Thursday, August 09, 2007
“If I can see they are trying to do that I will definitely go back.”
An Irish Times report notes Darren Graham’s response to the statement from the Fermanagh GAA County Board, “If I’m selected I will turn out. But I will also be wanting to see what progress they make on the whole judgement around it, and if they are taking a stand.” County Board Chairman, Peter Carty, also said on the BBC’s Newsline that no individuals or clubs had been identified by Mr Graham in the meeting this week and that “There was no official complaint” - which will probably mean that there will be no sanctions against clubs or individuals. Also in the Irish Times, earlier this week, Fintan O’Toole had an interesting article on the background to the abuse. [subs req]
From the Irish Times
They got Ronnie Graham first, while he was delivering coal not far from his own house in Lisnaskea. He was 39, writes Fintan O’Toole
After the killing, the IRA left the guns to be moved by a 13-year-old boy, who had been recruited into its youth wing by a teacher at his school.
Five months later, in November 1981, Ronnie’s younger brother, Cecil, was visiting his wife and their newborn baby at her parents’ house. She had gone to stay there because the baby had been born prematurely and needed constant attention. But Cecil’s wife was a Catholic, and the house she was staying in was in a nationalist area. Cecil was spotted going into the house. As he left, he was shot 16 times.
It took them more than three years to get the third Graham brother. They had tried to get Jimmy in 1980, but he had fought them off, and been given a medal. Perhaps his escape had annoyed them, or perhaps, as many Protestants believed, there was a deliberate plan of ethnic-cleansing, aimed at wiping out whole families. In any case, he was a soft target now. He arrived in the school bus he drove to collect children from a primary school and take them to the local swimming pool. He was parking the bus when they fired the first two shots at him. Then they got into the bus and fired 24 more shots, just to be sure.
..
Darren Graham’s paternal grandfather was a member of the B Specials. His father, uncles and aunt were part-time members of the Ulster Defence Regiment, which allowed the IRA to justify its assault on the family. But his mother was Catholic and so is his two-year-old daughter.
And, after noting the author Colm Tóibín’s references to the murders in Bad Blood
Darren Graham [son of Cecil Graham] didn’t make a big issue of his religious affiliation. But that wasn’t enough to stop other people doing it for him.
What was done to the Grahams - the methodical murders; the naked joy when they got Jimmy at last - left at least some people with a bad conscience. Cecil Graham’s Catholic father-in-law told the inquest in 1983 that he was upset that in the two years since Cecil’s death “none of the neighbours had extended sympathy or even mentioned the murder of his son-in-law”. But the silence belied an unspoken disturbance.
Colm Tóibín, when he walked through the area three years after they got the third Graham brother, found that the dead Grahams were seen as uneasy, vengeful spirits still haunting the place.
As he was talking to two young Catholic men in Kinawley, he mentioned the spate of tragic car accidents in the locality, in which all the victims seemed to be young Catholic men. “People think it’s revenge,” one of them blurted out. When pushed, they explained that the older people maintained that the accidents were a sort of revenge for what was done to the Grahams. “God, you know, did I understand? It was God.”
The unspoken guilt transmuted itself into irrational fear and it is not hard to see how that fear could in turn be channelled into the abuse of Cecil Graham’s son.
Guilt for the murderous campaign against Border Protestants was kept at bay by the notion that the victims were off-duty UDR men and therefore mere ciphers of British imperialism.
Darren Graham had the temerity to punch through that easy tribal stereotype by playing GAA and not defining himself simply as a Protestant. It took the hate that dares not speak its name to make him one now.
Pete Baker @ 08:46 PM
Shocking story and well told except for unconvincing amateur psychology bit - “The unspoken guilt transmuted itself into irrational fear and it is not hard to see how that fear could in turn be channelled into the abuse of Cecil Graham’s son.” - probably just dont like Prods and when the opportunity to shoot them is not available then they have to make do with some verbals.
Posted by on Aug 09, 2007 @ 11:43 PM1. the issue at hand is the sectarian abuse the player received related to his religion. It has nothing to do w the killing of members of his family. D Graham said as much in the Ferm. Herald and he quoted some of the insults - did the journo even read the original? I’d doubt it.
2. O’Toole has widened the issue to cover the relatives deaths for his own sensationalist reasons and sales of the Irish Thames. He references the writing of Colm Toibin who obviously quoted the local village idiots views (or bluts when pushed) on traffic accidents, ghosts and UDR killings - now thats not investigative journalism.
3. O’Toole after reviewing the situation as a ‘professional codologist’ then comes to the conclusion that nationalist fear/guilt of the population of Ferm led to the insults. Twenty - something year old players guilty for UDR killings which happened in the 1980’s!?!? I think not.
