Posted on 03/10/2009 12:16:27 PM PDT by Briton
IF the Mafia were handed power in New York, would anyone expect them to go straight?
It’s the same with the IRA and Northern Ireland. The price of Tony Blair’s appeasement of the IRA was that terrorists were allowed to share power. And now the terrorists have fallen out among themselves.
That’s why two British soldiers have been murdered. We’ve all been worrying about Islamic attacks. Yet suddenly we face a renewed terror campaign on our own soil. It must come as a shock to anyone who doesn’t remember how Ulster violence dominated the news for decades.
Blair’s Ulster peace deal with the IRA in 1998 emptied the prisons of convicted IRA killers and thugs. It also saw the tough Royal Ulster Constabulary replaced by a weaker outfit to satisfy the IRA. As head of Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political arm, former IRA chieftain Gerry Adams gained much of what he wanted from Blair.
He joined the new Northern Ireland Assembly as a “respectable” politician.
But once a gangster, always a gangster.
Adams waited many hours before speaking about the soldiers’ murders. When he did, it was no condemnation. He went off on an anti-British rant. Why should that be a surprise? Adams carried the coffin of Thomas Begley, the IRA bomber who killed ten in a Belfast chip shop.
Such leopards do not change their spots.
In 1998 Adams decided winning concessions from Blair would achieve more than terrorism. But does anyone believe he stopped wanting the British out of Ulster?
The IRA is a Mafia, with its own splinter groups. Adams might control the “official” IRA. But he can’t control mavericks like the “Real IRA” who killed the soldiers.
All those freed killers and hoodlums are still swilling around, intent on thuggery. It was naive for Labour to think tea with Tony had sorted it all for good. There are still kidnappings, beatings and intimidation going on all the time. This is what happens if you appease terrorists.
Now we face a dangerous wait to find out whether these murders are an isolated outrage or if Republicans are regrouping. For the Army, this comes at a bad moment.
Many of our 5,000 troops in Ulster are destined for Afghanistan. There will have to be a rethink. We should start by asking why we use civilians to guard Army bases.
And how Brown must wish he hadn’t awarded a knighthood last week to the American drunk and IRA sympathiser Senator Edward Kennedy.
Kennedy, who fled a car crash leaving a woman to drown, campaigned in the States to raise money for the IRA — the IRA that tried to destroy the British Government and slaughtered kids on our streets.
Maybe “Sir” Ted can advise Gordon on where we go from here.
(I am new to FR so if this has been posted before or I've made a mistake then my apologies.)
Welcome to Free Republic.
Goolllee, I thought it was just us Southern Rednecks (proud descendants of Scots-Irish Presbyterians)who thought that Ted Kennedy was a murderous, drunk. Even the English have understand that now! After our President insulted their Prime Minister, do you think they are ready to recognize a free Dixie?
Unfortunately the Englsh are not that aware and it's the Irish and Scots of the UK (because of the "troubles" in Ireland and to a much lesser extent in the West of Scotland) who are more aware of these things.
Hence why it is shameful that the Scottish PM of the UK must know of Ted Kennedy's terrorist shame.
Actually, it is a rather ignorant article. The Real IRA and the Provisional IRA (not the ‘Official’ IRA refered to in this article, which is another faction of the IRA in it’s own right) have always been at loggerheads with each other. I’ve got no time for Sinn Fein or Irish Republicanism, but the RIRA has nothing to do with Sinn Fein and even planted a bomb outside one of their offices today according to reports....
“Unfortunately the Englsh are not that aware and it’s the Irish and Scots of the UK (because of the “troubles” in Ireland and to a much lesser extent in the West of Scotland) who are more aware of these things.”
What? When’s the last time the IRA bombed Scotland then?
We are talking about Ted Kennedy are we not?
Ask someone in London and you will get a blank stare. Ask someone in Glasgow or Belfast and you will get an opinion.
I don’t see anything in the article that contradicts your words.
The article is merely pointing out the weasel words of Adams and the hypocrisy of appeasement.
I’m English and I was more than aware of Ted Kennedy giving succour to the IRA, the same with Peter King (A US Republican).
Of course, I would expect the average person in Northern Ireland to know more about this than the average Englishman, but why would a Scotsman be better informed than an Englishman who actually had to live through the threat of IRA bombs, which the Scots never suffered from?
Refering to the Provos as the ‘Official’ IRA indicates that the Sun “Journalist” who wrote this probably doesn’t know anything about the History of the IRA that he didn’t look up on wikipedia 5 minutes before he wrote the article.
And relating these murders to ‘appeasing’ Sinn Fein is ridiculous. If it wasn’t for the peace process and the power-sharing arrangement, we’d probably have been dealing with shootings and bombings on a much more regular basis like we did during the height of the troubles from the 1970s-1990s.
How did he come to the conclusion that yesterday’s attacks were the direct consequence of Sinn Fein sharing power?
Except of course for the Scottish football fans who support Celtic or Rangers, and have adopted Republicans and Loyalists as their respective unofficial mascots for their teams....
“why would a Scotsman be better informed than an Englishman who actually had to live through the threat of IRA bombs, which the Scots never suffered from?”
If you don’t know about the west of scotland culture in which people are killed because of their religion, or for waving the British and/or Irish flag in the wrong area, then you should research it.
I don’t think he meant that the PIRA were the technically “official” IRA of old. I think he used the quotation marks to show he was making a metaphorical point - that the Provos became the main focus of dangerous Republicanism. I fear you are being too literal.
And I don’t think he says that “yesterday’s attacks were the direct consequence of Sinn Fein sharing power” in any way so I don’t see how that can be a criticism.
Along with the hopeful view:
"The only good Communist is a dead Communist."
Which I can now, thanks to oscumbo, extrapolate to mean that the U.S. is going to open talks with the dead. Maybe Hillary can join him in this new diplomatic venture since she used to brag about talking to Ellinor R.
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