A conspiracy theorist suggests

Writing in The Newsletter, Suzanne Breen looks at that IRA statement and their ‘offer’ to shoot those they claimed were responsible for the murder of Robert McCartney. As she points out, despite Martin McGuinness’ description of that ‘offer’ as a mistake, – “[The statement] wasn’t a rushed job.. There was five pages of the stuff.” Instead, she sees it as yet another PR cock-up by the PRM. And that, she suggests, could be evidence for the conspiracy theorists.

Suzanne Breen “suspect[s] the IRA offer was false. If the Provos had been serious about shooting the McCartney killers, they’d have just done it”

The reality is that the IRA leadership knew full well about the barbarism of some members in the Short Strand and the Markets for years. The Sinn Fein centre in the lower Ormeau was inundated with complaints about them…. They didn’t become thugs overnight.[emphasis added]

Sinn Fein was fully prepared to go along with the cover-up of the McCartney murder. If the PSNI hadn’t been hindered in its house searches, maybe the killers would already be behind bars.

Such alleged threats to shoot people should be measured against what was the reality on the ground for weeks after the murder.

Those responsible walked the streets freely until the McCartneys created a fuss. Maybe what the IRA is trying to do now is to widen the distance between itself and Sinn Fein.

Not, she argues, a strategy that would be beneficial to SF.

The IRA wants to shoot the killers (though, phew! The McCartneys don’t); Sinn Fein says it’s against punishment shootings. If that’s the strategy, it won’t work. Because if the governments were to accept the lie that Sinn Fein and the IRA are two distinct organisations, then there’s no point in having Adams & Co continually trotting in and out of Downing Street and Leinster House. They deserve no more special attention than any other politicians.

She does, however, suggest an interesting alternative theory, where the IRA statement is just another PR cock-up –

I suspect this week’s Provo statement is another blunder, and it’s amazing how many cock-ups they’ve made in recent months.

A conspiracy theorist might suggest that perhaps outsiders, who were advising or helping it previously, became fed up when it rejected the political settlement in December and abandoned the IRA to its own devices. Because things just aren’t falling into place for the Provos like they did for years.[emphasis added]

But, then, only a suspicious mind would suggest that people in high places perhaps offered a guiding hand to the IRA leadership in the past. And, you could (possibly) still be shot for saying so.

Hmmm…