Conflict – Page 26 – Slugger O'Toole

Colombia: A Safe Haven for Mutually Beneficial Exchanges

Pete Baker on May 27, 2007, 9:52 pm

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The Sunday Life picks up on an interesting reference to an episode some would, no doubt, prefer to forget about. A report from the influential US-based RAND Corporation intended to advise the US government on policy in tackling terrorism focuses on how and why terrorist groups share knowledge for their mutual benefit.. and uses, as one case study, the PIRA’s Colombian adventures with FARC.. The full report, which was published on May 9th, is available online here. The RAND Corp …

“Delay has its own heavy price. The poison accumulates in the system.”

Pete Baker on May 25, 2007, 1:08 am

| Readers 33

At the Guardian’s Cif blog Tim Garton Ash considers what lessons others, eg us, can learn from Poland’s attempt to deal with it’s dark, difficult past – “Should you remember or forget? Should you use trials, purges, truth commissions, or simply throw open the archives?” Given the questions he poses it’s worthwhile highlighting his conclusion.. as we lurch forward on those already poisonous foundations. On balance, I remain convinced that the sooner you can do it the better. “It” should …

Peaceline to run through integrated primary…

Mick Fealty on May 23, 2007, 8:46 pm

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New start at Stormont, but Belfast is still finding ways to continue to segregate its population. This time, bizarrely, the Peace Wall is to be built in the middle of the playground of Belfast’s only Integrated Primary School. Kathryn Torney in the Belfast Telegraph: Despite Northern Ireland moving into a new era, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal that the Northern Ireland Office is planning to erect a new peaceline – in the playground of an integrated primary school. A 25ft-high …

Germany taking the lead in tidying up loose ends?

Pete Baker on May 21, 2007, 3:11 pm

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The 35 year old woman arrested in Coalisland on a European Arrest Warrant for terrorist offences allegedly committed in Germany is believed to be confirmed as Roisin McAliskey, daughter of Bernadette McAliskey, who the German authorities had previously tried to extradite in 1998. It follows last year’s successful prosecution of Leonard Hardy for an earlier attack on the British Army’s Osnabruck base. Adds The Deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, is objecting.. and follows Alex Maskey’s lead by contacting …

No miracle, just a culmination of tragedies…

Mick Fealty on May 18, 2007, 4:26 pm

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Alex Kane writing at the beginning of this week looks back on the restart of Stormont the week before and muses on the idea, expressed in some corners of the media, that it was a miracle of sorts. Rather he believes it was a mawkish, fake Oscar type affair celebrating a process which, tragedy after tragedy, finally led to a last resort of civic engagement between old enemies (ala that David McKee parable). It was, he argues, an outcome that …

“IICD has met with representatives of the UVF for a frank exchange of positions”

Pete Baker on May 18, 2007, 2:45 am

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Following the statement at the beginning of May from the UVF, the IICD expressed concern that the paramilitary organisation had only put their arms ‘beyond reach’ rather than being fully decommissioned – as the Chief Constable Hugh Orde would prefer. The BBC’s Vincent Kearney reports that, with representatives of the UVF meeting with other paramilitary leaders and Martin McAleese, today former PUP MLA “Billy Hutchison and a number of senior UVF members met the general [de Chastelain] and his other …

But when will the peace come dropping slow?

Mick Fealty on May 14, 2007, 5:01 pm

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If the full murderous fury of the troubles came five years after its first murders (ie 1966), it may take some time to get all the of the genies released back into their various bottles. David Harrison notes that for many communities, there is no let up in both inter and intra communal violence: The “armed conflict” may be over and the guns put away, but for many people the wounds of the past are still raw. Nor is the …

On the banality of peace…

Mick Fealty on May 10, 2007, 3:53 pm

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In case you missed it yesterday, my short piece on Tuesday’s events over at the Guardian… Reading it again puts me in mind of the words of an old friend of mine Philip Whitfield, “Death of one is the death of all. It is not the dead I pity”. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events …

3,722 dead between 1966 and 2007 (2)…

Mick Fealty on May 10, 2007, 12:16 pm

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Bertie noted on the first thread on this subject that the names petered out in October 1979. It appears that when I cut an pasted the original from the Irish Times, the blog software could not cope with the huge amount of text it involved. Nevertheless it took nearly fifty comments of mostly (but not all) vehement contention over those deaths before someone spotted the list was half what it should have been. Clearly I should have checked it, but …

Ere the sun rises indeed…

Mick Fealty on May 9, 2007, 8:20 pm

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Chris at Balrog, notes that Orange and Green are at peace, at last. El Blogador sees it as the deliverance of power into local hands, at last. Ciaran reckons it’s a storm in a Stormont teacup. Martin McGuinness is proud to have compromised and Ian Paisley now acknowledges that “in politics as in life” no one ever gets 100% of what they want. And most in this fledgling democratic space are glad they got there, even if it was too …

