Sir, – Two men who were, to misappropriate an oft-used media phrase, “known to the IRA”, are killed. We are then assured that the IRA had no involvement because it has gone away. This assurance comes from people who were never members of said organisation and who say that they and their political party have “no special, or particular or specific responsibility to respond to the allegations made about the IRA”.
Letter-writers comment that the dogs in the street are also aware that no such organisation exists. Clearly, any members of the public threatened by individuals claiming to be members of the IRA can rely on the expertise of our street-straddling canines. Of course, unlike anyone who might claim to be a member, or even ex-member, of an actual army, there’s no way for a member of the public to confirm who was or was not, or is or is not, a member of the IRA. There’s no membership list and no discharge papers, just as there were no regular hours of work or demarcated tours of duty. If a regular Irish solider, out of uniform or not on duty, beats someone up or kills them, no one thinks this is an act of the Army, because we can tell that these are not the actions of a solider.
In contrast, we never knew during the Troubles when IRA members were on or off duty, whether this bank job was personal or part of their active service, or if that beating or murder was really officially sanctioned.
It may have been necessary, in order to win the peace, to maintain the temporary fiction that the IRA was an army and Sinn Féin an entirely separate organisation, but this indulgence of republican doublespeak has to end.
Being mostly inactive men of violence is not the same as being men of peace. It is the inability of IRA members to move on from violence, politically motivated or not, that has caused the current crisis, and it is up to them to end it. – Yours, etc,
DANIEL SULLIVAN,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – The current and latest crisis taking place in Northern Ireland is depressing in its familiarity. It tells much about how far, and also how little, the peace process has travelled. The political dispensation which backstopped the supposed cessation of the “Troubles” has been shown to be extremely brittle over the last week or so (as has often been the case since its inception).
The legacy issues playing out in relation to alleged ex-IRA terrorists involved in crime both north and south of the Border are unsurprising. Killings committed between people involved in crime are simply a fact of life. In the context of Northern Ireland and its history, however, they inevitably resonate in a manner which does not apply elsewhere.
The opprobrium being heaped upon Gerry Adams and his supporters may well be unfair in relation to this specific incident. However, the ongoing relationship between what remains of the IRA and Sinn Féin is something that both enervates and disquiets people in equal measure. On the other hand, the behaviour of unionist politicians in government is as lamentable as it is depressingly predictable. The self-righteous declarations by various unionist politicians in relation to alleged actions by ex-IRA members involved in crime, and the connection which they make to Sinn Féin, ignore the responsibility that they bear in relation to former loyalist terrorists involved in similar activity. Such hypocrisy and irresponsibility are nothing new on their part.
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that, notwithstanding disgust with the squalid and ultimately tragic events which have given rise to the current situation, the peace process remains extremely fragile. The willingness of the unionists, as articulated by Jeffrey Donaldson and others, to pull the plug on the Executive in Stormont, belies their reluctance to truly embrace what the idea of what powersharing really means.
The prospect of the failure of the Executive and the re-imposition of direct rule will surely be enticing to those seeking to scupper the, albeit uneasy, peace which has broken out in Northern Ireland since the guns were silenced and decommissioned. – Yours, etc,
NICKY DUNNE
Dublin 6.
Sir, – I am finding it immensely depressing to hear southern politicians trying to score cheap shots against Sinn Féin as a result of the PSNI statements on the recent murders.
I find Micheál Martin’s interventions to be particularly self-serving and with no regard for the bigger picture. Fianna Fáil is usually safe pair of hands when it comes to Northern Ireland. This seems no longer to be the case.
Joan Burton could not resist jumping on Micheál Martin’s bandwagon with a typically shrill intervention of no substance.
I sincerely hope the Taoiseach will act in a considered and statesmanlike way in this instance and not jeopardise the greater good for short-term election purposes.– Yours, etc,
SEAN REIDY,
New Ross, Co Wexford.
Sir, – We have a British government that has displayed greater pragmatism and understanding of the current fabricated crisis besetting the peace process than its clueless Irish equivalent, which has been goaded into a political cul-de-sac by an agenda-driven reactionary cohort in the media. We have a prospective leader of the Labour opposition in the UK who is ideologically committed to a united Ireland and sympathetic to the aims of Sinn Féin, while here we have Labour and Opposition leaders who are shamefully prepared to sacrifice the progress made since the signing of Belfast Agreement in an attempt to shore up their ever-dwindling political mandates. – Yours, etc,
JOE NOLAN,
Shankill, Co Dublin.
Sir, – I wonder which retired US senator will draw the short straw this time and be flown in to save Northern Ireland’s “politicians” from themselves? – Yours, etc,
ANNE MURPHY,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.