Responding to murder
It’s been more than ten years since peace in the country has experienced such violent hiatus – and the murders of army and police personnel by republican terrorists in Northern Ireland has dominated the blogosphere this week.
John Wright, writing on Socialist Unity, was unsurprised by the Antrim attack, believing that it exposed underlying flaws in the peace process.
“It involved throwing money at the communities involved in a clear attempt to buy their support,” he wrote, “hoping that in time the contradiction that lies at the root of the conflict – namely partition – would recede in importance in line with a peace dividend in the form of prosperity and a boom in consumption.”
Wright believes that as darker economic times come upon us, the divisions that characterise the country are inevitably re-emerging.
There was a tangible hardening in of condemnatory rhetoric amongst republicans following the killing of a police officer in Craigavon, an act claimed by the continuity IRA. Former government advisor Conor Ryan regarded Martin McGuinness’ press conference with DUP leader Peter Robinson and Hugh Orde as a sign of the “penny having dropped” among Sinn Feinn politicians, writing that McGuinness “expressed himself with unprecedented emotion and feeling”.
South Armagh republican Chris Gaskin was less than mournful at the death of British soldiers – but at news of the police murder, he wrote “I’m starting to feel slightly angry at the moment and I never thought I would ever feel that reaction in relation to the death of a peeler”, going on to say that: “these people cannot succeed in allowing this country to slip back into chaos, they just can’t!”
On the leading blog for coverage of Northern Irish politics, Slugger O’Toole‘s Turgon examined the question of whether Sinn Feinn’s initially “stuttering condemnation” of the army murders amounted to a missed opportunity for the party, which, he argued, should be using the airwaves and internet to call on constituents to assist the police.
Northern Ireland Tory Seymour Major wanted us to spare a thought for former DUP MEP Jim Allister, now representing ‘Traditional Ulster Voice’. Allister, he blogged, is puzzled by unionist support for McGuinness’ stance following the attacks – and is now keenly seeking to make political capital from Sinn Feinn’s rejection of stepped up security.
Finally, the silent protest against violence, led by the trades union, was captured beautifully by Belfast photographer Phil O’Kane.
What have we learned this week?
That the government has apparently abandoned any pretence of sanity, decency or consistency, by granting Hezbollah’s Ibrahim Moussawi the right to enter the UK, just weeks after refusing the same to Geert Wilders.
Around the World
Riyadh-based blogger Ahmed Al-Omran commented this week on injustice in the Saudi judicial system. He blogged about the elderly Syrian woman in the KSA, who was lashed and deported for having two men who were not relatives come to her house and sell her bread. Ahmed considered it “a slap in the face” for the country and welcomed news that human rights lawyer Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem is to take on the case, “not just for the sake of the old woman and the two young men, but also for the cause of justice and human rights in this country”.
Video of the Week
Watch footage of the president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Patricia McKeown, address the crowd at Belfast peace protest, courtesy of WIMPS, a Northern Ireland website dedicated to improving youth engagement with public representatives.
Quote of the Week
“So as well as a return to recession we have the return of people who think that murdering working class teenagers is a good and noble thing.”
John Gray on Labour List
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