I am a Dissident

I am a dissident and long have been. As such, I felt Gerry McGeough displayed too much sensitivity when he took umbrage at being described in that manner by Mairtin O Muilleoir. In a widely quoted blog piece the Andersonstown Newsgroup mogul hit out at the prosecution of McGeough.

the vindictive efforts to railroad dissident republican Gerry McGeough into jail for an IRA attack carried out a lifetime ago smacks of the worst actions of securocrats. How strange that anyone who raises the slaughter of civilians by the British Army is dismissed as living in the past while enormous resources are deployed to put Gerry McGeough behind bars in connection with an incident from those same dark days. When Mr McGeough's trial starts on 1 November, don't be surprised if it collapses swiftly. All the evidence is that while paper-thin cases were sufficient to imprison republicans in the seventies along the conveyor belt of Castlereagh and courts, things have tightened up considerably since then. Let's see.

It was a gracious enough comment from O Muilleoir who had previously been mauled by McGeough during a televised debate on the policing question and who in a fit of pique may well have been tempted to let his adversary stew in a juice brewed by the forces of political policing in the North.

McGeough is hardly alone in feeling aggrieved by having the term ‘dissident’ appended to them. Marian Price, recently interviewed by Steven Nolan, said she neither understood nor welcomed the term.

The reason for McGeough being irritated – the same for Price - while generally welcoming the O Muilleoir intervention is that post-Omagh the process of marginalising any alternative republican thought acquired a new dynamic. All oppositional republicans, those implacably opposed to armed campaigning included, were lumped into one camp against which a very focused and voluble discourse developed. At its core was the term ‘dissident’ which acquired an inflection all of its own, one immersed in political violence. No longer was the dissident the heroic figure of international folklore armed only with his voice which would make itself heard above the howling winds that swirled throughout the Gulag. That image was displaced by the inarticulate disciple of violence whose only word was ‘bang.’ Disagree with Sinn Fein and you suddenly became an Omagh bomber or fellow traveller as the Sinn Fein leader once took to describing those who challenged his version of events in his own West Belfast constituency.

Sinn Fein, who encouraged such a depiction of its republican critics were not without company. The media played a substantial role, the effects of which are still with us today and which have set Gerry McGeough’s defence radar pulsating. Dissident came to be indivisible from deviant.

Yet, if someone wanted to get into a terminological war they could plausibly contend that the deviants from republicanism are to be found in Sinn Fein and not within the ranks of the dissidents. As we have seen, there is no rush in the media to refer to Sinn Fein as deviant republicans. They have been strategic in their terminological separation of good republican from bad republican.

And it has worked. But it can also be undone. On one occasion having just debated republicanism at Oxford University with Danny Morrison, I was approached by an Israeli from the audience who made the point that up until then he had no idea that that there were republican dissidents who not only dissented from the peace process but also from the use of force as a means of dealing with the problems of the peace process.

The O Muilleoir comment did not strike me as specifically designed to label McGeough an advocate of armed force. Now, it may well be that O Muilleoir didn't have to explicitly associate Gerry McGeough with republican political violence. Because there is an unspoken assumption flowing from the term 'dissident' the damage can be inflicted by mere dint of its usage. One word instantly leads to word association without the need to mention another word: dissident equates with armed republicanism.

The framing of the issue shows how words and terms are fought over in the same way that territory is in a physical battle. Language is used to position and confer or deny legitimacy. There is absolutely nothing wrong with dissenting from the political arrangements in the North. Republicans were long dissidents in that respect.

A republican in Ireland today is by definition dissident. Republicans dissent from British rule rather than seek to bolster up its administration. Dissident republican – wear it like a badge.

