Even opponents of armed republicanism such as Ruth Dudley Edwards, John A. Murphy, and Fintan O'Toole in this newspaper, have recently argued that there are moral as well as political reasons why the murderers - and I use the word deliberately - of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe should benefit from the early-release programme. There might indeed be political arguments for releasing these cheery, unrepentant killers from their easy servitude of home-cooked foods, Chinese take-aways and complete freedom of association; but there are no moral arguments.
"Justice," Fintan O'Toole wrote recently, "isn't only about retribution. It is also about consistency. To treat those who are guilty of similar crimes in fundamentally different ways is unjust. To demand that others bear burdens we ourselves regard as unbearable is immoral. If some of the prisoners who were released from the Maze . . . escape the full retribution for their actions, then so must the killers of Jerry McCabe."
Immorality
I have long known that this peace process involved an often weird and wonderful vocabulary, but I had not until this passage expected that those who support the rule of law in this jurisdiction might thus be accused of immorality. But we know this peace process is not about justice or morality or consistency. It is a morally selective solution to a moral quandary we do not otherwise know how to escape from; yet Pearse McCauley, killer, remains in a class apart. He has already been given the credit of any doubt by this peace process. And deserves no more. For when he and his gang killed Jerry McCabe, they knew an amnesty was imminent. That is why so carelessly and carefully they butchered a good man serving his country, confident that they would soon be free.
This creature has repeatedly been released from jail, and not always lawfully. He escaped from prison in London in 1991, during which either he or a fellow terrorist shot an inconvenient motorist who got in the way. Tsk tsk; these pesky civilians. Two years later, he was arrested in the Republic in possession of a revolver, and sentenced to seven years imprisonment, but released on the orders of the government as part of its peace process propitiation. He was then arrested by gardai on extradition warrants issued for his terrorist-escapades in London. But again he was released because, apparently, any appeal against extradition might have lasted 12 to 18 months.
Make sense of that if you will. I confess, I cannot. All I know for sure is that this specimen, who had already benefited hugely from state and judicial largesse in the course of this peace process, then went on to be party to the coldblooded and deliberate murder of a servant of the State, Jerry McCabe. This wicked deed was then followed by the grossest intimidation of prosecution witnesses the Special Criminal Court has yet experienced throughout its existence, causing charges of capital murder to be diluted into ones of mere manslaughter.
Small-print
Pearse McCauley might well in the end be released sooner than he deserves. But we should not be ashamed of using whatever small-print is available to keep him in custody as long as possible. Have not Sinn Fein-IRA deployed their enormous casuistical skills to the full to justify their non-surrender of weaponry? Why shouldn't we do the same to one such as McCauley? After all, there are no moral absolutes either in the conduct of conflict, or in the ending of it.
Just as all wars are the implementation of a pragmatic selective immorality, their conclusion tends to be woven from the same rank cloth. Absolute morality demands justice for all the innocent dead. Pragmatic morality - such as that which underpins the peace process - recognises that some injustice must go unpunished. This is legally and morally inconsistent, yet this inconsistency is the very criticism made of those, such as myself, who take a hard line towards the McCabe killers.
No consistency
Injustice to the victims of terrorism has been the engine of this peace process. So too has the injustice done to various perpetrators: the convicted killer of 20 years ago who served his full sentence must see the convicted killer of 1998 stand at the gates of the Maze, chortling and free. So be it; but at least uncritical supporters of the peace process might spare us claims about their moral consistency. There is neither consistency, clarity nor parity when war is brought to a negotiated end, merely inconsistency, expediency and convenient amnesia. Yet even in the resulting fudge and ethical evasion, terrorists must finally submit to the resolve of democrats.
Instead, we read that Sinn Fein is demanding the release of the murderers of Jerry McCabe as a pre-condition to an election deal with Fianna Fail. Apparently, Fianna Fail must undo the wrong it has done to poor blameless Pearse McCauley before being allowed into government by Sinn Fein. The shocking truth is that Fianna Fail would rather form a government with an organisation whose armed wing has murdered members of our security forces than it would with its fellow-democrats of Fine Gael.
Thus this country might soon be governed by the dispensation of a secret army council, which stands for neither election nor dissent, and which is in government simply because it shares the same ancient tribal gods as Fianna Fail. In other words, voodoo, with unrepentant terrorists in office in both parts of Ireland. Which, since it has a certain Tonton Macoute moral consistency, must be just fine.