| The Joe Horgan Column By Joe
Horgan
It is difficult to convey just how much of an agenda there is here in
politics and the media against Irish Republicanism. The overwhelming majority
of commentators are extremely anti the entire Republican movement in a way
that takes some getting used to.
I suppose in many ways the position of Irish Republicanism in Irish life
is always a little difficult to explain. In the Irish communities in Britain
that I grew up in there was often a residual adherence to an old idea of
the rightness of a united Ireland, a fondness for rebel songs, a recognition
of the wrongs done to northern Catholics and Nationalists. When I first
met the English girl who became my wife I’m not sure she really understood
how we could listen to or sing songs about the IRA and still be appalled
at what the provos were doing. The discrimination between the old IRA and
the modern body was often difficult for outsiders to fathom.
We recognised the historical grievances and the justification for Irish
self-determination but were appalled at car bombs and murderous violence
and those who caused explosions in pubs in our own cities. We could buy
in to the easy sentiment of being anti the British state and sing along
with the Wolfe Tones without really wanting to see British soldiers shot.
We could see James Connolly and Bobby Sands as icons without wanting to
blow up Birmingham or Manchester or London. It was always complicated.
Perhaps here in the southern part of Ireland itself it was even more
complicated and there was a raft of emotions involved in dealing with everything
up there. Maybe there was a stronger element of guilt somewhere here at
the idea of having abandoned the north. Maybe there was even more abhorrence
at the violence supposedly carried out in their name. Perhaps there was
a lingering fear, born out of the early years of the Free State, at the
ability of Republican gunmen to destabilise the country.
Despite all of that though, the way politicians and press here abhor
the manifestations of Irish Republicanism continues to be difficult to fathom.
Even if we accept that they believe themselves only really capable of effecting
the Republican ideology and therefore only seek to put pressure on that,
their one-sided take on the whole scenario remains somewhat bewildering.
The truth as represented by the current situation is that even as the
IRA announces it is laying down its arms and the political establishment
here and its media friends remain stuck on the themes of Republican treachery,
the return home of the Columbia three and the need for vigilance in the
face of Sinn Féin trickery, the north of Ireland is scarred by Loyalist
violence.
However much violence is part of Republican or Nationalist communities,
it is Loyalist and Unionist ones that are emanating a culture of violence
as each passing week goes by. Lisa Dorrian’s body, a young Catholic, is
still missing after she fell in with the wrong crowd of LVF supporters.
A Catholic boy was stabbed to death in the street last week in what the
police are calling a random attack and others are calling sectarian. A 20-year-old
Protestant man was shot dead as part of a Loyalist feud a few weeks ago
and now lies buried with his mother, who Loyalists also killed 18 years
ago. It is these Loyalists who at present seem unable to cope with peace,
who are mired in criminality.
So the emphasis on just how evil and subversive Republicanism is does
not even stand up to that superficial scrutiny. Compared, at least to Loyalists,
Republicans have foresworn violence successfully.
In many ways what we are left with is a symbol of what lies at the core
of this Irish Republic of ours, this new Ireland. Those in the media and
the political world most vociferously opposed to Irish Republicanism are
those most truly devoted to the modern, commercial Ireland of their dreams.
To these people the stain of violent Republicanism is even more appalling
because it whispers of an older, more visceral Ireland, a country of old
hatreds and emotions.
To these modern voices the threat from this older Ireland cannot be overstated.
The reason why they remain so fixated on Irish Republicanism is not because
it is awash with blood on its hands and blocked with piles of corpses. No,
the reason they want to carp on about the silent guns of the IRA is that
in commercial Ireland that kind of carry on is just so bloody bad for business.
It’s a waste, not of lives, but money.
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