Gerry Adams is being targeted with heavy political fire for saying that he doesn’t like the term “gangland”, with its suggestion that there is a land where gangs run the show. I’m beginning to think he could be wrong. On Friday we had the AK-47 assault in Dublin’s Regency Hotel that killed one man, yesterday another man with criminal connections was shot dead in his home. The Minister for Justice has said that any gang members who fear for their safety can report to their local garda station and be taken into protective custody. She also noted that the police were doing everything in their power,not to catch the killers, but to prevent further loss of life.
What’s more, assassinations like these between criminal gangs have been going on in the south even before Michael McDowell (remember him?) became the Minister for Justice and vowed to clean things up. Maybe there is a gangland and it’s called the Republic of Ireland.
All of which must have seemed a gift from heaven for Enda Kenny, keen to divert public attention from his embarrassing press conference where he told reporters the Irish people didn’t understand economics. Full of righteous indignation, he called on Gerry Adams to say if the AK rifles used by the Regency Hotel gunmen were similar to those used by the Provisional IRA. And of course he added his horror that Sinn Féin should call for the abolition of the juryless Special Criminal Court. Clearly a threat to the stability of the state:
“When I see the Sinn Féin Party talking about abolishing the Special Criminal Court I think the people of this country would want to be very careful and take very careful note of the propositions on the table”.
He doesn’t say what the “propositions” are nor why people should be very careful. But we do know why he is saying what he said. The intention is to suggest (i) Sinn Féin are soft on law and order; (ii) Sinn Féin are good on guns; and (iii) Sinn Féin’s call to abolish the Special Criminal Court is madness.
OK, let’s look at the guns and gangsters thing first. “Gangland”: a kind of shady, alternative reality where men with guns deal in drugs and kill each other, a world where gangsters kill at will and where the best the authorities can hope for is to stop the killings rather than apprehend the killers, to offer sanctuary to the gangsters rather than put them in jail. That is a kind of gangland, I suppose, but it’s a gangland that openly exists and has existed for decades throughout society in the south. To insist that there is no land or place that should be ceded to gangsters doesn’t seem to me too outrageous.
Sinn Féin soft on law and order? This conclusion is drawn because of SF’s demands for the abolition of the jury-free courts. Could a jury be used, without putting the jury at risk? Well, the identity of state agents, the identity of those who bring claims of rape, the identity of informers – all these can and have been protected successfully. Technology today lets us hear people speaking from outer space. It’s reasonable to believe that technology could allow juries to listen and deliver their verdict without fear of intimidation. Tellingly, although Enda forgot to mention it, Amnesty International, the UN and former Irish President Mary Robinson all agree with the Sinn Féin stance on juryless courts.
One final thought: who phoned the BBC and claimed they were the Continuity IRA and that they’d carried out the Regency Hotel killing? Fine Gael were busily crafting this news into a verbal weapon for use on the Shinners (Continuity, Provisional, yerrah boy they’re all tarred with the same brush – don’t they carry similar weapons?) when the news came through that the Continuity IRA had contacted the BBC and denied they had any hand, act or part in the Dublin killing, and that the first call had been a dirty tricks operation. When you hear of something happening, I always think it’s a good idea to ask “Cui bono? – Who would benefit?” So could it be that … No, you may finish the sentence. I couldn’t possibly comment.
A.sad.story.jude
Very. Jim.
It is not so long ago that the the crime drama, ‘Love/Hate’ was being served up as a staple diet of a Sunday evening on RTÉ. It depicted addiction, squalor, and violence associated with organised crime. The real criminals loved it and basked in the status and life style associated with ill-gotten gains.
How is it that some individuals need to turn their homes into fortresses, wear body armour and have the ability to purchase Lamborghinis and burn BMW’s at whim? The focus is now on a perceived failure by An Garda Síochána to deal with this problem. The Garda Representative Association has repeatedly drawn attention to resource issues in dealing with organised crime. Their concerns fell on deaf ears, just like concerns about the health service, the provision of education, unemployment and a range of other public services. Ministers continue to talk out of each side of their mouths. The electorate is being promised thousands of jobs while at the same time there are ongoing recruitment issues in the health service. Millions of euro were spent on installing water meters as elements in the criminal underworld continued with their extra curricular activities, yet resources for dealing proactively with addiction services remain problematic.
Homeless individuals are dying on the streets of Belfast and Dublin. There are major problems associated with self harm and suicide throughout the country. Party political rhetoric about the need for a tough law and order response this side of an election will be of no concern to gangsters. Ethical social and economic policies are needed to deal with the conditions in which criminal subcultures thrive and flourish.
Cui bono indeed! But surely democratic politicians would not seek todivert gardai from proper lines of enquiry into murder for narrow political ends. Even the thought is scary.
Poor Enda. He hasn’t the wit to know that an AK47 looks like an AK47 no matter who provided it or used it. Similar to the AK47s the Provisional IRA used? It’s also similar to the ones the Russians used, the Chinese used, the American gangsters used, the American establishment used, the British establishment used any one of millions that have been used through the decades. Well done Enda. Go to the top of the class.
