Summertime Blues

By AM Saturday, October 11, 2025

Share Tweet Share Share Email

Muiris Ó Súilleabháin ✍ "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. To understand the world as it is, not as we should wish it to be, is the beginning of wisdom." - Bertrand Russell

I am not convinced that when the renowned philosopher Russell penned these lines as part of his series of essays “Mortals and Others” between 1931 and 1935 that even he could have predicted the extent to which the “fools and fanatics” would control the world and dominate the narrative in the early part of the 21st Century.

By the same token, I remain decidedly ambivalent as to whether I would even wish to understand the world as it currently is. I cling to the forlorn hope that good people speaking truth to power can reset the horrific genocidal trajectory now being taken, even though we are witnessing an era readily comparable to Germany of the 1930s.

My interest in Republicanism and world affairs fluctuates. My attention to such matters is occasionally drawn to key touchpoint moments such as elections, the passing of former comrades and genocide. At this juncture in my life, I enjoy reading about our recent past, not the sanitised and “cleared” versions, that I do not recognise, but the ones that challenge the fictions that have been grafted onto the “peace process”. The pressures of work mean that it is only during periods of leave that I have the opportunity to dissect the multitude of books and papers that are now emerging.

I inwardly mapped the skeleton for this article, in August, on perhaps the shittiest RyanAir flight ever, returning from a week’s rest and relaxation in Northern Europe. As before, the catalyst for my writing were the papers released by the UK Government on some seminal moments of the “peace process” but also Trigg's book on East Tyrone and my sabbatical conversations with a group of elderly communists who shared much of my world view.

My holiday hosts had decades of experience in subversive activity in political parties and trade unions. They were vexed and amused by my naivety when we discussed Ireland, the revolution and the current state of nation. Their perceptions on revolution and the inexorable abandonment of principle had been shaped by the multiple betrayals that they had to endure from former comrades who are now very wealthy establishment politicians. As we spent several nights drinking a plentiful local wine, they tried to imbue me with their stoic and pragmatic mindset.

They laughed loudly at my foolishness in thinking that my revolutionary goddess would never become just another cheap whore and for believing that the Irish struggle could ever have culminated in the socialist republic we had toiled for.

They asserted that adopting a binary perspective on life is simplistic and neglects the intricate realities of the world and human nature. The contemporary era is characterised by paradoxes, subtleties, and contradictions: “get used to it” they urged, as if at my age, I am for turning. People and revolutionary movements are inevitably subject to compromise, and at times, may themselves become compromised in pursuit of their objectives. They encouraged me to acknowledge certain unavoidable truths: politicians are a corrupt class, and absolute revolutionary purity is unattainable.

“The rich will always betray the poor” - Henry Joy McCracken.

This presents a challenge for me, as I tend to be a sensitive soul and take dishonesty from others personally. I am offended that we live in such a dystopian reality and that in an era where information and knowledge are so readily available, utopian thinking, rational analysis and honesty appear to have been lost in a fictional world where strawman thinking is paramount.

The intensification of the genocide being inflicted upon the Palestinian people by the state of Israel, we are told, is a justifiable response to the horror inflicted upon them by Hamas on October 7th, 2023. There is no contextualisation of the brutal assault on innocent civilians and an entire population whose survival has been almost totally dependent upon the UNs longest standing mission since 1947. It didn’t start in October 2023!

Children, Doctors, Hospitals, Journalists and aid workers are considered collateral damage in an asymmetrical conflict that has seen all the major conurbations in Gaza razed to the ground. Gaza no longer has any functioning hospitals. Starvation is being used a means to control the movement of millions of people and the inevitable consequential increase in infant mortality barely merits mention.

Similar to the Nazi sacking of Warsaw in 1944, some in the Western World have looked on in disbelief, others have turned a blind eye but most have facilitated the obliteration of Gaza in pursuit of their wider geo-political agenda. October 7th, the fall of Assad and the invasion of Ukraine have all paved the way for the Israeli state to aggressively pursue their final solution to their Palestinian problem.

