27 August 1998 Edition
Be warned - repression will stoke conflict
by Mary Nelis
Whether Tony Blair accepts it or not, the bombing of Omagh, like all the tragedies of this long conflict, is a measure of the failure of Britain's policy in Ireland. Whether we or the British acknowledge this, this does not lessen the grief of the families of those who died, nor does it detract from our sympathy for them and for those so terribly injured.
On the face of such adversity and in the midst of their anguish, those families and indeed the people of Omagh, have shown remarkable courage.
It is therefore reprehensible that at a time when they should have been given the privacy to grieve or simply keep watch beside their critically ill, they were in many instances besieged by the media, sticking microphones under their noses to ask how they felt.
As the priest said in Buncrana, as he tried to find words to comfort the families of three little boys, those bereaved were in a ``zero place'', functioning automatically, as they tried to deal with the realisation of what happened. Only those of us who have been there can understand that.
The Omagh bomb has been described as the worst of all the tragedies of the past thirty years. But death and suffering are not comparable and there can be no balance sheet on pain. Perhaps Omagh was different. Certainly the visits to the town in the aftermath by all sorts of dignatories, including Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, said much for the sense of shock and horror which ran like a river through the entire country.
But with respect to Mr Blair, neither he nor those who have been in office before him, have ever understood or accepted what Britain's eternal selfish interest in our country has meant in terms of the suffering of generations of Irish people, irrespective of their religion or politics.
Yet rather than seek to address these long term injustices, which have led so many in every generation of the Irish people into violent responses, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern now seek to compensate the people of Omagh by the introduction of repressive legislation, which has not worked in the past and will certainly not work in the future. Such measures will not redress the wrong that is Omagh, any more than that Offences against the State Act addressed the wrong of the Dublin/Monaghan bombings in 1974, in which 33 people died and over 300 were injured. Bad laws are the product of bad governments and these new laws are bad.
Reading between the lines of Blair and Ahern's carefully worded statements, one can see that the reality of such legislation will be its ultimate use as a weapon to defeat republicanism.
Blair and Ahern know, as we all do, that those responsible for Omagh and those who support them are finished in this country. But this legislation will only serve to give increased powers to those who are not finished in this country, the British Intelligence Services, who were responsible for the Dublin/Monaghan bombings, the RUC and the No unionists, north and south.
Both Ahern and Blair have allowed themselves to be put into positions where they have reacted to the hysteria and emotion of the Omagh tragedy, whipped up by a hostile anti-republican media, which has the potential to subvert the political search for real peace. Already the divisions are wider and Trimble will seek to use the Assembly as a debating chamber on security measures. The people of Omagh have not asked for `quick fix' solutions to their anguish. Rather they expect that whatever the future will be for them, they will not be asked to relive this horror.
We can ponder if the British government of the time called the efforts of Cromwell, who murdered 600,000 Irish people in one year alone, `sensible security measures'.
The current sensible security measures which Blair and Ahern are offering by way of response to Omagh, may or may not secure the arrest and conviction of those responsible; what they will surely do is promote the image of Ireland as a police state, on a parallel with places like Burma. The net results of this situation will be to set Irish people against each other, through North/South co-operation in collusion, spies, `dirty tricks' operations, felon baiting and shifting the onus of blame from government onto the people.
Bertie Ahern should know that sticking the boot into republicans, for that is what these laws are designed to do, has not resolved the conflict in Ireland in the past. Rather it has exacerbated it.
Perhaps if his party had not stood idly by in 1969, when northern nationalists cried out for help, we would not in 1998 be again burying our dead. It is easy to make political capital on other men's wounds.
It is not often given to a people in this noisy world to come to places of great grief and silence, yet all of Ireland came to that place this week. Those who died in the Omagh bomb, like all those who have died in this long and brutal conflict, can never be replaced. Their loss should have a deep meaning for all the people of this island
Whether Tony Blair accepts it or not, the bombing of Omagh, like all the tragedies of this long conflict, is a measure of the failure of Britain's policy in Ireland. Whether we or the British acknowledge this, this does not lessen the grief of the families of those who died, nor does it detract from our sympathy for them and for those so terribly injured.
On the face of such adversity and in the midst of their anguish, those families and indeed the people of Omagh, have shown remarkable courage.
It is therefore reprehensible that at a time when they should have been given the privacy to grieve or simply keep watch beside their critically ill, they were in many instances besieged by the media, sticking microphones under their noses to ask how they felt.
As the priest said in Buncrana, as he tried to find words to comfort the families of three little boys, those bereaved were in a ``zero place'', functioning automatically, as they tried to deal with the realisation of what happened. Only those of us who have been there can understand that.
The Omagh bomb has been described as the worst of all the tragedies of the past thirty years. But death and suffering are not comparable and there can be no balance sheet on pain. Perhaps Omagh was different. Certainly the visits to the town in the aftermath by all sorts of dignatories, including Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, said much for the sense of shock and horror which ran like a river through the entire country.
But with respect to Mr Blair, neither he nor those who have been in office before him, have ever understood or accepted what Britain's eternal selfish interest in our country has meant in terms of the suffering of generations of Irish people, irrespective of their religion or politics.
Yet rather than seek to address these long term injustices, which have led so many in every generation of the Irish people into violent responses, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern now seek to compensate the people of Omagh by the introduction of repressive legislation, which has not worked in the past and will certainly not work in the future. Such measures will not redress the wrong that is Omagh, any more than that Offences against the State Act addressed the wrong of the Dublin/Monaghan bombings in 1974, in which 33 people died and over 300 were injured. Bad laws are the product of bad governments and these new laws are bad.
Reading between the lines of Blair and Ahern's carefully worded statements, one can see that the reality of such legislation will be its ultimate use as a weapon to defeat republicanism.
Blair and Ahern know, as we all do, that those responsible for Omagh and those who support them are finished in this country. But this legislation will only serve to give increased powers to those who are not finished in this country, the British Intelligence Services, who were responsible for the Dublin/Monaghan bombings, the RUC and the No unionists, north and south.
Both Ahern and Blair have allowed themselves to be put into positions where they have reacted to the hysteria and emotion of the Omagh tragedy, whipped up by a hostile anti-republican media, which has the potential to subvert the political search for real peace. Already the divisions are wider and Trimble will seek to use the Assembly as a debating chamber on security measures. The people of Omagh have not asked for `quick fix' solutions to their anguish. Rather they expect that whatever the future will be for them, they will not be asked to relive this horror.
We can ponder if the British government of the time called the efforts of Cromwell, who murdered 600,000 Irish people in one year alone, `sensible security measures'.
The current sensible security measures which Blair and Ahern are offering by way of response to Omagh, may or may not secure the arrest and conviction of those responsible; what they will surely do is promote the image of Ireland as a police state, on a parallel with places like Burma. The net results of this situation will be to set Irish people against each other, through North/South co-operation in collusion, spies, `dirty tricks' operations, felon baiting and shifting the onus of blame from government onto the people.
Bertie Ahern should know that sticking the boot into republicans, for that is what these laws are designed to do, has not resolved the conflict in Ireland in the past. Rather it has exacerbated it.
Perhaps if his party had not stood idly by in 1969, when northern nationalists cried out for help, we would not in 1998 be again burying our dead. It is easy to make political capital on other men's wounds.
It is not often given to a people in this noisy world to come to places of great grief and silence, yet all of Ireland came to that place this week. Those who died in the Omagh bomb, like all those who have died in this long and brutal conflict, can never be replaced. Their loss should have a deep meaning for all the people of this island