Anthony McIntyre ☠ At no time in my political odyssey did I ever consider that commemorating British war dead was a worthwhile republican objective.
It simply never crossed the republican conversational or ideational radar. Had it been suggested during the blanket protest or in prison, its sponsor would at the very least have been whispered about and referred to in terms less than flattering.
The IRA, for its part, would have regarded the suggestion as loathsome, preferring instead to bomb the 1987 commemoration in Enniskillen in what has become known as the Poppy Day massacre. While commemorating British war dead rather than killing those who do so is much less harmful, infinitely more humane, politically it can hardly be regarded as a republican strategic advance, more a step backward.
It simply never crossed the republican conversational or ideational radar. Had it been suggested during the blanket protest or in prison, its sponsor would at the very least have been whispered about and referred to in terms less than flattering.
The IRA, for its part, would have regarded the suggestion as loathsome, preferring instead to bomb the 1987 commemoration in Enniskillen in what has become known as the Poppy Day massacre. While commemorating British war dead rather than killing those who do so is much less harmful, infinitely more humane, politically it can hardly be regarded as a republican strategic advance, more a step backward.
Michelle O'Neill justified her decision last month to lay a wreath at a British war dead commemoration on Remembrance Sunday with the dubious assertion that 'while we may not agree on everything, we must find common ground in respecting each other’s traditions and perspectives.' That is a sure indication of just how much the British state logic has succeeded in having Sinn Fein buy into the internal conflict model so reviled by republicans during the armed struggle.
Even in the context of an internal conflict model, there is no common ground here. O'Neill hails from Tyrone where republican hallowed ground is considered swampland by the British state and political unionism. Not once has a British official or Unionist politician offered to attended the grave of Martin Hurson who died on hunger strike in 1981.
It is obfuscating for O'Neill to claim she is the North's First Minister for all without explaining that the office of First Minister is so restricted in scope, so structurally constructed from a partisan and partitionist blueprint that it generates a situational logic whereby she feels compelled to find common ground with the British and unionism. At the same time, the British and unionism are freed from any structural constraints which might lead them to to find any common ground with her. She will go to their hallowed ground because she feels she has to. They will not come to hers because they feel they do not have to. Many suspect that it is only a matter of time before she, or whoever eventually replaces her, will not visit her own hallowed ground either.
People are entitled to commemorate whoever they choose. Were Michelle O'Neill to attend British war dead commemorations as a private individual, odd as it might seem, there would be insufficient in it to allow a critique to gain much traction. As, however, she attends such commemorations as the leader of a political tendency to pay unreciprocated homage, she is all too easily depicted as the slave that kneels to kiss its chains.
Even in the context of an internal conflict model, there is no common ground here. O'Neill hails from Tyrone where republican hallowed ground is considered swampland by the British state and political unionism. Not once has a British official or Unionist politician offered to attended the grave of Martin Hurson who died on hunger strike in 1981.
It is obfuscating for O'Neill to claim she is the North's First Minister for all without explaining that the office of First Minister is so restricted in scope, so structurally constructed from a partisan and partitionist blueprint that it generates a situational logic whereby she feels compelled to find common ground with the British and unionism. At the same time, the British and unionism are freed from any structural constraints which might lead them to to find any common ground with her. She will go to their hallowed ground because she feels she has to. They will not come to hers because they feel they do not have to. Many suspect that it is only a matter of time before she, or whoever eventually replaces her, will not visit her own hallowed ground either.
People are entitled to commemorate whoever they choose. Were Michelle O'Neill to attend British war dead commemorations as a private individual, odd as it might seem, there would be insufficient in it to allow a critique to gain much traction. As, however, she attends such commemorations as the leader of a political tendency to pay unreciprocated homage, she is all too easily depicted as the slave that kneels to kiss its chains.
Sinn Fein might wish to spin that it is following the strategy of Rudi Dutschke who contemplated a long march through the institutions. But the purpose of that long march is to capture the institutions, not be captured by them.
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The Shinners accept the war is over, Unionists cannot accept the war is over.
