9 September 1999 Edition
Back issue: Euro MP Taylor calls for mass murder in the South
THE PUBLIC call by Official Unionist Euro MP John Taylor for loyalists to commit mass murder in the South created a huge furore both North and South of the border.
In the North a Belfast Telegraph editorial pointed out that Taylor ``has shown a grave lack of judgement in saying things that would have been better left unsaid'' - too revealling perhaps.
Taylor's controversial statement demanding loyalist slaughter gangs move against people in the South was, of course, just one of many opportunist denunciations of the free state government after the IRA's assassination of Mountbatten and the devastatingly successful Narrow Water ambush of the Paras.
British and loyalist politicians and media men desperate for a scapegoat for Britain's failure to defeat the IRA are now more than ever designating the Free State a convenient target. (Irish American politicians currently come a poor second in the scapegoat stakes).
The Daily Star, for example, has demanded a popular trade boycott of Irish goods, in Britain.
Taylor a notoriously evil-minded loyalist bigot, was just going one step further than others in order to pursue his own particular political ends of challenging the rule of King Paisley in the Orange North.
Taylor said: ``Public opinion in Ulster is now incensed to a dangerous level... Already several loyalist groups have through the media, announced their intention to resume action on the ground. He said that ``loyalist paramilitaries ``are unlikely to remain dormant when all they are offered are the usual platitudinous statements about undefined new security initiatives.
``If the leadership of the loyalist paramilitaries finds it absolutely impossible to refrain from renewed action on the ground, then in no way can that action occur on Ulster soil - it should be directed to targets within the Rerpublic of Ireland, from which most of the serious IRA attacks now originate and within which the Provisional IRA is facilitated by a weak-kneed government which is not prepared to uphold civilised standards of security, cooperation and extradition which apply elsewhere throughout Europe. He concluded by admitting that ``there will be those who will criticise the content of this statement, but it is made after much reflection''.
In the North a Belfast Telegraph editorial pointed out that Taylor ``has shown a grave lack of judgement in saying things that would have been better left unsaid'' - too revealling perhaps.
Taylor's controversial statement demanding loyalist slaughter gangs move against people in the South was, of course, just one of many opportunist denunciations of the free state government after the IRA's assassination of Mountbatten and the devastatingly successful Narrow Water ambush of the Paras.
British and loyalist politicians and media men desperate for a scapegoat for Britain's failure to defeat the IRA are now more than ever designating the Free State a convenient target. (Irish American politicians currently come a poor second in the scapegoat stakes).
The Daily Star, for example, has demanded a popular trade boycott of Irish goods, in Britain.
Taylor a notoriously evil-minded loyalist bigot, was just going one step further than others in order to pursue his own particular political ends of challenging the rule of King Paisley in the Orange North.
Taylor said: ``Public opinion in Ulster is now incensed to a dangerous level... Already several loyalist groups have through the media, announced their intention to resume action on the ground. He said that ``loyalist paramilitaries ``are unlikely to remain dormant when all they are offered are the usual platitudinous statements about undefined new security initiatives.
``If the leadership of the loyalist paramilitaries finds it absolutely impossible to refrain from renewed action on the ground, then in no way can that action occur on Ulster soil - it should be directed to targets within the Rerpublic of Ireland, from which most of the serious IRA attacks now originate and within which the Provisional IRA is facilitated by a weak-kneed government which is not prepared to uphold civilised standards of security, cooperation and extradition which apply elsewhere throughout Europe. He concluded by admitting that ``there will be those who will criticise the content of this statement, but it is made after much reflection''.