Let us brace ourselves for the IRA’s last sickening act of self-regard
Some 18 months ago, many people south of the Border got such a jolt when the remains of Jean McConville, a west Belfast widow 'disappeared' by the IRA in 1972, were found near a beach in Co Louth. Interestingly, the relatives of many of the 'disappeared' took to the airwaves in the North last week to draw attention to what they saw as the cruel irony of Gerry Adams giving interviews to Arab TV stations appealing to the Iraqi terrorists for the release of the British hostage Ken Bigley.
We may be about to find ourselves discomfited by more of these jolts of morality in the coming weeks if recent media reports are to be believed. Apparently the IRA is planning a range of special gatherings and commemorative events as part of laying the groundwork for the winddown of its military operation.
There is even talk that the IRA plans to award a special medal to all volunteers who have done active service for the organisation since 1970. Some of the reports say that the medals are minted already in bronze with a green flag and featuring a depiction of Cuchulainn.
The reports suggest that the IRA is planning a series of reunions throughout the island in the coming months, specifically targeted at former members. Last Sunday, the Observer newspaper, on its front page, quoted sources saying that the IRA is spending large amounts of money taking ex-members away to hotels around the country for so-called think-ins.
This series of special events is due to culminate in a all-island grand IRA rally next month for all former republican prisoners somewhat similar to one held to commemorate dead IRA volunteers some years ago.
While reading these news reports last weekend I allowed a collection of questions to come into my mind.
I wondered how the IRA is to decide who is entitled to get one of these new Cuchulainn medals. What will the qualifying criteria be? Will special silver or gold medals be minted for those who have been particularly assiduous in the IRA campaign? For example, are those who merely stored weapons to be equal under the medal honours system to those who were expert and experienced at using weapons? I presume Martin McGuinness will get a Cuchulainn medal. Will the colour of the ribbon on the medal for former chiefs of staff be different from that of volunteer privates? If he is to remain consistent in his claim that he was never a member of the IRA, then Gerry Adams of course will not get a medal but won't that leave his lapel looking quite bare by comparison to those of his political comrades? I found myself scanning the pictures of other prominent republican politicians one by one trying to guess which ones will be on the medal list and which ones would not qualify.
Some of the media reports said the medals will only be for those who served up until the cessation in 1994. Does this mean there will be no medals for the killers of Jerry McCabe? Wouldn't it be great to be a fly on the wall (or a bug under the table) at a meeting of the IRA Cuchulainn Medal Awarding Committee? A series of questions came to my mind about the various reunions and events. What does an IRA 'think-in' look like? Are there moderators with flip charts? What is on the agenda?
Do they involve P O'Neill types revealing their feelings about what they did in the 1970s and '80s? Are these think-tanks being held in three, four or five-star hotels? Where is the money for all this coming from? Is the IRA still that cash rich?
Apparently the final national jamboree is designed to recognise the contribution of the former prisoners to the cause. I wondered why only former prisoners were being invited. Surely there must also be hundreds who committed murders or assaults or robberies for the cause who are not former prisoners because they were clever enough not to get caught. Are there to be no medals for them? Presumably among the thousands of unsolved and under-investigated murders and assaults during the Troubles, there is a proportionate share of IRA crimes.
THEN I wondered whether there would be a special seating plan for the national event or colour-coded access passes. Will killers of members of the British security services be assigned to one section and those who shot members of An Gárda Síochána to another? Will killers of civilians get equal status in the centre aisle? What about the few activists who killed within two or more of these categories? Where will they sit? Will those whose service to the cause extended merely to fundraising by robbing banks in the Republic be in the cheap seats at the back of the hall? Will there be musical entertainment? Will there be video montages of 'great bombings we have done'?
Of course the questions I asked myself began to get a bit absurd. It is just that when the moral realities of the absurdity of some of what we are being asked to ignore in the interest of the peace process is revealed, it becomes too hard to suppress judgment.
Sinn Féin taxes our tolerance sometimes. For years the party has wanted to be taken seriously as a potential government partner north and south of the Border. However, at the same time it also wants to be free to pander to its own community (and make a few euro) by linking its websites to online stores for 'Sniper at Work' and other IRA paraphernalia.
We are repeatedly subjected to Sinn Féin talking in human rights-speak about the disadvantaged and oppressed but they also expect us to turn a deaf ear as they talk to their intimates about special medals and commemorations for those who have committed murder and mayhem.
The authoritative Lost Lives book estimates that of the 3,665 people killed as a result of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, 1,778 of them (48.5%) were killed by the IRA. Of those 1,778 killed by the IRA, 642 were civilian non-combatants. Thousands more were seriously injured and displaced. While such ceremonies may serve the republican movement's own short-term political needs they are a brutal affront to all, north and south, who have suffered pain at the IRA's hands.
Those of us who did not suffer direct loss or injury as a result of the Troubles are asked to be more moderate. At one level we should be glad that these IRA medals and commemoration ceremonies are being organised since they are said to be a prelude to the end of IRA military and criminal activities. However, it is only natural that the very idea of such medals and commemorations also makes many of us sick to our stomachs.
