1 October 1998 Edition
FAIT worse than death
By Sean Marlow
The latest contretemps between Sam Cushnahan and Glyn Roberts comes as no great shock to anyone who has followed the ongoing shenanigans among the leadership of FAIT (Families Against Intimidation and Terrorism).
Since its inception, this bogus ``peace group'', and others like it, has been motivated by a combination of anti-republican hatred, selfish greed and over-inflated egos.
FAIT was once fronted by Nancy Gracey, whose son was one of the most notorious thugs in Downpatrick. Gracey was later ousted after allegations about the doctoring of expenses for foreign trips. The media's favourites then appointed as patron the revolting Lady Olga Maitland, a rabidly right-wing Tory who visciously attacked the genuine peace campaigners of Greenham Common. For a good measure of hypocrisy the bould Maitland also supported the release of British Army killer Lee Clegg while opposing the release of the innocent Birmingham Six.
Since its inception FAIT took up a one-sided anti-republican stance, while occasionally mentioning loyalist violence to give a pretence of ``balance''.
Among the Intimidation and Terrorism Against Families that FAIT refused to campaign against, or even mention, were:
killing of children and mothers by plastic bullets;
shoot to kill operations by British Forces;
RUC and British Intelligence collusion with loyalist death squads;
beatings and threats by the RUC in interrogation centres.
When challenged about its failure to take up the issue of human rights abuses by British Forces, FAIT weakly claims that it is opposed to ``terrorism''. Most objective commentators would agree that terrorism is the deliberate use of violence against unarmed non-combatants with the aim of terrorising the civilian population. When one considers that the IRA has directed most of its actions against members of the British war machine, while the vast majority of the victims of the RUC and British Army have been unarmed civilians, it is obvious who the real terrorists are. It is also fairly clear why FAIT gets so much funding and support from the British Government and the likes of super intelligent Bob McCartney.
At least FAIT is consistent in its hypocrisy - it is opposing the current releases of political prisoners who have served long sentences, but failed to express the slightest reservation about the much earlier release of convicted British Army killers.
FAIT is far from being the only pseudo victims/peace outfit that has tried to exploit Irish people's genuine sympathy for ALL the victims of the conflict here and for the cause of a just and lasting peace. The latest is FAIR (Families Acting for Innocent Relatives - think of the acronym first, then try to get the words to fit), who at least are open about their bigotry. So, although they say they are opposed to prisoner releases, they support the release of loyalists convicted of the murder of republicans. (Strangely enough, I have yet to hear the media challenging them on this brilliant piece of logic.)
The forerunners of FAIT and FAIR, New Consensus and Peace Train (remember them?), were a little bit more clever. These organisations were ostensibly set up by a strange mixture of political hacks from WP/DL/FG/PD/UUP (looks like a CV for Eoghan Harris) backgrounds whose common cause was a hatred of republicans (it is a CV for Eoghan Harris!). They tried to disguise this, through their influential media contacts, as an opposition to violence. Republicans were not sure how to respond at first as they were certainly not opposed to peace. However, as their real agenda became apparent after numerous pickets on Sinn Fein and not even a mention of British violence against innocent civilians, republicans began to get more confident in challenging their anti-republican political line.
And, because the media followed them around everywhere, it was a glorious opportunity for Sinn Fein to get its message across on the censored RTE, BBC and UTV. A classic example of this was one December day when New Consensus and Peace Train staged one of their regular pickets on the Sinn Fein Office in Parnell Square in Dublin. Waiting for them was a large contingent of Dublin Sinn Fein members - the mobilisation of previously dormant activists was another unforeseen bonus of these bogus peace groups. The SFers pointed out that it was the anniversary of the assassination by the SAS of unarmed republicans Brian Campbell and Colm McGirr and that New Consensus sponsor Ken Magennis had reacted to the killings by saying, ``Two swallows don't make a summer''.
While some of the more naïve picketers had the grace to look sheepish, others, after making sure they were out of microphone range, readily agreed with Magennis's bloodthirsty call for more such killings. But, of course they were still ``opposed to violence'' in front of the TV cameras.
Sinn Fein's successful exposure of the hypocrisy of the pseudo peace groups shows how we can be similarly assertive today in exposing the hypocrisy of self publicity vehicles like FAIT and FAIR.