37 comments:

  1. Anthony,

    I think the main reason many in the media were willing to support Sinn Fein and denounce any dissent was a fear that if the Adams wing lost control of the PIRA, then it would return to violence and there would be more Omaghs, Enniskillens, etc.. I remember reading "A Secret History of the IRA" and getting the sense that Ed Moloney had a grudging admiration for Adams for bringing the bulk of the PIRA with him into the peace process and that Moloney believed that deception was perhaps necessary for this. Maybe I misinterpreted what Moloney wrote, but if that's what he thinks, I would disagree with him; the case for ending the war could have and should have been made to volunteers. Maybe there would have been a larger breakaway faction than the RIRA or maybe Adams and co. themselves would have been ditched by the PIRA, but the leadership ought at the very least to have been honest with volunteers.

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  2. Iam a disident Republican and proud

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  3. I,ve just read Alfies post, yes mo cara I think you are in the ball park, the truth about the hunger strikes and the rest,needs to be told,we the reupublican people need to be told the truth,if Adams and his cronies withheld infrmaton re.,the hungersrikes and the rest we have as much right as anyone to the truth..

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  4. Alfie,

    I agree 100% with your analysis. Its just a shame that the PSF leadership continues to lie and create tension within the wider Republican community.

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  5. AM-

    i have to say that i think that it
    is cheap politics for anyone to say that they support the dissidents- and leave it at that,

    who or what group stands out-

    can't be o.n.h- they have killed no one in their 5 years but the media will never say this,

    the continuity and the dalton gang
    of r.s.f- a bunch of cowards who refused to fight the brit army,

    the real or the 32csm- they hate the cops that much that they have never killed one in their 12 years,

    there are others but you get my drift- complain about SINN FEIN but
    brag no other group.

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  6. Michael Henry,

    So your complaint against these groups is that they're NOT killing enough people. Surely that is not the sum total of your case against the RIRA, CIRA, etc.. Would you support one of these groups if it killed soldiers/police more regularly and in greater numbers? Would that not make you a "traitor"?

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  7. alfie-

    don't know what your complaint is for, i have never read you saying that you support such groups,

    it would not matter to me if they killed a 100 brits this year like the afgans- i believe that the peace process will work,

    traitor- always found this term to be a strong hateful word,
    but the enemy's of the process tried to use this word against
    SINN FEIN- and when this word was used against the dissident's they
    huffed and puffed their chest's out but they never killed any brit soldier's or any police since that remark was made-

    did that remark by MARTIN work- it looks like it did.

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  8. michaelhenry,
    Martin Mc Guiness only made himself look a fool with the traitor statement. Although to be honest, he was well practiced looking foolish long before he said it.
    You are asking how many soldiers and police the dissenters killed.
    Martin Mc Guiness and Gerry Adams are actively encouraging ordinary citizens to inform on anyone engaged in such pursuits, there is a contradiction between what you are asking and what they are saying, however, no doubt you cannot see it.
    If I were you I would not worry about being called a traitor, you will eventually come to terms with it.

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  9. fionnuala-

    are you calling me a traitor now

    no matter

    MARTIN McGUINESS statement worked
    no dissident killed a brit soldier or cop since that remark was made.

    marty down under-

    its his first comment but is this
    marty- can't be two of them.

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  10. Michael,

    "don't know what your complaint is for, i have never read you saying that you support such groups"

    I don't support any armed dissident republican group, but that's irrelevant. My point is that, apparently, your main objection to armed dissidents is that they don't kill enough people and that that is curious given your support of PSF, and by extention, the peace process.

    "it would not matter to me if they killed a 100 brits this year like the afgans- i believe that the peace process will work"

    How can you reconcile those two statements? If you support Sinn Fein and its policy of endorsing the PSNI, how can you not object to the killing of policemen? I mean, do you support the PSNI or not?

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  11. alfie-

    there are days when i support policing in all of IRELANDs 32
    counties yet there are still times
    that i would criticise them- like to-night when they protected the
    failed goverment at the dail
    against the IRISH people-

    SINN FEIN are the main law and order party in IRELAND,
    they are the only political party
    involved in policing boards across
    IRELANDs 32 counties.

