British Prime Minister Theresa May noted the passing of former Irish Republican Army Commander and N. I. political leader Martin McGuinness by claiming “I can never condone the path he took in an earlier part of his life…” McGuinness grew up in a bastion of bigotry with laws the envy of South African apartheid leaders. Those laws were crafted to deprive the Catholic/Nationalist minority of jobs, housing and voting rights. As today’s Tory Party leader, Ms. May was surely aware of the path Martin McGuinness and thousands of others had to look forward to: the dole oremigration.
Her party played a pivotal role insuring the 1918 democratic victory of Sinn Fein would be ignored and that minority loyalists would be secretly armed to guarantee Ireland’s partition. The N. I. civil rights movement in McGuinness’ hometown of Derry was savagely crushed by lawless police, internment, and by murdering British paratroopers. The Widgery Report absolved the soldiers and blamed instead the victims. Juryless Diplock courts soon followed in 1972 to speed accused Catholics to prison. Martin McGuinness did not live long enough to hear the British apologize for the 1974 Ulster Defense Association’s bombing of the Dublin-Monaghan shopping centers. The Tories were a major part of the escalation of the conflict preferring militarization, meaningless schemes and lots of reports many of which still can not be released. The Tory leader who proved to be the most intransigent and vicious was Margaret Thatcher whose 11 years in office was highlighted by the murders of six freely elected Sinn Fein Councilors and 11 party workers even as she addressed a U. S. Congress about Britain’s love of freedom, democracy and the rule of law.
Martin McGuinness’s transformation came not from any Tory government or an initiative from successive rubber-legged Dublin governments. A U. S. President saw a path to peace others could not. The dialogue that began with President Clinton’s visa for Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, was vigorously opposed by the Tory government and the Anglophiles at Foggy Bottom. But the leadership of Adams and McGuinness knew the British could no longer pull the wool over American leaders and public and thus began a long peace process ending with the 1998 Good Friday Accord. No sooner had it been signed then Tory Justice Minister Michael Gove issued a policy document The Price of Peace charting a path for undoing the Treaty. This included Prime Minister Cameron refusing to abide by the provision promising an independent public inquiry into the murder of attorney Patrick Finucane. For her part Prime Minister May is obstructing all efforts to expose the dirty war and British collusion with loyalist thugs in the killing fields of Antrim and Down. Martin McGuinness must be remembered as a freedom fighter who chose the difficult path of struggle against battalioned despotism rather than submit to it. In war and in peace Martin chose the right path. It is now time for Ms. May and the Tory party to choose the right path.
Michael Cummings
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Michael Cummings, a very good read indeed. I share your ideas but have some doubt that the Brits will ever do the right thing. Just judging them on their prior behavior leaves little cause for hope, Perfidious Albion indeed!!
McGuinness shied the way for all of us to travel and we will hold his memory sacred for generations.
Didn’t one of the British Army officers involved in the murders on Bloody Sunday get an OBE?
From the British State.
I know Jackson was given the job of CIGS.
Chief Of The Imperial General Staff.
The highest rank in the British army.
Fancy that “imperial”
It’s almost like the British Empire never went away.
How nice for them.
Can any of our unionist buddies post a link to where they protested these “developments”?
For the purposes of “balance” And to be taken serious.
Also during the Nuremburg War Trials one of the Judges involved gave a summation which I shall paraphrase here.
What the judge at the war crimes tribunal said.
Was that the BIGGEST Crime the Nazis undertook was waging a war to capture foreign lands.
His reasoning behind such a claim was that it was this CRIME which begat ALL others.
Apply that logic to Ireland.
And ALL crimes orginate from British occupation.
It’s Simples.
I think most Irish feel the same way …in their blood.
Recognition from the British state would be nice.
And their media darlings.
From Nuremburg:
“..War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole…”
The British occupation of Ireland is the “supreme international crime”..
it is the crime that begat all others.
Never Forget,