[edited moderator]
Posted by on Aug 09, 2007 @ 11:44 PMI’m not quite sure what Darren Graham expected when he got involved in the GAA, his return to this so called sporting organisation was very predicatable.
While I condemn the abuse he has recieved it was his choice to join the organisation therefore I have little sympathy for him and this is a feeling held by many Unionists.
Posted by on Aug 09, 2007 @ 11:46 PMIt’s a chilling story, it seems unbelievably cruel that one family could have endured so much. And all those bullets to finish the victims off, the more blood and the bigger mess the better to psychopaths pulling triggers I suppose.
I wonder did Nicky Brennan suggest that a way back into the sport for Darren would be one of his experimetal Prods-only GAA teams/clubs?
One suspects window-dressing and damage-limitation is at work here rather than dealing with what is fundamentally wrong with the GAA that makes the abusers feel so at home and confident of their behaviour.
Posted by on Aug 09, 2007 @ 11:57 PMThe gaa’s image is the key factor in all of this, I have not seen or read one thing that will prevent this happening again.
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 12:07 AM[edited moderator]
Posted by anonymous on Aug 09, 2007 @ 11:44 PM
Mick, that’s disgraceful that you’d take my ribbing of the so called journo as insulting and edit my posts. I’ve seen a lot worse posts on this site related to public figures names and you’ve let them slide. I assume that you edited my posting as you foolishly hold the Irish Thames in such high regard and fawn over their journos .... sloppy work on your part.
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 12:08 AMYou presume too much annonymous. I did not moderate your post. But I have no problems with the way in which it was done.
It is your responsibility to play the ball and not the man. I’m not against the use of the word ‘shite’ per se.
But if you can’t lay out a simple argument without resorting to petty insult, then I respectfully ask that you try again.
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 12:22 AMBut if you can’t lay out a simple argument without resorting to petty insult, then I respectfully ask that you try again.
Good point but surely that point could be made to many posters whom when backed into a corner simply resort to swearing as a defence mechanism.
While not defending ‘anonymous’ his/her post was certainly a far cry from many of the hate filled comments posted onto this site in relation to the Orange Order.
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 12:34 AMThis is one of the most shocking tales from the “troubles” that I have ever read.
It’s awfully hard to understand how any family could recover from that.Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 01:20 AMAlot of anti GAA people putting in the boot here. If you want to paint it as a sectarian bigoted organisation it says more about your own mindsets than anything else. Of course you’ll find sectarian twits in most sports in the North (and indeed throughout the whole island) but it’s unfair to insinuate that the GAA is happy to ignore sectarianism. The matter will be dealt with and it will not be window dressing as suggested. Interesting to see Fintan O’Toole and Kevin Myers developing a late interest in GAA affairs though I suspect neither will be at the 82,500 sell-out on Saturday. Wouldn’t look good having a sophisticated Irish Times journalist at a “bog ball” game would it?
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 01:58 AM*Wouldn’t look good having a sophisticated Irish Times journalist at a “bog ball” game would it?*
That would come as a huge surprise to Tom Humphries and John Allen and Nicky English and Keith Duggan and John O’ Keefe and Ian O’Riordan. Have you ever actually read the Irish Times sammaguire or do you just make things up as you go along?
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 06:41 AMThis is an article that stands the nationalist communinty in Lisnaskea in some credit - it makes it clear that they were as cowed and disgusted by the sectarian IRA death squads as their Protestant neighbours.
I suspect that’s why this story is really driving the apologists up the wall.Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 09:19 AM“I have little sympathy for him”
- OutsiderWith an attitude like that, your name seems appropriate. Stay there.
A terrible, shocking story.
Killing a coalman, a man vulnerable because he married a Catholic girl, for Christ’s sake and a bus driver in front of the kids. And then abusing a relative because of all of that.
Fucking sectarian bastards.
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 09:46 AMI truely have to wonder about the collective mentality about some of the contributors on this site. It seems to me that the Unionist view of certain events comes simply from the ‘Uncle Andy said it so it must be true’school of revisionism. Wake up people ! There was NO mass genocide of ‘Protestant’ people , while not condoning what happened to members of the Graham family it is plain to anyone with a semblance of rationale that their involvement in the UDR was their undoing and NOT their religion. By hey, don’t let the truth get in the way of the Unionist myth.
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 09:49 AM“their involvement in the UDR was their undoing “
3 brothers, eh? That was co-incidence?
Its equally clear to anyone with a semblance of rationale that such focussed murder and the fact that one married a Catholic demonstrates a sectarian hatred equivalent to anything demonstrated by Loyalists.
