Northern Ireland: No Where Near the End of Irish History
Daniel Finn, who has interviewed Gilbert Achcar and Patrick Cockburn for Irish Left Review has an excellent Diary piece in the latest London Review of Books. It deals with the recent CIRA and RIRA killings, the current state of Northern Ireland politics and responses to what is happening in the North in the South of Ireland at the moment.
Meanwhile the indifference of people in the South to what happens across the border is probably greater than at any time since the War of Independence.
And
Unionists have a point when they note the aversion of Southern politicians to any form of power-sharing with Republicans on their own patch.
Here are some excerpts about how the killings where seen from the ‘security’ correspondent’s point of view, and the real political motivation for the attack.
So what lies behind the recent violence, which appears so futile? The predictable answer from Ireland’s ‘security’ correspondents, most of whom share a hatred of Republicanism and a heavy reliance on anonymous police and intelligence sources, is that there is no genuine political motivation behind the attacks. Militant Republicanism is just a front for criminality: the ‘dissidents’ don’t want regular policing in the border counties in case it disrupts their rackets. This argument is deeply unconvincing: the British government spent 25 years trying to persuade people that one of the longest-running and (proportionally) bloodiest conflicts in modern history was no more than a crime wave. London tacitly abandoned this pretence when it included the ‘criminals’ in peace talks.
The attacks certainly weren’t very sophisticated. The RIRA ambushed the two soldiers when they were taking delivery of a pizza, and managed to shoot the delivery men in the process (they survived). A shrewder group might have expressed regret at having shot civilians. Instead, the organisation rushed to issue a statement describing pizza workers as ‘collaborators with British rule in Ireland’.
On the political motives for the attacks:
The political logic behind the RIRA/ CIRA attacks is clear enough: killing British soldiers and members of the police force won’t transform the balance of power, but it might accelerate disillusionment with the Sinn Féin leadership by forcing Adams and Martin McGuinness to align themselves closely with the forces they once considered legitimate military targets. They must have been delighted to hear McGuinness denouncing the gunmen as traitors and urging people to pass information to the police. The ‘dissidents’ are pushing their one-time comrades into a closer embrace with the establishment, and positioning themselves to take advantage of the perceived failures of the power-sharing administration.
Read the whole piece here.
Discussion
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Comment by: Hugh Green
May 1st 2009 at 13:05
Somewhat disappointed at the absence of comment on milking cows in that piece, Donagh.
Comment by: Donagh
May 1st 2009 at 13:05
Ha! Fair enough (blushes). Have changed Dairy to Diary.