3,722 dead between 1966 and 2007…

Mick Fealty on May 9, 2007, 1:24 pm

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There seems no better way to mark the end of a profoundly tragic period in Irish history, than to re-produce a list compiled within The Irish Times today, of all of those who lost their lives between the three murders of June 1966 and the two victims of March this year. Update: Since the blog entry here can only cope with victims up to October 1979, I’m going to post the second half under a separate entry: 1966 JUNE: 11th: …

UVF ends its own forty one year old existence

Mick Fealty on May 4, 2007, 4:35 pm

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So, finally, Captain William Johnston has made what looks like his last political act. If only for the sake of history, it should be noted that ‘Johnston”s first victim was not Peter Ward, as is still widely believed and reported, but a young Catholic storeman called John Patrick Scullion – killed two weeks earlier. His death was first thought to have been a result of a hit-and-run accident. There was a considerable degree of shock when responsibility for his killing …

“In doing so we reaffirm the legitimacy of our tactical response…”

Pete Baker on May 3, 2007, 2:31 pm

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As has been heavily trailed in the media, and as the PA report says, The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is to assume a non-military, civilianised role after putting its weapons beyond use beyond reach.. Full statement here Adds The PUP’s Dawn Purvis is “pleased”.. natch.. But the IICD is “concerned”.. And The Secretary of State for Wales etc seems keen to move along, now.. “I specified the UVF in September 2005 following the loyalist feud of that summer. In the …

Day of Private Reflection – 21st June 2007

Mick Fealty on May 1, 2007, 1:53 pm

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Healing through Remembering have established a day of reflection “as an inclusive and positive experience that emphasises a commitment to a peaceful new society”. In looking for an appropriate date, they did try to find a day when no one was killed during the Troubles, presumably so that no negative or positive inference could be taken. In fact there is no date throughout the year on which someone was not killed. The 21st June was chosen as the summer solstice, …

What the British did right in Northern Ireland but are botching in Iraq…

Mick Fealty on May 1, 2007, 1:13 pm

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Alex Evans at the Global Dashboard has some sharp observations to offer from Martin van Creveld’s The Changing Face of War: Lessons of Combat, from the Marne to Iraq. Though some detail such as, “never once did the British inflict collective punishment such as curfews” is highly questionable, there also are some interesting comparitors. Alex himself though is probably on to the most useful insight when he notes the inverted kill rate at the end: My partner on that occasion …

On the snobbery of liberal officialdom?

Mick Fealty on April 27, 2007, 3:52 pm

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Raymond McCord is only one of quite a number of individuals who did not get shortlisted for the post of Victims Commissioner, but Newton Emerson believes he must have received the crassest reasons for not getting the job… According to the powers that be, the widely admired victims campaigner lacks “awareness of the conflict”, “an ability to deal with the media” and “written presentational skills”. To tell a man who lost his son that he lacks awareness of the conflict …

Time for the Orange Order to back off?

Mick Fealty on April 27, 2007, 3:48 pm

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Jim Gibney writes on the importance of gesture politics… and argues that it is time for the Orange Order to offer a few gestures of its own… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Time for some leadership from loyalists?

Mick Fealty on April 26, 2007, 2:57 pm

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Now the IRA has (mostly) left the big scene of politics, the pressure is mounting on Loyalists to follow suite. Peter Hain and Michael McDowell is calling for leadership in that quarter to finally leave their various criminal pursuits behind. But as the IMC report indicates, there is no sign of any planned movement, significant or otherwise. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media …

Don’t get mad, get….

Mick Fealty on April 25, 2007, 9:59 pm

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Malachi O’Doherty reckons unionists should quit complaining about Sinn Fein’s plans for a museum of the troubles on the site of the Maze prison and make sure that it tells more than just one side of the story. His suggestion: a gun and bomb attack on a Shankill Road bar back in 1975, which left five politically uninvolved Protestants dead: Why not a display about Bik McFarlane, OC [officer commanding] of the prisoners at the time of the hunger strike, …

Ballymurphy man led UVF murder squad…

Mick Fealty on April 23, 2007, 5:52 pm

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Ciaran Barnes looks at a murder from 1974. He understands that the UVF squad that carried it out was led by a Ballymurphy Catholic called Jimmy McKenna, who “had lived in a caravan in the grounds of the vicitm’s Milltown furniture shop. He did odd jobs around the shop for his victim”. He is said to have ‘crossed over’ when his brother was killed in later 1970 by the IRA, though Barnes believes “he was operating as an undercover British …