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  12. michaelhenry,
    You are being led by a man who remembers aiding election campaigns in 1964.
    All those years a republican to the core apparently, yet the Master never saw fit to join the IRA, why?.
    If your yardstick for measuring republicans is their active service or kills, how do you rate him? Coward maybe!

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  13. michael henry,

    your fanatical acceptance of the PSF leadership is so pitiful.. i feel so sorry for you..

    you cant or wont even attempt to think outside the PSF narrative.

    I am only 24.. I cant and dont claim to have fought the war, but even I can see that PSF have not only lied to the wider republican movement, they go out of their way to destroy any independant thought in the wider republican movement..

    Bobby Sands - "Everyone, Republican or otherwise, has their own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small; no one is too old or too young to do something."

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  14. AM,

    This is an excellent article and it hits the nail right on the head.

    As your article points out, the label “dissident,” at least within the framework of the GFA, suggests something dangerously negative or subversive and therefore it is deliberately used in that context for the sole purpose of discrediting anyone who speaks out against PSF or the British government. It is used in a way to attempt to keep those who would otherwise question or criticize the status-quo, in line. Thus, the powers that be get to keep control of their power base without having to deal with the reality of their mistakes.

    The dictionary defines the word dissident as "disagreeing or dissenting as in opinion or attitude.” That’s why I believe Gerry made it a point to criticize Mairtin O Muilleoir reference to him as a “dissident” for all the same reasons you mention here.

    Thank you for this article Anthony, this needed to be said.

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  15. Ruairi-

    feel sorry for those that need pity

    you don't claim to have fought a war- which is very honest
    but you also use the word can't-

    there are more armed groups going about now than there was when the armed brits patroled our streets-

    nice Quote you used at the end from
    the PROVO hunger-striker
    BOBBY SANDS- and you are right
    that saying is as true to-day as when it was wrote.

    fionnuala-

    i rate the master of equality very
    highly.

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  16. MARTIN McGUINESS statement worked
    no dissident killed a brit soldier or cop since that remark was made.


    michaelhenry is clearly confusing correlation with causation.

    Back to the topic at hand though, the ultimate example of the fallacy of equating dissent with violence is Martyn Frampton's recent "Legion of the Rearguard", where he is only capable of explaining any kind of political dissent in terms of its relation to armed groups. I suppose given his background (Henry Jackson Society, ICSR) that's exactly the way people like him want it.

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  17. Anthony,

    "And it has worked. But it can also be undone."

    "I am a refusenik",perhaps offers the terminology which better describes your position?

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  18. Michael,

    "there are days when i support policing in all of IRELANDs 32
    counties yet there are still times
    that i would criticise them"

    But there isn't the same police force in all of Ireland's 32 counties - there's an Irish one in the south and a British one in the north. Sinn Fein, despite all of their bluster, support a British police force, the PSNI. Do you? If so, why do you complain that the dissidents don't kill enough of them?

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  19. Michael,

    "SINN FEIN are the main law and order party in IRELAND"

    Tom Lehrer certainly did'nt contemplate you when he declared satire to be dead. Incredible - absolutely barking!

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  20. Robert-

    telling a joke does not counter the
    fact

    not only do unionist political partys refuse to take part in
    policing boards in 26 IRISH counties but they also take no part in policing in england scotland or wales- and they call themselves british,

    ff, fg, labour, and the rest of the 26 county partys do not take part with policing boards in the six counties,

    likewise the s.d.l.p does not take
    a place on 26 county policing boards- hence

    with SINN FEIN involved in policing boards across the 32 counties- this makes SINN FEIN the main law and order political party
    in IRELAND.

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  21. Michaelhenry,

    "with SINN FEIN involved in policing boards across the 32 counties- this makes SINN FEIN the main law and order political party
    in IRELAND".

    Well michael, if that's the case, then Sinn Fein must have been aware of McGeough and McAnespie's pending arrests in advance and allowed it to happen?

