Though they were more in the news last week, I still wanted to give a nod to the family of Robert McCartney. McCartney, a Northern Irish man and father of two, was stabbed to death on 30 January. Allegedly by the Irish Republican Army terrorist organization. (An organization that intentionally murders civilians is not a liberation group, but a terrorist group)
Anyway, the IRA and other paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland on both sides of the divide have murdered lots of people. Usually, the victims are buried and families guard their silence because they fear retribution if they speak out against the thugs. The menace is something everyone is aware of but no one talks about.
The McCartney family instead decided to speak out, surely at great risk to their own well-being. As a result, they've provoked incredible international pressure on the IRA, even by those who are normally sympathetic to the goal of a united Ireland. The IRA no longer has a shroud of romanticism around it as was the case in the past. Even proponents of a united Ireland realize that this objective should be achieved through the political process. They realize that whatever it's professed objectives may be, the IRA is nothing more than a bunch of armed bullies and thugs who terrorize civilians to preserve their own power.
Thanks to the guts of people like the McCartney family, international sympathy for the IRA mafia may vanish once and for all.
1 comment:
I am deeply offended by your comparison of the IRA to the "mafia", an altruistic group of Sicilians whose goal was to overthrow their evil corporatist overlords and protect the innocent. ;-)
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