PARAMILITARIES CALL OFF CAMPAIGN
PARAMILITARIES CALL OFF CAMPAIGN
KEVIN TOOLIS
Terrorists dreams of reuniting Ireland through bloodshed are finally over
When terrorists organisations die, they die not with a bang but with a whimper.
And there was just such a whimper from the walls of the Republic's high-security Portlaoise prison on Saturday when the Real IRA leadership called on their fellow gunmen to give up their terrorist war.
"We believe the current Army leadership has forfeited all moral authority to lead the (Real) IRA. We call upon the Army Council to stand down with ignominy," said the Real IRA prisoners in an unprecedented statement.
The Real IRA disbandment statement is truly a historic day in Ireland.
The last active embers of violent Irish republicanism have been extinguished.
And Ireland is freer now from the risk of terrorism than it has been in 40 years.
There is of course no word of apology to the victims of this one-time band of murderers turned self-declared freedom fighters. No words of contrition for the heartbreak they inflicted in August 1998 at Omagh by killing 29 innocent shoppers.
That would, in the fanatic world of Irish terrorism, be too much to ask.
Instead the Real IRA have fallen out amongst themselves in a mess of accusations about tobacco-smuggling, designer clothes rip-offs and sticky fingers in the terrorist till. All the money that should have been going to buy guns and bombs has ended up in fancy holidays, fancy cars and fancy house extensions for the last Real IRA gunmen still at large.
Behind the grim walls of Portlaoise the former comrades have turned their venom on each other. The Real IRA's one-time chief of staff Liam Campbell, serving five years for terrorist offences, has moved off the Real IRA's prisoners' wing after falling out with alleged Real IRA leader Mickey McKevitt, awaiting trial on other terrorist offences. Inside the prison, accusations of treachery and betrayal fly thick and fast.
A bit of internal blood-letting is no doubt on the way.
Outside prison even the wives are in on the act. McKevitt's wife Bernadette, the sister of Bobby Sands, has been bad-mouthing Bernadette Campbell around the streets of Dundalk where the McKevitts hid out for years.
What a shame! How sad!
To the outside world the only thing that matters is the final result. This nasty terrorist grouping has collapsed in on itself.
Their dream of re-uniting Ireland in the blood of dead policemen and the shattered streets of bombed cities is over. Finished. Dead.
The Real Real IRA the tiny band of diehards who support Liam Campbell - who wants the war to go on - could all now be rounded up and carted off in one prison van.
In truth this ignominious squabble is belated recognition by the Real IRA that the Omagh bombing was the best and worst thing they could ever have done. Worst because of the needless slaughter they inflicted on 29 innocent souls out shopping for their children's clothes or on a casual day trip.
And best because the carnage, the sickening bloodshed, forever killed the hollow lie of this warped little band of fanatics that they were fighting for "Irish freedom".
IN the aftermath the Irish Government, for once, cracked down hard on the so-called "hard men" and - by using informers - put most of the Real IRA leadership behind bars.
There are now more Real IRA men in prison, a total of 44, than there are outside fighting the "war".
But the collapse of this deadly terrorist micro-group should not blind us to Prime Minister Tony Blair's strategic blunder in calling publicly for the Provisional IRA to disband last Thursday.
In a high-stake gamble Blair dropped into Belfast for a speech littered with sound-bytes and declared "the fork in the road" had come.
The rhetoric was terrible but the message was unambiguous - the IRA had to disband before the suspended Assembly could be re-established.
It was a terrible mistake.
According to the Downing Street spin machine, Blair wrote the speech himself. If that's true then he would be well advised never to write another.
Perhaps Blair mistook the televisions cameras in his three-hour stop-over in Belfast for another Labour Party conference.
But Irish republicanism, despite the news from Portlaoise, remains a dangerous enemy. The IRA can be negotiated with but they cannot be neatly contained within the Downing Street spin machine.
Thirty years of bombs and guns should unequivocally prove one thing - the IRA are not, and never will be, an Irish version of the Lib-Dems.
Sinn Fein might wear fancy suits but the core of the IRA's philosophy - that a United Ireland is worth killing and worth dying for - remains unchanged.
This republican creed might over time be safely channelled into harmless old veterans' associations and political nostalgia for a 'glorious' past.
But it cannot be challenged head-on. British demands for disbandment will only strengthen its resistance. Irish republicanism is not a political party but a religion.
The last person on Earth who should give advice in public to the IRA is the British Prime Minister. In the real world, the leadership of Adams and McGuiness might over time be able to persuade their followers to dissolve into the mist.
But they will not do so to a British tune or a cheap stratagem dreamt up behind the black door of 10 Downing Street.
o Kevin Toolis is the author of Rebel Hearts: Journeys Within the IRA's Soul, Picador �7.99.
