Pay up or expect blood on the streets
Would we manage as well — or better, or worse — than any of the European countries attacked by Islamic fascists in recent years? Is that even the right question? If an Irish Salman Adebi, festering with hate, was planning an atrocity, would our security services know enough about him, his circle, or his movements to stop him?
Anyone who has listened as carefully as we should to the warnings from senior army officers, from soldiers’ rank-and-file organisations; to the increasingly frustrated warnings offered by gardaí and others committed to the 24/7 challenge of keeping us safe, cannot be confident that we have done all we can, or even most of what we should, to protect ourselves from one of the evils active in today’s world. Even if you accept that the days immediately after an atrocity may not be the best moment to review security operations; even if you accept that, in the history of humanity, that there was hardly a security service that considered itself properly resourced, and even if you imagine that Ireland may not be considered a worthwhile target by Isis it is impossible to answer those questions with the kind of confidence today’s world demands. Any honest answer would conclude that we are dangerously exposed. Knowing this and not preparing properly almost makes us culpable in what now seems almost an inevitability.
