I wanted to commend THIS POST over on What Need of Further Lies to you.

It recounts the awful events that took place on 6th January 1976 to sixteen mill workers in Glenanne.

I have vivid recall of the aftermath of this massacre. One of those defenceless men machine gunned to death for the heinous crime of being Protestant had been my Sunday School teacher at the time, a gentle and Christian man. His wife had died years previously of cancer, and so he was bringing up his two kids by himself. They became orphans that night.

No one was ever convicted of this mass murder. 31 years later, the guilty remain at liberty and the Republican movement to which they belonged now seeks to sit in Government. Revolting.

Well done to Hanson for the sombre remembrance.

2007, and Tony Blair cuts his Miami break with a Bee Gee short to help "save" the Northern Ireland "peace process". Apparently the DUP and IRA/Sinn Fein need a little help to go that extra mile to pervert democracy.

OK, let me spell it out, a DUP leadership which forms ANY administration with the IRA on the basis of weasel words about "commitment to policing" is morally corrupt, politically gutless, and strategically inept. Those in the DUP who are actively colluding in the dropping of ANY reference to the IRA when talking about Sinn Fein, who are pretending that hollow words from republican insurrectionists mean a damn, and who willingly betray their OWN promises made repeatedly over the years in pursuance of political POWER, WILL be held to account. Just as with the supine UUP, so with a newly treacherous DUP.  No free rides in 2007!   

This submission is not about my personal feelings towards power sharing with terrorists.  Any long-term visitor to ATW knows that I would gladly lease Devil’s Island from the French and intern every damn IRA supporter in the manner endured by Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.  No, this is about the great delight I and thousands of others are taking at the implosion of the republican monolith.  True we Unionists have had splits and differences of opinion and will continue to do so.  If I have the opportunity to come over to Ulster and campaign on behalf of the UK Unionist Party, as I did in 1998, I will gladly do so.  This is, nonetheless, for another day.

Whilst the pro-Union bloc saw the greatest division nine years ago, this time the accolade belongs to the IRA.  On the one hand you have Gerry and Martin offering nebulous support for law and order.  On the other you have figures morally lower than even they as, one by one, they reject the official position.  For them, offering even the most dubious and begrudging endorsement of a law-enforcing agent not dressed like a scruffy pig in balaclava and filthy jeans is beyond the Pale.

There are those on Slugger who buy the Adams’ line.  We even have one cretin under the nom de plume of ‘Nationalist‘ who still subscribes to the ‘bonking Catholics reign supreme’ theory (poor deluded child that he is).  No doubt we will have the line-up of usual suspects on here telling us how united the terrorists are.  Poppycock!  Aside from erstwhile chums in the ‘dissident’ leagues, we have seen open dissension as upholding the law is too much for a not inconsiderable rump of IRA fans.  So sit back and enjoy their deepening discomfort with ever-broadening smiles. 

Who knows, they could get really bitter and start assassinating one another.  Aside from being the nadir of ironic moves – given that they used to support, excuse or enact the assassination of everybody else, wouldn’t the sight of the republican movement in-fighting be the very best political present for we democrats in 2007?

The Mitchell Principles – remember them?  They were a series of pledges affirmed by all parties to the fledgling ‘peace’ negotiations on July 29th 1996.  The IRA endorsed them through its false political frontage, Sinn Fein.  Readers will know I no longer give any sort of credence to this ‘Sinn Fein’ rubbish.  It’s the IRA – pure and simple!  For those who lack memory of the wording of these principles (affirmed by ‘Sinn Fein’) let me remind them of two of the most important ones:

‘All parties affirm they will commit themselves to….

democratic and exclusively peaceful means of resolving political issues. To the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations.

To renounce for themselves, and to oppose any effort by others, to use force, or threaten to use force, to influence the course or the outcome of all-party negotiations.’

There you have it.  ‘Democratic and EXCLUSIVELY peaceful means of resolving political issues’.  Words on paper supported by the republican movement.  The meeting called on ‘supporting the PSNI’ will similarly involve words on paper that will, in all likelihood, be endorsed by the republican movement.  So let’s see how good republicans are at honouring pledges they affirm on pieces of paper.

(Excerpts from the Sunday Independent)

‘Christopher O’Kane, 37, was shot dead outside a Derry pub on April 21, 2001. O’Kane was a small-time drug dealer who had a number of run-ins with local IRA figures. Eamon Collins; the 45-year-old ex-prisoner was beaten and stabbed on January 27, 1999, because he wrote a brutally honest book, Killing Rage, about his role as part of the murderous IRA’s south Armagh brigade. He also testified in the Sunday Times libel case against IRA boss, Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy. Police who attended the scene said they had never encountered such injuries, which at first made them think he had been mangled by machinery. No one has been charged.’

