'GRADUAL' FREEDOM A CON-TRICK

On this 82nd anniversary of the Rising of 1916, the Easter message from the Republican Leadership points out the reality that the current process will not bring about British withdrawal from Ireland, the objective sought by the men and women who gave their lives for Ireland’s freedom.

In fact the Irish people are being asked once again to indulge in an ‘act of faith’ such as that agreed to by the pro-Treaty side 77 years ago. Then, those who signed the ‘peace’ Treaty placed their trust in the Boundary Commission which would settle the Border issue between the Free State and the Six Counties.

The Treaty, it was said, gave us the ‘freedom to achieve freedom’ and the 26-County State via the Boundary Commission would be a stepping-stone to complete Irish national independence.

The Pro-Treaty side was fooled and fought a civil war for a Boundary Commission which ended up being abandoned four years later as a fiasco and nothing changed at all. The Irish people were disastrously divided and the ‘stepping-stone’ remained confined to the 26 Counties. In the Six Counties the ‘stepping-stone’ did not work and the situation there was in the complete opposite direction by the 1960s when the Leinster House parties accepted the unionist veto.

In 1998 the arguments are the same, dressed up in new clothes. ‘Gradually’ freedom can be achieved via cross-Border Bodies which will constitute a ‘transitional process’ to Irish national independence. Have we learned nothing from the disasters of the past 77 years? We know what the experience has been and should recognise these arguments as bogus — as in 1921-22 — there is no dynamic in this process to lead to a British withdrawal and a New Ireland.

The 1998 Easter Statement from the Leadership of the Republican Movement states that the current process is about updating and strengthening English rule in Ireland through a New Stormont.

“This will seek to involve as much of the nationalist population as possible and will be a barrier administration between the Irish people and the imperialist British government. Such a new, reinforced Stormont will be much more difficult to remove than the old corrupt regime which was brought down by the people’s struggle in 1972,” the statement maintains.

It goes on to outline the most dangerous aspect of these proposals, “that those who work them will be required to support their implementation on the ground, by actively opposing all who continue the struggle for Irish freedom.”

We already have an example of doing England’s policing in the incident in Derry city on March 20 when Volunteers of the Continuity IRA were physically interfered with by a member of the Provisionals as they were carrying an explosive device to a nearby target. The same organisation’s political element are now demanding a 40% former nationalist input into a new police force under British control.

This new force would be required by their masters in England to police the nationalist population and put down those who remain revolutionary. How can this possibly bring a permanent peace?

There are other dangers which must be spelt out to Irish people in the weeks ahead and galvanise them to campaign for a ‘No’ vote in any referendum on a New Stormont.

Firstly, the mailed fist beneath the velvet glove of the 26-County State has been exposed by the 20-year sentences imposed on three men for possession of arms and explosives during February. These were the heaviest sentences ever handed out for such activity.

Also, the conveyor belt of English extradition warrants being served on Irish citizens continues without any real protest from the victims’ own leadership.

Secondly, the naïve belief that the loyalists will just sit back and allow a growing nationalist population to threaten their ‘majority’ in the Six Counties is being promulgated at this time. Even an anti-Republican like Austin Currie can see that this is a “recipe for instability and continuing trouble” (Leinster House, March 31). The loyalists will respond as they always have – by killing uninvolved nationalists. How much more efficiently can they do so if they have a New Stormont in place with David Trimble as Chief Executive Officer and a built-in unionist majority?

A permanent peace can only be achieved by facing up to the problem and compelling the British government to leave Ireland, rather than shelving it while the Irish people suffer the consequences for decades into the future.

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