OMAGH TRIBUTES SHOW TERRORISTS UP AS PARIAHS
Omagh tributes show terrorists up as pariahs
THE tidal wave of emotional grief which swept over the nation at the weekend, as Irish people everywhere paid silent tribute to the dead of Omagh, delivered a powerful message of rejection to terrorists, who arrogantly seek to supplant the democratic process with the bomb and the bullet. In a deafening, never-to-be-forgotten sixty seconds of silence, people expressed their deep revulsion at the tactics of terror and their outright support for constitutional politics.
The reverberations of the bomb, which echoed sickeningly through the silence, will be heard for years to come, because, in a sense, Omagh was a watershed, a turning point in modern Irish history.
More than anything else, the indiscriminate killing of children showed the vicious face of republican terrorism in a harsh new light, a face which has not been seen with the same degree of clarity heretofore, despite a chain of bombings. Omagh has transformed the political landscape.
Amid fears that the bombers are only biding their time and will strike again, Sinn Fein's call on the self-styled Real IRA to open talks, is a positive signal.
Despite the temptation to have them "taken out" in an Israeli-style retaliatory strike, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair is right not to send SAS assassination squads to hunt down the perpetrators of this atrocity. This would backfire and shift the balance of sympathy in the same way President Clinton's missile strikes have proved counter productive.
In bringing the bombers to justice, we should rely on the legal process, strengthened by the draconian legislation introduced by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and expected to be further toughened by Mr Blair when he visits the North tomorrow.
As the people of Omagh this week begin to pick up the pieces, a challenge faces politicians to construct a system which will work for all the people of the North. There is an onus on them to adopt a wider constituency than the narrow party considerations, which have dominated Northern politics.
If a new political ideology is to be forged in the wake of Omagh, Sinn Fein must convince the IRA to declare an end to war and to begin decommissioning and unionists must talk to Sinn Fein and engage in dialogue, which is the only answer to violence.
Meanwhile, those who espouse violence must be shunned and subjected to public boycott so that never again can they hide, like malign parasites, in the heart of a society which they seek to subvert.
Courtesy of Irish Examiner
THE tidal wave of emotional grief which swept over the nation at the weekend, as Irish people everywhere paid silent tribute to the dead of Omagh, delivered a powerful message of rejection to terrorists, who arrogantly seek to supplant the democratic process with the bomb and the bullet. In a deafening, never-to-be-forgotten sixty seconds of silence, people expressed their deep revulsion at the tactics of terror and their outright support for constitutional politics.
The reverberations of the bomb, which echoed sickeningly through the silence, will be heard for years to come, because, in a sense, Omagh was a watershed, a turning point in modern Irish history.
More than anything else, the indiscriminate killing of children showed the vicious face of republican terrorism in a harsh new light, a face which has not been seen with the same degree of clarity heretofore, despite a chain of bombings. Omagh has transformed the political landscape.
Amid fears that the bombers are only biding their time and will strike again, Sinn Fein's call on the self-styled Real IRA to open talks, is a positive signal.
Despite the temptation to have them "taken out" in an Israeli-style retaliatory strike, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair is right not to send SAS assassination squads to hunt down the perpetrators of this atrocity. This would backfire and shift the balance of sympathy in the same way President Clinton's missile strikes have proved counter productive.
In bringing the bombers to justice, we should rely on the legal process, strengthened by the draconian legislation introduced by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and expected to be further toughened by Mr Blair when he visits the North tomorrow.
As the people of Omagh this week begin to pick up the pieces, a challenge faces politicians to construct a system which will work for all the people of the North. There is an onus on them to adopt a wider constituency than the narrow party considerations, which have dominated Northern politics.
If a new political ideology is to be forged in the wake of Omagh, Sinn Fein must convince the IRA to declare an end to war and to begin decommissioning and unionists must talk to Sinn Fein and engage in dialogue, which is the only answer to violence.
Meanwhile, those who espouse violence must be shunned and subjected to public boycott so that never again can they hide, like malign parasites, in the heart of a society which they seek to subvert.
Courtesy of Irish Examiner
Further Information
Publisher: THE EXAMINER
Ref: TEX/159
Published Date: 24-Aug-98
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