    If that's not the case, then would you do me a big favor and ask your "Master" and the rest of Sinn Fein, (since they sit on the RUC/PSNI policing board, and "they are the main law and order political party in Ireland") to challenge McGeough/McAnespie's arrest and ridiculous diplock court trial and tell the Brits to let them go free?

    Hey, what's a favor among comrades?

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  22. Michaelhenry,

    "Compalin about Sinn Fein but brag no other group".

    I have been posting here just a little over a year now and I haven't seen one post, that I can recall, that brags of any "political organization" or other "republican groups?" No one on this site is calling anyone "master" or "main law and order political party".

    You make no sense in your babble at times. You are amusing and sometimes witty, but your logic hangs by a thread.

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  23. Michael,

    "telling a joke does not counter the fact not only do unionist political partys refuse to take part in policing boards in 26 IRISH counties but they also take no part in policing in england scotland or wales- and they call themselves british,"

    You would have made no less sense on these matters had you said, "not only do Yucatan political partys refuse to take part in policing boards in 26 IRISH counties but they also take no part in policing in england scotland or wales- and they call themselves Mexican"


    Joint Policing Committees, or Policing Boards as you refer to them, in the Irish Republic are comprised of:-

    •Chairperson – Local Authority representative
    •Garda Officers nominated by the Garda Commissioner
    •Local Authority members
    •Members of Oireachtas for area
    •Community/Voluntary sector representatives

    Robert Mugabe's Zanu-pf party, it could be said, are not represented on these committees for the exact same reason none of the Unionist parties are. They don't organise in that jurisdiction, have no elected members of local authorities,Oireachtas or have a presence in the community or voluntary sector and are therefore not eligible to sit on those committees.
    You claim that Unionists have refused to participate. I will gladly accept a bloodied nose on this by you informing me of the where,when and who??
    The situation in relation to England, Scotland and Wales is no different than that in the Republic. The whole essence of Policing Boards is about local oversight and liaison. Why for instance would people in Lothian and the Borders, or Tralee for that matter, want a councillor in Cullybackey overseeing local policing matters unique to that area?
    What you omitted to mention from your party political broadcast was that Sinn Fein, 'the main law and order political party in Ireland has been implicated in relocating and harbouring an alleged paedophile, multi million pound bank robbery and murder. Did you mention the `Dalton Gang'?

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  24. Robert the psf ie the pope,s special friends involved in crime never never never, well ok maybe,but just the odd misdemeanor,and the Master bater would not have known about any of this,as he is to busy saving Ireland,Mickeyboy it was just a little over 90 years ago that the unionists and dummy tits ruled over almost every aspect of life in the whole of this country it took a bloody revolution to shift the balance of power back into the hands of the people in 26 counties and now you want them back why not go the whole hog and get the party to surrender the 26 just as they have the wee sick counties

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  25. Marty,

    This is utterly futile but the daily `turkey shoot' with Michael is great value. His posts are like being `mauled by a dead sheep'.

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  26. I am a Dissident

    Helen,

    Thanks.

    I don’t think the state should ever be allowed to marginalise the term dissident

    Michaelhenry,

    ‘i have to say that i think that it is cheap politics for anyone to say that they support the dissidents - and leave it at that’

    As so often you miss the point. Dissidents are people who dissent from the administration of British rule. Why are you not one? Not all dissidents support armed campaigning. That was pretty clear from the piece. Just as not all supporters of the peace process have support peace throughout it.

    Robert

    ‘Refusnik’

    Hmmm.

    Alfie

    ‘I think the main reason many in the media were willing to support Sinn
    Fein and denounce any dissent was a fear that if the Adams wing lost
    control of the PIRA, then it would return to violence and there would
    be more Omaghs, Enniskillens, etc.’

    Which sort of makes them players rather than news gatherers, much like RTE when it decided to truncate Vincent Browne’s scathing critique of Cowen.

    ‘I remember reading "A Secret History of the IRA" and getting the sense that Ed Moloney had a grudging admiration for Adams for bringing the bulk of the PIRA with him into the peace process and that Moloney believed that deception was perhaps necessary for this.’

