“No one in this small, enclosed biosphere ever told them this project was never going to work in the first place…”
In the Belfast Telegraph, Henry McDonald analyses the logically consistent, if callous, recent comments by independent councillor Martin Connolly. From the Belfast Telegraph article
No matter how repulsive you might find his response to what could have been a double-murder of a woman and a child, Connolly’s position reflects traditional republicanism and its attitude towards the security forces. It also, paradoxically, illuminates the central problem facing mainstream republicans, particularly Sinn Fein: the durability of ideology.
Last Tuesday evening, the other leader of Sinn Fein, Martin McGuinness, dismissed the republican dissidents as either a collection of criminals, MI5 agents, or simply the deluded.
McGuinness painted this picture of the Real IRA, Oghlaigh na hEireann, or Continuity IRA after a third botched booby-trap bomb attack, this time against a former policeman in Cookstown.
It is undoubtedly true that some dissidents fund their activities via criminality (for all republican movements it was ever thus); there is no doubt that the security services must have penetrated these anti-ceasefire groups at some level and, as history shows, any ‘armed struggle’ is in the long run doomed to failure, with those that prosecute it either leading to Maghaberry prison or possibly even Milltown cemetery.
However, it is an uncomfortable fact that many of those signing up to join these organisations are volunteers driven by a sense of ideological commitment to the cause of a united Ireland, rather than any personal gain.
They have been reared in a culture where the memory of men in masks brandishing guns to advance political causes is still revered. They were told from the time some of them were on their mother’s knees about ‘freedom’s sons’, the ‘glorious dead’, the recalcitrant minorities, those still attached to he ‘legion of the rearguard’, who kept the flame of armed republicanism alive even in times when Ireland seemed to be leaving its violent past behind.
Or that “They kept faith with the republican past and they ensured the future of our struggle.”
There was also an interesting CommentisFree post recently on Sinn Féin’s criticism of “disillusioned” republicans.
Those who negotiated the Stormont agreement, and whose reputations and endorsements insured its public support, claimed that their deal would be a stepping stone or transition to a united Ireland. They claimed that by accepting British rule and the unionist veto, by joining the British Stormont assembly, and forming a partnership with the unionist bloc, they would bargain away the sectarian injustices underpinning British rule. Republicans would march to a united Ireland through Stormont. Predictions were made as to the date of this historic achievement, from Joe Cahill‘s claim of 2003, to the less ambitious, but wildly unrealistic, claims of 2016.
The term dissident was applied in general parlance to encompass, in broad terms, those Republicans who did not accept this analysis and advanced a Republican alternative to this strategy. The dissidents believed that the agreement would not lead to a united Ireland but was actually designed to consolidate British rule. Their numbers included many veteran Republicans and ex-prisoners who had risked much and suffered much in the struggle, and for whom it was heartbreaking to walk away at a time when it was becoming easy, and for some financially beneficial, to be a Republican.
There’s more than one flavour of dissenter, of course.
But it shouldn’t be a surprise that there are disillusioned, and dissenting, republicans out there.
A couple of days ago I uncovered a lengthy New York Times article by John Lloyd from 1999 which includes the arguments being made then by non-dissenting republicans.
The most important of [then Sinn Féin chairman Mitchell] McLaughlin’s hard facts, and the main cause of Sinn Fein self-confidence, is what he believes to be a reversal of the Protestant majority. ”The dynamic in the political process is the demography of this place. The unionist community is weakening. The demographics favor the nationalist community.”
There is some debate on this, but trends do seem to point his way: many students at Queens University, Northern Ireland’s oldest, are now Catholic, and student politics are dominated by an abrasive republicanism. It is widely assumed that the Catholic birth rate remains higher (though it has dropped sharply in the South), and it may be that there are already as many Catholic teenagers as Protestant ones. Young Protestants seem to emigrate in greater numbers than Catholics. The signs look good for Sinn Fein — if, as McLaughlin does, you equate Catholicism with a vote for parties that aspire, sooner or later, to Irish unity.
McLaughlin presented Sinn Fein as an indefatigable advocate for peace: ”We want to show all those who use arms that we can achieve our aims through political methods. We need to demonstrate to the I.R.A. that the peace process is bringing forward change. If it is not through an assembly, then the British and Irish governments must do it. But it must come.”
