At seventeen I learned the truth – Janice Ian
On Tuesday a 17 year old appeared in court charged with killing PSNI member Stephen Carroll in Craigavon earlier this month. That the killing had political motivation leaves it no more excusable than one stripped of all political context. The main problem associated with violence lies in its use and not in the distinction that is often made between different types of violence. Political motivation is a description not a licence. There is no need to go off on some ethical odyssey to find cause to oppose its application. There are manifold practical reasons that would militate against uncorking its bottle.
Taking a stand against political violence should by no means lead to the injustice of endorsing every move that is claimed to be necessary for ensuring that it does not occur. That would put people opposed to political violence in the same camp as the singing bigot Willie McCrea. His stance is almost as simple as himself: ‘it is for the police to say what resources they need and it is for elected politicians to battle to get those resources for them.’ That brings us right to the precipice of a police state, one step removed from the police demanding that democratic scrutiny of their actions be abolished and politicians having to facilitate it; where the politicians and the political system become instruments in the hands of the police rather than the police deferring to the democratic political system.
There is absolutely no reason why people opposed to political violence cannot also be opposed to political policing. The inverse may well be true. Given the contribution political policing in the North of Ireland has made to political violence, opposition to such violence unavoidably involves taking a stand against political policing.
This is why I found it so uplifting to read of the attitude adopted by the 17 year old referred to above while in the custody of British police officers. He was detained in an interrogation centre for longer than any other single person throughout the entire Northern conflict and not as much as uttered a word. When I read of his epic human resistance, images of Martin Lynch’s The Interrogation of Ambrose Fogarty and Martin Meehan’s Castlereagh flooded my mind; plays that captured the bad old days but which need updated to address the worse new days. Like so many before him who were hauled into those foreboding places he defied its oppressive culture. He stared at walls and floors, anything but talk to cops intent on using draconian British legislation against him. At a time when others would dismiss him as a suspect ‘traitor’ who deserves to be interrogated by British police officers investigating ‘treason’, and who stand shoulder to shoulder with his interrogators against him, urging others to inform on him, it was impossible for me not to admire his stamina and resolve in the face of overwhelming odds.
For me, what he stands accused of is not the issue. For now it is an accusation, nothing more. What is absolutely certain, not a mere accusation, is the length of time he was detained. That is the issue. Were he to have been a unionist being interrogated by Garda in similar circumstances my attitude would be no different. Through his actions in that interrogation centre this youngster made an ethical stand against draconian police powers. Whatever his motives or intent, it is indisputable that through his defiance of his British police interrogators he has made a powerful statement in defence of civil liberties.
Having been through numerous interrogations at the hands of the British – although for nothing remotely approaching the length of time endured by this kid - I instinctively, emotionally and intellectually stood shoulder to shoulder with him not his interrogators. What was he doing in the midst of his loneliness, deprivation and isolation but offering passive and ethical resistance? Or is that also to be scorned and denigrated as the activity of traitors? Even if he is misguided, even if he does believe – and I do not even know his name or anything about him – that physical force republicanism is the only way to go, what republican or human rights activist could possibly turn their back on him in his act of passive resistance against draconian powers?
I would have no problem in saying hello to a member of the PSNI or shaking their hand. I think John O’Dowd of Sinn Fein set a better example in shaking the hand of a senior PSNI officer at the funeral of Stephen Carroll than the members of the Continuity IRA who ended the life of Stephen Carroll. But in a detention centre I would behave exactly as the 17 year old; my silence, a declaration of dissent from the most abusive powers of police detention in any of the world’s democracies. The table separating interrogator and interrogated, an unbridgeable chasm over which no hand should reach nor voice be heard. On one side the police assault on civil liberties, on the other an assertion of those liberties.
The withdrawal of consent from the abusive 28 day procedure is an absolutely justifiable measure. It is a necessary safeguard against the abuse inherent in the detention process developing into an even worse abuse – a serious miscarriage of justice of which there have been many. Sad that the resistance to it had to be led by one of such tender years.
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Sh*t or get off the pot Anthony. Either support peaceful democratic methods, which include co-operating with police investigations into murder, or don't. If the youth had fully co-operated with police after his arrest, there would have been no need for an extended period of detention without charge.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that even keeping quiet does nothing these days. If you fail to break them then plant evidence.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that Duffy is now going to be fitted up for killing the two British soldiers.
The people in question are said to have performed an efficient operation and then cock up the burning of the getaway car while leaving part of a glove in it. Hmmm!
It’s akin to making a Oven-roasted lemon and rosemary chicken à la Grecque and then being unable to butter the accompanying bun.
Anthony, I read your post and only one word comes to mind: Amen. This lad has a deeper strength than most could dare to imagine.