KEVIN TOOLIS
Terrorists dreams of reuniting Ireland through bloodshed are finally over
When terrorists organisations die, they die not with a bang but with a whimper.
And there was just such a whimper from the walls of the Republic's high-security Portlaoise prison on Saturday when the Real IRA leadership called on their fellow gunmen to give up their terrorist war.
"We believe the current Army leadership has forfeited all moral authority to lead the (Real) IRA. We call upon the Army Council to stand down with ignominy," said the Real IRA prisoners in an unprecedented statement.
The Real IRA disbandment statement is truly a historic day in Ireland.
The last active embers of violent Irish republicanism have been extinguished.
And Ireland is freer now from the risk of terrorism than it has been in 40 years.
There is of course no word of apology to the victims of this one-time band of murderers turned self-declared freedom fighters. No words of contrition for the heartbreak they inflicted in August 1998 at Omagh by killing 29 innocent shoppers.
That would, in the fanatic world of Irish terrorism, be too much to ask.
Instead the Real IRA have fallen out amongst themselves in a mess of accusations about tobacco-smuggling, designer clothes rip-offs and sticky fingers in the terrorist till. All the money that should have been going to buy guns and bombs has ended up in fancy holidays, fancy cars and fancy house extensions for the last Real IRA gunmen still at large.
Behind the grim walls of Portlaoise the former comrades have turned their venom on each other. The Real IRA's one-time chief of staff Liam Campbell, serving five years for terrorist offences, has moved off the Real IRA's prisoners' wing after falling out with alleged Real IRA leader Mickey McKevitt, awaiting trial on other terrorist offences. Inside the prison, accusations of treachery and betrayal fly thick and fast.
A bit of internal blood-letting is no doubt on the way.
Outside prison even the wives are in on the act. McKevitt's wife Bernadette, the sister of Bobby Sands, has been bad-mouthing Bernadette Campbell around the streets of Dundalk where the McKevitts hid out for years.
What a shame! How sad!
To the outside world the only thing that matters is the final result. This nasty terrorist grouping has collapsed in on itself.
Their dream of re-uniting Ireland in the blood of dead policemen and the shattered streets of bombed cities is over. Finished. Dead.
The Real Real IRA the tiny band of diehards who support Liam Campbell - who wants the war to go on - could all now be rounded up and carted off in one prison van.
In truth this ignominious squabble is belated recognition by the Real IRA that the Omagh bombing was the best and worst thing they could ever have done. Worst because of the needless slaughter they inflicted on 29 innocent souls out shopping for their children's clothes or on a casual day trip.
And best because the carnage, the sickening bloodshed, forever killed the hollow lie of this warped little band of fanatics that they were fighting for "Irish freedom".
IN the aftermath the Irish Government, for once, cracked down hard on the so-called "hard men" and - by using informers - put most of the Real IRA leadership behind bars.
There are now more Real IRA men in prison, a total of 44, than there are outside fighting the "war".
But the collapse of this deadly terrorist micro-group should not blind us to Prime Minister Tony Blair's strategic blunder in calling publicly for the Provisional IRA to disband last Thursday.
In a high-stake gamble Blair dropped into Belfast for a speech littered with sound-bytes and declared "the fork in the road" had come.
The rhetoric was terrible but the message was unambiguous - the IRA had to disband before the suspended Assembly could be re-established.
It was a terrible mistake.
According to the Downing Street spin machine, Blair wrote the speech himself. If that's true then he would be well advised never to write another.
Perhaps Blair mistook the televisions cameras in his three-hour stop-over in Belfast for another Labour Party conference.
But Irish republicanism, despite the news from Portlaoise, remains a dangerous enemy. The IRA can be negotiated with but they cannot be neatly contained within the Downing Street spin machine.
Thirty years of bombs and guns should unequivocally prove one thing - the IRA are not, and never will be, an Irish version of the Lib-Dems.
Sinn Fein might wear fancy suits but the core of the IRA's philosophy - that a United Ireland is worth killing and worth dying for - remains unchanged.
This republican creed might over time be safely channelled into harmless old veterans' associations and political nostalgia for a 'glorious' past.
But it cannot be challenged head-on. British demands for disbandment will only strengthen its resistance. Irish republicanism is not a political party but a religion.
The last person on Earth who should give advice in public to the IRA is the British Prime Minister. In the real world, the leadership of Adams and McGuiness might over time be able to persuade their followers to dissolve into the mist.
But they will not do so to a British tune or a cheap stratagem dreamt up behind the black door of 10 Downing Street.
o Kevin Toolis is the author of Rebel Hearts: Journeys Within the IRA's Soul, Picador �7.99.
Further Information
Publisher: THE MIRROR
Ref: TM/175
Published Date: 21-Oct-02
Related Images
There have been no images archived for this article.