The Sinn Fein position is thus clear. It is not embracing political methods for themselves, but insofar as they deliver a united Ireland. Since the Catholic population is expanding faster than the Protestant-Unionists’, Sinn Fein eventually will triumph simply through the ballot box.
And, from the same article
The Catholic community’s natural leader is Breandan MacCionnaith (pronounced McKenna), who served time in jail in the 1980′s for firearms possession and auto theft and who is now chairman of the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Committee. This is the central civic organization in an area of new houses built in the 1970′s, largely to accommodate people from Belfast, many of whom had been burned out of mixed areas by loyalist gangs. In his little office in a community center, surrounded by an imposing metal fence, MacCionnaith radiates a similar self-confidence to [McLaughlin's], for similar reasons: “‘Nationalists are now 42-43 percent of the community; people say it will be 50-50 in the next 10 years. The unionist people must prepare themselves for that.”
That was the argument being put foward by Sinn Féin before the 2001 census. After that census, as noted by a very early Slugger post, Henry McDonald observed
“…the straight-talking statisticians at the census office metaphorically ripped off Santa’s beard last Thursday and exposed the ‘Count the Catholics’ theory as a fake.”
Whilst Mitchell McLaughlin remains within Sinn Féin, as an MLA, Breandan MacCionnaith resigned as a Sinn Féin adviser in April 2007, and he’s now the general secretary of the dissenting republican group éirígí.
Topic: Government, Politics, Society and Culture
Region: Northern Ireland
“………History tells us much about what would happen to the ‘planter’ should the ‘gael’ hold sway. The present ‘campaign’ is a taster of such a future…..”.
With the exception to a brief two weeks of mayhem at the end of the war of Independence in a localized area of West Cork, can you show where post 1923 and a return to stability where ‘planter and gael again clashed in armed conflict…… or where ‘planter stock’ was interfered with in the twenty six counties.
Misguided and counterproductive as the dissidents campaign may be, it is in the first instance directed against British forces campaignor those seen as acting in proxy for these same forces.
Yea sure all sweetness and joy in the Lost 26. The reality however was somewhat different. I know because it involved members of my family, so unlike you I do not rely on Republican Myth.
(Sorry Greenfool it’s that history thing again)
My relatives were hounded off their land by local ‘volunteers’ (for volunteers read back-shooting trash). Their crime, other than being land owning Protestants? Their second son had served in the RIC, although at the time they were forced to leave he had already long emigrated to Canada to later join the RCMP.
How were they ‘encouraged’ to go? Crops burnt, a horse hamstrung and pigs shot and left on the driveway. Finally the local priest no less told them that there was “bad talk” about them locally and they should think hard about staying.
None of this happened anywhere near West Cork.
Cut to 2010 and your reference to a campaign against “British Forces”, a real monster’s view. For feck sake take your sad poisonous bile back to the 19th century where you obviously still believe you’re living.
‘that is the nature of the GFA , is it not’
Of course . How else could there have been a GFA ? Even in Twain’s time ‘religious’ differences were polarised and fitted into the political party structure of the time .
Even if NI were to become 90% secularised with only 10% of it’s people practising christians of denominations there would still be the ‘political differences’ engendered by those who favour a UI and those who don’t .
But as long as NI continues as a State in it’s present geographic format i.e 6 counties instead of say 2 then the GFA or something like it will be a necessity . One can wish it were or could be otherwise but from here it doesn’t seem feasible any time soon .
‘but the sterile elements are only a minority.’
We diiffer I think on the meaning of sterile at least in this instance . If by sterile you mean the dissidents I would add also futile for nothing positive will emanate from their idiocy .
By ‘sterile’ I mean that the constitutional divide between the major parties of unionism and nationalism are such that it will be and is proving difficult to bypass them as they grope forward to the politics of non sterility -i.e day to day issues .
It’s an inherently different kind of coalition than say that between the Libs and Tories in the UK or FF and the Green Party in the Republic . Many of those who are disappointed with the DUP/SF performance seem to fail to take that into consideration . Hopefully they’ll get better at it in time but as anybody will tell tell you mowing a lawn uphill is a lot more trying than mowing one on the level .
‘The reality however was somewhat different. ‘
You mean your/or your family’s reality . The ‘reality’ for many thousands of others was similar . The inhabitants of Cork City for instance saw their city burnt to the ground by an undisciplined mob of Black and Tan mercenaries and hundreds were killed /shot out of hand .
