WHEN MERE WORDS ARE NOT ENOUGH TO BUILD A FUTURE
When mere words are not enough to build a future
"In human terms it was a disaster of enormous proportions. No-one could fail to be moved by both the suffering of the victims and the generosity of spirit of the families of those killed and injured."
These words relate specifically to the Omagh bombing - but could just as suitably be applied to the whole of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
They might have been written in this column, or spoken in an address by Tony Blair or Bertie Ahern. They could have been the words of any minister or priest speaking to their congregation, or those of a business or community leader from either tradition. They are solemn, carefully-chosen words expressing a sentiment with which we can all empathise.
What makes them remarkable is that they are the words of a representative of the Provisional IRA, the organisation which, by some distance, has been responsible for more death and destruction in Northern Ireland during the last 30 years than any other.
They were spoken in an interview to appear in this week's edition of Republican News, apparently timed to coincide with the visit of US President Bill Clinton.
It is an interview calculated to project the soft face of the Provisionals, with its expressions of sympathy for the families of those killed and injured in the Omagh bombing, a call for the disbandment of the Real IRA, and a premise to help relatives locate the bodies of missing victims assassinated by the Provos in the 1970s.
Yet it offers cold comfort to those who have been on the receiving end of vicious and often indiscriminate Provisional IRA violence for the last three decades.
The IRA representative calls on his former friends and brothers-in-arms, who now constitute the Real IRA, to disband. But any suggestion that the Provisional IRA should be willing to declare that the war is over is dismissed as mere "words games".
Nor is there any signal that the organisation is ready to give up even an ounce of its deadly Semtex supplies as a show of good faith.
And while the Real IRA is criticised for bringing the movement into disrepute, there is no reference to how the Provisional IRA brought shame and disgrace on the very idea of republicanism by sending scores of innocent men, women and children in this small country to their graves.
The interviewee may be sorry for the agony the Real IRA has inflicted in the name of republican ism, but there is no expression of sorrow, no apology, over the hundreds of deaths for which the I Provisional movement has been responsible.
Cynics might suppose this is because Ulster Protestants were not the only victims in Omagh, where Catholics from both sides of the border, and from abroad, died alongside Protestant townsfolk. Those who were blasted to eternity by the Omagh bombing will never know who planted the bomb which killed them. What we need to know from the Provisional IRA before we can see their sententiousness as anything other that hypocritical platitudes, is that they will never again resort to similar tactics in their struggle for Irish unity.
The Provos, albeit belatedly are doing the decent thing for the families of the disappeared, and appear to share Sinn Fein's sense of revulsion over the Omagh bombing, but this falls far short of what is required in the Good Friday Agreement.
If the Agreement is to work, the people of Northern Ireland need convincing evidence of PIRA and Sinn Fein's long-term commitment to peace. If that cannot be done by declaring that the war is over, then it could be offered in the form of anus' disposal and unequivocal reassurances.
The Agreement provides significant political potential for the republican movement, but only if it seizes the opportunity for peace and commits itself unambiguously to trying to realise its legitimate ambitions by purely political means.
Nothing less will suffice for the people of Northern Ireland, and nothing less should suffice for Bill Clinton or anyone else who has a genuine interest in promoting a secure and lasting peace in the Province.
"In human terms it was a disaster of enormous proportions. No-one could fail to be moved by both the suffering of the victims and the generosity of spirit of the families of those killed and injured."
These words relate specifically to the Omagh bombing - but could just as suitably be applied to the whole of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
They might have been written in this column, or spoken in an address by Tony Blair or Bertie Ahern. They could have been the words of any minister or priest speaking to their congregation, or those of a business or community leader from either tradition. They are solemn, carefully-chosen words expressing a sentiment with which we can all empathise.
What makes them remarkable is that they are the words of a representative of the Provisional IRA, the organisation which, by some distance, has been responsible for more death and destruction in Northern Ireland during the last 30 years than any other.
They were spoken in an interview to appear in this week's edition of Republican News, apparently timed to coincide with the visit of US President Bill Clinton.
It is an interview calculated to project the soft face of the Provisionals, with its expressions of sympathy for the families of those killed and injured in the Omagh bombing, a call for the disbandment of the Real IRA, and a premise to help relatives locate the bodies of missing victims assassinated by the Provos in the 1970s.
Yet it offers cold comfort to those who have been on the receiving end of vicious and often indiscriminate Provisional IRA violence for the last three decades.
The IRA representative calls on his former friends and brothers-in-arms, who now constitute the Real IRA, to disband. But any suggestion that the Provisional IRA should be willing to declare that the war is over is dismissed as mere "words games".
Nor is there any signal that the organisation is ready to give up even an ounce of its deadly Semtex supplies as a show of good faith.
And while the Real IRA is criticised for bringing the movement into disrepute, there is no reference to how the Provisional IRA brought shame and disgrace on the very idea of republicanism by sending scores of innocent men, women and children in this small country to their graves.
The interviewee may be sorry for the agony the Real IRA has inflicted in the name of republican ism, but there is no expression of sorrow, no apology, over the hundreds of deaths for which the I Provisional movement has been responsible.
Cynics might suppose this is because Ulster Protestants were not the only victims in Omagh, where Catholics from both sides of the border, and from abroad, died alongside Protestant townsfolk. Those who were blasted to eternity by the Omagh bombing will never know who planted the bomb which killed them. What we need to know from the Provisional IRA before we can see their sententiousness as anything other that hypocritical platitudes, is that they will never again resort to similar tactics in their struggle for Irish unity.
The Provos, albeit belatedly are doing the decent thing for the families of the disappeared, and appear to share Sinn Fein's sense of revulsion over the Omagh bombing, but this falls far short of what is required in the Good Friday Agreement.
If the Agreement is to work, the people of Northern Ireland need convincing evidence of PIRA and Sinn Fein's long-term commitment to peace. If that cannot be done by declaring that the war is over, then it could be offered in the form of anus' disposal and unequivocal reassurances.
The Agreement provides significant political potential for the republican movement, but only if it seizes the opportunity for peace and commits itself unambiguously to trying to realise its legitimate ambitions by purely political means.
Nothing less will suffice for the people of Northern Ireland, and nothing less should suffice for Bill Clinton or anyone else who has a genuine interest in promoting a secure and lasting peace in the Province.
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/246
Published Date: 01-Sep-98
Related Images
There have been no images archived for this article.