What is Teresa Villiers for? Why, that’s easy. The British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland exists so that she can make statements like this one:
“At least with a new process, agreed by Northern Ireland’s political leaders, there is scope to write in from the start the need for an objective balance and with proper weight and a proportionate focus on the wrongdoing of paramilitaries…rather than the almost exclusive concentration on the activities of the state which characterises so many of the processes currently under way.”
I expect you noted the key phrases there – “agreed by Northern Ireland’s political leaders”, “objective balance” , “wrongdoing of paramilitaries”, “rather than the almost exclusive concentration on the activities of the state”.
Right. Let’s take them in order, shall we?
“Agreed by Norther Ireland’s political leaders”. Well I suppose Teresa should know better than us what our political leaders have agreed to or will agree to, but listening to Gerry Kelly on BBC Raidio Uladh/Radio Ulster this morning, it didn’t sound very much as if he was in agreement with the Villiers view. In fact he seemed to be saying that while republican paramilitaries had spent a total of hundreds, maybe thousands of years in prison, the agents of the state and ‘security’ forces had near enough walked free.
“Objective balance”. I don’t think any of us, except the most bone-headed bigot, would disagree with that. In other words, when looking at the past, we shouldn’t allow our wish to protect this side or that side to interfere with the presentation of what really happened.
But look what Teresa then comes up with: the “wrongdoing of paramilitaries…rather than the almost exclusive concentration on the activities of the state”. To paraphrase: there’s far too much attention to the bad things the state and its agents did and not nearly enough on the paramilitaries. Well now. All I can say is, tell that to the Finucane family. Or the people of Ballymurphy. Or the victims of the Dublin/Monaghan bombs. Or the dozens of families listed in Anne Cadwallader’s book Lethal Allies. Again and again, there are clear signs that the state was involved in the killing of totally innocent people. But if you’ve heard Teresa or other British state representatives addressing these vile injustices, then you’ve better hearing than me.
The fact is, there’s been considerable emphasis on the ‘activities of the state’ for the very good reason that the state has stonewalled every attempt to get to the bottom of what happened – and that includes Bloody Sunday in Derry. So is Teresa telling the victims in such cases that they’re getting too much attention? They’d say they were getting too little justice – in fact none at all.
The British Secretary of State’s statement isn’t any thing new, really. Instead of being totally appalled that the state forces, paid out of our pockets to protect citizens, has instead killed them, she is now telling us to stop harping on about their misdeeds. Bend an ear, Teresa: all killing of innocent people is cruel and barbarous, but when such acts are perpetrated by the law’s custodians it clearly deserves maximum attention. What you’re calling for is less. But maybe I’m forgetting you are the British Secretary of State.
Lets hope that some of the church leaders that she’s meeting later will raise these points with her, now that would be real leadership.
Morning Jude
Can’t quite make up my mind about you. One minute I like you the next I dislike you! You talk about the state we’ll try this one out for comparison. Billy/king rat killed in the Maze. I wonder what your opinion was back then. There is no side better than the other all women give up their houses to the IRA and hid their weapons. Even priests planted bombs in Claudy, and the Church gave them sucour. No i am afraid it was a dirty war with dirty tactics. Stop using excuses. WATCH RYANS DAUGHTER it will give you an insight on how Irish people really are?
Maidin mhaith to you too, Norma. Well I like you ALL the time, so there… ‘Billy/king rat’, a loyalist paramilitary leader was killed by a republican paramilitary group. There may or may not have been state collusion involved – I don’t know what the evidence was. If the state was, then clearly the same criteria apply: state has people paid to protect citizens killing one of its citizens (or should that be ‘subjects’?). I don’t know but you’re probably right that ‘women’ helped hide IRA guns. I don’t know that ‘priests planted bombs in Claudy’ – evidence? And likewise re Catholic Church giving them succour – I think not. The Catholic Church historically has been opposed to republicanism at pretty well every turn. You’re right it was a dirty war with dirty tactics – but what war isn’t? Killing people by definition is dirty. I watched Ryan’s daughter years ago – all I can remember is the love scene. Tells you something about me, doesn’t it? Anyway, thanks for your thoughts, Norma, and as I say I still like you. Not like that cornerboy gio….
Jude There I was about to agree with you and then you had to impugn my good (fake) name. I wish I had time to hang around on street corners.
Come to think of it I suppose certain blogs could be the virtual equivalent.