    I would question this interpretation. Moloney would acknowledge the skill employed in his conning of the grassroots but he would not agree with the con.

    ‘the leadership ought at the very least to have been honest with volunteers.’

    Agreed

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  27. Anthony,

    "I would question this interpretation. Moloney would acknowledge the skill employed in his conning of the grassroots but he would not agree with the con."

    If I remember correctly, Moloney argued that Adams and co. gradually inveigled - by deception and ambiguity - the more militant grassroots of the republican movement into adandoning armed struggle, while at the same time weakening the IRA. The result of this, I think he argues, was that when a split did occur, it was small and weak. The implication of his argument - though Moloney doesn't state it explicitly - is that there may have been a bigger, more potent split if the leadership had been honest. I think he actually makes a comparison between Gerry Adams's success and Cathal Goulding's failure. Now that's just the sense I got; I take your point that that may not be Moloney's view.

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  28. Comrade Helen-

    better to hang by a thread than to
    fall from grace- read this,

    The d.u.ps lord morrow has branded
    Gerry McGeough and VINCENT McANESPIE dissident republicans,

    Lord morrow also attacked SINN FEIN
    m.p MICHELLE GILDERNEW for being a
    cheer-leader for the two, his words

    Gerry McGeough responded- " I would
    like to put on record that VINCENT
    and I are mainstream republicans
    and not so called dissidents "
    Gerry also said-
    " I wholly support the peace process and am very alarmed at lord
    morrows accusations " his words-
    [ tyrone times, page 2 ]
    read it and weep.

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  29. Robert-

    SINN FEIN is the 32 party of the peace process-

    did not realise that the mexicans wanted to be british-

    Des dalton is head buck in republican sf- dissident,
    [ a good few books and a good film about the dalton gang. ]

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  30. Michael,

    "SINN FEIN is the 32 party of the peace process"

    The repeating of that same old inane mantra hardly addresses the points I raised with you?

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  31. Michaelhenry,

    I dont think i explained myself properly with my last post. As a young republican i am a dissident for a number of reason's, mainly all due to PSF's lies, arrogance and lack of ability to deliver on any of their promises to my generation.

    Since leaving school, and university I have failed to secure any meaniful work. I have since gone back into education (at my own cost) because PSF and other parties have failed to fulfil their promises, on investment, jobs, etc etc and most importantly unity. Unity is further away than ever under Adams' reign.

    Dissident and proud.

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  32. not disseident and proud..

    independent and proud

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  33. Ruairi

    Well said, you will get used to Mickey though the general consensus amongst posters here we have no idea what he rattles on about.

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  34. AM
    Very good piece as most of your analysis tend to be , I am at odds to know where how and why this word “dissident came into Irish republican thinking . Who decided to call those who oppose them dissidents . The people who fought the war against British rule for centuries are they all dissidents , including Emmet Pearse and Tone all dissidents . The Provo’s were a splinter group of the IRA so they themselves were dissidents , and if my memory serves me correctly I don’t recall the IRA calling them dissidents or for that fact Traitors . As always the Provo’s have done there utmost to change the true meaning of Irish Republicanism by inventing tall tails and long ones.

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  35. Cracroi,

    I have not read the book but have it here and browsed through it. I took the view that he covered all manner of dissident opinion. He gave the Blanket a strong mention.

    Alfie,

    Moloney’s take is somewhat more nuanced. He could admire the efficiency with the way things were done while not admiring what was done.

    He actually argued that the Master should get the Nobel Peace Prize on the grounds that Kissinger got it and he had killed more people than the Master.

    Interested,

    It is a term with many inflections. When dissidents dissent from something we oppose they are alright. When they dissent from us they become rogues. The term was applied here and was corrupted and corroded by the dominant discourse to the point that it began to smell. Rather than get rid of the smell republicans who dissented abandoned the word.

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