Reactionary

Shortly after bombs shook London’s transport system, the IRA, long demonized as ruthless terrorists in Britain, has said it’ll be ending its armed struggle. This isn’t from Sinn Fein. This is from the IRA War Council. There is doubt and wariness from people used to hearing things like that from them and they’re entitled to feel that way, but… wow. The statement calls for all IRA Volunteers to lay down their guns, destroy them with church witnesses present, and pursue their aims in democratic ways.

What tipped this off? Granted, the IRA has been making steps forward for years. The Good Friday agreement a few years ago went some way to opening real channels of communication between the IRA and the powers that be. I can’t help thinking the recent al-Qaeda bombing probably nudged this along. Perhaps the IRA doesn’t want to feel lumped together with these other terrorists who have been condemned by all the West. Perhaps it rattled them as well. Perhaps it snapped them out of it.

As Bono conceeds in the Assayas book, there have been real issues in Ireland that have fostered this kind of resistance, be they religious discrimination or outright acts of violence by the British Army. Nothing happens in a vacuum. Britain’s heavy-handed, callous rule in Ireland gave birth to the resistance. I’m not advocating the IRA or its bombings and other acts of violence. I’m only saying it isn’t just violence brought about by “evil people who hate us” as someone like W would like you to believe. Perhaps the recent bombings in London have jolted a few IRA volunteers to drop their violent feud with John Bull and the Protestant Ascendancy and band together with their Western brothers in the face of this rising tide of violence from the East. Perhaps they don’t want to be mentioned in the same breathe as al-Qaeda. It’s a brave step because so many of them are wholeheartedly convinced that they really are under foreign, unmerciful rule and their resistance is really the noble fight of a free man for his land and home.

Whatever the case may be, good on them. Hats off. Blair’s statement was gracious and diplomatic. Ian Paisley, on the other hand, can shove it for all I care. He’s the opposite of the IRA in political wishes but he’s just like the worst bomber with his cruel, hard-headed, arrogant response to the demands of the downtrodden. He and others like him are the reason bodies like the IRA find recruits. They’re the reason they form in the first place. They’re the reason a man finds it in himself to break the taboo of killing another man because he believes himself to be right and that the way of violence is the only on left to him. As a friend in Ireland said about the Easter Rising, “It would have gone away if the British hadn’t decided to kill everyone.” When will humanity learn a Bloody Sunday only begets a Bloody Monday? Al-Qaeda and its sympathizers have valid points, too. They aren’t doing what they’re doing because they “hate freedom”. They have a reason, however clouded it may have become. The Crusades for one. The formation of the state of Israel for another. But no one wants to admit that, do they.

But for now, I raise a glass of imaginary whiskey and toast… for a lasting peace.

Posted on July 28th, 2005 under News •  Print •  Email • RSS 2.0 feed • Both comments and pings are currently closed