I recommend you read Marcus Tanner’s book ‘Ireland’s Holy Wars’ if for nothing else than to set your family’s tragedy in context with others of the time . Tanner does not ignore the atrocities committed by all sides .
There is nothing as uncivil as a civil war or a post colonial war . Look around the world and you’ll find that no war is ever fought by the Queensberry rules or the Geneva Convention -which is reason for all of us to ensure that we or most of us anyway try to prevent war
MV ,
‘it is in the first instance directed against British forces ‘
That explains then the near miss of a schoolbus full of young children a few weeks back ?
Didlee D
‘I know because it involved members of my family, so unlike you I do not rely on Republican Myth.’
I can’t speak for MV but in our family we never relied on Republican myth either . When they finally came for my grandfather’s corpse they said that probably the first three Britsh bullets killed him and the other 24 bullet holes were for decoration
. It was said the Brits did give him the option of surrendering but nobody knew for sure.
I take it your family escaped with their lives and if they did’nt my commiserations . Many of mine did’nt and they died on both sides
Read Tanner . At least he ends on a more positive note . He’s English so he’s ‘objective’ with the truth . He has also written on the Balkan ‘uncivil wars’.
The Irish nationalists you speak of simply recognized, after decades of struggle, that no change would happen without a majority vote in the 6 counties. What other choice did they have? They had no chance of winning. This was the next best thing, as their comrades got out of jail, they got a role in governance, and people born in NI can be ROI citizens if they choose.
If you think Britain really wants NI, I would disagree with you. If they could have gotten rid of it years ago without the prospect of rampid bloodshed, they would have done so.
Greenflag
Although I do not wish to enter into a metaphysical exploration of reality let me state that I consider ‘my’ reality to be part of a wider reality that most certainly includes the sorrows your own family has experienced.
I did, and do, challenge the view that, aside from a “brief two weeks of mayhem” in 1922 at the end of whatever you wish to call what happened in Ireland between 1916 and 1922, and particularly following the period from the murders at Soloheadbeg to 1922, all was fine for the Protestants in the South.
You may detect from reading the preceding paragraph that I do not regard the period as a ‘war’. It was, much like the more recent past in Northern Ireland, a terrorist campaign. Murder from the hedgerow and attacks on isolated village police stations were the order of the day.
Please do not regard my comments as an invitation to whataboutery or as an opener to a discussion on the period. I have read Tanner, and much more besides. Nothing I have read to date persuades me to alter my opinion on the matter.
Didlee .
I’m not into metaphysics anyway . Challenging the view that all was fine for Southern ‘unionists ‘ post 1922 is not something I would contest . But I don’t think even MV was making that point .
‘Nothing I have read to date persuades me to alter my opinion on the matter.’
Then I’d better stop eh no point in wasting each other’s time .
“………….‘it is in the first instance directed against British forces ‘
That explains then the near miss of a schoolbus full of young children a few weeks back ?……..”
Confusing the message with the messenger yet again ! I did nothing other than give a factual account of a reality as held by some people participating in certain events. I did not at any time say that I supported these events or the participants……… in fact to the contrary I have consistently said that I supported the ceasefire and the GFA…… and set out my reasons for so do.
There is a difference between fact, analysis and an opportunist sound bite. If you had a point worth making then it it should have been done in context and in a way that could have possibly made a contribution to the debate.
If ‘one liners for the nine o’clock news’ could have solved the Northern problems then we would have the finest region in Europe !
MV
‘There is a difference between fact, analysis and an opportunist sound bite.’
I agree . And I’ll not deny the truth of your sound bite barb . We live alas in a sound bite age worse luck
There is also that other human foible . It’s called perception . Very often it replaces actual truth or the whole truth or even the partial truth -particularly when a member of one’s family has narrowly escaped being blown to bits by an ideologically purist bomber who is really a decent chap but somewhat misguided and also a little careless in targeting the ‘real’ enemy as opposed to the ‘real ‘ real enemy .
Again we are dealing with emotive reactions which re enforce perceptions skewed or not .
If ‘one liners for the nine o’clock news’ could have solved the Northern problems then we would have the finest region in Europe !
