Which I happily leave to you!!

I’m not claiming neutrality exactly. That would be absurd. Just that I care more about documenting as accurately as I can what the actual story is, without anticipating its ultimate outcome.

For the record, if Northern Irish journalism has had a problem it is that it has cared too much about the final outcome, and in the Process™ allowed political parties off the hook.

When I write longer pieces like the one above, my primary aim is to produce analysis, rather than to editorialise. That I leave to people like yourself, who are more than capable of drawing their own conclusions.

Much of the first half is, as Nic says, ‘stating the bleeding obvious’ for anyone who has followed this story from the start. But my purpose in re-telling it is that currently many of the facts around the case are being contracted to convenient ciphers to suit individual political agendas.

For instance, the claim that there was no cover up, that such was a media invention is unsustainable given the context of the detail above. Blogger or not, my purpose to make an argument by exposition of the verifiable facts rather than loud assertion.

I hope you still have that zinc bucket handy!

It’s not for me to pontificate on what should or should not happen. Just to try to lay matters out as clearly and logically as I can. I’m not a political actor in this drama, and it is they who have to make determination on their own future actions.

For that reason, concerning the devolution of policing, for the purposes of the blog, I really don’t care one way or the other.

PS, I suspect you reading CS’s sarcasm as straight opinion.

Your last is a big question. There is no sign of any competition big enough, or serious enough about the business of politics to make that happen.

Until they find themselves ‘twixt stirrup and ground’, there is little chance that as a political movement they will come to understand the political necessity of simply and without artifice ‘doing the right thing’.

From the start of the “peace process” it was clear that we were rewarding the IRAs methods and embedding their ethics in the mainstream of New Northern Ireland. That was a conscious decision by the “useful idiots” in the UK and Irish governments piously abetted by weighty journals such as the Irish Times, who’s editor “made the decision to support the process” instead of performing due diligence journalism on what was and is a morally and ethically dodgy exercise, to say the least.
And so, to quote from your conclusion: “The wider movement, now led by a party determined on peace needs to find a way of acquiring new habits of mind to go with its new political status.”

This is a fine sentiment, Mick, but it’s yours, not theirs, and IMO about ten years late.
As things stand and based on the record of the governments over the last fourteen years or so, there is no incentive or imperative for Adams and Co. to change their ways. Their power base is untouched and untouchable, they continue to extract proportionately more coverage and attention than their numbers should warrant, and lots of key figures in “the movement” are doing very well financially in the status quo.

The more relevant analysis is that those outside the cosa nostra (the rest of us, that is) must see it as imperative that they change and be prepared to do the Right Thing to ensure that they do.
Put another way, where is MOTR NornIrons roadmap to encourage and force the republicans into the fold in spirit, and not just in token word and deed?

cheers,
Nic.

Concubhar,

I also wonder what this wonderful Viagra-esque elixia might be; money, power, sex (for procreation purposes only of course), or because they were backed into a corner?

SF members witnessed the events immediately prior to the murder; SF members know the identity of the murderer; and SF members have been among those working to cast aspersions over the reputation of the victim and, most likely as a result, the people of the Short Strand voted against SF in the subsequent council elections. Other than that, you’re right, SF had nothing to do with it.

If that were the case, it would be equally valid to argue that if a member of a British Army unit killed a civilian and his colleagues covered up for him then that the entire Army was guilty of the killing…. [as it happens I’m not talking about hypothetical situations here].

This is another version of the “bad apples” argument with respect to the police, an argument republicans have hitherto refused to accept.

That’s profound and true – however the process was right to be a behaviourist project. It’s the detail of actions and events that create violence. When violence is managed away then philosophy can play its part.

Excellent essay btw Mick and the quality over the last weeks has been splendid.

The activities of the IRA or SF notwithstanding, those that were involved in the UFF et al would probably have been murdering ethnic Catholics. The Unionist paramilitaries, after all, started the blood letting in 1966 with the killing of Peter Ward. So let’s not get holier than thou about it – the murder of Robert McCartney was a heinous crime. But to argue that it was a SF murder is using too broad a brush. If that were the case, it would be equally valid to argue that if a member of a British Army unit killed a civilian and his colleagues covered up for him then that the entire Army was guilty of the killing…. [as it happens I'm not talking about hypothetical situations here].

I often wonder, however, how long this entire edifice can remain erect given the pulling and dragging that goes on at ground level over issues like this highly politicised killing, the transfer of policing and justice, the Irish language etc.

I marvel at how it stays erect day after day, given its precarious foundations.

We would need more than an esssay to cite even the smallest percentage of Sinn Fein atrocities. Leaving these parastite run Ireland for Britain and to sneer at the justice system continues the 800 years of misrule and injustices.

Absolutely right Mick, and the executive at Stormont has continued on a similar vein with the First and Deputy First Ministers performing regular shows of unity whilst those below, both in their rhetoric and policy positions, pull further apart; leaving many bewildered as to how long it can all survive. The political war continues by proxy, devoid of contrition or consensus.