‘Paul Daly, 38, was sitting with his 11-year-old daughter in his car near the nationalist Unity Flats on May 4, 2001 when two gunmen approached and shot him. Daly was a known drug dealer and, although his death was never admitted, it was known to be another IRA murder under the pseudonym ‘Direct Action Against Drugs’ (DAAD).’

‘Andy Kearney, 33, was involved in a fist fight with a notorious north Belfast IRA man. The IRA man sent an armed gang to Kearney’s seventh-floor flat in the New Lodge area on July 20, 1997. They overpowered Kennedy tied his hands behind his back, dragged him out onto the landing and shot him three times in the legs. They then tore out the telephone and disabled the lift so Kearney’s girlfriend had to run down 16 flights of stairs to raise help. He bled to death.’

‘Michael Magee, 34, was recovering from a savage IRA punishment beating at his home in Downpatrick on June 11, 2001 when a masked gang broke in and shot him dead at point-blank range.

Local republicans said Magee was involved in drugs but his family and friends said he was not a dealer but was shot because he had a fight with a local republican.’

‘Gareth O’Connor, 24, disappeared while travelling through south Armagh on March 11, 2003. Gardai believe he was murdered by the local IRA and secretly buried, and, although the reasons remain uncertain, it is believed they were acting on behalf of a ‘Continuity’ IRA figure from Armagh.’

‘Matthew Burns, 26, was sitting in his car when gunmen opened fire killing Burns and injuring his brother at Castlewellan, Co Down on February 21, 2002. His family denied republican claims that he was a drug dealer.’

‘Brian McDonald, 51, was a taxi-driver in Dungannon, Co Tyrone who was on his way to pick a fare in the town when he was approached by two gunmen and shot dead on April 4, 2002. Local people said a close relative of Mr McDonald’s had been involved in a fight with a local IRA man and his murder was an act of revenge.’

‘Seamus ‘Shavo’ Hogan, 47, was shot dead by an IRA hit squad as he emerged from the Transport Club in Crumlin on July 14, 2001. Shavo, who once was a close associate of ‘the General’, Martin Cahill, refused to pay protection money and suffered the consequences.’

‘Edmund McCoy, 28, was sitting in a bar at Dunmurry in south Belfast when three gunmen walked in and shot him in the head and stomach on May 29, 2000. McCoy was a Catholic who associated with loyalist drug dealers. Again, the murder was seen as benefiting Catholic drug dealers who paid protection to the IRA.’

‘Nicholas ‘Mad Nicky’ O’Hare, 34, was shot dead in Dundalk on August 19, 2000. O’Hare was a former INLA man heavily involved in criminality. He was believed to have been murdered by the IRA in retaliation for the killing of a Dundalk man, Stephen Connolly, three weeks earlier.’

‘Patrick Quinn, 32, was also accused of being a drug dealer after his murder on September 29, 2000 as he sat drinking in the Depot Bar in Magherafelt, Co Derry, though his family and friends strongly denied the claim. He was shot dead at point-blank range by a lone gunman.’

‘Joseph O’Connor, 26, was a ‘Real’ IRA man who was shot dead near his mother’s home in the Ballymurphy estate in west Belfast on October 13, 2000. The IRA never admitted the killing, which local people said was carried out because O’Connor was muscling in on their local smuggled cigarette racket.’

‘Charles Bennett, 22, had joined the IRA after the ceasefire and was accused of being a police informant. He was abducted, tortured and then taken to waste ground in west Belfast and shot through the head on July 25, 1999.’

‘Brendan ‘Bap’ Campbell, 30, was another small-time Belfast drug dealer who was shot dead on February 9, 1998 as he left a Lisburn Road restaurant with his girlfriend.’

‘Bobby Dougan, 34, was a prominent south Belfast loyalist who was shot dead by the IRA on February 10, 1998. Despite denying the murders of both Dougan and Campbell, ballistics tests showed the guns used were also used in previous IRA murders and Sinn Fein was suspended for two weeks from the talks leading to the Good Friday Agreement. They were then re-admitted and the IRA issued orders to import new handguns from Florida so that they could avoid detection from ballistics. The gun-smuggling ring was discovered in 1999 after some 200 guns were sent through the post to safe houses in the Republic.’

‘Gerard Moran, 35, from Rory O’Connor House, Hardwicke Street, in north central Dublin, was shot dead while delivering takeaway food in Drumcondra on November 21, 1998. His murder was ordered by the IRA boss on the northside of Dublin, the same man who has been responsible for the series of container heists in Dublin city port and, ironically, the man believed to be sheltering the Belfast IRA man who stabbed Robert McCartney. Moran’s death was ordered because he had taunted IRA figures in the north inner city.’

