Stakeholder

The dissident republicans who planted the enormous bomb in Derry last week have no moral compass; let alone a political direction. Though are far from mindless; they are like a parasitical germ that feeds on malcontent and misguided youths. The fact that they choose Derry last week was purposeful and must have sent shudders down the spines of those who have justly awarded the Maiden City the accolade of UK City of Culture. The collective and outraged responses of condemnation from Mark Durkan, Willie Hay and Martin McGuinness were of some comfort to the citizens of Derry who long to leave these nightmare events behind.

As often pointed out in this column condemnation alone will not stop Dissident Republicans from their terror tactics. The re-emergence of the so called ‘human bomb’ shows all too clearly that terrorism has no base line to the awfulness of the tactics it employs.  The taxi driver who faced the ordeal of driving a 200lb bomb to the Strand Road Police station must have been terrified beyond belief. He deserves the sympathy and support of the entire community as he and his family attempt to re build their lives.

The ‘human bomb’ is an act of moral depravity that is rarely equalled in the murky underworld of the terrorist fraternity. Unfortunately the tactic used was not a new one for Northern Ireland and those who employed it- did n’t lick their measures from the ground- as for every action of the fractured and scumbag collection of dissident numpties there is a tragic sense of déjà vu for many families in Northern Ireland who have suffered at the hands of paramilitaries. There is an unnerving sense of irony listening to some spokespeople with paramilitary histories condemning terrorist atrocities that they once may have authorised or implemented. What is particularly galling is to witness the level of revisionism setting in. Contrary to the Sinn Fein mantra – they had no mandate from the Irish people North or South to wage a terrorist campaign for over thirty years. 

Even today at the height of their electoral strength they represent 25.5% of the electorate in the North and less than 12% in the Republic. During the years of their militant past those support levels where considerably less but as it stands 88% of the Irish people in the South and 75% of those in the North don’t support Sinn Fein. The mandate they had decreased in proportion to the violence they endorsed and the increased mandate they have is an endorsement of ceasing to carryout violence.

Mandates never meant much in the warped psyche of militant republicans. Danny Morrison famously posed the question as to ‘who here really believes we can win the war through the ballot box? More chilling was his infamous reference to ‘taking power in Ireland’ with the ballot paper in one hand and an armalite in the other.  Therefore it doubtful if the young guns of today’s militant republicanism have fallen too far from the tree that spawned them, when it comes to taking into account public opinion or electoral mandates. Nonetheless there is considerable merit in having Sinn Fein face down the militants amongst their midst.

At least the threat being posed by Dissident Republicans is finally being recognised by the NIO and the Police. The Blind Monkey strategy of hearing, seeing and not speaking about the evil in our community is slowly being abandoned. It has only taken murder, attempted murder and a 200lb bomb to bring people to their senses as for too long the PSNI were minimising the extent of the threat.

The Derry bombing was a cold reminder of the callous nature of terrorism. It brought back to memory the late Patsy Gillespie who was forced to be the IRA’s first human bomb. In an interview, Sinn Fein Assembly member lamentably tried to draw a distinction between the actions of the then IRA and today’s dissidents. It was farcical as her main defence was that awful things happen in war.

Yes that’s true but not all wars are necessary. The IRA war no more necessary than this deathly walk back to the future with Dissidents.

Following the murder of a young soldier in Belfast; IRA once said that as long as the British remained in Ireland they would find young men to resist them. Those words now hang like the sword of Damocles above the heads of today’s Sinn Fein representatives or as Shakespeare wrote in Henry IV ‘Uneasy the head that wears the crown’.