Villiers seems to be the most detached SoS I can remember and is clearly keeping her head down until,as paddykool says,she is shunted out.
Maybe not a bad thing though as she continually plays a straight bat knocking everything back to our lot to deal with.
“Mummy Mummy he pulled my pigtails”
“Well dear that is a devolved matter for you and your brother to sort out. Now where is Mummy’s special medicine?”
Norma, forget Jude, I am younger and still have some hair left. And I look just like that chap from ‘Ryan’s Daughter’. John Mills was it?
Yes indeed, gio. Mills was the local half-wit in that movie…
Ahhh… Teresa….Teresa…..Teresa..
Gawd help the lady .She was handed this poisoned chalice of Norn Ireland on her quest for political enrichment. .She’ll be moved on soon enough and replaced by another even blander face.
She looks so ill at ease in the job and statements like this last one will do her no good at all. …It’ll do her no harm either …a bit like a plate of jelly, really….
She’ll be shuffled off to another less-hazardous position soon anyway..How many times have we seen this happen over the years? it’s obvious that the Establishment is in “holding position” .They are going to sit tight until we all die or go away with our complicated history and our historical, hysterical , keening needs.
As Bob Dylan sang “Nothing’s been Delivered”. …and all the state players who transgressed the law will be protected until they too die..All the Finucanes and the Willy Frazers will be held at bay forever …all the rest is window dressing. The Establishment know that by opening this can of worms , the storm that will rage will make the “On the Runs” debacle seem like a playground scuffle.
.It would expose the very corrupt heart of the Establishment for all to see and of course that would include all those soldiers and policemen who were well paid to carry out those murky instructions. Books will be written infinitum, but just like the recent Florida gun running expose they’ll be no more than a slot on the Nolan show for a day or two before they are consigned to the ever -expanding file of calumnies.
It’s probably all any of us can ever hope for.
Are the British now binning Haass ? A “new process” sounds like Haass has been formally rejected by the brits. Unionism’s long standing policy of just saying no appears to have once again paid dividends.
No narrow water bridge, no A5, no peace centre, no Haass, no Irish Language act.
No,no,no. It’s a simple but highly effective strategy for unionists. A strategy that SF seem powerless to counteract.
Cal: Yes it’s like trench war in the First World War..no movement…stalemate.That way nobody can say they won! As long as we don’t kill each other for another few years …everyone will allow us to pretend to play at politics…
There seems to be a focused attempt in the last few weeks or so to call for anmensty for state forces/state spondored forces. The never ending delays into inquests are obstructionist at best and more more sinister at another level. These delays ( Bloody Sunday is a prime example) result in witnesses/victims/perpetrators dying or forgetting the details they once remembered.
I feel this call by Villiers is in orchestration with the Higgins/McGuinness visit to the queen. As relations between the two countries become ‘normailized” , this absoltion for the security forces and the groups they funded is the next logical step. We can’t have people looking too deep into what the FRU did now can we.
The one eyed view of the conflict that is put forth by many of the Unionist parties/British Govt is the real cause of lack of progress. A trut commission would be great, but it requiresall sides to ‘come clean”. I won’t be expecting the British Govt to do that any time soon. I fact I don’t expect it to happen ever.
The bottomline to me is if a Republican,Loyalist or member of security forces committed a crime he or she should be sent for trial you either have law or you dont.
I like you to Jude you remind be of a crabbed older uncle…; )
I like the like bit, Neill. Not so keen on the crabbed and definitely enraged by the ‘older’…
Did i forget to add “demanding”?
Neill :
I’m afraid that if you get into a debate as to whether or not we ever had a “law” that everyone was subscribing to at the same time we’ll be talking forever.Every law has been broken by all sides , including the governments .We’re not going to change base human nature. You only have to look at the twisting going on over the “expenses” scandals in government to realise that some of the governing bodies ideas of honesty and morality are at odds with my reading of same. Either it’s stealing or it’s not , right?
Loyalism, republicanism and the police and army forces have all been guilty of distorting laws to suit their agenda …just as soldiers ransacked homes, people were interned without trial, shops and people were bombed , , roads were taken over , towns were besieged by club- waving gangs,, killers were legitimised on all sides and feted by politicians and buried with much pomp and ceremony.Laws are only useful when everyone agrees to play using the same rules.
What do they say about locked doors? They ‘re only locked to keep the honest people out. Dishonest people will break them down.
