From Unity, 14 March 2009

United opposition to dissidents

by Jimmy Stewart

Disbelief moved to horror and outrage when people throughout Northern Ireland heard of the murder of two British soldiers, the wounding of two others, and the attempted killing of two pizza delivery men outside the gates of Massereene army base last Saturday night.
    Claims have been made by two dissident republican groups, the “Real IRA” and another one also calling itself Óglaigh na hÉireann.
    These callous, cynical and brutal killings and woundings of soldiers and civilian workers were met with a united condemnation by the Executive and Assembly in Belfast on Monday morning. Measured statements from the First Minister, Peter Robinson, and the Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, strongly condemned this terrorist action and called for support for the PSNI.
    People were hardly getting over this murderous outrage when another murder was carried out by the “Continuity IRA” at a housing estate in Craigavon on Monday night. This time the victim was a policeman, Constable Stephen Carroll.
    Once again the Assembly chamber expressed its united determination not to allow this or the other murders to derail the democratic process, which had been endorsed by the electorate and the power-sharing Executive.
    These dissident republican groups are small in numbers, and their supporters minimal, but they can create some mayhem. Those who support them and give them “safe houses” would do well to examine the response to these actions, North and South.
    They are isolated: they can murder in the name of a united Ireland, but their murderous activity stands firmly in the way of that objective.
    If they sought to disrupt the peace process—to drive a wedge between the DUP and Sinn Féin—they have achieved the opposite.
    Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness had to postpone their tour in the United States to win financial support for Northern Ireland’s economy, but they are still going there.
    In the meantime both demonstrated a united approach to these terrorist groups. Peter Robinson firmly supported the PSNI but made it clear that there should not be over-reaction by the security forces. On the steps of Stormont Castle, Chief Constable Hugh Orde stood shoulder to shoulder with Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness. The Deputy First Minister (a former PIRA commander) pledged his full support for the Chief Constable and said that Sinn Féin would work actively to help the PSNI to bring these dissident groups to justice. He called on all republicans and nationalists to do so.
    Martin McGuinness went on to state that these groups were “traitors to the cause of Irish unity—traitors to Ireland.” He also made it clear that Sinn Fein’s objective was a united Ireland achieved through a democratic political process.
    The Irish Congress of Trade Unions held demonstrations in Belfast, Derry and Newry this Wednesday, condemning the dissident groups’ murderous actions and their attacks on workers as “collaborators with the British state.”
    Of course these groups must be hunted down and brought before the courts; but the response must be measured, with no return to the counter-productive actions carried out by the British army and the RUC.
    Jim Allister’s call for the SAS to be brought in must be completely ignored, because it would play into the hands of the dissidents.

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