Letter posted on my Facebook page from John Shanahan
Sorry, Helen, but I very much disagree with you. I supported the decision to invite the PSNI and believe that it is measures such as this that will help us to advance the peace process in the North.
PSNI officers are drawn from Catholic ranks and serve all citizens in the North with impartial and fair policing services. At the AOH parade in Cookstown, County Tyrone on Monday, three PSNI officers placed themselves in front of a group of young men who came to the parade looking to cause trouble. You can thank the good work of the PSNI for ensuring that the AOH parade went off well and that no one was threatened.
I caution against any characterization of the PSNI as just a latter-day version of the RUC. There is a substantial effort ongoing in the North to build a modern-day police force that is fair, impartial and fit for purpose. For those in the RUC that colluded with the UDF (and for those in the Gardai that did the same with the IRA), they will have to answer for their own sins.
Finally, I remind you of PSNI Officer Ronan Kerr, a Catholic who who gave his life in order to build fair and effective community policing to Northern Ireland in 2011. In my mind, his service and sacrifice is all the reason one needs to justify the decision to allow PSNI officers to march in the New York City parade honouring the Saint of all-Ireland with respect and dignity.
Helen McClafferty responds to John Shanahan.
John, first I would like to commend you on your honesty and openness, but with all due respect, I don’t see how inviting the PSNI/RUC/B-Specials to march in the St. Patrick’s Day parade will advance the peace process along? I find that a very far stretch of the imagination and wishful thinking.
As for the 'PSNI serving all citizens in the North with impartial and fair policing services,' please tell that to the McGeough family, Marian Price, Martin Corey, Stephen Murney - and the list goes on and on and on John as they continue to arrest and intern republicans without trial.
As for the three PSNI offices placing themselves in front of a group of young men who came to the parade looking to cause trouble. You can thank the good work of the PSNI for ensuring that the AOH parade went off well and that no one was threatened.
Odd statement to make in lieu of the fact the PSNI/RUC can’t seem to control the Orangemen when they march through Catholic enclaves every July 12th.
I caution against any characterization of the PSNI as just a latter-day version of the RUC.
Their continued adversarial behavior toward Irish republicans who do not support the status-quo imply nothing has changed. A rose by any other name is still a rose. John, they still call those who served in the IRA “terrorists” and they label anyone who thinks outside the box “dissidents”. So what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
For those in the RUC that colluded with the UDF, they will have to answer for their own sins.
That’s all well and good John, in the hereafter, but republicans who speak out against the misdeeds of the PSNI/RUC or don’t agree with some of Sinn Fein’s policies pay for their “sins” in this life. They are harassed, arrested and incarcerated. Some held for two or more years without trial and then released.
Have you forgotten John that in March, 2011 it was the “reformed” PSNI/RUC who was responsible for the subpoenas of the Boston College Irish Project Tapes? Boston College Subpoena News. The Breathtaking Hypocrisy of the British State « Boston ... The outcome is still pending.
While I can understand the priority to move forward and leave the past in the past, justice has to be served first and the PSNI/RUC marching in the St. Patrick’s Day parade is not the answer. It was a slap in the face. It appears that since the Good Friday Agreement, it has been the Nationalist community who has done all of the “advancing” while Sinn Fein does the dancing to the tune of whatever the British government and the Unionist want.
John. You may have
justified in your mind the decision to allow the PSNI/RUC to march in the New York City parade because of the death of PSNI Ronan Kerr
which to me was a tragic and useless murder, but I protested the PSNI/RUC invite because of all of the tragic and useless murders of innocent Irish Catholics at the hands of the security forces in the North and the continued internment of Irish republicans.
And finally, instead of praising the PSNI/RUC and forcing acceptance of them on the Nationalist community, wouldn’t it be more constructive to see to it that the Diplock courts be abolished in the North. They only serve to incarcerate republicans anyway. To ensure that anyone who committed an “offense” during the troubles, and prior to the Good Friday Agreement, no longer be pursued by the PSNI/RUC and those who did time have their convictions overturned. To ensure that all of the OTRs receive amnesty. And those, who like Gerry McGeough, the first Irish republican to be tried and incarcerated after the Good Friday Agreement, have their prohibitively restrictive probation (license), revoked. To me those would be the key issues for advancing the peace process forward not the PSNI marching in a parade.
Respectfully,
Helen
Why does American Helen ignore the innocent men in Guantanomo concentration camp ? Same old hypocrisy .
ReplyDeleteDISORDER AND 'THE ORDER'
ReplyDeleteSINCE THE DECLINE OF HARLAND AND WOLFF SHIPYARDS AND SHORTS AIRCRAFT, THE POLICE SERVICE HAS BECOME THE PROTESTANT LOYALIST GRAVY TRAIN. Talk about make-work. Like firemen turned arsonists to boost business, loyalists keep the funds flowing their way. Britain's tiny "country" on the island of Ireland is 82% Christian (40.8% Catholic, 41.6% various Protestant denominations... Derry alone is 67% Catholic, a mere 19% Protestant) The "peace process" mandated changes to a police force that was well over 90% Protestant. But what has not been advertised is that the big change was not only gradual, but was mandated to end at 70% Protestant-Loyalist versus 30% Catholic. That means the force is fixed at double the number of Protestants to Catholics, PLUS TEN PERCENT MORE. And most all those Catholics are found in the lower ranks. So, when the Orange Order stages hundreds of yearly sectarian parades, many of them causing riots when they march past Irish Catholic neighborhoods, airing their bigotry by playing and singing insulting anti-Catholic tunes, the police force, overwhelmingly Protestant, is called in to restore calm.
Chicago's Maror Richard J. Daley, speaking to reporters following the 1968 "police riot" at the Democratic National Convention once said, perhaps meaning to speak of the police motto, "to serve and protect" but getting his metaphors mixed: "The police are not there to create disorder; they're there to PRESERVE disorder".
The "traditional marching season runs most of the Summer, Starting in July. Last year loyalists also staged "flag protests" throughout the 6 counties, which created the need for additional police manpower and overtime, subsidized by Britain.
Now loyalists are reversing the outflow of former RUC officers, overwhelmingly Protestant and loyalist, bringing those already retired on hefty pensions back into the service. [Read the BBC story on rehiring here - http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-26029025]
John is of course entitled to express his opinion, a thing the RUC have not afforded to Marian Price.
ReplyDeleteEqually, the bargain bucket recruitment slogan of 50/50 recruitment, to boost numbers to reflect the proportion of the community from the indigenous tradition, has been binned at the whim of those same orange bigots who created the problem in the first place.