Lord Saville’s inquiry into the Bloody Sunday shootings in Northern Ireland is scheduled for publication tomorrow, the fruits of a promise made twelve years ago by Tony Blair to ensure that the likes of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness signed up to the Good Friday agreement. Indications are that this exercise in gesture politics has cost close on £200million, and for what? To turn British soldiers into possible scapegoats, at least according to advanced reports that I have read.
After all this time, effort and expense we are no closer to the truth of what really happened on that day in January thirty-eight years ago, as Douglas Murray says in this week’s Spectator. In no way do I wish to minimise the tragedy but any objective assessment would have to conclude that the innocent victims were caught in crossfire; that they were effectively used as a shield by the IRA, which has never admitted any responsibility for its actions.
There is unlikely to be any closure here, just deeper and deeper wounds. The whole inquiry, it seems to me, was little better than an act of appeasement, one that may very well open up the prospect of criminal proceedings against former soldiers of the Parachute Regiment. I’m sure all serving soldiers will be mindful of the precedent being set here.
There are indeed times when the dead are best left to bury the dead, times when a tragic past is best forgotten. Otherwise all sorts of additional issues might be raised, old ghosts released from the grave. Now we have former terrorists in government in Northern Ireland; now we have convicted IRA killers set free. How will it sit with the British people, Murray asks, if British soldiers are sent to prison against that background? Perhaps they will remember the words of a former commander of 1 Para;
I have to ask what about Bloody Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and every other day of the week? What about Bloody Omagh? What about Bloody Warrenpoint, Enniskillen, Hyde Park, or Bloody Aldershot and Brighton – bloody everything the IRA have ever touched.
Justice, it would appear, is a one-way street. It seems such an obvious point to conclude on but sometimes the price of peace is just too outrageously high.
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ReplyDeleteI'll have a look.
ReplyDeleteI do hope Cameron will treat this witch hunt with the disdain it merits.
ReplyDeleteYes, Dominic, so do I.
ReplyDeleteAna, Rule one is that the British must always apologize and pay compensation. Rule two is that no one else need apply these rules to themselves.
ReplyDeleteI think it's sad that some English right-wingers see the search for the truth of this massacre of 13 UK citizens as a 'witch-hunt', and seem to take it as a personal affront.
ReplyDeleteWhat does your strong stance on the matter say about you, Ana? It might be worth thinking about that rather than giving an easy reaction.
I respect your usual intellectual curiosity ... it seems a great pity to allow it to be overridden by tribal shibboleths, if that is what's happened here.
Nobby, yes it seems like it.
ReplyDeleteBrendano, I don't know; what does it say about me? You've obviously made up your mind on the matter. Please believe me when I say that I always think, and think hard, before committing myself to words. I have no doubt at all that the families of these people, the people killed that day, still feel the pain of their loss after all these years, just as do all of the other families across Britain and Ireland who suffered in one outrage or another. I have never lost anyone close to me and I can only sympathise in a rather abstract and detached manner. Still, it seems to me, that peace can only be truly achieved by closing a final door on the past, closing a door on the suffering and the memory. At this late stage, after all these years, for former soldiers possibly to be accused of crimes that could never be proved to the full satisfaction of all risks destroying peace by bringing the past back to life. Others, too, will want answers for their loss, a price to be paid for their suffering.
Yes, I am right-wing but I am not tribal; I have never been tribal. I thought you would understand that from the way that I interact with people on the My T site and why I would never join an awful clique like Definitely Not My T. We will never agree on this particular issue, Brendano, but I can respect your feelings, just as I hope that you can respect mine.
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ReplyDeleteI do respect your feelings, Ana. As you say, we won't agree on this ... I simply can't see what's wrong with the truth being told. Better late than never.
ReplyDeleteFor the Catholic community of Derry (and NI more widely), Bloody Sunday meant that if they had the temerity to demand civil rights they would be slapped down with extreme violence, and nobody would care. They could be punished merely for existing, and told that they were at fault when they knew they weren't.
Try to imagine the shock and hurt of Bloody Sunday. I believe it is difficult for an English person to do so as England was never (in recent centuries) a colonized country. If there had ever been unwelcome 'foreign' soldiers on the streets of England you might see things differently, or feel some pang of empathy.
Violence by the state, unacknowledged as wrongdoing, is qualitatively different from other violence. But of course there is little point in continuing to discuss this. We shall see what the report says.
I think Daniel Hannan gets it right here:
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100043608/david-cameron-was-right-to-apologise-bloody-sunday-diminished-us-all/
Brendan, What say you about the murder of 18 British soldiers at Warrenpoint by the IRA in 1979?
ReplyDeleteCan we expect that a Bloody Monday enquiry for this massacre?
No, I thought not.
See link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/27/newsid_3891000/3891055.stm
Ana, It seems to me that the British must fight with one hand behind their backs. It was the same in Palestine when the world sided with what was once described as 'Israeli terrorists'. Rather strange that the same world is now against an Israel that is fighting for its survival and which was forged as a result of 'kicking out the British'. Indeed, it would appear that in a good many places where Brits have been 'kicked out' the results have been invariably catostrophic. Look at what happened shortly after Indian independence; well over a million dead. Look at Zimbabwe today - a rule of tyranny and the world does nothing. The British have given know how to destroy. And, as we have seen, that is very easy to do. Rather more difficult to create and build up.