True enough but now that you mention it perhaps simple one liners are the way to go . For several decades now if not for generations millions of words have been written in regard to the NI situation . No end of summer schools have been attended , academic conferences , ecumenical exchanges , Oxford Union debates , North South , East West political frothings and so on and so on . Call me skeptical or even cynical but I have an itch at the back of my brain that tells me that most of the high brow manure flung at the NI sectarian wall has stuck for five seconds and then fallen onto barren ground . We are all fortunate that a small amount of advice seems to have stuck and is sticking to the wall a bit longer than the almost statuary 5 seconds of previous political experience . I’ve lost count of how many times the Assembly has been disassembled and re assembled .
‘If you had a point worth making then it it should have been done in context and in a way that could have possibly made a contribution to the debate.’
My main point iirc before I was ‘interrupted ‘ was that the ‘future’ ain’t what it used to be and that applies for unionist and nationalist/republican .
Both yourself and Didlee seem to have very definite and mutually exclusive views of the past and the future re NI .
I’ll admit to having some inclinations in some directions but I’ll also admit I have such confidence in those inclinations that I would’nt bet on them coming to pass just because I think they could be the eh ‘final ‘solution .
‘I have consistently said that I supported the ceasefire and the GFA…… and set out my reasons for so doing.
You have and I apologise if I gave any impression otherwise . I tend to agree with most of your postings .
I see the GFA as an imperfect and inherently unstable solution but in the circumstances and given the local history the only one likely to maintain the present near normalcy . Eventually I suspect the local politicians on both sides will chafe at it’s strictures but whenever they chafe too much they will have it pointed out to them that there’s that 7 billion sterling per annum which is helping to maintain NI living standards . Republican ‘purists’ may find the Saxon shillings demeaning and insulting and a wound to their pride . There is no evidence yet that any have returned the dosh to HMG with the curt note -’stick it ‘
Most practically minded republicans and nationalists will of course sensibly continue to pocket what they can for the good of themselves and the local economy -ditto the unprincipled unionist cads/spongers etc .
Shure they’re all just people /human beings at the end of the day n’est ce pas /
Greenflag
A serious and valid comment, and I really do, completely agree.
‘…….How were they ‘encouraged’ to go? Crops burnt, a horse hamstrung and pigs shot and left on the driveway. Finally the local priest no less told them that there was “bad talk” about them locally and they should think hard about staying…….. ”
You paint a one side ‘Fintian OTool / Harris ? Kevin Myres picture.
Protestants in the South were not passive in the War of Independence : most ‘ Big House protestants’ were Unionists resentful and bitter about the loss of their estates in the landwars of two decades before, they regarded the British establishment as their establishment, these Big Houses were the hub of social activity for English Officers of their own class during the war of independence.
This meant of course that their staff were also forced to take sides. As to the RIC, what they did in the land war evictions a few short decades before was very much part living experience for ordinary Nationalists and their activities in associating with the black and tans against their own people were not easily forgotten.
What I find particularly interesting in your account, looking objectively at it as a historian, is the way that an escalating series of warnings were given. While I am not for a moment justifying what happened, it seems that far from physical harm being done to the ex RUC man at the first available opportunity a whole series of acts were carried out for the purpose of intimidation, certainly, but yet short of physical harm which would have been the last resort!
I have relatives living in what had been Vichi France, I know some of the area. Came liberation there was a bloodletting of what were seen as pro German, French in the area where they live. The killings in any ten square kilometers there of perceived collaborators was probably ten times that for the whole twenty six counties!
You have a family perspective from a family experience and you would be less than human if this did not also color your historical perspective. Likewise local communities would have been less than human if some did not turn against their perceived former tormentors and settle old scores.
A good yardstick of how serious or extensive this was, is to compare the average numbers for Catholics driven out of their homes, county by county for the six counties and then compare these to the average for the Southern Counties regarding protestants and ex RUC etc. I am not drawing a moral equivalence here, it was wrong period, North and South.
What I am doing by this comparison is introducing a proportionality North and South, while any event was one too many, those in the South fall far, far short of the six counties, and given the bitterness of the war of independence and civil war, these happenings in the South when taken as a whole are very small to the volume they could have been.
