Martin McGuinness is dead. Good riddance. Lord Tebbit, as he so often does, said it best. The world is a “safer and cleaner” place without him. It hardly seems necessary to say, but McGuinness’ transformation into a peacemaker extraordinaire came only after his bloody history of murder and terror had him in its jaws. After all, the “Good Friday Agreement” was reached only after the IRA were essentially a spent force. Years of dedicated work by the police, British Intelligence and Mi5 brought the IRA and its political wing, Sinn Féin, to its knees. Had the Yanks with their emerald-tinted lenses not insisted on giving their beloved “Irish” side a deal more favourable than it was due, the world could have been cleansed of one of the 20th century’s more vile organisations. The IRA, after all, served as in inspiration for Islamic terrorism and the tactics they developed have been replicated in countless attacks in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America.
McGuiness defended his blood-soaked past with the excuse that he was radicalised in a brutal, violent world. What he didn’t seem to consider worthy of mention is that he played a profound role in escalating this violence to its highest height. As Mariano Azuela wrote:
“La revolución es el huracán, y el hombre que se entrega a ella no es ya el hombre, es la miserable hoja seca arrebatada por el vendaval” The revolution is the hurricane and the man who gives himself to it is no longer the man, but a miserable, dry leaf caught by the gale.
During the Troubles many were caught up in bloodshed. For those caught in sink estates, there was often little choice but to go along with it. If the IRA “recruited” someone, the consequences for eschewing violence could be great. Let us not forget, however, that McGuiness was very much involved with this. It is clear that he remained actively involved with murder and terrorism into the peak-violence of the 1980s. The Flames of Hell are truly burning brighter today.
Boadicea's Chariot 
My immediate reaction was that I hoped that McGuinness had, finally, got the answer as to whether his policy of violence, death and mayhem was acceptable to the religion he espoused to.
One must consider that many of his co-religionists were forced to suffer gravely because of his mania.
Yes, CT, Lord Tebbit seems to be in a minority prepared to speak out against the hypocrisy of IRA thugs-turned-politicians. It’s hard to wish ‘RIP’ to such a murderer.
Janus:One suspects that that he was injured, that his wife was crippled and that he would, as a cabinet minister of that time, have more knowledge than most might make him a bit more unreserved in his contempt. As a peer he has far more freedom to speak his mind than any cabinet member would.
He was indeed a bomb victim, twice over – first when his wife was crippled, next by the Brighton bomb with Mrs Thatcher and cohorts.
PS I recognise ‘nil nisi bonum de mortuis’ as a general rule but in this case the meeja should reveal all the man’s achievements, both terrorist and other.
I shouldn’t think that one has much chance except of having a very unhappy restless afterlife.
And well deserved, may it torture him for an eternity.
Politicians make one want to puke, they would suck the devil’s arsehole should there be a minute advantage in doing so. well done Tebbit.
And guess who is trying to capitalise on this!?
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon/nicola-sturgeon-pays-tribute-to-brave-work-of-martin-mcguinness-1-4398921
Pity political assassination has gone out of vogue in the UK.
One could round up a fair quantity of suitable candidates!
If the Phillipines can have open season on drug dealers with international impunity, why should they have all the fun?
When’s it our turn?
Just think.
Politicians
Celebrity designers
Fat arsed half witted whores done up as various
Footballers with insecure loin cloths
One could have a field day and sort overpopulation and shortage of housing in a week flat!
Needless to say it is raining again and I can’t garden! And there is a crisis in the greenhouse, it is full, I have already had to farm out babies to other greenhouses as orphans in care. All totally dire!!
Janus: Well of course the Caviar Queen would do that, wouldn’t see? It’s almost obligatory for a JockNat. Weegiestan is the most sectarian city in Great Britain and much of the SNP’s core support comes from Jocks of Irish Catholic extraction. That is, perhaps, why so much of the SNP’s rhetoric seems so distressingly similar — especially to those who are well-acquainted with the Ulster situation.
Perhaps it is best to leave platitudes to politicians. Political necessity requires the swallowing of many gnats — honeyed or otherwise. His victims, however, can fill in the blanks that their “leaders” either cannot, or simply will not. One can forgive much, but as the Catholic Church teaches — that institution to which McGuinness swore eternal fealty — forgiveness is only possible with true repentance. McGuinness never once seemed to show remorse for his actions.
