Republicans thinking about being courageous in reconciliation (unionists say tell us when you’ve made your mind up)…
Some excitement over an article in An Phoblacht (you have to buy the print version to see the whole thing)…
“Reconciliation means being willing to have uncomfortable conversations,” the senior Sinn Féin figure warns, adding:
“A deep suspicion remains within unionist communities towards republicans due to the legacy of the armed struggle. Real hurt exists on all sides.”Declan Kearney tells An Phoblacht readers:
“This is a time for republicans to free up our thinking, to carefully explore the potential for taking new and considered initiatives in the interests of reconciliation.”
It’s not getting much play from their partners in government, the DUP. Jeffrey Donaldson:
There is no doubt that creating a better society in Northern Ireland poses challenges to everyone and it requires brave leadership from those in positions of political responsibility. Whilst unionism has been willing to assist in moving Northern Ireland forward, and the First Minister has demonstrated that through practical action, republicans must offer more than a newspaper article where they are still mulling over the possibility.
Such internal republican discussions may well be best kept behind closed doors, but undoubtedly they should also include recognition that their constant demands for the truth from others will be the standards against which Sinn Fein themselves are judged.
It is a simple fact that you cannot apologise for something when you won’t admit you were even actually involved in.”
There seems to a lot of anti Unionist reaction from republican posters here on the shinners statement. However the shinner took note of justifiable Unionist suspicion. So what’s the beef, it the shinners have identified the “deep suspicions” it is then up to republicans, Sinn Fein and the IRA, to arrest those genuine Unionist suspicion. Over to you comrades.
“The political reality is those actions cannot be undone, or disowned.” He acknowledged: “A deep suspicion remains within unionist communities towards republicans due to the legacy of the armed struggle.”
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/sinn-fein-chairman-ira-should-say-sorry-for-hurt-caused-16125881.html#ixzz1o8tOXPEc
Cynic2
Again let me just say that I have been in Africa for almost a year. I had to google Connoly House to find out what u were talking about, (I live in Dublin, always have) and I have never been in it so i could’nt have been wheeled out of it. I am not a member of any political Party but I lean in favour of SF (although i did hand out flyers for them a few yrs ago) and other left of centre parties. So my comments are based on considered opinion and somewhat intellectual analysis, although beware of my spelling, it can be very offensive. Regards.
changeisneeded, I was addressing/challenging a point made by a PRM parapolitician so the misdeeds of others aren’t really relevant. As you may know I collude with as well as challenge all sorts of folks, including PRM members.
Reconciliation and Declan Kearney should not appear in the same sentence. It wasn’t so long ago that I was in a Raidió na Gaeltachta debate with Declan in which he castigated me for holding an opposing view to his own conception of Sinn Féin being the one true divinity and described me as ‘anti-republican’ and a long time enemy of his party. It would be amusing if it weren’t so serious, this tendency of SF to shoot the messenger and ignore the message. SF haven’t lived up to their lofty commitments on a United Ireland and have managed to show, through all Ireland vehicles (crocks) in which they particpate, the likes of Foras na Gaeilge, that a SF United Ireland is not the way forward but a throwback to stalinist times.
Declan may talk all he likes in his ‘major articles’ in An Phoblacht – does that make every other article minor – but he doesn’t get it. It’s not unionists – with whom he’s sitting in government – that he needs to convince and win over but the public in the south. Inkgate showed Sinn Féin up to be less than the high moral alternative they proclaim themselves to be – next up is the salary issue. Who does a SF TD or Senator really serve, his party of the state from which he receives wages? Sinn Féin is all gong now – but as we’ve seen in the north, when it comes to being in government, it doesn’t do dinner.
Same old stories as always, nationalist, republican, unionist, loyalist. Can’t think any reading or indeed taking part in this debate will change their minds. The problem is that we all have agendas and bias, regardless of if you want to admit it or not.
Why not just call all the various murderers and bombers who took part in the ‘War’ regardless of alignment, terrorists. You simply can’t do it can you. Catholics will insist that the protestants murder gangs were all secret police and army agents. Protestants will say the catholic murderers specialized in killing women and children. If you hold human life as something special it really doesn’t (or shouldn’t) matter what the killers beliefs or reasons are.
It would be interesting to see peoples reactions when on hearing of a crime they waited to hear the religion of the victims or their persecutors before they could decide if they could (or should) condemn it.
Sounds like the census results might be interesting. Was somebody given a heads up.
Tacapall: ”Gerry are you justifying the actions of British Intelligence and RUC Special Branch in allowing people to die for reasons like “Advantage ?”
Who was pulling the triggers and priming the bombs? They were the ones doing the killings and the ones who’s actions require justification.
”Just when do you believe it is justified to use tactics akin to what the Jews used in Palestine in the 40′s and what the French Resistance used during WW2.”
You’re seriously comparing the Nazi occupation of France to the situation at any time in Northern Ireland? You have quite the imagination.
Sunningdale offered power sharing with indefinite partition in the mid 70s. Loyalism and Republicanism rejected this out of hand. In 1994 the provos and subsequently the loyalist terrorists stood down for basically the same deal and conditions that were on offer 20 years previously. That meant 20 years of murder with zero justification and zero result.
I could spend hours listing atrocities and one-off murders by both Loyalist and Republican paramilitaries. The common link they share is their pointlessness and straightforward hatred.
If we allow victims to be used as a political football then we risk repeating the mistakes of the past. I’ve heard several interviews over the last few days relating to this article that have annoyed me. Victims are just another weapon in the cold war arsenal.
The legal system deals with victims everyday, they are probably the best people to decide how best to deal with it (as long as it doesn’t involve giving them the chance to bill us for it). Maybe we should have a one-side rule in the assembly where the speaker gets penalized for talking about the past from only one perspective, would make for frantic googling to find the other sides view.
changeisneeded, I was addressing/challenging a point made by a PRM parapolitician so the misdeeds of others aren’t really relevant. As you may know I collude with as well as challenge all sorts of folks, including PRM members.
I dunno Nevin, your blog and Ulster unionist coffee mornings say otherwise.
Funny how R Swann is asking questions from your blog in Stormont!!!
“Funny how R Swann is asking questions from your blog in Stormont!!!”
changeisneeded, there was nothing to stop the other 5 MLAs and the MP for North Antrim asking questions about the ferry or other blogs. Cara McShane tried to get a meeting with Danny Kennedy but the Minister wasn’t available; she’d previously asked a development question for me about the wholly Unionist Causeway EA whilst the Unionists remained silent.
There’s plenty of raw material on NALIL for any Slugger blogger to mine; Linda Stewart ran two important articles in the Belfast Telegraph recently based on this episode.
“Sounds quite positive and indeed another example of republican willingness to avoid the prisoner’s dilemma”
Chris:
What dilemma?
Republican prisoners may think that there’s some sort of a dilemma, but it isn’t a dilemma for unionists.
This is just more hot air from a Provo.
“I thought the statement form the shinner was about republicans, and for them to do as he puts it. “This is a time for republicans to free up our thinking, to carefully explore the potential for taking new and considered initiatives in the interests of reconciliation.”
However all I see here from republicans is revisionism and more attempts to rewrite history and portray republicans as the only victims.”
Ranger:
Most of the republican posts on here have been nothing more than that and an endless list of whataboutery.
Nobody is forcing any Provo to come clean on any issue, nor issue any statements about coming clean or anything else. This senior Provo has come out and said this stuff and no unionist made him do it.
I’d have thought discussion should be about what he is proposing as opposed to a lot of ‘whatabout the unionists?’ claptrap.
Like you I don’t see any sign of republican free thinking. They are still in whataboutery mode.