‘PJ Judge, 41, was shot dead on December 7, 1996 as he sat in a car outside a Finglas public house. Judge had a deserved reputation as a brutal criminal. However, local people say the IRA gang which murdered him has close links to Judge’s rivals and were paid to carry out the assassination.’

‘Joseph Foran , 38, had been a partner in crime of PJ Judge who was shot dead by the IRA in 1996. He was sitting in a car in Finglas with his girlfriend when two gunmen approached and shot him dead on February 26, 2000. Again local sources say
Foran was shot by the IRA at the behest of his rivals in the local drugs trade.’

‘Thomas ‘Tomo’ Byrne, 41, married with one young son, was shot dead as he enjoyed a drink with friends at O’Neill’s pub in Summerhill in Dublin’s north inner city on April 30, 2000. The same IRA man who ordered the killing of Gerard Moran is believed to have murdered Byrne. Tomo Byrne was said by local people to have beaten up the IRA gangster in a pub fight several months earlier.’

‘Mark Robinson, 22, the father of a small baby was also involved in a pub fight with another notorious Derry IRA man. A IRA gang armed with scaffolding poles and a butcher’s knife pounced on him near his home in the Galliagh area on April 30, 2001 and stabbed and beat him to death.’

‘Robert McCartney, 33, the Belfast father-of-two whose sisters have brought the issue of the IRA’s brutal killing machine to international attention. McCartney was beaten with sewer rods and stabbed and slashed to death by at least 12 IRA at Magennis’s bar in the Markets area of Belfast. Despite Gerry Adams’ claims to want to help his family get justice no one has yet told police they saw the killing.’

As you can gather, the IRA are not very good at honouring promises made on paper.  It is precisely in this context that the forthcoming Hard Fish should be seen, and appropriate action taken by the Unionist electorate.

The IRA’s resident propagandist on Slugger, Chris Donnelly, keeps referring to the anticipated endorsement of the PSNI by these terrorists in a variety of ways. ‘Historic’; seismic’; are but two doing the rounds at the moment.  It smacks of all the usual emotional eyewash associated with mapping out a strategy of intent in this ‘peace process’ which is seldom realistic.  Donnelly was, of course, using the occasion of IRA President, Gerry Adams’ address to the unwashed faithful in Fermanagh, where Adams and the assortment of terrorist-fawning scum afore him spent most of the time praising two individuals who had attempted to murder policemen fifty years ago.

For the IRA, as Adams made clear, ‘supporting’ law and order is not about a genuine respect for the legitimacy of the State.  It is about pursuing a constitutional objective rejected consistently by a clear majority in Northern Ireland: an objective that will continue to be shunned until republicans finally get the message.  I love the picture showing the machine gun.  And there were we, assisted by a compliant media, thinking that the IRA’s murderous arsenal had been decommissioned.  What will the champions of power-sharing with these individuals say about that?  Will Brian Rowan, Mark Devenport or Martina Purdey claim the gun was a plastic imitation purchased at Toys ‘R’ Us?

‘Excuse me, miss.  Have you a toy machine gun in stock?  Me and my mates need it to furnish a gathering of sick, evil a*seholes in Fermanagh next week.’

For the real character of the republican movement we need not look at any cheap words to emerge from a gaggle of IRA luvvies.  We need to look at the unadulterated badness behind the ugly mugs of everyone who appeared at that ‘commemoration’ at the weekend.  That’s what they are really all about – hating policemen, not supporting them.  They are not fit to scrape dung off the shoes of those RUC officers – Protestant and Catholic – who held the line for over thirty years. 

Any normal political party in a given democratic situation would give their support to the police and institutions of the State in which they live as a matter of necessity.  However, in Ulster, we are not dealing with a normal political party.  Nor are we talking about government ministers with any semblance of moral perspective.  Thus, it is entirely right for the pro-Union majority to ask what concessions (and there will have been some, you can mark my words) have been given in order for the IRA to assent to conditionally supporting the PSNI (‘conditionally’ refers to the inevitable reality as opposed to the cheap words uttered by this collective scat)?

Have members of the government been doing a bit of Monty Pythonesque ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, squire’ on the vexed issue of on-the-runs?  Let me make one thing clear: these terrorists cowardly hiding from the reach of justice should be treated in exactly the same way as Mr Tikrit was treated at 3am this morning.  Why should they be accommodated in order for the Provos to accept what parties who can honestly claim to be constitutional accept as their duty?  We all know the IRA is split from top-to-bottom on this issue and Adams will be desperate to obtain notable ‘goodies’ in order for the anticipated gaggle of the worst plebs in the British Isles to give a cursory nod to the role the Provos have envisaged for themselves as it, in truth, will be to hollow out the PSNI from within.

