Republicans need to atone for their crimes
The peace process in the North has been built primarily on trust. Without trust, and the establishment of a common ground, there would have been no peace process. Mr Morrison quotes an IRA volunteer as having said that “trust is a two-way street,” and yet displays a singular disinterest in what the concept of trust involves.
For trust to emerge from a conflict situation it is necessary that both sides recognise and come to terms with the wrongs they have committed.
Mr Morrison rightly criticises those sections of unionism which refuse to accept responsibility for their years of misrule and sectarianism.
But where is his criticism of republican refusal to atone for their part in the conflict? Instead, he describes Seanna Walsh’s crimes of bank robbery and bomb-making as part of a fight for “freedom and justice”.
It is the height of hypocrisy to condemn unionist ambivalence to loyalist violence, and, almost in the same breath, to celebrate republican crimes in this way. This sentiment is, perhaps, unsurprising considering the recent eulogies devoted to the life and crimes of Joe Cahill. If hardline unionism were to celebrate the crimes committed in the name of the union, could they expect this to help create an atmosphere of trust with republicans? I doubt it. Trust, as he said, is a two-way street.
Mr Morrison also seems to condone the belief that the issue of decommissioning is a mere triviality. I wonder how many readers of the Irish Examiner would agree with him? The insistence that the IRA would still possess its bomb-making expertise, regardless of whether it decommissioned arms or not, seems to suggest that the ’Armalite and ballot box’ mentality is still strong among republicans, and acts as a veiled threat that this expertise might one day be utilised if they so chose.
Does Danny Morrison honestly believe that this dangerous rhetoric will help establish the ‘two-way street’ of trust in the North?
If the IRA were to declare its war to be over, while still maintaining a hold on any or all of its weapons, could we really expect the unionist community to believe them?
Barry Walsh
Tyone
Clonlough
Mitchelstown
Co Cork
