Today, I'm not seeing the funny side

[hellison]

So trawling round lj randomly isn't always good. Boredom lead to following various links here and there and I ended up in an few Irish communities. One, supposedly for everyone to discuss what passes for politics here was fetchingly decked out in green white and orange.



Another one... reading responses to just one post has me in a combination of blind fury and deep depression. Most of the posters were, to be fair, sane reasonable people. But the sheer stupidity and blind rhetoric of the IRA apologists in there stunned me.
Yes, I know in theory they exist - and exist I'm sure equally for loyalist thugs, but you expect them to be old bitter folk.
Seeing the next generation actually still furiously insisting the IRA don't kill civilians, don't deal in drugs and aren't a tightly organised gang of murdering, racketeering criminals is... words fail me.

Is it any wonder we only get so far every time before we get dragged backwards by these fuckwits and the thugs they idolise?

So I'm currently trying to remind myself of just how far we have come in the past 10 years or so. But then recent events seem to be taking us right back the other way again.

Johnny Adair has to be exiled (not this that in itself is a bad thing) because the UDA will kill him if they catch him. Yet they're still officially considered as under ceasefire.

Ira members can stab and kick a man to death outside a busy pub, intimidate the witnesses and clear away all the evidence, expel a couple of people (thus admitting responsibility). Yet they're still officially considered under ceasefire.

What was that phrase - 'internal housekeeping'? It's not breaking the ceasefire if it's one of your own!

Monday I said if you didn't laugh, you'd cry. I don't feel much like laughing right now.

Comments

[eiretamicha.livejournal.com]

First, I apologize for posting in your personal journal, but I figured you would not see it if I responded to your comment in ljireland. If you deem this inappropriate, please feel free to delete it.

One question...

Have you ever witnessed your whole family being beaten, their personal belongings destroyed, and their family degraded as though they were little more than animals?...and then witnessed this day after day after day?

Those in that forum who were defending the IRA were doing so out of admiration for those who protected them back when things were out of control. I'm assuming you're Irish...so you must realize that not all the sub-groups of the IRA are the same, follow the same sets of rules, or follow one set leader. I'm neutral, obviously, because I am American. But even those who know members of the IRA here closely think it's outrageous how "the IRA" are dealing with Robert McCartney's death. Those men who murdered him should obviously be locked up, and everyone I know here agrees. During the Strabane Memorial, Gerry Adams warned again that those who deal in criminality are not true republicans, and are only going to set things back again. Obviously, not everyone is going to listen to an ex-IRA man gone politician.

Anyway, I kinda lost track of what I was saying, lol, but the truth is...those who still do admire the IRA do so because that's all they've had to protect them all these years...these people believe strongly that the IRA are their guardians and would do anything to ensure the protection of their people, they believe that the IRA does not deal drugs or purposely target average everyday people, and they believe that their little town's IRA has nothing to do with the other groups out there who do wrong.

It's so strange for me...as much as I try to remain neutral, I definitley sometimes agree with the people here. Yet at other times, I see things like what happened to Robert McCartney and it truly saddens me that all this violence is still going on in this day and age. I'm happy to be bringing my fiance' to Florida and away from the past so he can start over--yet I know he will always think of the IRA as heroes; this town has simply seen too much death to forgive just yet.

God bless.

[kryptykfysh.livejournal.com]

I fail to see how anyone can regard the paramilitaries of either side of the Troubles as 'heroes'. Perhaps there was a time in Ireland's past where the only way to make a change and protect your nearest and dearest was with violence, but that has not been the case for a long time.

I think you need to ask yourself who exactly the paramilitaries are protecting people from, and the answer is the paramilitaries. I don't particularly care which side they're on, but they're killing, maiming, robbing and poisoning people while coincidentally lining their own pockets, while romanticising their actions with a spuriously noble cause.

There has been no reason for the violence for years, save that of racketeering and unjust vengeance. In the last decade the ballot box and political process has achieved far more than the guns. Indeed, it is the guns that have set the process back time and again. There are people out there who are afraid of peace. Who fear a time when they cannot be 'the big men' because they perpetrate violence with a gang of other cowards behind them to bring more violence to bear. How many or these organisations have the word 'Army' or 'Force' in their titles? They are organisations purely bent towards violence and their time is past. Anyone wishing to support their own view can do so through due political process now, and should be able to do so without threat of physical or psychological retribution.

Killers and thugs are not heroes. They are small men who seek to put the fear and inadequacy they feel into others' hearts and so find a sort of comparative courage. In most of my working years in Northern Ireland I worked for and supported those who represented my views, but never once did I find myself forced to commit violence or an illegal act against another person.

As for those who have gone from the gun to the soapbox: I can respect them for setting aside past misdeeds if they are willing to atone and acknowledge the wrongs they have done. Blatant hypocrisy in a leader is never a pleasant thing to see.

Make of that what you will.

[hellison.livejournal.com]

Hmm. You pretty much said all I wanted to in reply to that.

The IRA are no more heros than the UDA, UVF, the Triads, the Mafia, the Taliban or any other of sadly innumerable gangs of power-hungry thugs who con people into thinking they're doing it for YOU.

It's not 'protection' (well, not til they make you start paying for it :p) it's control.

[hellison.livejournal.com]

Not inappropriate no, thanks for taking the time to reply!

I had quite a lengthy response in my head, but kryptykfysh has pretty much said it all already so I won't go there.

I usually steer well clear of these debates, but I posted because I couldn't stomach that poster's assertion that the IRA don't kill civilians.
The comments about thugs and fuckwits was directed not just at IRA supporters tho, but at both sides of the community. There are people out there who still think Billy Wright was a hero, for exactly the same reasons your fiance would give for the IRA.
Which is precisely why people need to wake up and see, as the McCartney family have done, that they aren't heroes, any of them. They're murdering bullies trying to keep us all in hell so they don't lose control.


Good luck with the new start in Florida!

[eiretamicha.livejournal.com]

Wow...I never thought about how the IRA may be afraid of peace because they will then lose control. It's hard to take in, but yes, I can see how that may be true. And it's kind of frightening...and very sad.

Thank you for the kind words, both of us are excited about the move! :)

[hellison.livejournal.com]

You know, I think you made my day ;)

I've gotten so used to arguing with closed-minded people, it's a shock - and a very pleasant one - to come across someone who can not only put across an opposing point of view politely, but will actually listen and *think* before dismissing other views out of hand.

Thank you!

I hope the move goes smoothly and you have a wonderful new life!

[hellison.livejournal.com]

Very true, since it was an anoymous poster I was replying to, not erintamicha's original post.