Originally posted by sminkeypinkey
Sorry Flyboy but this is all a little like saying that because there are tiny numbers of ludicrous nazi-wannabes posing in front of their bedroom
mirrors or around friends houses that we still have a nazi problem.
Facetious remark aside, this has nothing to do with national socialism. One annoying thing is people always referring to terrorists and the like as
"fascists" and "nazis" when it isn't appropriate. I think the hardline twats (both loyalist and republican) are utter c**ts however I'm not
going to dignify them to the same level as the nazis, who made the IRA, UDF etc look like amateurs. I'm not making light of the troubles in Northern
Ireland, which in my opinion were just as bad as what's happening in Afghanistan and Iraq.
We don't - not by any serious or credible measure.
The same applies to the so-called dissident republican groups.
Not exactly, as seen here :-
Orde warns of threat from Real IRA
Northern Ireland faces an imminent threat from a group of disorganised but dangerous dissident republican terrorists, Sir Hugh Orde said today.
After his officers put out a warning last night about an increased terrorist threat from the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA, the PSNI's Chief
Constable said that while they appear to be concentrating on mounting attacks in the North, he has no doubt that dissidents will target other parts of
the UK if they can.
They have been described as "disorganised", because they haven't seeminly employed a coherent strategy other than shooting the odd police officer
and firebombing business premises. The latter having stopped since the spate of firebombing in August 2006. They obviously twigged that harming
businesses does little for support from the local communities (or public), many of whom must work in these businesses.
They are not (of course) without the potential to create mayhem and injury and even deaths but to imply that little has changed or that our
current situation as depicted in the media generally is somehow dishonestly & knowingly inaccurate is patently false.
I don't know of anyone saying the dissidents pose no threat whatsoever but equally it is just to wildly exaggerate their potential to imply they can
do very much at all.
My fault for not elaborating further than
despite the general media's depiction of Northern Ireland being a bed of roses; look beyond the thin
veil of Stormont, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness fawning over Ian Paisley and you'll see a Northern Ireland still plagued by the problems of
old.
; whilst the troubles have clearly gone (and it is highly unlikely they ever will return), that doesn't negate the threat of fringe nutters like
the RIRA or CIRA. Yes of course the frequency of shootings aren't as high but they still go on, and now RIRA are more determined to step up their
attacks. You might laugh that off but the shootings of those police officers are more than coincidence and go beyond 'petty criminalism'.
I believe this article supports both of our views, and describes more eloquently than I. The caveats and potential hazards ahead and that things
simply aren't purely "all and well" :-
However these are not, given time, insurmountable hurdles to peace. More worrying is that beneath the shiny new veneer of "post-conflict"
Northern Ireland there is an insidious gnawing away at the hope of the past few years because of recent murders. Just last week, the body of
27-year-old Andrew Burns, who had been shot, was found near a village church on the border with the Irish Republic, allegedly the handywork of a
dissident republican group. And last March, the bodies of 38-year-old Joe Jones and 36-year-old Edward Burns - a childhood friend of mine - were found
in Belfast. Burns had been shot, while Jones was beaten to death.
But it was perhaps the death last year of Paul Quinn in Co Monaghan and that of Robert McCartney in Belfast in 2005 that have resonated most because
their families have emerged as unlikely but vociferous campaigners. (Indeed, the McCartneys' campaign took them all the way to the White House.) Both
say they want justice for their loved ones - innocent victims of brutal beatings - and the perpetrators convicted. But they are also attempting to use
what happened to highlight problems that persist within Northern Ireland.
Catherine McCartney claims that although there is government at Stormont and relative peace on the streets, her brother's death is indicative of a
"sick society" that is still a long way from coming to terms with its past. "People really want [peace] to work," McCartney says. "But outside
Northern Ireland people only see the bigger political picture. Real people on the ground are still living with it. The threat is still there." We
need to be wary, McCartney argues, of "sweeping under the carpet" those events that do not fit in with the "peace agenda".
It has been a long, hard road to get to where Northern Ireland is today, and there is an understandable reluctance to focus on things that might
destabilise it. This includes in any way exaggerating the impact of recent murders. This is not, after all, the 70s. Nevertheless, we should be
cautious about brushing aside the concerns within communities affected by deaths of people such as Robert McCartney or Paul Quinn. As I was told
recently: "People in Northern Ireland have very long memories."
I have been interviewing a lot of people recently who, like myself, lived in the areas worst affected by the Troubles: former paramilitaries and
soldiers, people who lost family and friends and who were, to varying degrees, damaged by what they saw and experienced.
What we all share, I realise, is a horror at the prospect - however unlikely it appears - of returning to "the bad old days". Sometimes there is a
feeling that we should be grateful for so few deaths compared to the years of the Troubles. This is a misguided impulse. We should be grateful that
the worst is over and for the enormous strides made by one-time political foes. But we should only be satisfied when there are no more deaths, no more
"punishment" beatings, and no more generations who have the threat of these hanging over them.
