Evil and Cowardly
So, it was the “Real IRA“.
Gordon Brown told the BBC: “I think the whole country is shocked and outraged at the evil and cowardly attacks on soldiers serving their country.
“We will do everything in our power to make sure that Northern Ireland is safe and secure and I assure you we will bring these murderers to justice.
“No murderer will be able to derail a peace process that has the support of the great majority of Northern Ireland.”
…
NI’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, a former IRA member, said nobody should say or do anything which would see Northern Ireland to its troubles.“I supported the IRA during the conflict, I myself was a member of the IRA but that war is over,” said the Sinn Fein MP.
“Now the people responsible for that last night’s incident are clearly signalling that they want to resume or restart that war.”
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams described the shooting as an attack on the “peace process” and said it was “wrong and counter-productive”.
“Those responsible have no support, no strategy to achieve a United Ireland,” he said.
“Their intention is to bring British soldiers back onto the streets. They want to destroy the progress of recent times and to plunge Ireland back into conflict.”
Northern Ireland’s First Minister and Democratic Unionist Party leader Peter Robinson offered his sympathies to the families of the victims, and said he and the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness would postpone a scheduled trip to the United States.
Mr Robinson said the attack was a “terrible reminder of the events of the past”.
He said information that those responsible had “deliberately turned their weapons on civilians” after murdering the soldiers gave an “idea of the crazed gunmen involved in this”.
“It is the duty of everyone to ensure these people are defeated,” he said.
Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward condemned the shootings as “an act of criminal barbarism”.
I cannot believe that these men will succeed in their aim of bringing the war back, again.
Comments
| 8 March 2009, 7:54 pm |
My prediction: the IRA won’t arise and overthrow the ‘bourgeois’ of NI because the finanicial support is no longer there in the US and those who still believe in the ’struggle’ are either knaves or nostalgists.
| 8 March 2009, 8:58 pm |
For once I agree with you. I do not think the “Real IRA” has much support at present and let’s hope this is an isolated attack. However, one cannot be too confident about the future.
It has seemed apparent for some time that Northern Ireland is moving towards a de-facto re-partition as fewer areas have a mixed population, and while there is an uneasy agreement not to continue the conflict this is co-existence without much real integration between the communities.
| 8 March 2009, 9:19 pm |
Oliver,
according to Ed Moloney’s book on the IRA, by 2006 they are alleged to have had an investment portfolio worth £200 million based on hotels, discos, bars and apartments in the Caribbean, Portugal, Turkey and Ireland. Let’s hope the credit crunch has put paid to that but I suspect the IRA is not without funds.
| 8 March 2009, 9:30 pm |
Firstly, my condolences to the families of the murdered soldiers.
Hopefully NI will not be plunged yet again into violence, but given the worldwide support shown for another terrorist organisation by governments, people on the streets, charities and bodies such as the UN over the last few months, it is hardly surprising that diehards would think this an appropriate time to resurrect a conflict.
| 8 March 2009, 9:40 pm |
Hugh, this report from a few months back suggests that has indeed happened.
NB: the Irish Indo is not always the most reliable source wrt the Provos.
There’s also a money laundering trial going on in connection with the Northern Rock raid. Some interesting evidence coming out of that. Including, allegedly, a dubious Bank of Scotland boss.
| 8 March 2009, 9:50 pm |
I wonder how Chappaquidick Ted feels about this.
| 8 March 2009, 10:14 pm |
Bill, do you mean the Northern Bank?
| 8 March 2009, 10:19 pm |
Ha, I do indeed Alec. That might be a Freudian slip; or just bloody careless. Take your pick.
| 8 March 2009, 10:55 pm |
I look forward to Alistair Crook recommending having the shooters round for tea and crumpets.
| 9 March 2009, 1:08 am |
“I cannot believe that these men will succeed in their aim of bringing the war back, again.”
I can.
| 9 March 2009, 1:18 am |
I’m sure Adams and McGuinness are sincere in not wanting the war to break out again, but if they were really sincere there is one thing they could do: present all the information they have on the “Real IRA” to the police investigation or put it in the public domain. Will they do that? Not a chance. All these trouble-making groupuscules stll enjoy the benefit of the Republican rule of omerta. Only when this particular dike bursts will we see real peace.
| 9 March 2009, 9:09 am |
I’m sure Adams and McGuinness are sincere in not wanting the war to break out again
But only because it would threaten their cushy jobs.
| 9 March 2009, 9:14 am |
Interesting to see that John Wight is making it pretty clear where he stands: http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=3712
Mr Wight, one-time advisor to Tommy Sheridan, the man who lost the SSP tens of thousands of votes in one fell swoop when he announced that the IRA shouldn’t have stopped their campaign, he of activism in the Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Committee, the Edinburgh Anti-war Coalition – and on and on goes the list of very dodgy things about this man – not least his use of Nazi language, International Jewry’, in one his pieces.
On this page, http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2052, he seems to be fantasising about setting himself up as some sort of hub for revolutionary movements and that now includes the Real IRA.
A very bad guy, stupid and conceited, but also dangerous. Here now is evidence of an axis of purpose between the anti-semitic left and the fascists of the Real IRA.
God help us.
| 9 March 2009, 10:04 am |
And The Polish pizza delivery were “collaborators”? What utter scum. Yet Sinn fein can still only manage a grudging, weasel worded statement.
| 9 March 2009, 10:22 am |
I cannot believe that these men will succeed in their aim of bringing the war back, again
It’s very unlikely; I also suspect that the Peelers will track these terrorists down fairly soon.
I don’t think Sinn Fein’s Martin Mc Guiness critiquing the government for rumours of deploying the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (formerly 14 Int) was particularly helpful.
| 9 March 2009, 12:42 pm |
My youngest sister currently lives in Belfast, and her fiancé has an abiding memory of his mother being held at gunpoint by British soldiers. Predictably the family thought similar to Adams that this was counter-productive (although they’re also attempting to ignore the pizza workers out of the picture).
And, yes, John Wight is bad and stupid and will never have any luck with me.
| 9 March 2009, 1:33 pm |
“You see, the Israeli/Palestinians conflict is just like NI and we had to engage with “so-called” terrorists as part of the peace process to stop the terrorism. So, we have to talk to Hamas and Hezbollah. Look how well it turned out in NI”
Oops!
_____________
Let me also pass on my condolences to the families for this shocking and tragic event.
| 9 March 2009, 2:46 pm |
Everyone knows that the Real IRA is precisely that: really the IRA. Disaffected members have been permitted or even ordered to carry out the recent attack so that Sinn Féin can ostentatiously turn them in, thereby taking them out.
Too bad for the soldiers and the pizza delivery boys.
| 9 March 2009, 3:48 pm |
I wonder how Chappaquidick Ted feels about this.
Teddy is getting Knighthood because just like King Arthur of auld he, too, has a lady in the lake.
| 9 March 2009, 4:54 pm |
I think outside terrorist threats may now be taking away attention from domestic threats such as the IRA, scary to think that this might open the floodgates for violence. I found more info on the subject here, http://www.newsy.com/videos/violence_hits_northern_ireland/
| 9 March 2009, 10:23 pm |
I don’t quite see your point, Max. Most (all?) of the Islamist terrorists so far have been ‘home grown’, loyal members of the community.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams described the shooting as an attack on the “peace process” and said it was “wrong and counter-productive”.
This sickening cheerleader for mass-murder thinks it was ‘counter-productive’.
Tells you all you need to know about the scum taking part in the government of Ulster.