So
true, your words. There is nothing to celebrate
in current events - it is nothing but the same old
story. If SF have made such advances, where are the
benefits? True, we have a SF mayor of Belfast, but
what has that brought? As for a 32-County Republic
by 2016, I expect it is possible, solely by population
shift, which no doubt is realised by the unionists.
However, is that cause for celebration today? We have
violence along the "peace line", a misnomer
if ever there was one, continued intimidation of young
school children, harassment, violence and murder of
innocent citizens. How can one speak of progress when
home are being bombed, vandalised and their occupants
terroised? Where is the action within the assembly
to address such crimes? What of the collusion between
the security forces and loyalist murder gangs, apparently
to be addressed in some detail in the Stevens Report?
Will prosecutions result? Or will the security forces
again hide behind claims of national security to sabotage
any calling to justice of guilty parties? How many
more innocent people will die before the entirety
of the murder machine is called to the bar and made
to confess and answer for their odious crimes? When
will see an end to the sectarian parades goose-stepping
through nationalist communities, trumpeting their
sectarianism, their bigotry, their intolerance? When
will Mr Blair, the Commons, Mr Trimble and gang, the
"Stormont Assembly" and others of the British
establishment, bot within and without Ireland, reakise
and publicly acknowledge that the British presence
in Ireland is a resounding failure, and commit themselves
to its end? In short, when will we see the long-overdue
and final British withdrawal from Ireland? When that
day arrives, then we may just claim progress. Until
then, any claim to "progress" is only hot
air escaping into the atmosphere. Tiocfaidh ar la.
Failte,
Steve McWilliams
Index: Current Articles + Latest News and Views + Book Reviews +
Letters + Archives

|