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Mr
O Ruairc’s “response
to Victor Barker” rushes to a number of conclusions
particularly about my own position which I would ask
him to reconsider.
It
is a shame that neither he nor Anthony McIntyre (for
whom I have the greatest respect) have been able to
meet with me for a personal discussion about the issues
surrounding the Omagh Bomb.
“I
had in mind the fact that given the hostility of both
Mr Mooney and Mr Barker to Real Republicans the book
could have been a long hysterical attack against the
Real IRA and the 32 CSM” is simply not true.I
bear absolutely no such hostility to any Republican
for it has always been my personal opinion that for
geographical reasons alone, Ireland would best take
its place in modern day Europe as an undivided nation.
My
hostility is to Real Republican Terrorists who refuse
to tread the path of democracy and who seek to further
their political arguments by senseless acts of violence
– and in the process murder innocent men women
and children who have nothing to do with their so
called “armed struggle”. If Mr O Ruairc
had to live with the pictures of my son’s body
lying in a mortuary at the age of twelve which haunt
my family and myself on a day to day basis he would
realise that this is the real “political critique”
of that “political movement” which he seems
unable to grasp.
Like
many Republicans and Loyalists Mr O Ruairc’s
discussion of particular classes of victims is also
selective. He carefully pursues the position of the
Dublin and Monaghan Bombings and acts of “State
Terrorism” (inter alia Bloody Sunday) without
referring to the numerous victims of Provisional IRA
and other Republican Terrorists,and the thousands
of families that have suffered as result. Enniskillen
and the Brighton Bomb immediately spring to mind.
Perpetrators
of such atrocities may regard themselves as “victims”
but I do not. Every man has a choice to make between
political persuasion and protest (even dissent) and
violence – the men of violence are rightly those
who deserve my condemnation and the condemnation of
the vast majority of the people of Ireland who place
the dignity of human life before political objectives.
When
I met representatives of the 32 CSM I put forward
this point of view – I suggest that if you have
any doubts about my willingness to try to understand
differences in a constructive manner then you speak
to those present at that meeting. I would expect that
your article would not have then been so condescending
and from my point of view almost insulting.
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