The belated recognition of a Palestinian State by a handful of Western Governments, who have hitherto actively supported the Israeli state genocide, is nothing more than fig leaf political posturing. Starmer, Macron et al. in trying to reposition themselves to the right side of history, have given far too little far too late. The previously agreed two state solution, which was never optimal for the Palestinian people, can now never be realised - ask Bibi. The newly established Palestinian missions in France and the UK are likely to be the only sovereign territory that a Palestinian State ever again controls.

Trump, Starmer and our very own Mary Lou, the great and the good, have all avowed that the State of Israel has the right to self-defence. Having received this almost universal carte blanche, the State of Israel has defensively attacked Yemen, Syria, Iran, Lebanon, and the Occupied Territories since October 7th, 2023, with weapons primarily supplied by the USA and UK. The ill-fated recipients of these pre-emptive, self-defence measures have all experienced the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure in breach of international law.

Wherever the choice has had to be made between the man of reason and the madman, the world has unhesitatingly followed the madman - Huxley.

Back in the Narnia of Ireland, we are showing the world that when you stop killing each other but fail to address the underlying socio-economic conditions, you really are just kicking the can down the road. Our dystopian post-GFA paradise exploded yet again during the summer recess and brought once more into sharp focus that the sectarian polarisation that continues to plague us has now been inculcated with an overtly racist dynamic. This newer dynamic to the north is as depressing as it was predictable and even more so because it was entirely preventable.

August marked 20 years since the IRA’s final statement which formally approved the GFA as the only legitimate route to Unity and/or the Republic. The GFA was supposed to bring about new dispensation, prosperity, equality for all and radical change. At the time, the late Brendan Hughes referred to the GFA in a manner that was somewhat sarcastic and definitely prescient as “Got Fuck All”.

The Shinners, public masturbation over how much Northern Ireland has changed since the IRA Statement and the return to Stormont was abruptly cut short by the pre-eminent think tank Pivotal.

According to Pivotal, the “Government of change” led by Sinn Fein has delivered fuck all (DFA) socially, economically or politically. There are few who could argue with this assessment and Gerry Adams ceded as much in an article written to counter the growing public and internal discontent with the underperforming Provos in Stormont.

Adams’s missive in the Andytout News explicitly acknowledged his party’s failure to address the issues of real importance to real people such as health, education, sectarianism and poverty. Of course, as one would expect, the Brits, the Unionists and the Free State still shoulder the blame, almost 30 years after the signing of the GFA/DFA.

In what will someday be used as the apotheosis of the “Dunning Kruger Effect” Adams enunciated that Stormont is the only vehicle upon which to build “on the opportunities for progress created by the peace process”. Whatever to fuck this gobbledygook is supposed to mean, it will be little of comfort to the poor, the sick and the hungry as they struggle to survive in our little northern utopia.

In a powder puff piece in the Irish News, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the decommissioning of the IRA (and the completion of IRA decommissioning), Adams was once again given a free rein to rewrite our collective past. Stressing that his greatest fear in 2005 was that the IRA would reject his peace proposals, cuddly Gerry reminisced, that the IRA would not have been sighted on his proposals or his speech in which he was to ask the IRA to “leave the stage”.

There are two aspects of the Adams interview that are jaw droppingly incredulous. The first being that Adams was not challenged on this denial and the second pertains to the report from the “Kew files” published by Sam McBride, also in August.

It is inconceivable (or is it?) that Adams would expect anyone to swallow the falsehood, that neither the IRA nor the British would have advance notice of the keynote speeches he was delivering throughout the peace process. Indeed, McBride’s research, spotlighted a level of choreography between the leadership of the IRA and the British establishment that would not have looked out of place on “Strictly Come Dancing”.

Jonathan Powell, who has been credited with writing key tracts of a crucial Adams’s speech in 2002, did not ascend to the role of UK National Security Advisor without having honed his “tradecraft” during his time in the FCO. His part in the speech where Adams predicts a future “without the IRA” specifically related to the lines on the disbandment of the IRA.

The revelation that British Intelligence contributed to the central sections of the public pronouncements for an individual serving on the Army council presents several scenarios, with the least plausible being that the IRA leadership was unaware of the Adams/Powell tango.

