In 1969, John McKeague called a press conference and boasted of having “hundreds of guns” and “rich friends” if they needed more, going on to claim that the SDA (Shankill Defence Association) could put ‘a couple of guns and a tank’ in every house on the Shankill. He went on to say:
We take up this battle that has been placed upon us, and we will see the battle through to the end. What they have started, we, the Protestants, will finish. We are now going to take the initiative.
Major Bunting memorably added that: “the Protestant dog can bark, the Protestant dog has teeth, the Protestant dog will bite if need be.” (UVF 1966 – 73, David Boulton)
What did the Protestant dog actually do? Well, many of them ended up in the kennels of their British masters, serving decades in prisons for waging a terrorist campaign against the Catholic population. And, in doing so, a fifth of their victims were from the Protestant community that they claimed to defend.
The ‘loyalist backlash’ was feared, by the British state, and by the Catholic population. But when it came, whilst lethal on a large scale, it was dwarfed by the republican offensive. And yet, still, with the type of exceptionalism that can be borne only out of an inferiority complex, loyalists hint at a forthcoming backlash, that their “young men”, the “children of Ulster” won’t “tolerate” what they feel is being “placed upon them.”
In 1998, again memorably, Ruth Patterson, a particularly pathetic political clown, exclaimed “May god forgive them , for I won’t … and neither will the children of Ulster. Neither will the children of Ulster.” She was talking about those who designed and agreed the Good Friday Agreement.
The children of Ulster… who does she mean? She doesn’t say. I’m a child of Ulster, (though Ms Patterson would not allow me to claim this title, since I was from the Falls Road area of Ulster). I don’t think those behind the Good Friday Agreement need forgiving. What Ms Patterson is doing is the political and paramilitary equivalent of the ineffective manager using another manager’s menace as a negotiating tool. It reeks of weakness, and incompetence. Her party’s political machinations failed to prevent the Good Friday Agreement, so, in her frustration, she subcontracted the reaction to the “children of Ulster” without spelling out what she meant. She didn’t have to. Everyone knows.
Just like everyone knew, in 1997, what Willie McCrea, sore at losing his seat to Martin McGuinness, meant when he said the nationalist population would “reap a bitter harvest.” And they did. His co-star on a political platform in Drumcree, Billy Wright - and his friends - and other loyalists murdered quite a few politically uninvolved Catholics in the North. They included the Quinn brothers, burned to death in a petrol bomb attack carried out by a UVF unit that included a man who committed suicide years later, and another man, convicted of manslaughter, Garfield Gilmour who is apparently living in Belfast. Were they the unforgiving “children of Ulster”? Was McCrea’s “bitter harvest” Gilmour’s petrol bomb attack? Patterson and McCrea will say no, of course.
And now, to the present day, the party Ruth Patterson was once a councillor for, the DUP, were publicly humiliated by a Tory government who wanted their Brexit, and didn’t care about Northern Ireland constitutional status.
Dominic Cummings allegedly said he “does not care if Northern Ireland falls into the fucking Irish sea” and yet the Economist reports a loyalist paramilitary leader saying "the guys around me in their 20s are now saying ‘you had your war, granda - it’s our turn now.’”
I wonder what those “guys … in their 20s” want to do? Who is their enemy? Who will they go after? The DUP who failed to protected the union? The Tories who, increasingly obviously, just want rid of the North? Or Catholic taxi drivers, take-away men, builders, and bakers?
Instead of paying any heed to the bombast and hype of rabble rousers like Ruth Patterson, Willie McCrea, and, lately, Jamie Bryson, the “children of Ulster” would do well to remember the words of loyalist hero Lord Edward Carson:
I believed all this. I thought of the last thirty years, during which I was fighting with others whose friendship and comradeship I hope I will lose from tonight, because I do not value any friendship that is not founded upon confidence and trust. I was in earnest. What a fool I was. I was only a puppet, and so was Ulster, and so was Ireland, in the political game that was to get the Conservative Party into power. And of all the men in my experience that I think are the most loathsome it is those who will sell their friends for the purpose of conciliating their enemies, and, perhaps, still worse, the men who climb up a ladder into power of which even I may have been part of a humble rung, and then, when they have got into power, kick the ladder away without any concern for the pain, or injury, or mischief, or damage that they do to those who have helped them to gain power.
⏩ Brandon Sullivan is a middle aged, middle management, centre-left Belfast man. Would prefer people focused on the actual bad guys.
In the mix somewhere must be a lot of doubt about the DUP capability and commitment. Once RHI tore away the ideological veneer and it appeared more of a decadent unionist party than a democratic one in which people like Paisley could continue plying their "travel business", it must have dawned on more than a few that here was just another crew of career politicians.
ReplyDeleteCareer politicians will always do what is good for their careers no their constituents.
Irony is that if Irish unity does emerge from a border poll it will have had nothing to do with anything the Provisional IRA ever did and quite a lot to do with what the DUP did.
Strange old world.
