Conflict – Page 6 – Slugger O'Toole

Haass had basic flaws. It’s time for the two governments to step up to the plate

Brian Walker on December 31, 2013, 4:29 pm

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It was in its way encouraging that the Assembly parties themselves launched the Haass process but they seem to have bitten off more than they could chew. They appear to have gone into the high pressure phase without clear ideas of how to reach goals other than muddling through. So far we haven’t heard of any back channels or talks on the margin where so often deals get done, or arm twisting from big brothers or sisters. Pressured negotiations worked before, on Good Friday and at St Andrews, …

Despite the Haass setback we are not the prisoners of the past but masters of our own fate

Brian Walker on December 31, 2013, 10:22 am

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The issues of the Haass process are only the tip of the iceberg. Indeed it might be said that the talks were unlikely to succeed without rigorous challenge and examination of the beliefs and assumptions the parties brought to the table. Behind the tortuous details of flags, parades and the past are the competing narratives which need to be challenged and explored before we can reach the point of agreement of how to live with them. Beyond the groves of …

“implicating people in its activities was the IRA’s strategy for enhancing its legitimacy”

Mick Fealty on November 8, 2013, 2:53 pm

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Malachi O’Doherty gets close to something important with this piece for the BelTel blog… He begins by picking up on the part of Darragh McIntyre’s excellent documentary for BBC Four’s Storyville on The Disappeared, which mentions the the ambiguous role of priests during the conflict: In the early-1990s, I interviewed Fr Matt Wallace in Turf Lodge about his work mediating with the local IRA on behalf of young men under threat of kneecapping. He told me that he often spoke …

“If there was a hierarchy of the victims of the Troubles, #TheDisappeared were at the bottom…”

Mick Fealty on November 5, 2013, 3:06 pm

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…So Darragh McIntyre begins a truly haunting evocation of the plight of the families of those killed mostly by the IRA and disappeared… You can pick it up here on the RTE Player and here on the iPlayer… I’d recommend watching it in full, but for now, two indicative passages. This one, in which former south Armagh IRA man Martin McAllister outs the rumour mill around post execution citings of disappeared victims as a way of stealing some grace for …

Shankill bomb: As the fog of war lifts welcome to the hall of smoke and mirrors

Mick Fealty on October 29, 2013, 8:42 am

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In all the understandable controlled angry over destruction the Shankill bomb wrought, both on the day and the weeks after, Anthony McIntyre, then an IRA volunteer, reminds people his organisation was on a war footing at the time, and no amount of hindsight can change the circumstances under which Kelly and Begley planted that ill fated bomb: Wax ethical and sigh at the terrible loss of life, as we might today, three quarters of we who came through the ranks …

The DUP’s approach to dealing with the past rolls back the GFA

Brian Walker on October 24, 2013, 10:52 pm

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Yesterday’s opposition day debate in the Commons on Dealing With The Past initiated by the DUP was attended by only just enough GB MPs – about 20-odd – to make up the quorum of 40. Have a browse in Hansard to get the full flavour if you’re feeling strong enough. Sinn Fein’s absence is a pity. In parliament a real debate is better than sermonising. If they were present there would be a lot more authentic flavour and less of the sound …

The Glenanne story proves the time for frank admissions is overdue: further prevarication over collusion implies Briitsh government cover-up

Brian Walker on October 24, 2013, 11:40 am

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Like most of the atrocities of the Troubles the story of the Glenanne gang isn’t unfamiliar Suzanne Breen for one gave a detailed account of the 1976 Kingmills and Reavey brothers massacres in January 2011 based it would seem on “ imminent” HET reports. Of the Reavey murders she stated as a matter of established fact: The attack was carried out by the UVF’s infamous Glenanne gang, which operated in a murder triangle between south Armagh and mid-Ulster. Made up of …

Ardoyne plaque forges new link between present tensions and a terrible past.

Brian Walker on October 23, 2013, 6:40 pm

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This part of the Flora Bradley-Watson’s report in the Belfast Telegraph of the commemoration of the bombing of Frizzell’s shop leapt out at me. Charlie Butler, who lost three relatives in the attack – his niece Evelyn Baird, her partner Michael Morrison and their daughter Michelle – said that he had relied on the support of the Shankill community. “It gives me strength to see the people are still behind us.” Mr Butler said that he was offended by the …

Bloody Sunday prosecutions might be justifed if they prompted IRA confessions

Brian Walker on October 22, 2013, 2:22 pm

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Douglas Murray is a libertarian right winger who goes in head-on where others hesitate. He wrote a forensically detailed and heart breaking account of Bloody Sunday which was equally unsparing of the Army and persistently questioning of the IRA, as was noted by Gladys when his book appeared just after the highly emotional reception that greeted the Saville report. In his Spectator blog Murray has continued to put awkward questions to the Army and Martin McGuinness alike. Although I am all for the argument that we should …

Peter Robinson: “We must learn to communicate better…”

Pete Baker on October 18, 2013, 12:35 am

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Interesting comments reported by the BBC from the Northern Ireland First Minister, DUP leader Peter Robinson, speaking at a Co-Operation Ireland dinner at Queen’s University in Belfast on Thursday night. From the BBC report Mr Robinson said that while it is easier and more comfortable for politicians and people in wider society to retreat to safe and familiar ground, that is not the ground where progress will be made. “I am entirely convinced that a shared and united society in …

Where have all the adult politicians once ambitious for Northern Ireland gone?