Many of those hiding in the metaphorical Irish pig pens from the reaches of the judicial system are guilty of denying the right of unfettered life to a great number of people.  There is absolutely no reason why the United Kingdom should permit these animals to return peaceably as an incentive to evoke cheap and, ultimately, meaningless platitudes from a bunch of terrorists and murderers.

As predicted, the Sinn/IRA/DUP show continues to run and run - now in full on Festive Panto mode.

Comes the news – gasp! – that the IRA’s best buddies in Sinn Fein are calling a special meeting of its executive to discuss the issue of republican backing for policing in Northern Ireland. Gerry Adams said the party’s executive council would meet in Dublin on Friday. He said he would put forward a motion asking for a special party-wide conference "on the policing issue". Sinn Fein support for policing would be viewed by the political elite as removing one of the main obstacles to restoring devolution.

This is all just a pathetic joke. OF COURSE Sinn Fein/IRA (unless you are in the DUP in which case just drop the inconvenient Sinn Fein part) will deign to back Policing, subject to the usual lethal caveats.  The MSM will hail it as of being of monumental significance, the hand of history will scrawl a few more twisted words. The DUP will then pretend to "grudgingly" accept this as "a breakthrough" and then crow that they have achieved something.

This is the usual crafted political choreography we have seen over the years – its all a faux breakthrough – a panto for the politically stupid, or wicked. Of course it’s sad to see the IRA and the DUP edge closer together on the basis of the bastardisation of policing but in this corrupt political landscape, what else do you expect? Pursuing devolution at the cost of democracy appears to be the choice the DUP have made, and they know it. When the UUP sold out their principles, there were none more critical than the DUP. Now it seems that they have morphed into the UUP. More Kipper politics – two-faced and gutless!

Did you see that the man once described as "The Godfather of Godfathers" - IRA/Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness -has issued his message of hope for the New Year saying that "considerable progress" has been made over the Christmas on restoring power sharing to Northern Ireland. McGuinness said the constant contact between the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister means an agreement on getting the institutions back up and running could be reached in the coming days. He also went onto say that the New Year will mark a fresh beginning for his party and the DUP.

Let me just say this. There can be NO accommodation between any decent democrat and the IRA. If the DUP negotiators have been dealing away over the holiday period, and I suspect they have, and are moving  ever closer to gaining agreement with the barbarians whose organisation is responsible for killing thousands of our fellow citizens, then shame on them. They will get their come uppance one way or another.  It’s a shame that Unionism is led by power hungry baboons.

Can we PLEASE abolish the Northern Ireland so-called "Human Rights Commission"? This freakish organisation, headed up by the repellent Monica McWilliams, is such a waste of tax-payers money. Established under the corrupt terms of the Belfast Agreement, it provides no useful function and instead merely facilitates the perpetual victimhood of the Irish nationalist agenda dressed up in the hollow rhetoric of human rightology.

Monica has delivered her Xmas message demanding that her useless quango be allowed to investigate allegations of human rights abuses involving MI5 or MI6 in Northern Ireland.

Monica scrupulously avoids dealing with the TEN OF THOUSANDS of human rights abuses carried out by the IRA terrorists that she happily supported in Government. Payback for such cowardice was her neat little fatcat quango-job. This Commission is an affront to decent people and I view it with nothing but complete contempt. Every penny it costs us is a penny too much.

McWilliams and her ilk are parasites that feed off the UK tax-payer, whilst assiduously cultivating their own narrow anti-British political agenda. They have no RIGHT to proclaim anything in the name of Human Rights.

I wrote to my M.P., one Roberta Blackman-Woods, as quoted below:-

 Do you support the moves by the Northern Irish Secretary to move and facilitate the entry, into a devolved Government, of an unreconstructed bunch of terrorists and murderers?
 
As the IRA is still active, alongside it’s so-called Loyalist fellow-travellers, as is detailed within this Belfast Telegraph article, would you not agree with me that it is a stain on the memories of all those who died to get this bunch into Stormont?

Her reply is quoted verbatim:-

"Thank you for your correspondence of the 30-11-2006, the contents of which have been noted. I strongly support the move by the Secretary of State for Nothern Ireland to reinstate the devolved power sharing government. I feel that this will go a long way to ensuring peace and stability and greatle benefit the people of Northern Ireland."

A true object lesson in ‘how not to answer a question!’