ReplyDeleteBrendano, the point is I don't think Saville will bring us any closer to the 'truth' than Widgery. Were the British soldiers in Northern Ireland, British territory, after all, 'foreigners'? I know that is a view that some would take. Do you remember reading my piece on the Peterloo Massacre on My T? dreadful things can happen when soldiers feel under pressure. I'm not making any excuse here, just indicating how complex history and events can be. In the interests of peace I think this was an episode best forgotten. Thank you for that link. I'll certainly have a look.
ReplyDeleteOh, I will be posting a piece a bit later on Bloomsday, an altogether happier Irish topic.
Nobby, I could not agree more.
Adam, when I refer to English right-wingers I am talking about specific people on MyT. There is nothing sinister or 'sectarian' about it.
ReplyDeleteNobby, you are missing a point that I have made to Ana on MyT ... the murder of soldiers in Warrenpoint etc. was treated as a crime, rightly, from day 1, and the perpetrators were sought. You are not comparing like with like.
Ana, people in NI are entitled to see themselves as Irish or British as they choose. Naturally some saw English soldiers on their streets as 'foreign', as you would see, say, French soldiers on your streets as foreign.
Saville has brought us a hell of a lot closer to the truth than Widgery. We should all be thankful for that. The truth is worth having.
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ReplyDeleteThat seems rather extreme, Brendano, but I do not doubt what you are saying. The truth is a concept ever pursued and ever eluded. Justice even more so.
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ReplyDeleteDidn't see any problem with the report. Victims were exonerated (very important), the army hasn't been condemned, however the individuals who murdered innocent civilians have been - there was no reason they should have opened fire on civil rights protestors. Man up and accept wrong doing where it's been done. It's a straw man arguement to bring in the PIRA and loyalists, and nothing to do with the incident. Boo fucking hoo if a couple paras felt it was ok to shoot unarmed civilians because they weren't welcomed. It was wrong and has rightly been acknowledged as such.
ReplyDeleteThere are indeed times when the dead are best left to bury the dead, times when a tragic past is best forgotten.
Have never been able to understand that frame of mind. Essentialy all it says is lets bury it under the carpet because it might reflect badly on us. Hypocrisy imo considering you write regularly about tragedies from abroad and their failures to acknowledge them. The difference between a state military committing such actions (who are supposed to represent a civilised society), and terrorists who obviously aren't ever going to admit any wrongdoing because they're fucking terrorists, shouldn't need to be spelt out. Of course Adams and McGuinness are never going to say anythng of note on their actions, they're terrorists! But someone has to rise above, and this incident was a disgrace. Those soldiers done more than most to help stain the British authorities, certainly in the minds of the Irish Catholics who they were sent to protect.
any objective assessment would have to conclude that the innocent victims were caught in crossfire; that they were effectively used as a shield by the IRA, which has never admitted any responsibility for its actions.
Did you read the report? If I was shot at by IRA men from a couple stories up in a building, my first thought wouldn't be to shoot someone without a gun, as obviously they're not responsible for shooting at me.
There is unlikely to be any closure here, just deeper and deeper wounds.
And if a relative of yours was to be shot, and it was to be ok'd by a foreign government because the person who done it was wearing a uniform? I think if anything it healed wounds, the responses showed that from families of the victims. Of course the paras are never going to be sent to prison because they let many republican and loyalist murderers out early as a result of the GFA, but to have acknowledgement that a relative of yours wasn't murdered because they deserved it must have been quite the weight lifted off their shoulders.
Have a heart. Those families deserved justice.
Brendan, How can there be 'like with like' when every IRA murder is different? What about justice for the two soldiers murdered in their car? Ought there not to be an enquiry into this matter when people took the law into their own hands and comitted the most horrific act I have ever seen on the telly. As you know there are many other instances draw from and it does no one any credit to celebrate what they call 'justice.'
ReplyDeleteAna, I agree. Without recourse to absolutes justice is simply a matter of opinion.
ReplyDeleteJimmy, yes, they do deserve justice, as do all the other martyred, butchered children of the earth. But this is not Judgement Day, only morning, morning excellent and fair.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I'm being obscure. It's a comment made at the end of a movie, a heartbreaking movie called Sophie's Choice. I honestly do wish everyone could have justice, but wishing will never make it so. But if it means closure, real closure for these particular families, I'm happy for them. I can assure you that I do have a heart.
Ana, I accept that you have a heart but did not doubt that after reading this blog. You have allowed yourself to be browbeaten by those who shed not one tear for British casualties in any similar circumstance.
ReplyDeletenb '...instances from which to draw upon... .'
ReplyDeleteAn interesting perspective on the Paras, here, from a Leicester-born right-wing journalist who couldn't possibly be more anti-IRA. The picture he paints is very different from the 'confused, bewuldered young men' perspective that's been so prevalent in blogland for te past few days.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/kevin-myers/kevin-myers-the-ira-had-no-better-friend-than-the-paras-wherever-they-went-ira-recruitment-rose-2221842.html
I don't think so, Nobby. I do sympathise with those who have been caught up in this tragedy, all of those caught up in it. I still stand by my words, though, that there are matters best forgotten for the sake of the future. I don't think that makes me heartless.
ReplyDeleteI will check that, Brendano.
Ana, I appreciate that forgiveness is not only necessary but part of Christian tradition. I only wish that there was more recognition of this and that this was not such a one sided affair.
ReplyDeleteIt was the intervention of McGuiness that I found quite outrageous, as you doubtless gathered if you read my latest post on My T.
ReplyDeleteSorry Nobby if you were trying to imply that I didn't have any sympathy for British casualities, being English that is obviously not the case. I'll happily look down on any man or woman who thinks it's some sort of competition. However, IMO, it is not for others to say whether incidents such as this should be burried under the carpet, but those who were affected by it.
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