Didn’t Jimmy’s killers whoop with joy and shoot at “the wee birdies off the telephone wires” as they celebrated the killing? What a vision of Hellish hatred that conjures up…and, as the article implies, Hell was indeed invoked.
This was not the only family to receive the focussed attention of the killers: Ross and Margaret Ann Hearst come to mind. Co-incidence again?
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 10:00 AM? It is irrelevent to whom they were married, again you attempt to bring religion into the equation.
Does anyone honestly believe that if the Grahams had no involvment with the Security/Crown forces that they would have been cut down anyway?
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 10:08 AM“It seems to me that the Unionist view of certain events comes simply from the ‘Uncle Andy said it so it must be true’school of revisionism. “
I am not a Unionist.
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 10:13 AMPhew thanks Paul for clearing that up for us. So you can clarify that ALL protestants deliberately targetted and murdered by PIRA were members of the security forces can you?
Stories such as the Graham family account above are very very rarely told. They’re an ‘inconvenient truth’ in the republican myth.
Hey Paul maybe we should have some sort of memorial for the brave lads who shot a bus driver 26 times in front of some primary school kids.Well at least we can count on the GAA to do the right thing by the surviving family members. Can’t we?
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 10:13 AMYes, Paul, of course they would. In instances in Fermanagh where members of families scheduled for ethnic cleansing could not be conveniently linked to the security forces, other excuses were found. These included “economic target” (i.e. shopkeepers) or “political target” (i.e. councillors). Plus, of course, anyone who farmed or owned land could be shot out of hand as an “occupier”.
If you would like to claim that Sinn Fein never justified murder in Fermanagh on the basis of “economic targets” or “political targets” then please do go ahead.Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 10:17 AMOne thing that strike me about all this from my southern remove is that it appears to be as much a manifestation of a culture, on the surface at least, in the GAA of not being able to get on with your near neighbour. Inter parish rivalries are enormous and frankly players and supporters will say anytihng that comes into their heads (and yes they do mean it) and the win at all costs mentality translates into doing and saying anything that might unsettle your opponent. The particular problem in this instance is that Graham can’t respond in kind because those giving it wouldn’t be able to take it.
Yet at inter county level fans appear to be able to banter away with each other, the players on the other hand. Well, that might just be down to my experience as a Kerryman.
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 10:27 AMjoeCanuck - I never said you were?
Gerry lvs Castro - No I can’t, certainly in the early to mid 70’s their was sectarian murder, not on the wholesale scale as committed by Loyalists but yes there was. I was however challenging this notion of ‘innocent’ even though a member of the security/crown forces.
ShoreRoadResident - The use of the term ‘scheduled for ethnic cleansing’ is highly emotive and rather fanciful given what has happened in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and Poland. I would rather not engage with such paranoia. Disgraceful.
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 10:32 AMsammaguire
It is not unreasonable to point out the GAA is ignoring sectarianism.
The important point, though, is that any organization which is 95%+ from one side of the “divide” has to ask itself questions as to why that is, and come up with an answer better than “It’s because themmuns is sectarian, so they are”. The GAA is far from unique here.
The concern from the Fermanagh Board is obviously genuine. But the underlying issue is the “secret sectarianism” here - it simply isn’t good enough to say “Well I just go and play and I don’t care about politics”. If every single player around you is of the same religious background, in NI, you have a responsibility to ask yourself the awkward questions as to why that is.
The Graham incident is a consequence of ignoring the issue, but I have no complaints directly about what the Board has said and done about it. The issue is what will be done in the longer term.
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 10:34 AMSo Paul, my language is “disgraceful” but your excuse-making for murder is not?
Good Lord.
I note you have not denied that Sinn Fein used the justifications of “economic targets” and “political targets” to excuse sectarian murders in Fermanagh. I will take this as an admission that you accept the point.Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 10:41 AMThanks Paul for that admission, though the deliberate targetting of protestants, particularly in border areas, continued long after the mid 70s, often as SRR points out, on the flimsiest of flimsy excuses.
Being related to a security force member, being a farmer, a councillor or indeed any type of business person is hardly a capital offence, and many of the people who sought to justify this sick murder campaign are currently in government.
An uncomfortably large slice of the provo campaign was predicated on murder for it’s own sake—the Teebane massacre, shooting a cleaner in Lurgan and a businessman on the Boucher Road, just a few off the top of my head, could only be described as psychopathic savagery.
In retrospect, there were virtually NO justifiable murders committed during the troubles, and your apparent view that members of the security forces were legitimate targets is a particularly sick joke given SFs acceptance of the current Northern Ireland police force.
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 10:49 AM“In retrospect, there were virtually NO justifiable murders committed during the troubles”
Yes, exactly.
Posted by on Aug 10, 2007 @ 11:04 AM