We have to understand the mindset of the Irish RC community. They are the victims of British misrule. They fought a civil war with the backing of the clergy. They have nothing to repent about – a just cause, a just war, a political solution. What’s to confess?
Janus:The same clergy which took the opportunity to enslave generations of women and engage in high-profit child trafficking. The same people who caused themselves untold misery because of petty nationalism. Understanding and sympathising are two very different things and I cannot sympathise with them. I fully understand why Ireland became a republic, but I cannot accept the violence they inflicted on others after the Civil War ended.
CT, I was not suggesting we sympathise at all. I don’t. The RC church is itself responsible for generations of suffering and proxy violence – but its members feel immune from criticism.
Janus: I didn’t think you did sympathise with them. The Irish Catholic Church has much blood on its hands. Its utter,almost instant, collapse is directly tied to the Irish realising just how evilly it behaved. The extent to which the Irish government colluded with the Church has caused a grave loss of faith in the state itself. It is always convenient when those in in charge of “salvation” are the worst criminals/terrorists of all.
First, while giving credit where due (to the police, the intelligence services *et al*), it seems to me that the decline of IRA terrorism is also in some small part due to the rise of Islamist terrorism. How, after all, could the IRA compete with such imaginative spectacles as flying airplanes into buildings?
Second, I have been at something of a loss as to why so many ‘Murricans regard the Irish with such affection. Maybe it’s because we have so many of them, mostly in the Boston area, also to a lesser extent in New York City. Maybe it’s because we don’t feel that we’re having a good enough time on our own and are always ready to adopt festivals from other cultures. Having lived in NYC for many years, I can say that, while other “borrowed” festivals there were fun, they weren’t a patch on St. Patrick’s day. Memory lingers of streets awash in puked-up green beer, of massed bagpipes shattering eardrums and window glass from blocks away.
Yet people here persist in seeing the Irish primarily as quaint Barry Fitzgerald types, as “cute,” if you will. Hardly a thought is ever given to the other side of them. That comes out only in occasional pieces such as the three-hour TV documentary produced by Notre Dame University on the 1916 rising and Tom Clancy’s *Patriot Games*. When on occasion I find myself in correspondence with fellow USA citizens whose eyeballs seem too emerald-tinted, I simply send them a copy of the picture. Yes, *that* picture, the one with the horrible scene of dead horses all over the street. That generally shuts them up.
In the interest of fairness, I’ll say that the Irish who came here were not “gimmegrants” but rather wanted and expected to find paying jobs.
Cog: Much of the IRA’s funding came from the USA. The IRA had its financial interests in Irish-American communities, licit and illicit. Many otherwise legitimate businesses — especially Irish pubs — took “donations” for the “support” of the “Old Country”. The regulars all knew what that entailed. Visitors were, of course, made to feel welcome — but they were subtly and not so subtly “encouraged” to donate generously if they wished that welcome to remain warm. US Intelligence could on occasion prove very helpful in foiling plots and providing Mi5 tip-offs. However, the US did not consistently crack down on terrorism until after 9/11 suddenly made these attacks seem less heroic. The US finally made a point of not turning a blind eye to IRA members hiding in the US.
The Irish can be very engaging and charming people. A good many are skilled writers and story-tellers. Of course, the Irish as you’ve written are more than capable of organising celebrations. This appeals to many Americans. Like the Irish, many Americans have the same superficial pleasantness. The number of Irish-Americans and the relative loyalty of the Irish diaspora has ensured that a strong link between the two countries has been maintained. With this constant exposure to things Irish comes an exposure to a very narrow telling of Irish history that focuses on British failures. The idea that the Irish fought a heroic struggle against British oppression, winning their “FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM” against all odds meshes with the USA’s national mythology. The two are republics, battle-born.
So many communities around the globe have sought and acquired freedom from the British yoke (their own perspective, of course, not Britain’s). And naturally they stick together. 😉
I am, however, certain that you’re only too aware that there are only two positions: the British position and the incorrect position.
You’re a true Brit, CT. 🙂