes. Worse, no declaration of a ceasefire will now persuade the unionists to talk to Sinn Fein. The "peace process" is finished. Only naively sustained it for so long. We are up to our necks in the direst trouble, and all options are hard. Decency and self interest demand that we cannot allow this State to be a safe haven and headquarters of the IRA and our courts the playthings for their wily counsel. It is, alas, time to air the beds in the Curragh.