Clearly Lessons have not been Learned

Today The Pensive Quill features a letter from guest writer Marie Flynn who is a campaign activist on behalf of the interned republican Marian Price. It first appeared in the Irish News on 5 June 2012 

Due to the ongoing internment of Marian Price and the rapid deterioration in her health, we in the Justice for  Marian campaign feel it appropriate to seek answers to the following questions
  • Are Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Justice Minister David Ford aware that Marian's treatment has been defined by experts as torture and is therefore in direct conflict with the human rights legislation?  
  • Are they aware of any action being taken to recover Marian,s pardon-claimed to be lost or shredded? 
  • Would they agree this is an obstruction of justice?

We would like to remind those in Stormont that internment and the abuse of prisoners in the past played a key role in the continuation of the problems in the North.The treatment of Marian Price is reminiscent of the darkest days of the conflict when the government showed scant regard for human rights. Clearly lessons have not been learned.


11 comments:

  1. Marie,

    another good letter. We are pleased to carry it. Thanks

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  3. Marie

    I disagree with the politeness of your letter. It is their business to be aware and to take appropriate action.

    More to the point why do they continue to sanction or tolerate this state of affairs. None of them have clean hands re ipsa loquitur.

    Tiarna

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  4. Marie,
    Human rights or their absence have never been a big hiccup for the Brits.
    Their legacy of abuse in Ireland remains virtually unchallenged.
    Even great journalists like Pilger, who I admire so much, pay mere lip service when they pay any service to the continual human rights abuse here.

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  5. Marie


    Shinners are just puppets being laughed at by the british because they have accepted British Rule, and , they are part of it, Now Maybe Mc Guinness will get a knighthood IF HE SHAKES HANDS WITH THE BRITISH MONARCH. They know this is Internment through the back door and they are part of it and can do nothing about it, then again, they can, They can walk out of the assembly in PROTEST, and forego theire salaries, ASIF. Marians Internment with the others is to see will the guns come back onto the streets in strength. She should be released immediately as should Martin Corey and Gerry Mc Geough.

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  6. Itsjustmacker,

    I have been at more conferences than I care to remember and it stuck me that the Brits were sneering at the Shinners and forever laughing up their sleeves at them. Today it seems that McGuinness is the subject of ridicule from just about everybody that recalls his 'war, war, war' days

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  7. Marty.

    Im sure you have been at more conferences than you care to remember, I met the Mc Guinness fella in the very early 70s , found him to be articulate with words, he had, and still has the gift of the gab , also had the non pleasure with Mr Gerry (never been in the RA) Adams, unfortunately i can not speak of that encounter, alls i can say is, he is blind as a bat, he couldn't hit a barn door at 20 feet!, Now, I am beginning to wonder who the real spies are.

    Three musketeers , Adams , McGuinness , Morrison. what do you think.

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  8. Itsjustmacker.like yourself I have been in the company of all three of the creeps you mentioned, intelligent they are,arrogant they have become,compromised most definitely,whether they are state agents in a subversive way we may find out in time, but they are most definitely supporters of the state that interns republicans,I wont be in their company again.

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  9. Marty,

    The notion that Adams or McGuinness might be agents never took traction in my mind.

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  10. The thing that makes me wonder Anthony is that these people are arrogant enough to be manipulated by the masters of deviousness,and still think its all their own idea, but in particular Mc Guinness the statements and if you like the body language makes me wonder,there really has to be more to their complete betrayal of the PRM than the weasel words from agents of influence.I know you like to deal in facts and thats something I cant supply a cara, but gut instincts have served me well over the years (plus a very quick reverse gear) and something tells me these boys are really deep in the pockets of Whitehall and have been for some considerable time

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  11. Marty,

    What is the peace process other than the outworking of British state strategy devised for the purpose of defeating the IRA, an objective it achieved? Adams recently on RTE had difficulty in dealing with a question that SF was just the new SDLP. And we know how SF always described the SDLP as totally failed. Morrison accepted that decommissioning was an IRA surrender and went as far as to argue against going into government with Paisley as the North would be a laughing stock around the world. So there is hardly much wrong for others to arrive at a view that the IRA was defeated and part of that defeat was the British use of the peace process. This is one reason SF always wanted this type of perspective suppressed rather than discussed.

    I have thought for a long time that agents of influence played a crucial role. They had to in order to make the reverse of what was sat out for sellable. Given their sensitivity to the charge we can assume there is more than a grain of truth in it. And I am not talking about those who picked up an idea that someone dropped in their ears and then promoted it. In any authoritarian organisation that will happen where conformity equates with survival as Christa Wolf once put it. I have in mind those who were in the direct pay of the British to perform a specific function – spread ideas that the British wanted spread. They may never have compromised operations, might never have gave away one member of the movement or supporter, might even have persuaded themselves that they were agents of the peace process (something I think might have been the case with Denis Donaldson).

    The leadership knew agents of influence were at play. They were certainly aware of the concept. Morrison was the first one I ever heard use the term and that was in jail back in 92.

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