Massereene murders - Unity and resolve are needed now

THERE are many people who will not remember Stephen Restorick, many will not even be familiar with his name or even know why he was of any significance.

There are many more who will know who he was but dread even the prospect of a resumption of the conflict that cost the 23 year old his life.

Whole generations have reached adulthood since his name came to symbolise the hopes of all Irish democrats — that the cancerous conflict that cost him his life and divided this island for centuries was at an end. We had all hoped — many had prayed — that his would be the last life wasted.

When, on February 12, 1997, the Royal Horse Artillery Lance Bombardier was shot in the back by an IRA sniper in south Armagh, Bertie Ahern had to wait another four months to become Taoiseach. It was that long ago.

Until Saturday night, when another 23 year old, Mark Quinsey, and Patrick Azimkar, 21, were murdered by terrorists, Stephen Restorick was the last British soldier to be killed on this island.

We had all hoped he would be the last and the intervening 12 years gave us good cause to believe he might. The affluence of the last decade helped us put to one side — we could never forget — the awful bestiality inflicted on their communities by Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries.

Enniskillen, Omagh, the Shankill Butchers, Loughgall, the 1993 Shankill Road bombing where nine people died, the Donegall Street bombing of 1972 when seven people died, the Mulberry Bush and Tavern pubs in Birmingham in 1974 where 21 lives were taken.

The litany of hate and bigotry is almost endless but remains a deeply disturbing reminder of how things were. So awful in fact that it is entirely natural that we should prefer to look forward rather than back. However, we should take pause to remember, or to find out, what those dreadful years were like. After Saturday night’s murders at the Massereene Barracks it is essential we do whatever we can to ensure they never return.

The Troubles that led to the death of Stephen Restorick had their seeds in the denial of basic human and civil rights. Had the North been a functioning democracy the decades of conflict might not have consumed thousands of lives or the energy and ambitions of generations of Irish people.

That is no longer the case. Saturday night’s murderers don’t represent a people struggling for democratic recognition or civil rights. No matter what language is used, whether it is direct or fudged, that is the simple reality. They have no mandate other than the delusions that sustain their hate.

They might imagine that they are part of a tradition but that tradition ended when the electorate of this island endorsed the Good Friday peace deal. It’s over and these terrorists must recognise that.

Every citizen on this island has a voice in how it is run and the vast majority have voted for democracy and peace.

The immediate reaction to Saturday’s atrocity was one of dismay and anger. That must now become one of resolve. Resolve across all communities that tiny, deluded and dangerous groups do not return this country to the dark ages.