9 October 1997 Edition
Editor's desk
There has rightly been an outcry over the transfer of Jason Campbell to Long Kesh from Scotland where he is serving a life sentence. Campbell cut the throat of a 16 year old boy in a Glasgow street simply because the boy was wearing a Celtic jersey. His transfer was requested by the PUP (who represent the UVF) as ``a confidence building measure''. Campbell, they argue, is a ``political prisoner''. Not surprisingly, the PUP have been reluctant to explain how the brutal murder was political.
But it really should not surprise people that loyalists would see the killing of a Celtic supporter as political. After all, many of their prisoners are in jail for killing people simply because they were Catholics. Even more telling, loyalists have in the past taken rapists on to their wings in Long Kesh. But only certain rapists. Only those who had committed a ``political rape'', that is those whose victim was Catholic.
It says a lot about the ideology of loyalism. And about the PUP.
A friend dropped into Trinity College in Dublin the other day where he came across a recruitment stall for the Ulster Unionists. Nice to see them returning Trinity to some if its fine old traditions. My friend bought the autumn issue of their glossy little magazine The Unionist which, at £1, is not the best value he ever got. It has sixteen pages with loosely spaced text. I reckon it was equivalent to two pages of An Phoblacht. That makes us twenty times better value. Just as you would expect.
But never mind the text, the pictures are deeply spookly. No hard-hitting political images here. In one article snowdrops break through ice (``we can see a new and better future blossom'' the caption says - geddit?); in another a woman turns her face up to the driving rain (``we can dare to dream dreams of a better tomorrow''); and perhaps weirdest of all, in David Trimble's article, a cat and dog get friendly (``reconciliation is possible'', it says).
What can it mean? Join the Ulster Unionists and let six year olds on hash design your literature.
A caustic comment in a vox pop carried on a radio news report encapsulated the nature of the justice system in the Six Counties. Speaking about the British government's recent announcement removing internment from existing `emergency' legislation, a Belfast street seller remarked: ``Aye. Dead on. Try telling that to Collie Duffy.''
Our old friend Alan Clarke is at it again. He tells us that the way to deal with the IRA is to ``kill 600 people in one night, let the UN and everyone else make a great scene and it's over for 20 years.''
What a disgrace! The old buffoon! The Tory idiot! Only 600? I know at least 800 people would be terribly disappointed if they aren't on his list. He needs to kill at least 6,000. No, probably 60,000 just to make sure. In fact....
But it really should not surprise people that loyalists would see the killing of a Celtic supporter as political. After all, many of their prisoners are in jail for killing people simply because they were Catholics. Even more telling, loyalists have in the past taken rapists on to their wings in Long Kesh. But only certain rapists. Only those who had committed a ``political rape'', that is those whose victim was Catholic.
It says a lot about the ideology of loyalism. And about the PUP.
A friend dropped into Trinity College in Dublin the other day where he came across a recruitment stall for the Ulster Unionists. Nice to see them returning Trinity to some if its fine old traditions. My friend bought the autumn issue of their glossy little magazine The Unionist which, at £1, is not the best value he ever got. It has sixteen pages with loosely spaced text. I reckon it was equivalent to two pages of An Phoblacht. That makes us twenty times better value. Just as you would expect.
But never mind the text, the pictures are deeply spookly. No hard-hitting political images here. In one article snowdrops break through ice (``we can see a new and better future blossom'' the caption says - geddit?); in another a woman turns her face up to the driving rain (``we can dare to dream dreams of a better tomorrow''); and perhaps weirdest of all, in David Trimble's article, a cat and dog get friendly (``reconciliation is possible'', it says).
What can it mean? Join the Ulster Unionists and let six year olds on hash design your literature.
A caustic comment in a vox pop carried on a radio news report encapsulated the nature of the justice system in the Six Counties. Speaking about the British government's recent announcement removing internment from existing `emergency' legislation, a Belfast street seller remarked: ``Aye. Dead on. Try telling that to Collie Duffy.''
Our old friend Alan Clarke is at it again. He tells us that the way to deal with the IRA is to ``kill 600 people in one night, let the UN and everyone else make a great scene and it's over for 20 years.''
What a disgrace! The old buffoon! The Tory idiot! Only 600? I know at least 800 people would be terribly disappointed if they aren't on his list. He needs to kill at least 6,000. No, probably 60,000 just to make sure. In fact....