Mick Fealty on October 8, 2013, 3:01 pm

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Meanwhile, the lunatics continue to enjoy their dominance over the asylum… and a Orange Order press officer refers all queries to its own members reference to civil disobedience to the DUP… Alex Kane wants an adult to take control: Oddly enough – and I say oddly because it is, in fact, odd – mainstream unionism seems unwilling to tell them that their present tactics are wrong. Not one single UUP or DUP figure (who between them represent the bulk of …

Amnesty International report: NI “victims’ families actually consider their treatment a failure.”

Mick Fealty on September 12, 2013, 2:07 pm

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So, no further inquiry into Omagh. And at least some of the secrets of the cover up on Bloody Sunday, goes to the grave. Regarding those who can still answer for their actions, it’s all “I cannot remember,” “I do not recall,” “I have only a very vague memory.” For others, it’s all “Republican code of honour”. Publishing their new report on Northern Ireland, John Dalhuisen, Amnesty’s International director for Europe and Central Asia said: “There’s a cruel irony in …

“Statement needed from Gerry Adams on Sinn Féin claims re Garda Donohoe”

Mick Fealty on August 22, 2013, 12:28 pm

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And five days after that extraordinary press briefing, Niall Collins of Fianna Fail says Gerry Adams needs to answer questions about what he knows of the murderers of Garda Aidan Donohoe. This literally just into Slugger’s inbox: “This media briefing is a serious development. A senior official working at the heart of the Sinn Féin political operation claims that he knows for a fact the identity of Detective Donohoe’s killers. In addition, he claims that the same individuals were behind …

Robinson U turn shows the urgent need for mediation

Brian Walker on August 18, 2013, 12:18 pm

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They must have put up Chinese walls inside Stormont Castle since I was there last. The sudden collapse of Peter Robinson’s position over the Maze peace centre strongly suggests that the joint leaders haven’t even managed to have frank exchanges about the past, much less wrestled with how actually to deal with it. But the bigger problem stretches down the hill to streets below. DUP electoral dominance has been again exposed as offering no protection against unionist fragmentation and a stampede …

North Belfast kicks off…

Pete Baker on July 12, 2013, 9:27 pm

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The BBC are reporting that water cannon and baton rounds have been used in north Belfast after a sustained attack on police in the Woodvale area. Four police officers and one civilian, to date, are reported to have been injured in the disorder. And there have been a number of clashes between rival loyalist and nationalist groups in the area. The Guardian is live-blogging events. • The first violent clashes erupted around twenty minutes to eight in the north end of …

Arms find: 15 kilos of Semtex, guns, ammunition and gold painted replica pistol…

Mick Fealty on July 12, 2013, 3:53 pm

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You could conjure up a whole play on just one of several bizarre elements of is reportedly An Garda Siochana’s largest find of dissident arms… In the midst of all the real guns is a toy Smith and Wesson model painted gold… From the UTV report: Gardaí said some of the weapons looked in poor condition and included Provisional IRA weapons that should have been decommissioned. Fifteen kilos of Semtex and other bomb-making equipment, such as detonator cord and igniters, …

Republican dissidents try to kill police officers in Ardoyne…

Mick Fealty on July 11, 2013, 1:27 pm

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And, just to complicate matters (and in case you had the impression that it was only the Orange bringing mayhem to the streets of north Belfast)… With tensions building ahead of the most controversial parade of the Orange Order marching season, due to go through Ardoyne in north Belfast on Friday, republican dissidents have tried to kill police officers in a bomb attack in the area. It has emerged that the republicans attempted to lure a police patrol into Ardoyne …

Another interface and another petrol bomb attack…

Mick Fealty on June 21, 2013, 1:01 pm

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Another petrol bomb attack. This time in west Belfast on the small Protestant enclave of Suffolk. Sinn Fein Councillor Gerard O’Neill was quick off the mark to make a statement yesterday: “Whoever was behind the attack and for whatever motive, it is a disgrace and will not stop the good work continuing between the communities of Suffolk and Lenadoon areas. “While the circumstances surrounding the incident are unclear at this early stage any attack on people’s homes with petrol bombs …

End now the old pretence that we want to deal with the past

Brian Walker on May 23, 2013, 11:40 am

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Another conference, another raking over old ground? Perhaps – but the DPP Barra McGrory made an interesting speech at the well-cast transitional justice conference in Belfast. “I think society has got to make a choice. Either it decides now to go down the route, the very difficult route, of determining that we are going to forego the investigation and prosecution of the past in favour of embedding the political institutions or the peace process, or between that and deciding whether …

Zero sum game over parades continues between OFMdFM parties…

Mick Fealty on May 23, 2013, 9:32 am

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Here’s a good one, the DUP Minister at Social Development has commissioned a report (original here, courtesy of Morpheus below) that says that parades bring in £55 million a year [there’s a surprise – ed]. Except that the former Lord Mayor of Belfast says what it does not take account of is: …the mass exodus of people from the North during the height of the ‘marching season’ or the amount of people put off from coming here by the associated …