Anthony,
ReplyDeleteI don't know you, I was eighteen when the O'Connor thing happened and your name exploded. I can remember sitting with older Republicans, operators in their day, some of them comrades of yours from the Kesh. A few of them bad mouthed you and I never said anything, even though I agreed with you and it annoys me to this day. It was cowardly and at eighteen I liked to think I had balls of steel. On the plus side it gravitated me towards this site. On this site and through your articles debate was rampant in my generation about the usefulness of armed struggle. There was other commentators, but mostly yourself, convinced a lot of my mates that the Republican ethos we held dear, didn't exist. You should be proud of that, through speaking out, calling out hypocrisy, analysing the actual benefits of war actions you stopped more pointless violence.
It took balls to do what you did. The harassment you faced. The picket of your house and all that shite was appalling, it could have went the other way, all it took was a word from an older Republican, a eager young Republican and it could have been tragedy. Fair play to you. It's sounds sycophantic writing this but as I get a bit older I feel it's important to tell people you admire their actions whereas as a younger man I thought it weak.
It would be a strange old world if Loyalists shot themselves in the foot, not implausible though.
David - a generous comment.
DeleteWe took a lot of flak over Joe O'Connor, myself and Tommy Gorman, but also my wife. She had to face the mob while six months pregnant. A neighbour pushed thru the throng and stood with her. I was in Cookstown at a conference on free speech of all things. Not much of that in West Belfast then.
I never saw it in terms of balls. The older I get the more "balls" sounds so macho! I did feel this compelling sense of obligation much as I did during the Danish anti-theocratic cartoons thing. The sort of thing I felt I did not really want to do but felt, after a deep breath, that I had to. It was not as if I was out to make life hard for myself. I guess courage is about doing something and facing the flak for it, not talking about being courageous while standing behind a curtain. I leave it to others to make their own judgement about the time.
I am well used to getting bad mouthed by people so it didn't much matter what they were going to say.
I always remember the very few who called at the house or sent messages of support. A father and son from Derry landed on the doorstep the afternoon of the statement to give support and they predicted the likely course of events. The Dark was always there.
One of my closest ever friends who was still with the Provos called every day. He was phenomenal as he lived in the area and no doubt was getting opprobrium from them but never flinched. That took courage and a choice had to be made by him every day. For us the die had been cast and there was no choice to be made: the bridges had been burned.
There were others still with the Provos then (and now) who took us into their homes even though they thought it better for us not to have spoken out. They were just being decent.
Then of course the late TC who turned up regularly and would drive us to wherever we needed to go.
There are some for obvious reasons I can't name.
I have talked to a number of people since who were so critical of us at the time but have since come to change their view. They gave me an insight into the type of hatred being stirred up and who in some cases was directing it. Now they are are deeply suspicious of the Provos.
But there we go. These things happen. Stand in the way of a Provo on the political career path and they will run you into the ditch.
Anthony,
ReplyDeleteYou'll have to excuse the macho language, it's almost ingrained in me, I find it very hard to shake off. Six months pregnant, that sums them up. The dark was my hero growing up, apparently even he wasn't safe from their threats, I was told they made some comment to him about watching out for joy riders or some sinister remark. Nothing will stop a Provos ambition, comrades, past principles, nothing.
Sometimes burning bridges is the best thing. I followed my Mother and Sister to Scotland about a decade ago, I barely go home and I'm a different human being. Things that were important to me, no longer matter. Violence no longer resonates. Most importantly I realise I was a sectarian bigot, and try to eradicate that from my personality, mostly successfully. I must admit, sometimes when I hear Rangers fans commenting on immigration, I judge there whole personality in a second. Hey, it's not easy to shake off years of indoctrination.
David - the macho thing was not a criticism. I just think all this thing about balls is balls!! I know you were not being macho and far be it from me to police people's language.
DeleteThey did not know how to deal with Brendan. He was viewed in the community as an authentic voice of republicanism. The best they could do was have their smear merchants - who in some cases doubled up as agents for influence - whisper about him.
I was a sectarian bigot back in the day. Don't feel in the slightest sectarian now.
I have learned to completely mistrust revolutionaries, and regard them much as I do reverends.
We either help or we harm: along the way we will do some of both. It is about trying to keep the help balance sheet in the black and the harm balance sheer in the red.
"I was a sectarian bigot back in the day. Don't feel in the slightest sectarian now."
ReplyDeleteAs was I, now I think how daft I was. On a different note I watched Tommy Gorman on Spotlight at the weekend, I felt so sorry for him when he broke down. All we can do is stop our kids from making our errors.
"All we can do is stop our kids from making our errors."
ReplyDeleteSadly, within unionism and loyalism, the errors of the past are happening as we speak. And I don't just mean the rabble-rousing. Deference to London, and to the unionist political class, is endemic within the PUL community. I genuinely believe that the best, arguably only, way forward for the PUL community is to stop threatening (imagined) enemies and to start making friends.
English nationalism has no room and no need for NI, let alone belligerent loyalists. Labour within Scotland is basically finished - which means that there will be a Tory government for a considerable period of time. Which means that the union has gone from something quietly suffered by Westminster to something that increasingly obviously wants broken by London power brokers.
The appointment of Claire "Warrington" Fox to the House of Lords should have told the PUL everything they wanted to know about this Tory administration's attitudes to them.
The PUL community could be significant power brokers in an agreed Ireland, or continue heading towards being the political equivalent of Nick Cotton from Eastenders.