ReplyDeleteIn this sense it's easier for a Sinn Fein leader to pay respects ( and I salute her for it) than it would ever be seen ( from the PUL community) to be acceptable for a Unionist leader to say, lay a wreath at a Republican monument.
Unionism seldom misses an opportunity to shoot itself in the foot. The enormous goodwill optics of such a move would strengthen Unionism not weaken it. They are missing an easy political gain here.
what exactly would that move be Steve?
DeleteTo lay a wreath at say the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square. But as not a cynical optics exercise, a genuine show of respect. I reckon it would go a long way in the psyche for both sides. A lot more compassion would be a good thing.
ReplyDeleteBut that would be a useful device to bypass the Provisional IRA dead. It would be a nod to the Dublin government. Such an action would be wholly in line with the establishment ethos. The language of 'the psyche of both sides' is tailor made discourse for the internal conflict model. The above article is premised on that very model being a complete inversion of the stated Provisional IRA ideological reasons for waging a war.
DeleteIf the war is over as far as Sinn Fein is concerned why is it still insisting on taking prisoners rather than agreeing to an amnesty??
I am not sure what your beef is here Mackers, the common ground you refer to has never been common and can never be in the way you describe until the Republic has been realised. NI remains part of the UK, the UK remembers its fallen on remembrance Sunday, the First Minister of one of a devolved UK Administrations took part in that Belfast ceremony. It was the right thing to do- from a SF perspective, that it was also the only thing SF could do, does not detract from it being the correct thing. Why are you shocked? Would you be shocked if Fine Gael did it? Will you be shocked when Catherine Connolly does it?
ReplyDeleteMy belief rather than my beef is the failure it represents.
DeleteWe agree there is no common ground. Sinn Fein has conceded its own ground to stand on the ground of its opponents. It recognises that ground as legitimate while the opponents refuse to recognise SF ground as legitimate. At some point that ground will be abandoned by SF itself.
What you seem to be saying is that it is justified only because the republican project has been so hollowed out that the situational logic of failure and defeat has so constricted choices that kissing the chains is the only option.
I am far from shocked at SF doing it. I expect little else. A failed party swallowing its own failure is not something to be surprised at. I would not be shocked if FG did it. I would not be shocked were Catherine Connolly to do it. But she can at least have her gesture reciprocated to a large extent - the British are not averse to commemorating the 1916 leaders upon whom the state of which she is President draws legitimacy from. Not one Provisional IRA dead is afforded that courtesy.
If people as individuals wish to commemorate the British war dead including numerous war criminals, they are free to do so. I won't be joining them. Nor will I will screaming at them or disrupting their gathering or disturbing their minute's silence.
A much more meaningful action by SF would be to acknowledge that the IRA were responsible for actions like Kingsmill or Joanna Mathers.
There is no longer a war with Britain, it is all about reconciliation and ending sectarianism, that is the only way the Republic can be achieved. Viewed through that prism, it was the right thing to do. Yes we lost- they won, they don't have to be magnanimous but we have to do be generous even in defeat. Anyhow, I have just finished my winter planting, hoping for a bumper spring crop of Garlic and Onions early flowers. Going to start eating and drinking like a skinhead now. Nollaig Shona to all at TPQ
ReplyDeleteThere is no longer a war although both Britain and Sinn Fein still want to take prisoners.
DeleteIt is not about reconciliation and very much about recrimination. A war over legitimacy now that the armed war is over, and one which sees SF on the backfoot.
SF is not generous in defeat. It is merely trying to win respectability. It is not reaching out the hand of friendship to unionism but poking it in the eye, hoping by sleight of hand to make itself look handsome and unionism ugly. That supposed generosity has not once manifested itself in an acknowledgment that the IRA perpetrated Kingsmill or killed Joanne Mathers.
There is no power sharing, just power splitting.
Do not make the mistake of thinking because you want to be generous towards unionists as a result of your belief that it is the right thing to do, that SF in its posturing is being generous. Like the DUP, it is guided by parsimony not generosity.
I am off to the neighbour to break open a bottle of whiskey. Enjoy your Christmas.