Surprising as it may seem to you, I can never the less empathize with your family circumstance, a branch of my extended family because of WW1 British Army involvement that post 1918 left them in a situation where they were perceived ‘offside’. The fact that I am currently working on a book project with another distant cousin, to historically rehabilitate this branch of the family speaks for itself.
MV ,
‘and given the bitterness of the war of independence and civil war, these happenings in the South when taken as a whole are very small to the volume they could have been.’
I agree . Of course that’s a perspective which most non academic or non history aware people would miss . The anecdotal real personal experience trumps the overall historical context every time for most people . It has to -we are all wired like that and few make any attempt to investigate further
History being what it is is always the memory even if fuzzy and inaccurate of what happened . The fact that it could have been a whole lot worse while conjecturally true is passed over . It did’nt happen ergo it’s non consequential which is of course what people live with and accept ! What if’s and scenarios are all academic navel gazing mostly interesting to a few whose interest is in such .
‘Protestants in the South were not passive in the War of Independence ‘ most ‘ Big House protestants’ were Unionists resentful and bitter about the loss of their estates in the landwars of two decades before’
True enough . At the same time most if not all were against partition . They had been on the decline ever since the Land Reforms of the 1870′s and the disestablishment of the COI . But there was another side to the Anglo Irish – Irish relationship which was non confrontational throughout the then ‘troubles’ . A good read which gives an insight into what I’m referring to is Sebastian Barry’s ‘ A Long Way’ which is set in the Ireland and Flanders of 1900-1918.
‘The fact that I am currently working on a book project with another distant cousin, to historically rehabilitate this branch of the family speaks for itself.’
Good luck with that . My lot never rehabilitated . When my grandmother very headstrong and independent minded (her mother was COI ). Being just 18 year olds and in cumann na mban she shot at her uncle a Dublin Fusiler who was home from the trenches on leave , narrowly missing him but calling him a ‘traitor’ . This did not go down well with her father . She was “disowned ” by the family and after the Free State was established she left for England where she lived the rest of her life even helping the former ‘enemy ‘ out in WW2 on searchlight duty . She remained feisty to the end but her father never forgave her and even though she visited other relations in Ireland from time to time her father never spoke to her again . But she did pitch up at his funeral when they could no longer glare at each other .
She lived well into her 90′s and her father almost made the 100 . Family lore has it he was looking forward to sendin Dev’s 5 pounds or whatever back to Aras with a curt message of where he (Dev ) could stuff it . Fortunately the family was saved the embarassment by his demise a few months short . Unlike his daughter or his brother who fought in every war going the old man never joined any army and remained a dour old Victorian to the end at least in respect of his mores and manners .
Enough
? I’m off till mid September from Saturday and will be dumping the laptop -and I’m going to catchup on Dewi’s reading recommendations plus some others !
pippikin ,
‘A serious and valid comment, and I really do, completely agree.’
Thank you
pip pip . I have to admit it’s not often I always completely agree with myself but on this occasion I’ll make an exception in view of your obvious wisdom -clear insight and down to earth uncommon sense 
Ah, the old ‘they deserved it’ line. Well sure they did, the damn vile unionists!
Of course the RUC (sic) member of the family had long gone when the intimidation of his parents began. But the winners will have their spoils will they not; and anyway why let the truth get in the way of a good myth?
And as you intimate they themselves were guilty; the mother had birthed a policeman, the father had fed and clothed him as a boy, and, oh sin upon sin, both had indoctrinated him in the voodoo rights of the Church of Ireland.
Traitors to Mother Ireland every one!
I must say they would have laughed bitterly at being thought of as Big House Protestants. Tea and tennis on the lawn with the local Colonel and District Inspector as the underfed croppies toiled in the fields it was not.
But again, far be it from me to interrupt your green-tinted gaze into the past.
didlee ,
‘Of course the RUC (sic) member of the family had long gone when the intimidation of his parents began.’
RIC surely
Here’s a good read from the COI Gazette which might help to broaden your perspective and understanding of the ‘human ‘ condition both Unionist and Nationalist in those turbulent times and even unto today .
http://www.ireland.anglican.org/index.php?do=news&newsid=663
Yes RIC indeed. I was merely pointing out MV’s transportation of the NI force south.
I take the Gazette and I have read the address. Perhaps it would be of more benefit to MV?
Now I’m off in a whirlybird to stalk some deer in Scotland. I’d invite MV along, and guarantee to give him a one hour start