I have been passed an article from the American “Liberal” and
“Catholic” magazine “COMMONWEAL”.
I read a copy of that publication in the early 1960s and found it interesting and enlightened,
But the piece I read about Ireland was a witches’ brew, ditch-delivered by a drab.
It draws on the wit and wisdom of Fintan O’Toole, the ignorant scourge of everything Catholic or authentically Irish, and the Historian Liam Kennedy of Queen’s University, Belfast, whose petrified wrinkled lip and sneer rival those of Ozymandias, sculpted in antiquity.
The article tells us that ” According to Nationalists the Irish were the victims of centuries of British aggression, including theft of land.”
It does not tell us whether the Nationalists are lying, or just misinformed. Nor does it tell us they are informed, but only up to a point.
If Nationalists today believe that the Irish WERE the victims I would say that they are right, up to a point. Britain has not done anything by way of compensation, or apology. I speak here of Britain the State and its official agencies Military, Police, and Judiciary, plus collaborationists, paramilitary, academic and in the media.
Professor Liam Kennedy is quoted as saying that Bloody Sunday was a one-off and the British learned from it. Perhaps he gathered this from the BBC’s Mark Urban, an ex-holder of a Short Term Commission in the British Army, who characterised it as a PR blunder.
It was a well prepared blunder by a unit which had massacred unarmed civilians in Ballymurphy a few months before and had violently attacked unarmed protesters on Magilligan Strand one week before. It was under the command of Major General Robert Ford, in command of Land Forces in “Northern Ireland” and acting according to plan.
And Lord Widgery took his orders from Lord Chancellor Hailsham and Prime Minister Edward Heath. And the British War on Ireland – “OPERATION BANNER”followed the blueprint LOW INTENSITY OPERATIONS (1971) by the then Brigadier General Frank Kitson.
On 16 February 1972 (17 days after Bloody Sunday) Kitson was appointed CBE for his services i “Northern Ireland” the previous year. During that year the 1st Battalion the Parachute Regiment was nicknamed KITSON’S PRIVATE ARMY, within informed “Security Force” Circles. They worked closely with an assassination gang whose leader was later a Military Attache in Beijing, and later back in business in Iraq and Afghanistan.
You can check this out on Wikipedia and an article FRANK KITSON IN NORTHERN IRELAND AND THE
BRITISH WAY OF COUNTER INSURGENCY in HISTORY IRELAND in 2014.
Kitson had been decorated for service in Malaya and Kenya, where the British waged unspeakably barbarous campaigns against mainly unarmed people, and organised gangs of natives to make war on each other. Kitson’s Low Intensity Operations advocated the continuation of such tactics , He also said that Courts, and the Media should be co-ordinated to support the work of the Military.
Mark Urban was allegedly doing Kitson’s work when he dismissed Bloody Sunday as a Public Relations Blunder, and Liam Kennedy cannot be accused of disagreeing with him.
The ex-Professor is described as Emeritus. There are enough such whose work is Meritless to lead one to suspect that those who confer that description on them are suffering from Dyslexia.
In Part TWO I’ll deal with the wonderful world of Fintan O’Toole.
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