The latest contretemps between Sam Cushnahan and Glyn Roberts comes as no great shock to anyone who has followed the ongoing shenanigans among the leadership of FAIT (Families Against Intimidation and Terrorism).
Since its inception, this bogus ``peace group'', and others like it, has been motivated by a combination of anti-republican hatred, selfish greed and over-inflated egos.
FAIT was once fronted by Nancy Gracey, whose son was one of the most notorious thugs in Downpatrick. Gracey was later ousted after allegations about the doctoring of expenses for foreign trips. The media's favourites then appointed as patron the revolting Lady Olga Maitland, a rabidly right-wing Tory who visciously attacked the genuine peace campaigners of Greenham Common. For a good measure of hypocrisy the bould Maitland also supported the release of British Army killer Lee Clegg while opposing the release of the innocent Birmingham Six.
Since its inception FAIT took up a one-sided anti-republican stance, while occasionally mentioning loyalist violence to give a pretence of ``balance''.
Among the Intimidation and Terrorism Against Families that FAIT refused to campaign against, or even mention, were:
killing of children and mothers by plastic bullets;
shoot to kill operations by British Forces;
RUC and British Intelligence collusion with loyalist death squads;
beatings and threats by the RUC in interrogation centres.
When challenged about its failure to take up the issue of human rights abuses by British Forces, FAIT weakly claims that it is opposed to ``terrorism''. Most objective commentators would agree that terrorism is the deliberate use of violence against unarmed non-combatants with the aim of terrorising the civilian population. When one considers that the IRA has directed most of its actions against members of the British war machine, while the vast majority of the victims of the RUC and British Army have been unarmed civilians, it is obvious who the real terrorists are. It is also fairly clear why FAIT gets so much funding and support from the British Government and the likes of super intelligent Bob McCartney.
At least FAIT is consistent in its hypocrisy - it is opposing the current releases of political prisoners who have served long sentences, but failed to express the slightest reservation about the much earlier release of convicted British Army killers.
FAIT is far from being the only pseudo victims/peace outfit that has tried to exploit Irish people's genuine sympathy for ALL the victims of the conflict here and for the cause of a just and lasting peace. The latest is FAIR (Families Acting for Innocent Relatives - think of the acronym first, then try to get the words to fit), who at least are open about their bigotry. So, although they say they are opposed to prisoner releases, they support the release of loyalists convicted of the murder of republicans. (Strangely enough, I have yet to hear the media challenging them on this brilliant piece of logic.)
The forerunners of FAIT and FAIR, New Consensus and Peace Train (remember them?), were a little bit more clever. These organisations were ostensibly set up by a strange mixture of political hacks from WP/DL/FG/PD/UUP (looks like a CV for Eoghan Harris) backgrounds whose common cause was a hatred of republicans (it is a CV for Eoghan Harris!). They tried to disguise this, through their influential media contacts, as an opposition to violence. Republicans were not sure how to respond at first as they were certainly not opposed to peace. However, as their real agenda became apparent after numerous pickets on Sinn Fein and not even a mention of British violence against innocent civilians, republicans began to get more confident in challenging their anti-republican political line.
And, because the media followed them around everywhere, it was a glorious opportunity for Sinn Fein to get its message across on the censored RTE, BBC and UTV. A classic example of this was one December day when New Consensus and Peace Train staged one of their regular pickets on the Sinn Fein Office in Parnell Square in Dublin. Waiting for them was a large contingent of Dublin Sinn Fein members - the mobilisation of previously dormant activists was another unforeseen bonus of these bogus peace groups. The SFers pointed out that it was the anniversary of the assassination by the SAS of unarmed republicans Brian Campbell and Colm McGirr and that New Consensus sponsor Ken Magennis had reacted to the killings by saying, ``Two swallows don't make a summer''.
While some of the more naïve picketers had the grace to look sheepish, others, after making sure they were out of microphone range, readily agreed with Magennis's bloodthirsty call for more such killings. But, of course they were still ``opposed to violence'' in front of the TV cameras.
Sinn Fein's successful exposure of the hypocrisy of the pseudo peace groups shows how we can be similarly assertive today in exposing the hypocrisy of self publicity vehicles like FAIT and FAIR.