Aye …”Gangland”…that other mysterious and mischievous land just a few miles beyond the borders of our very own mythical “Norneverland”, eh? That would be the place where all the hellions and various spawn of the Great Beelzebub all live together , cheek by jowl, like the Hole In The Wall Gang of American Western lore.A little lawless enclave where the normal rules do not abide.It’s obviously impenetrable too , possibly policed by AK47 wielding banditos with stuffed bandeloros full of high-velocity bullets and Colts on their hips. I’ve wondered too how any of the crime can continue to exist in such a small country when the forces of law and order would surely know who is responsible in such a tiny gene- pool. It’s hardly Mexico with their toll of some 164,000 drug-related homicides between 2007 and 2014 , is it? Mind you , it takes a certain amount of panache and front to openly walk fearlessly in and murder someone ,on camera , for all the world to see. Where would you run to after that kind of caper , in a tiny place like Ireland, given that the cops are bound to have some idea where all the paths lead and which families are involved ?
Of course, as an aside , you could also ask what the Continuity IRA has to do with the modern Sinn Fein anyway or even what the Continuity IRA has to do with any of the politics in the whole of Ireland at all. Aren’t they basically anti-modern politics and more about violent overthrowal of the state? Are they not the guys who believed that Sinn Fein had betrayed their “armed struggle” some twenty years ago?
Mebbe you’re being too logical, PK. Try to think like this: “Did you say Continuity IRA? That’s the IRA, isn’t it? I mean, that’s the Provies, right? Sinn Féin and them. That Gerry Adams – there ought to be a law…”
Ach ..you’re right of course , Jude …Blame than oul overthinking brain of mine…sure i get all confused betimes and think that the world is round when everybody knows the bloody place is flat…isn’t that the plain truth ?
But now it seems that the actual Continuity IRA have been on to the media to complain that they had accepted the word of imposters – a claim that seemed to be backed up by the retaliation murder in Dublin last evening.
Or was the Regent Hotel killing a retaliation, or the previous one in Spain a retaliation?
But Jude – aren’t you always trying to draw equivalence between the actions of the old IRA and the Provos? Enda rejects that equivalence but makes one between the Provos and the Real/Continuity IRA which you seem to object to.
Doublespeak your way out of that one.
The Free Southern Stateen, Esteemed Blogmeister, is not so much a gangland as a gang- up land. And no marks for guessing who are doing the ganging up and upon whom the ganging up is being done.
The chief ganger up, ar ndoigh/ of course is Enda the Ennui whose sterling denunciation of the Shinners aka the ganged up, fairly reached starling heights:
-(Unlike the Shinners) Our Party was (sniff) founded to deal with (sniff) exactly this kind of criminality. Our Party was (sniff) founded to provide (sniff) law and order for this (sniff) country.
Loath as The Perkin is to reopen the old sores and scabs of history to settle old scores in a debate, oops, conversation which is essentially contemporary, but as The Chief Blue Shirt in a particularly shirty mood opted to do so, one, as a dutiful citizen, is left with little option but to do ditto. And to allow one’s thoughts to stray back to such legal and orderly acts as that of Ballyseedy.
This happened in the Kingdom of Kerry, 1923, when the armed wing of the Blue Shirts thoughtfully tied nine Irregulars to a landmine and blew them to the other Kingdom, the one which climaxes in Come. One survived, in fact, having been blown to the safety of a tree top, not unlike Mad Sweeney.
Within 24 hours another nine Irregulars, five in Killarney, four in Cahirciveen, were similarly landmined by a more efficiently legal and orderly Force, this time on a fuller scoreline of 9-0. A day is a long time in morally superior politics.
Ballybough, where the second of the two latest whacks in Jackeenland took place, is not a million miles from Ballyssedy. Ballybough, of course, translates as ‘Tacky Town’ while the Regency Hotel is located across the road from the grounds of Home Farm F.C.
A timely reminder that the most lethal operation of Organised Crime on Liffeyside in recent history was planned in a different farm, the one named Glennane , which sent its operatives, in 1974, from the farm on a, erm, ‘send to the farm’ operation in both Dublin and Monaghan.
The Deputy Ganger up in Chief mimicked, starling wise, Enda the Ennui by conveniently and sleight of handily opting to deal with this historical legacy by pointing the nail varnished finger at the Shinners rather than at the Armed Farm and matching his venom with her denim-clad venom. Gangland, after all, as the Yawnaiste j(for it was she !)seemed to be implying, with a honed sense of continuity , is only down the road from, erm, Bandit Country.
Curiously, the gifted Breton sculptor, Yann Goulet, whose studio in exile was located in Bray, Wicklow (having been sentenced and put to death in his home land – all in his absence) carved the two commemorative monuments in Ballyseedy and Crossmaglen. A highly irregular genius, you might say.
It might be said also that the gangers up ( Talk to Joe Duffy, the SDLP cultural attache in Dublin, has folk on the line talking about Warrington today ) have gratitude gleaming from one eye (for this Godsend of a mid-Election eruption of gangland hits.) and venom glaring out of the other eye.
