Irish News, The Wednesday Column
with Brian Feeney
INTERVIEWED for Sky TV’s Sunday with Adam Boulton, our proconsul condemned the
murder of Daniel McColgan in Rathcoole. Then he went on to say: “Everyone in
Northern Ireland has to confront the struggle between peace and hatred. It is a
struggle. People of goodwill in both communities must and will win.”
The next question should have been: “But what are you going to do about it?”
So far, as you’ve read here before, our proconsul has been absolutely useless
dealing with the UDA. That response of his to Adam Boulton is a good
illustration of his failure. It was rubbish: typical meaningless, sugary pap.
Worse than pap, it was a cop-out. The truth is that there are plenty of people
of goodwill in both communities in the north, including those from the
Protestant community in Rathcoole who inserted a sympathy notice in the Irish
News on Monday. What can they do to confront the UDA? Nothing. Zero. Zilch.
Unless that is, they want to have their homes wrecked, their children beaten up
and their family driven out of the district.
Just what advice did our proconsul offer them? Absolutely nothing. He had no
suggestions, no concrete advice. He just emitted a gust of hot air to appeal to
all the right-thinking viewers of Sky TV; a complacent cop-out.
The truth is that dealing with the UDA is his responsibility and
no-one else’s – and please don’t mention that excuse for a security
minister we have at the moment. John Reid told Sky that there was only so much
the British government could do as long as it is acceptable for people to live
in a parallel universe where it is normal to go out and attack police officers.
Like Bradford or Oldham perhaps? Talk about avoiding the issue! Last year
elements in the UDA, directed by two men known to the police and to every
journalist in the north of Ireland, carried out a sustained attack on Catholics
living in the areas under their domination, ranging geographically from north
Belfast to Coleraine. The only argument is about the exact number of pipe bombs
thrown – around 300 – not whether the UDA manufactured and threw them.
The UDA also carried out a number of murders and were responsible for two of
their own members being killed. They orchestrated intense attacks on Catholic
homes along the peaceline in north Belfast and provoked sustained rioting.
Instead of dealing with this onslaught as a security crisis, our proconsul spent
months faffing around before he declared the UDA ceasefire a sham. Don’t
forget, at first he wouldn’t even say the UDA were behind the violence. Then
after rejecting their ceasefire, nothing: no policy, no crackdown, no charges.
He didn’t even demand that the UDA disband.
Since he knows who the culprits are, what action has he taken against them?
None.
In response to criticisms from the taoiseach, the assistant chief constable for
Belfast has said: “Yes, we do know who these people are and we want to do
everything to bring them to justice. There is no lack of determination to get
the evidence needed to secure convictions.”
What, then, was the point of the special legislation rushed through after the
Omagh bomb? Or was that just another bit of Tony Blur window-dressing? The truth
is, the NIO has never been able to deal with loyalist violence. For years they
didn’t even accept the reality of it, publishing a pamphlet for US consumption
which said there was no evidence that the UDA was involved in criminal activity.
Until the 80s there was no bar on members of the UDA joining the UDR. The UDA
had killed over 350 people before Sir Patrick Mayhew finally banned the
organisation in 1992 after 20 years of mayhem. Instead the NIO fostered the myth
that a non-existent group called the UFF were the bad guys. Curiously there was
no UFF wing in any jail, but there was always a UDA one where the UFF prisoners
went.
At bottom all this loyalist violence is nothing more than the traditional
extreme unionist response to any effort to improve conditions for nationalists.
Whenever changes are implemented which are perceived to benefit Catholics, the
reaction from loyalism is violence to intimidate Catholics into accepting less.
In the modern era it began with the murderous response of Gusty Spence and his
gang to Terence O’Neill’s minimal concessions.
Now while we’re waiting for concerted pressure from the Irish government and
nationalist politicians to compel our proconsul to confront UDA violence, do you
think there’s any chance in the meantime of the MP for north Belfast, whose
party is based on exactly the same bigotry that fuels loyalist bloodlust, coming
out and calling on the UDA, an illegal, homicidal organisation, to disband?