[SOC] Ireland from an Irish Brit (long)

[Chris Redding]

Now that the tragic 'war' in Ireland is hopefully ending, and the long slow
'healing' process has started, we are still left with another problem.
In the days when the war was being 'fought' physically, terrorist groups on
both sides funded their operations largely from the proceeds of organised
crime. But now, these same men who at one time justified their shady drug
smuggling / protection / prostitution rackets with the 'respectability' of
working 'for the cause' are still reluctant to lose control of their
lucrative rackets. This is continuing to plague Northern Ireland and will do
so for many years to come, because there is just too much money to be made
from
dividing people against each other.
As for the republican view...well (in common with a percentage of the Brits
which would surprise most Americans), I can well understand it. Ireland is
not morally British soil. It was a seperate nation,
well on the path of civilisation when the Brits were still painting
themselves blue and throwing rocks at Romans, and it was not the British who
'took' Ireland anyway, but the Normans centuries before.
The evils that were carried out by both sides (especially since the
reformation) have been carried on to a ridiculous degree, and (in strictly
territorial terms) it is nowadays difficult to justify the continued
annexation of (what
could be argued to) be foreign soil, since (for example) the likelihood of
the Spanish using Ireland as a launch-pad for their armada has faded
somewhat in recent centuries.
With due respect, using the potato famine to justify things is ridiculous
and over-simplifies the problem. This tit-for-tat mentality can be traced
back through time through Omagh, Bloody Sunday, the potato famine, Oliver
Cromwell's brutal campaign, the
Drogheda massacre, the Boyne etc etc, until nobody knows any more who
started it in the first place. We have reached the point now where the only
way to stop the violence is - well - to stop the violence, and let the deep
wound start to heal.
Thankfully there are many people of goodwill in Ireland on both sides who
are prepared to 'bite the bullet' and let this happen, knowing that perhaps
they themselves may not live long enough to feel the real benefits. When
these brave pioneers have all died of old age, and a new generation has
grown up
having never experienced sectarian violence, this tit-for-tat chain will be
broken (as it has been in the rest of the UK outside maybe urban Glasgow).
I'm sorry if I cause any offence by saying the next bit, but many Americans
sometimes tend to see the world in strict black and white / right and wrong,
while
the Brits (having made so many tragic errors of foreign policy in the past)
are
perhaps more receptive to subtle shades of grey.

>From 4000 miles away, many Americans seem to view the Irish situation
something like this:
"The brutal protestant British, having failed to ethnically cleanse Ireland
of the hated Catholics by starvation during the potato famine, continue to
enslave and oppress the native Catholic community, for the benefit of an
imported alien Protestant community, and out of a lingering desire to hold
onto the last pathetic patch or their former empire."

This ignores one fact: Britain is not staunchly Protestant. Nine percent of
us are Roman Catholic. Most of the rest of the native Brits belong to the
Church of England - a very moderate church (known in the USA as
'Episcopalians'), and are either protestant (with a very small 'p'),
'anglo-catholic (with a very small 'c') or neither depending on whom you
ask. I do not even know or care which church any of my workmates or
neighbours belong to, and nobody has ever asked me.
Britain is no longer holding Northern Ireland in captivity - we are still
there, in many ways reluctantly, to keep the peace, although we know that we
have made some terrible mistakes (such as Bloody Sunday) doing
this. A dwindling majority of Northern Irish want (for the time being) to
remain
part of Britain, although there are now few people in Britain who do not
believe and/or hope that
someday all Irishmen will eventually stand together in a free, peaceful and
united Ireland.

Whether we should ever have gone there in the first place is debatable, and
we did outstay our welcome, but
we cannot now simply wash our hands, walk away from the place and allow it
to
fall into hell, like we did in Israel, India/Pakistan, and for that matter
Iraq. For our past sins, we at least owe the Irish better than that.

One point to note is the difference in the republican 'thread' on opposite
sides of the Atlantic. Because of the history of the thing, most emigrants
to America were Roman Catholic. But whereas many Catholic 'ex-pats' of
republican sentiment in America tend to dig
into their pockets for the IRA 'widows and orphans' - (a sick joke if
ever there was), the large majority of Catholics 'closer to the action' in
Northern Ireland itself
do NOT vote for or support Sinn Fein/IRA. They instead vote for the SDLP,
which is a respectable political party with long-term nationalist ambitions,
but
totally devoid of links to terrorism.

I would beg you, if you dream of a proud, independent, unified and peaceful
Ireland, to give moral support to men of peace such as these, and let them
get on with their historic task, rather than financial support to men who
have a vested interest in keeping the fires of hatred, mistrust, twisted
history and ignorance burning.

Thank You
Chris G4PDJ




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