Venom, is right. The Leprechaun for which is (gulp) gangaid. Gangers up are big into gangaid. And no better gangers up that the Government-cheerleading, compliant hackitariat who love nothing better than whacks. Apart, possibly, from more whacks.
One chooses to use the bird-word ‘starling’ with due deliberation. For this feathered creature of the glossy black plumage with a metallic sheen travels in flocks, and throngs the airwaves. It is a noisy creature in communal roosts and other gregarious settings, such as RTE and other DOBland studios.
Not unlike its sheen, the voice of a starling is metallic and unmusical but it does possess a wunneful gift for mimicry. And while the human starling of the establishment in the FSS adores nothing better than to mimic its fellow h.s. of the same establishment nonetheless it can also do a marvelous mimicking job on such contemporary furnishings as a car-horn with a contralto pitch (think: Yawnaiste).
Indeed, the starling’s gift for mimicry has been noted by such artistic immortals as Mozart and Shakespeare.
In the case of Wolfgang Amadeus he incorporated the comical, inconsequential style of a starling’s vocalization in A Musical Joke (K 522) while The Great Shakes, in his King Henry 1V (Part 1), fed these words into the mouth of Hotspur:
– ‘The King forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer. But I will find him when he is asleep, and in his ear I’ll hallo ‘Mortimer!’. Nay, I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but Mortimer and give it to him to keep his anger still in motion’.
As druid is the Leprechaun for starling, DruidShakespeare would, gan dabht/ without doubt, substitute Slab for Mortimer.
Jude
Sinn Fein soft on law and order?
Maybe when they refer to a tax fraudster (not to go into other allegations) as a good republican they might appear just a little bit dodgy on law and order!
On the pnone calls to the BBC is there any evidence that the first one was not genuine and the second one was?
Those phone calls – I think it has something to do with a code word, gio. All very odd, wouldn’t you say? Maybe the Continuity IRA is in conflict with itself…As to the ‘tax fraudster’ – it’s a good job the rest of us willingly draw government attention to any opportunity to take money from us to make up for the likes, eh gio? And of course there’s that annoying thing about human beings – they tend to be multi-faceted, don’t you find? Some things about them are appalling, other things about them are commendable and positive. Like Bono (he pays his taxes, right?) feeding the world…
Jude
Well I’m a bit confused now.
If I want to be considered a good republican should I pay my taxes, or is it entirely optional?
Bono ?
Phooey Bono.
Hooey Bono.
Revenue Bono.
Spewy Bono.
Chop Suey Bono.
Ennui Bono.
Art Mc Cooey Bono, not.
Edward de Bono, not.
Cui ?
The tarring of working class areas -areas in which many politicians and media commentators have never ventured much less dwelt in is reminiscent of the Brits’ erstwhile designating South Armagh as ‘Bandit Country’ despite never having met a South Armagh resident. A gross slur on a hard-working, intelligent, warm-hearted and highly cultured people.
It’s unfair to go back more than 80 years. They don’t wear blueshirts now – just blue sleeveens on their shirts.
You could see it coming all right, namely an opportunistic cheapshot by Enda Kenny in attempting to link Gerry Adams and SF with the AK47s and the current gangland violence in the 26 counties. A diversionary godsend for Enda.
That’s the thing Patrick, I don’t think it was a Godsend, I don’t think the cause of the whole incident in Dublin came from the heavens, I think the cause came from Dublin itself…..maybe with a little help and advice from London, who knows?….
So someone phoned up the BBC pretending to be the CIRA and claimed responsibility for the hotel killings? then we see Enda Kenny on the TV where he managed to pin the blame or part of the blame on Sinn Fein and the PIRA…..then the real CIRA make contact to say they did NOT have any involvement in the killings……it doesn’t take Einstein to work out what is going on, even our Neill could.
Its funny how these incidents occur when an election is coming up. Would they still be happening if Sinn Fein weren’t running in the election or if they were so unpopular it was very unlikely they would win any seats? I doubt it very much.
From arresting Gerry Adams on the eve of the EU/Council Elections (with no charges brought), to Mairia Cahill’s allegations getting massive media attention (despite the accused being acquitted in a court of law) and the PSNI’s claim the PIRA still exist but aren’t active (without providing evidence), Bobby Storey being arrested (without a single shred of evidence against him), and Thomas Murphy being convicted of fraud (without a fair trial) it just shows that politics really is a very dirty game, especially here in Ireland…..
I agree with Sinn Féin on alot of things but one thing I don’t agree with is their drugs policy. Prohibition does not work. It only provides the gangs with a steady income and regular costumer base. It is time to legalise and tax drugs such as cannabis for a start. Open up centers were heroine addicts can be treated and more importantly than anything start to rebuild communities so that people do not need to turn to drugs and drink and tobacco and gambling to quell their loneliness and compensate for their lack of social skills.
I’ve sympathy with much of what you say, Colmán – the war on drugs has to be the longest, most futile war that was ever waged with so little success. Mind you, I’d maybe draw the line at allowing “heroine addicts” in for treatment. Heroin, OK…