Every new generation of revolutionaries have to study the methods and mistakes of previous generations in order to learn both from the mistakes and the successes.

For an older generation, perhaps the story of Israel’s Irgun Zvai Leumi is well known, but I was certainly brought up with a natural bias towards the Palestinian struggle, and with a distaste for the Israeli State. So it was merely by chance that I picked up a book in a second-hand book shop by their leader Menachem Begin. This book, first published in 1951, details the struggle and methods used by the Irgun, the revolutionary underground army of the extreme wing of the Jewish Diaspora, whose aim was to mould a Jewish State where one had not existed before.

There is plenty in this book that I did not like, with Begin’s underlying racism towards the Palestinians being the most sickening; but you do not have to like the man to learn from his experiences of fighting the British.

Begin is passionate about the correctness of the cause he led. His personality is single-minded, and he allows for no diversion or compromise. I have always been inspired by the heroism of the Irish struggle, but the story of the Irgun has struck me by the sheer ruthlessness of the very small number of fighters. I almost began to question whether throughout the years the Irish struggle had been too ‘soft’, and too willing to accept martyrdom, rather than counter-attacking every move the British made.

Examples are given of cases where the British whipped one of the Irgun fighters, and the following day a British officer and four non-commissioned officers were captured and whipped. The British whipped no more. Another example was given of when two Irgun fighters were going to be hung, the Irgun captured five British officers and threatened to hang them if the sentences were carried out with the result that the British backed down. In one case the Irgun actually went into a courtroom and took the judge as hostage.

Perhaps ruthlessness is the only thing the British understand and respect, any deviation allows them to conjure up all sorts of new tricks to maintain the status quo.

The Irgun was a minority of a minority. The ‘official’ Jewish Agency held very high hopes in the newly-elected post-war Labour government. The ‘official’ Jewish Agency believed doors were open for it, if only the Irgun would stop its ‘irresponsible’ military activities; but the British were continually reneging on promises made; and it was the Labour government which introduced Martial Law.

Part of the strategy of the Labour government was to buy time for itself by trying to insist on a ‘peace process’, during which time it was actually consolidating its hold. The Irgun refused to maintain this false peace, and continued with its operations to the consternation of the Jewish Agency.

There are so many examples of how the underground army operated. How it functioned with the other Jewish military organisations without internecine feuds developing, how Begin operated as an underground commander, that it is only possible to briefly mention it here. The book is obviously written with the arrogance of a victor; for some reason I kept contrasting it in my mind with The Singing Flame by Ernie O’Malley. It is unfortunate that the Jewish State has obviously learnt so much from its guerrilla origins that for nearly 50 years it has treated the Palestinians as sub-human. Perhaps both the Palestinians and Irish Republicans have one great thing to learn from Begin, and that is to have absolute confidence in the correctness of their cause, and to allow nothing to undermine that confidence.
— Jo Grant
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Hopes that Tony Blair’s vigorous new team would have the strength, authority and vision to achieve a settlement in the province have been severely damaged.
— Leading article in The Economist, (London) July 12-18, 1997.
As it is, Ms Mowlam, like her predecessor, has capitulated to blackmail and has admitted as much. She has thus demonstrated that threats of violence, rather than the rule of (British) law, still prevail in Northern Ireland.
— Economist.
But Ms Mowlam’s bungling of Drumcree has now reconfirmed the nationalists’ worst fears: that any British government, of either main party, is bound to side with the unionists when the going gets rough.
— The Economist, July 12-18, 1997 in article ‘Broken heads, dashed hopes’.
We always told them [Provo Sinn Féin] of the destabilising impact of the IRA, and they told us that they wanted to be part of this society and of the solution.
— Bill Tosh, chairman of the Confederation of British Industry in the Six Counties, Sunday Tribune, July 13, 1997.
For all the posturing and diplomacy, the political reality is that Dublin continues to hide behind London’s skirts except when the going gets though and we have a few agonising soundbites outside Leinster House . . . Is there anyone left in the country who can still argue that nationalist Ireland’s 25-year policy of seeking agreement and accommodation within the present constitutional framework hasn’t simply made a bad situation worse?
— Tom McGurk, Sunday Business Post, July 13, 1997.
There were no protracted phone-ins on the main RTÉ chat shows. The public did not become familiar with the Christian names of Ms Martin’s immediate family, as they had become familiar with the names of the children of two RUC men who were shot dead in Lurgan some weeks ago. There were no expressions of outrage from the hacks who control comment in the Murdoch and O’Reilly media empires.

