The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament

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Zanny Minton Beddoes, “Rivalry between America and China will shape the post-covid world,” Economist (London), 14 November 2021. S inn Féin may deploy all the dissembling semantics it likes in relation to its endorsement of the Special Criminal Court - as currently constituted - but the simple fact is that the party has now underwritten the use of non-jury trials. Party spokespeople may dance around the head of a needle and talk of exceptional circumstances but for so long as the option remains on the statute books, it will be used.

Moreover, although a minority, there is now a significant section of pro-union people prepared to take a more pragmatic view of relinquishing the connection with Britain while simultaneously holding little outright hostility towards the Republic. Often voting Alliance, this cohort is sometimes considered a greater threat to traditional unionism than is the presence of Sinn Féin. I have a copy of Conspicuous Gallantry, by Anthony Leask, which is an oral history of 8 UDR. I bought it to review for TPQ, but got derailed by other books. This is from the draft review: The series of articles began with a comment article from the editor of the Evening Standard, the former Tory party chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne. And, notwithstanding the bitter Ulster unionist description of him as yesterday’s man, Osborne not only reflects the received wisdom of high-level opinion-formers in London but also commands the attention of many influential Conservative Party movers and shakers. a b c O’Ruairc, Liam (2001). "The League Of Communist Republicans 1986-1991" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 November 2007 . Retrieved 28 February 2023.Of course if discussion of the period cannot be avoided, then endeavour to undermine the idealism, introduce the unpleasant, and imply that there is still worse to be uncovered. For example, Kevin Barry was willing to “kill and to die,” ran the tendentious headline in a recent Irish Independent article. Other sources spin the tale that civilians died in crossfire, women were sometimes abused, and caring fathers were among police casualties. Twice within the past four years, the current Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has been severely criticised for major errors of judgement in relation to important, sensitive issues. In 2017 Justice Seamus Treacy ruled in the Belfast High Court that the decision signed off on by Drew Harris to shut down the Historic Enquiries Team (HET) investigating state collusion with the Glennane gang was an “ extreme” abuse of power. Then last month the Supreme Court in London ruled that the 2014 decision by the PSNI, also signed off on by Harris, not to proceed with an investigation into maltreatment of internees known as the ‘Hooded Men’ was flawed and irrational. George Osborne, “Unleashing nationalism has made the future of the UK the central issue,” Evening Standard, 20 January 2021 ( https://tinyurl.com/y6g6b5tr). As if that dose of reality therapy were not enough, the Financial Times journalist Robert Shrimsley wrote an article published under the heading “Democratic Unionists are now Irish reunification’s secret weapon.”² As the title indicates, he filleted the DUP’s incompetent performances. In his biting assessment he wrote that the strategic judgements of the North’s largest party “have been among the most consistently witless in recent politics.”

Tommy makes the point that to think the book is an indictment of the UDR and its members, which he feels it isn't. He might have phrased that differently as the book seems very much an indictment of the UDR but not all its members.Unfortunately, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, Keir Starmer, is offering little alternative to the free-marketeers as he remains wedded to right-of-centre Blairite economic policies. While throwing in a few items supported by no credible political current in Ireland today (nor, in fairness, by Sinn Féin), such as narrow nationalism and “ourselves alone,” he made his intention clear. In his view, the new Ireland must not be republican, socialist, or EU-critical.

Some readers of this excellent book will undoubtedly view it purely as an indictment of the UDR and its members. Doing so would be a mistake since it overlooks the fact that many thousands served in the firm belief they were upholding the law and defending their communities." The problems giving rise to the protests did not suddenly emerge over the past few months and certainly not with the arrival of those fleeing war in Eastern Europe or the Middle-East. In common with other free-market economies, the Republic is experiencing the unavoidable consequences of decades of unbridled neoliberalism. With the benefit of hindsight I don't know if there's anything (more) he could have done," he said. There exists within republicanism a perspective that does not allow for the RUC and/or the UDR to have been staffed by people who did not act out in sectarian ways. There was absolutely none whatsoever so we have to conclude that the British were acting in bad faith."Writing later, the socialist republican Peadar O’Donnell made the incisive observation that “the middle class, which lurked in the shadow of the republican movement from its rise to popularity, was no part of the freedom forces; it had no aim that could not be realised in Home Rule within the British Empire.”

The Irish civil war resulted in the establishment of a deeply conservative and profoundly reactionary government in the newly created Free State. Its claim to democratic legitimacy was based on a narrow election victory decided not so much by popular approval but as Mellows said, by the people’s fear of ‘immediate and terrible war’. Cumann na nGaedheal was unsure of its hold on power. It feared that a progressive republican message would lead to rejection of the dominion status it had agreed to through the Treaty and bloodily implemented during the civil war.

There is nothing new in this tactic. Every progressive development in human history has been vilified by a reactionary ruling class … from Spartacus, to the Jacobins and the Bolsheviks to name but a few. And so it remains, as evidenced by the recent Tory leadership debate, both candidates eager to override an international treaty in relation to the Six Counties and casually dismiss investigation of British state criminality in Ireland.