ReplyDeleteYou are a good man but your political logic is getting contorted. An English police force or one that enforces their rule of law (no matter how well disguised) should always be resisted. Once you open the door to shaking hands, interrogating, informing and hanging will follow--it is an old story and one that Ireland has written and rewritten far too often. "Cooperation" is its beginning chapter. Its ending is deadly and plants the seeds for more defilement and tragedy. Sin e.
ReplyDeleteGeorge McLaughlin
I would disagree with aspects of what you say, I would have great difficulty in shaking the hand of a psni officer, who by the force's very existence perpetuates british rule in ireland. I would have difficulty in shaking the hand of a psni officer who is in a force that bugs the private conversations between client and legal representatives in Antrim police station.
ReplyDeleteThe brits wanted to get Colin Duffy by hook or crook, they ballsed it up before when they used loyalist gun runner lyndsay robb as their secret witness until that came out, british 'justice' is a concept that does not exist when dealing with republicanism, its what can we do without getting caught out.
By shaking the hand of a psni officer o'dowd is giving creedence to the british presence in ireland, is justifying and strengthening their position by saying this is normal. By shaking the hand of a member of the 'police force' o'dowd is saying that this killing was a criminal act he is saying this is the police these are the repesentatives of law and order. In the context of britains view on its presence in Ireland yes it is, from the republican standpoint o'dowd is a collaborator and his actions are wrong.
Mark, given that this position is so far removed from anything I endorse but which unfortunately is probably representative of a broad enough view out there it is perhaps best addressed through a post rather than a comment
ReplyDeleteGeorge, your points are better made when they are not condescending. Good guy, just contorted - because I don't think the way you think I should think.
‘Once you open the door to shaking hands, interrogating, informing and hanging will follow.’
This seems so logically flawed that a mere empirical observation demonstrates its shallowness. Brendan Hughes and myself and a few others were out one day in South Belfast. We met screws from the blocks. We shook hands and they offered to buy us a drink. We bought them one instead. Same when he got stopped and quizzed by cops on our way into Liverpool. He shook hands with them. Now, are you telling me that if he lived long enough those handshakes would have led to him becoming an interrogator, informer and hangman? I shook Hugh Orde’s hand when I interviewed him. Implicit in your comment is that I will now become an informer interrogator, informer and hangman. Just doesn’t add up.
There are ways to resist a British police force. If they are opponents rather than enemies then it is a simple enough matter to shake their hands. It happens all over the world. Furthermore, the Irish people are not at war with anybody, there is no war between Ireland and Britain, therefore the concept of combatants attenuates. Our enemies are not designated by the Irish nation and as such it is hardly treasonous to shake hands with whoever. And we can hardly expect to be told by the self appointed few that we will have enemies whether we like it or not; that we have no choice in the matter and that they alone shall decide who are enemies and our friends are to be. That would be closer to absolutism than republicanism.
Balor, so you disagree with aspects of what I say. Well, it wouldn’t be like you now would it?!! Nothing wrong with disagreeing on this blog.
ReplyDeleteWhether you shake hands with a PSNI member is a choice for yourself. And the meaning you attach to it is a meaning others are not obligated to share. Everybody who voted for the GFA or supports the consent principle ‘perpetuates British rule in Ireland.’ You might end up shaking only your own hand – well its not that bad but you know the point I am making. O’Dowd, by shaking the cop’s hand per se is not saying that the act is criminal. He can shake the cop’s hand and still view the attack as political. It is through O’Dowd’s discourse, not the handshake, that reveals that he thinks it is a criminal act.
But the question it really boils down to is this: would you rather that O'Dowd shake the cop's hand or that the Continuity IRA kill the cop? You know my view on it.
If a cop shakes hands with you tomorrow is he endorsing your view that the killing of the PSNI man in Craigavon is a political act rather than a criminal one? I wouldn’t imagine it. Why then if you shake his does it mean you are endorsing his views?
I have shaken hands with members of every political party in Britain and Ireland, PSNI members, a former SAS officer, Tory MPs, Labour MPs, loyalists, Irish army officers, prison officers, governors. If a mere handshake by O’Dowd to a peeler makes him a collaborator then I must be an arch traitor with no equal in history.
When I shake hands with SF members, as I frequently do when I bump into those who still chew the fat with me, or have a drink with them, am I endorsing their position, their views on everything?
Everything you say about British justice may well be true but that does not mean that physical force republicanism is any more just.
Anthony what you said there is bang on!! there is no war with the british. I Feel sorry in some Way for That 17 yr Old chid Who has being BrainWashed about this united Ireland. as long as there is british rule in Ireland. we have the right to take up arms.its so sad that this guy goes to jail for life for what? nothing. its a joke!!!
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