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Can it really be true that IRA/Sinn Fein has reached the end of its bloody road? Normally, it would be unwise to entertain the slightest suspicion that history is leaving it behind, so irreducible are the communal divisions in the North. But there really does appear to be a fork in the road for IRA/Sinn Fein. It can transform itself into a regular political party of the mainstream or it can cling to its thuggery, its criminality and its arms and lose its broad base of support. Since the Northern Bank robbery, the money laundering affair in the Republic and now, most tellingly, the brutal murder of Robert McCartney it can no longer do both.

Yesterday’s news that in talks with the dead man’s family it offered to shoot the killers for them only underscores its profound detachment from the public mind. There seems to be no way back from this position. It is arguably the most hopeful moment in the last four painful decades in Northern Ireland.

Posted by Guessedworker on Wednesday, March 9, 2005 at 05:58 PM in Irish Politics
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Comments:

Posted by Stuka on March 09, 2005, 11:19 PM | #

I wonder if this is related in any way to the massive influx (for Ireland) of third world immigrants?

Posted by Matra on March 10, 2005, 12:27 AM | #

Stuka - Believe it or not, the staunchly Irish nationalistic Sinn Fein has been known to condemn the Irish government in Dublin for its supposedly draconian anti-immigration policies. I guess the leadership cares more about fashionable leftism than its own nationalistic heritage.

I’d be surprised if Sinn Fein/IRA were approaching “the end of its bloody road”. That said, the organisation does seem to have gone off the rails lately. They’ve been allowed to get away with so much for so long they’ve become even more arrogant than usual. But unless the Blair government changes policy and stands up to Adams and company I doubt if things will change. But it’ll be interesting to see if the McCartney murder has any impact on the Sinn Fein vote this coming election.

Posted by Matra on March 10, 2005, 12:35 AM | #

The reason I said “I guess the leadership cares more about fashionable leftism than its own nationalistic heritage” is that Sinn Fein means “ourselves alone” in Irish. They’ve also been willing to kill and even starve themselves to death in their quest to drive the British and presumably the Protestants from Irish soil. To then turnaround and welcome people from the Third World does not strike me as the kind of thing any previous generation of Irish Republicans would’ve approved of. Indeed I doubt if many of their present day working class supporters are enthusiastic about a multicultural Ireland.

Posted by Guessedworker on March 10, 2005, 06:55 AM | #

Matra,

The point is that for long time now IRA/Sinn Fein has not been able to return to violence because there is no perception among Catholics that it is justified. Since Dr Paisley’s victory their self-maintenance as an armed and operational entity has excluded them from the Assembly. Now because of their exposed criminality the two governments are hardening attitudes:-

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1519197,00.html

If the election is disappointing for them they are almost certainly nackered, at last.

Posted by Guessedworker on March 13, 2005, 05:47 AM | #

In today’s Sunday Telepgraph is a fine article by Kevin Myers:-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;sessionid=XT4INFXCUVPA3QFIQMFCM54AVCBQYJVC?xml=/opinion/2005/03/13/do1301.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/03/13/ixportal.html

He speaks of “the shift in policy creation towards Northern Ireland within the US away from the State Department and towards the CIA.”

He concludes, “It is clear to the US administration that Gerry Adams is no more than an Irish Yasser Arafat - and no more reliable. Moreover, US intelligence is no longer prepared to tolerate either a potentially lethal terrorist enclave, a little Tora Bora in the South Armagh triangle, or the unfettered authority of its local warlord, Slab Murphy.

So Washington is now taking a more unforgiving look at Northern Ireland than are Dublin or London. Moreover, the Colombia Three, the Northern Bank robbery, and Robert McCartney are a reminder of the old CIA adage: the first time is happenstance, the second time is coincidence, but a third time is enemy action. US officials are now demanding that Sinn Fein disband the IRA.

The IRA’s brutal arrogance has finally won it a new and truly formidable enemy. His name is Bush.”

It would be gratifying if Bush did something right, and America finally understood that going all dewy-eyed and sentimental over Irish “freedom-fighters” kills people.

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