A representative of the self-declared Direct Action Concerned Families Against Drugs (CFAD) popped up on Talk Back today, praising their own “radical direct action”, and contesting Gerry Adams comments on Good Morning Ulster linking dissenting republican groups with “the drugs trade”. Those comments related to the weekend briefings by anonymous sources – either “senior figures within the mainstream republican movement” and/or, according to the BBC, Sinn Féin. Well, with the community “up in arms” about the level of crime, and now that “volunteers patrolling” isn’t as effective as it might once have been.. Not that there’s an ongoing “bid to exert control in nationalist areas in particular..” According to Brian Rowan in the Belfast Telegraph.
There is also a wider purpose to the Adams intervention and to the weekend briefing. It is the community being told from the very top of the Republican Movement that it is okay to talk to the police about this — that it is okay to provide information. The message is that this is not touting, or informing or any betrayal of republicanism.
Except that it’s couched within another message – that the “dissident” groups “are not about furthering the republican goals.”
Discover more from Slugger O'Toole
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