A truth can walk naked, but a lie always needs to be dressed - Gibran

The perpetuation of such dishonesty barbs now as much as the initial act of dishonesty does itself. It was not realistic to expect that the leadership of the movement could inform every member about every detail during critical negotiations. Lies had to be told at that time, and information withheld from the base, that is a given. But it is not unreasonable to expect that (now the “butterfly has flown”), the leadership would at some point in time, bestow the truth upon those who sweated and bled in the fields and the streets.

While we were sent out to paint hollow slogans such as “no return to Stormont” and “not an ounce, not a bullet,” it is now abundantly clear that the leadership had already decided to take a predetermined course of action that included decommissioning and a return to Stormont. The only debate that remains is when that decision was taken.

If one is to believe the recent utterances of Mr Morrison, the chameleon of Carrigart, then the decision to wind down the armed struggle was taken by the kitchen cabinet in the early 80s in the wake of the hunger strikes. The obvious problem with this analysis is that the rank and file were not privy to this decision and it could well be the case that history is now being manipulated to harmonise with the narrative that beatifies former military leaders.

“Hail glorious saint Gerry, dear saint of our isle, he converted the RA with fine words and a smile”.

If Morrison and others are being truthful (oxymoronic I know) then every negotiation and every IRA action from that period onwards should be viewed through the prism of the leadership’s imperative to “maintain the unity and cohesion of the movement” while simultaneously marshalling the movement victoriously up the steps to Stormont. Some of us unknowingly played a bit part in that deception by painting walls, delivering leaflets, protesting on streets and relaying internal briefings with fervour, others paid a much heavier price and none more so than the East Tyrone Brigade of the IRA.

Only bad generals need heroes - Brecht

I have strong familial ties to East Tyrone and was domiciled in the area for quite a few years. I knew the towns, the villages, the families and some of the players depicted in Trigg's book on the killing fields of East Tyrone. The book was in my view a fine if somewhat chilling read. Previously reviewed on The Pensive Quill (by Packy Carty and The Fenian Way) here it received a mixed reaction from Republicans and British establishment figures alike.

East Tyrone and its hinterlands were never short of heroes willing to volunteer for active service in the army. Trigg empathetically portrays the internecine conflict as it played out in this small close-knit community where the hunter and the hunted (depending on your perspective) lived cheek by jowl. The British, Loyalists and the IRA all contributed to an attrition rate not matched in any Brigade area in the most recent phase of the struggle. It was however the East Tyrone Brigade of IRA who were to carry the supreme burden of the fallen.

What struck me about the detail that Trigg has added to the post-conflict discourse is that his research is almost entirely reliant upon “grassroots” sources. His innovative approach has provided a valuable insight into some of the most challenging periods of the war, but it also is his work’s weakness.

As someone who did not have an insight into the command structures of the IRA at that time in a rural Brigade area, I would be shocked if the same level of centralised operational planning and oversight did not exist in East Tyrone as for example would have been in place in Belfast.

While some of the operations where volunteers lost their lives seem to have been opportunistic responses to British “come ons” others such as Loughall, Coagh and Clonoe do not give the impression of having been adequately planned, without, for example, realistic fall-back options. One can only speculate as to why the Brigade OO and the Northern Command would have let these operations proceed, but the failure surely rests with the Generals and not with the men who perished. What puzzles more notably than the speculation around informers is why the disasters of Loughall etc. were not seized upon by the then leadership to sue for peace.

The scale of death at Loughall could have been used by those who now state they were “doves” to bring an honourable end to the long war. Why then, did that same leadership choose to send more young volunteers to their deaths and to Long Kesh?

Trigg's book screams from the pages that Loughall was the turning point in the conflict. If the generals who oversaw the IRA could not see this, then they should not have been generals. If they did see it and ignored it then they should not have been in the IRA.

It may have been the cynic in me, or the wine, or just the candour of the company with whom I had just spent a very convivial few days, but I couldn’t help but reflect on the interconnectedness of all of these matters. The dystopian and dishonest nature of the modern world is now enthusiastically embraced by the people who promised us we were fighting for a utopian Ireland. These same people now dispense deceit, injustice and inequality in doses that are equivalent in measure to any historical British and Unionist misrule.

The simple step of the courageous individual is not to take part in the lie - Solzhenitsyn.

⏩Muiris Ó Súilleabháin was a member of the Republican Movement until he retired in 2006 after 20 years of service. Fiche bhliain ag fás.