Secretaries of State like Victims’ Commissioners come and go. The current Secretary of
State’s speech illustrates a superficial approach to a plethora of complex issues. The speech also lacked balance, objectivity and sensitivity. Evidence? If one takes just one incident from Anne Cadwallader’s forensic analysis in ‘Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland’, one is bound to ask who was in command and who gave the orders to plant bombs and shoot citizens. I refer to an incident in which a serving police officer was involved in bombing and shooting. He was identified by his police issue boots. He returned to his place of duty and proceeded to take and log calls about the ‘terrorist atrocity’. The Secretary of State has conveniently glossed over the role played by politicians and military commanders in facilitating collusion. She has also demonstrated that she was never a part of the solution in relation to promoting and developing a shared future on these islands.
Villiers is out of her depth. Whenever she speaks she rhymes of the platitudes. This speech today is probably the most significant she has given since becoming S.O.S and so I wonder who wrote it for her.
She is delivering the message that the British State will not come clean on its malignant role throughout the troubles. We were ‘piggy in the middle’ keeping the mad paddies apart is the message the British State will continue to propagate. There were a few bad apples but by and large the State did little wrong.
There’s been a lot of talk this past week with the State visit to Britain of how friendship between Ireland and Britain are stronger than ever. With these hateful musings coming from the Government’s spokesperson all I can say is with friends like this it is just as well Ireland does have so few enemies
She is another shameless politician who will state the party line. As I have stated many times all sides in this war did terrible things . To me, however, when the supposed forces of law and order subvert the law in order to uphold it, well that to me is chaos. A govenment armed gangs, had serving police and soldiers involved wit the murder of innocents. Cadwalladers book gives a large amont opf new information. It painstakingly links guns to various incidents, it names names and places, the policeman identified by his boots is only one of many incidents discussed. The SAS in Ireland by raymond Murray is another excellent work . State Violence by Fr Murray is another. There is a massive amount of information linking state forces to pseudo gangs etc. It is little wonder why she wants to aim the attention at the paramilitaries and away from the security forces.
The state even let some own police die in order to protect deep cover informers. There is no end that the govt will not go to try and wipe it’s hands clean. It is to the credit of the Bloody Sunday , Ballymurphy and Jordan family and others who refuse to take no for ananswer.,
The Other Jude took care of this issue in a previous post to another well written column. Amnesty all around, followed by an atrocity score card burning soirée. (Both Judes are owed the salary of the SoS… Being consecutively the policy maker and Press Secretary )
Norma,catholic priests would be overwhelmingly SDLP. SF would be far to common for them to even contemplate supporting.
Bit of a generalisation surely.Frs Des Wilson,Joe Mc Veigh and Raymond Murray don’t strike me as S D L P supporters!
There are exceptions to every rule as you well know, Argenta. The fact that we all know their names indicates their rarity.
Only natural that men used to kneeling so much would vote for the StoopDownLowParty.
How do we know the voting inclinations of Catholic priests?During the Troubles they were certainly more likely not to be supportive of Sinn Fein but is that still the case in 2014.
Argenta
We pride ourselves on knowing everyone’s voting intentions here.
Priests are SDLP. Catholic Police officers can’t be Nationalists. Working class Catholics must be republican. Etc etc.
” Amnesty all around, followed by an atrocity score card burning soirée.”.
Aye, Virginia. It seems to happen in all wars. Ours will probably be no different.
In relation to your question cum statement in the last thread about Polish being the second language spoken here after English – I always thought it was Kilkeelian. Have you ever had a conversation with someone from Kilkeel?
Not having to engage in conversation is the reason Belfast is an introvert’s dream UK vacation. The Lagan is also a draw.
There has to be a complete Amnesty, let`s face it, the crown forces are NEVER going to face any sort of prosecution and we will never get to the bottom of what was a dirty war. Just look at the history of Inquests in this place, there are people searching for answers to their loved ones deaths from thirty and forty years ago. The relatives of the Ninety Six football fans who perished at Hillsborough are still waiting on the truth and they have been treated abysmally by their fellow Brits. What chance do we have? TV Mike (great name by the way!) and Peter Punt need to be told to wind in their necks, they were one hundred per cent behind violence for political ends just as much as any Republican. I thought it was weird seeing masked thugs wrecking all round them in Ukraine, I thought it was the news from Larne. As for mobs attacking Ukrainian police stations, has anyone asked our First Minister what he thought of their approach, after all he has form in that sphere?