Why? Presumably because Bernadette Martin was just another Catholic, from an ordinary family of modest means.
— Editorial, Sunday Business Post, July 20, 1997.
If Martin’s brutal death caused little concern among media circles, it caused even less among politicians. There were no hurried contacts between Blair and Ahern, as there were in the wake of the Lurgan killings. There were no expressions of outrage from Mowlam’s NIO. As is now expected, unionist politicians remained silent — apparently unwilling or unable to speak out, in this civilised little part of the European Union.
— Sunday Business Post.
The strategic reality is that, given the present peace process, the most republicans can gain is a renegotiation of the union. As Adams himself said in 1986 — the notion that the British can be talked out of Ireland is contemptible. Nothing in the intervening years has altered that unpalatable reality.
— Anthony McIntyre, Sunday Tribune, July 20, 1997.
“I don’t agree with it [the Provisional ceasefire],” said Fergal from south Belfast. “We haven’t got a British declaration of intent to withdraw and we owe that to the people who dies before us.

“The British just want the IRA to surrender. The hunger strikers and all the volunteers didn’t die so that could happen. It is our duty to them to carry on the struggle,” he said. Another youth, ‘Big Joe from Poleglass’ predicted that the ceasefire would not last. “We’ll be back here in three years time doing the same thing. We will get nothing from the Brits. I don’t think the IRA should have called another ceasefire and most of my mates think the same,” he said . . . In a second marriage, it seems, the honeymoon is also shorter.
— People attending the Provisional’s ceasefire rally in Belfast, quoted in the Irish News, July 21, 1997.
The [Provisional] IRA ceasefire is permanent, unequivocal and does not have a time limit.
— Jim Gibney, Provisional Ard Chomhairle member, Irish News, July 22, 1997.
A new British Government has shown it is prepared to listen, to facilitate.
— Caoimhghin Ó Caolain, AP/RN, July 24, Page 4.
Last week, in the underwhelming wake of the renewed ceasefire, McCann said that “the enormity of the shift made by the [Provisional] Sinn Féin leadership has not been made fully apparent.” Writing in the Belfast Telegraph, he said the leadership “has signalled a willingness to accept a settlement which would leave Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom.”

He also said “understandably” the [Provisional] Sinn Féin leadership “has not drawn attention to this”.
— Sam Smyth, Sunday Tribune, July 27, 1997.
It was Eric Waugh, a veteran journalist in Belfast, who reminded us that Mitchel McLaughlin is on record saying that a united Ireland is not the only democratic option.
— Sam Smyth.
It is quite clear from statements made by Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and others within [Provo] Sinn Féin that, while a united Ireland remains the theoretical goal, they are prepared to accept a political settlement which offers them much less.
— Niall Stokes,Hot Press, dated August 6, 1997.
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According to the Orange Order, many members of the British Labour Party do not see any conflict between membership of the Labour Party and their role as loyal Orangemen.
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A unit of the 3rd Battalion opened fire in the Oldpark Road-Cliftonville district on the same day and claimed that one member of the RUC was hit.

At Stewartstown Road, Andersonstown a unit of the 1st Battalion opened fire also but no hits were claimed.

It was also learned that on Monday, July 7 Volunteers from the South Antrim Brigade left a booby-trap device aimed at British Crown Forces at the bandstand in the field at Edenderry. Due to the risk to civilians in the area the media were informed. Because the British Crown Forces refused to act a second warning was given.
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A brief sit-down protest took place on St Stephen’s Green in protest at a ‘gung-ho’ motor-cycle policeman who was endangering the marchers.

After the organisers insisted on this man’s removal the march proceeded to Leinster House where the marchers were met by a heavy force of 26-County Police who blocked their way.

A letter expressing the serious concerns COCAD has as regards the way anti-drug activists are being treated by the State was then handed in.
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It is believed the gunman entered the home of her boyfriend Gordon Green in the predominantly loyalist village of Aghalee near Lurgan, Co Armagh at approximately 4am through an unlocked door at the rear of the house. Bernadette was blasted in a hail of gunfire at close range.

The Greens, who have a family of five, were all asleep at the time of the attack when Mrs Green thought she heard a shot. John Green said “Me and my wife were in the room next door. Gordon was in the other room with Bernie, lying on top of the bed, and one of my daughters (Wendy) was with them. They must have been dozing . . . it was very confusing, we didn’t hear that much. I think my wife might have heard a shot but she wasn’t sure what it was.

“Then Gordon ran into the room and was crying ‘Mammy, Daddy, Bernie’s been shot. When I heard what had happened, I just called to my wife ‘Josie hurry, come quickly’. We called the ambulance.”

Bernadette was rushed to Craigavon Area Hospital and later transferred to the intensive care unit of Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital where she died early on Tuesday afternoon. Aghalee was also where the Portadown UVF death-squad (now the LVF) killed the nationalist part-time taxi-driver Michael McGoldrick (31), on July 8 last year.

The same British-backed gang is suspected of the heinous killing of Bernadette Martin.Her tragic death was the death squad’s message that relationships between Catholics and Protestants mean a weakness of their control in loyalist areas and will not be tolerated. Britain divides and rules through the death squads!
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