Annus Horribilis continues

The annus horribilus for the Republican Movement continues. The IRA continues to be attacked from within the nationalist community. Henry McDonald reported in The Observer yesterday, Grieving sisters square up to IRA , that “a staunchly republican district of Belfast may be about to turn in Provos who killed a young father“.

The Irish News reports in Sister blames IRA for protecting killers :”The victim’s sister Paula accused the organisation of attempting to protect a senior republican allegedly involved in the murder.

She told the Sunday Tribune newspaper: “The IRA was involved in a clean-up operation in the bar so there would be no forensic evidence. The IRA threatened eye-witnesses.

“The IRA visited the local community centre and ordered people not to talk to the police and media, not even to talk to each other, about the murder.

“This raises very serious questions for Sinn Fein.”

John Kelly has weighed in from Maghera with a powerful letter, also in the Irish News (q.v.) in which he asks “For an increasing and questioning voice of concern within the nationalist/republican communities throughout the north of Ireland the questions most frequently being asked are: Have we exchanged a fascist and sectarian orange jackboot for an increasingly fascist and totalitarian green jackboot?

“Have we exchanged a sectarian RUC Special Branch for the special branch of a militia that imposes its ‘law and order’ behind a balaclava, a balaclava that brings fear and death into our communities?”

A slightly inhuman presence that bans bad comments and works late at night to remove the wrinkles in Slugger’s technical carpet. You will need to know about the comments policy to stay off the fightin’ side of me and there is a bit of background about me here. You can email me using this spam-proof link if you really need to, and Slugger is @sluggerotoole on Twitter. But above all, remember, Play the ball and not the man.

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.