While he slept at his North Belfast home a petrol bomb was tossed into his living room. The PSNI is reported to be treating the attack as arson with an intent to endanger life.
Mr Peeples has led a highly charged life, often to the fore of contentious issues. He was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in 2001 after his arrest two years earlier for possession of pipe bombs. Having twice served alongside the Ukrainian military in its battle against Russia's expansionist ubernationalism, he is no stranger to the world of headlines, to this day remaining a controversial figure. Earlier this year he was involved in failed legal action against the kakistocracy in Stormont that suffers from delusions of governance. Last year the PSNI arrested him on foot of allegations that he was posting 'hate material' online, something he described as politically motivated harassment, the work of 'PSNI boot boys' who vandalised his library. Few will accuse the force of being book boys. His account of the reasons behind his detention was detailed to the Sunday World.
Mr Peeples has led a highly charged life, often to the fore of contentious issues. He was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in 2001 after his arrest two years earlier for possession of pipe bombs. Having twice served alongside the Ukrainian military in its battle against Russia's expansionist ubernationalism, he is no stranger to the world of headlines, to this day remaining a controversial figure. Earlier this year he was involved in failed legal action against the kakistocracy in Stormont that suffers from delusions of governance. Last year the PSNI arrested him on foot of allegations that he was posting 'hate material' online, something he described as politically motivated harassment, the work of 'PSNI boot boys' who vandalised his library. Few will accuse the force of being book boys. His account of the reasons behind his detention was detailed to the Sunday World.
I had posted a piece about the Southport attacks expressing concern for the safety of police officers and my solicitor demanded to know how it could be construed as hateful. They then asked I was influenced by a well-known right-wing political philosopher. I refused to talk about that because my post hadn’t broken any Facebook rule or regulations. And they then asked me about anti-Semitism. The police appeared to imply I actually hated everyone. It was truly bizarre . . . It was clear to me the PSNI wanted to know if I was working for the Israelis by compiling photo-files of Muslim extremists. It was nonsense and I told them that.
While his political and religious opinions would be a universe removed from my own, there is absolutely no justification for trying to inflict on him the fate that befell Michael Servetus at the hands of hate theologians. In 2009 when the Derry home of Mitchel McLaughlin was petrol bombed I described it as a hate crime, commenting:
The torching of political opponents is a practice we associate with the middle ages when people could be described as witches and burned at the stake. It is not the type of thing we expect from something that describes itself at republicanism in the 21st century.
While there seems to be a snowball's chance in hell of any republican strand being behind this attack, the standard applies across the board. It is as wrong to seek to burn Mr Peeples to death as it was to attempt the same with Mr McLaughlin.
As is usual there is much scuttlebutt flowing from the rumour mill as to who might be responsible, with a rare unanimity of opinion on display suggesting a strange variant of cross community collusion. But speculation and hard facts run on different tracks, and to slightly rework an apt Kipling observation, the twain do not always meet.
Like Jamie Bryson, Clifford Peeples, given his talent for writing coupled with a Masters degree in law, would better serve loyalism and the community on whose back it sits like a distended hump if he was to reflect on it rather than reflect it. Even if he has used incendiary language, trying to incinerate him serves only murderous hatred.
Like Jamie Bryson, Clifford Peeples, given his talent for writing coupled with a Masters degree in law, would better serve loyalism and the community on whose back it sits like a distended hump if he was to reflect on it rather than reflect it. Even if he has used incendiary language, trying to incinerate him serves only murderous hatred.
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