[Mb-civic] Emailing: story - IRA shoots itslef in the foot.

[Alexander Harper]

Dear Cheese,

It does my old heart good to read such an unabashedly pro-British piece. There are one or two issues, however, for which, with a sinking heart, I feel obliged to take up the cudgels on behalf of the poor old Lion. I am not sure if it was your intention to provoke some reaction from me but if it was, well here I am, rising like a young trout to a mayfly.

First of all I am sorry that you were unable to read the article. I will try and did it up again and paste it to the main body of this message although it is now pretty out of date. It was by no means a bit of anti-IRA,  MI5 black propaganda inserted into, of all places, The Independent, but a factual report on how badly the IRA/Sinn Fein have been fucking up PR-wise recently.

For a long time now the IRA and the protestant paramilitary gangs have been pushing their luck. Because of the past and because of wanting to bend over backwards to keep the peace process on track both the Eire and the British governments have ‘kept cool’ (Bertie Aherne’s words) over the drug dealing, kneecapping, kidnapping, extortion etc but now their cup has overflowed.

First came the bank heist in the North; 26 mln pounds (about $50mln). The Eire government were the first officially to finger the IRA, which was then actually caught trying to launder the proceeds in Cork (Mick gives Paddy 26 mln in hot notes, Paddy gives back Mick 21 mln in clean ones, in bursts the Garda). Still, that was only about money, admittedly a tidy sum, but no one was hurt and although people on both sides of the border thought it was pretty outrageous, in staunch republican areas they probably had a chuckle about it. The problem was when they murdered Robert McCartney. This guy was a tough, rock solid republican catholic from a hard pro-republican, pro-PIRA (Provisional IRA) area of Belfast. He worked as a bouncer at a pub. Some IRA men come in to drown their sorrows after going to a ‘Bloody Sunday’ memorial, they drink a few jars, there is a fight, somebody tries to cut McCartney’s throat with a broken bottle and when that doesn’t do the trick he gets stabbed to death. The pub doors are closed and IRA forensic boys are right round to clean everything up and make sure that none of the seventy odd witnesses saw anything, which of course they didn’t. The trouble was that McCartney’s family took rather a dim view about all this and refused to keep quiet and what is more their – republican- neighbourhood agreed with them and soon there were anti PIRA slogans all over the place just like in a protestant neighbourhood (PIRA SCUM OUT! sic). People even started talking to the Police; unheard of before. Bertie Aherne was up on his hind legs in the Dail again, very pissed off and actually so was everyone else. The upshot of all this, it may have been on the news in the US, is that the IRA have belatedly expelled three members, one of whom has been arrested. Really, Cheese, these people have to choose between being a criminal organisation, or a bona fide political party, they can’t have it both ways (unlike your own dear GOP – sorry, I have gone too far). The political fall out for Sinn Fein (the political wing of the IRA) has been terrible, hence the ‘shooting in the foot’ quote in the Indie.

Now, Cheese, what you have to say about Britain and Ireland is fair enough but pretty dated nowadays. Yes, over the centuries the British have behaved abominably in Ireland and the Irish have long memories; 1648 (the sack of Drogheda) seems just like yesterday. There is probably a hard core in Eire itself, maybe 5%, maybe less of the people who can never forgive the British and that is their privilege and I have no beef with them. But do you know what? Eire, thanks initially to EU subsidies and then to its successive governments’ acuity and the efforts of the Irish (and actually the British keeping the proddies under control in the North), has one of the most successful economies, the lowest unemployment and the best education system in the world and people there don’t care about the past anymore. Why carry that baggage around, man, forever playing the victim and blaming your failures on the Brits? Forget it. No, the real blowhard guys with the 1916 mindset all tend to be descendents of the Irish, who made it to the USA, Australia and Argentina and who still like to cry into their Guinness in a nice, nostalgic, Yeatsian, Celtic glow. Fair enough but it ain’t real; they have no idea about what Eire or the Irish – or the British - are like in 2005. The Irish-Argentines are always being lectured by Irish Ambassadors about this but there you are, it’s fun to have a bogeyman and why not the Brits.

I am sorry those two old tarts got up your nose with their ‘God Save the Queen’ and their ‘Rule Britannia’ all those years ago but you shouldn’t take them as being that representative of the rest of us and I am sure you don’t really.

Al Baraka

----- Original Message -----
From: Cheeseburger <maxfury at granderiver.net>
To: "mb-civic" <mb-civic at islandlists.com>
Subject: [Mb-civic] Emailing: story - IRA shoots itslef in the foot.
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 16:43:54 -0600

> 
> Re:  Emailing: story - IRA shoots itslef in the foot.
> 
> 
> 
> This a quickie.  Since there was no story but just more attached objs, gifs,
> etcs, I will make a story up and guess.
> 
> This must relate to the IRA being accused by England of robbing $50 million
> from a bank over there or something, therefore it has "shot itself in the
> foot" politically.  However, I'm just guessing.
> 
> Without going into the entire history of England vs Ireland, of which I only
> have a few pieces of the story here and there in my cluttered uneducated
> mind, I simply cannot remember who I dislike more, the IRA which might have
> robbed a few banks and killed a few people (no, I can't absolve them for
> that), or the Government of England which has held Ireland under tyranny for
> as long as I can remember, used everything from murder squads, rape,
> extortion, and you name it, seized any property of anyone they ever wanted,
> left people to die up there during the potato famines, forced men women and
> children either into labor camps, or just left them to die by the side of
> the road, then partitioned off Northern Ireland so they could keep it "In
> The English Family", as they supported the murder of anyone and anything
> that opposed such continuing Empire Building on the part of England,
> Britain, UK, whatever one wishes to call a country that had at one time
> basically "conquered the world" to a great extent and either enslaved,
> crippled, or murdered anyone who got in their way, including some little
> place called America.
> 
> Of course, all my above facts are done strictly from memory and I'm sure
> some might be lacking and someone might be able to fill in the blanks.
> 
> But the Fact remains that today, in the 21st Century, after all the PURE
> BULLSH*T that England has pulled off at the BLOODY expense of just about the
> entire planet during their hey-day of "We Are Gods, We Own Earth" period,
> and continuing on through even Today, to hear ENGLAND squeak up about just
> about anything about ANYONE ELSE ON EARTH doing anything "bad, harmful,
> illegal, indecent, or murderous" remains nothing short than the blessed by
> God Himself absolute HEIGHT of Ultimate Hypocrisy.
> 
> Over all these Centuries, after all the countries, people, men women and
> children they have desecrated, obliterated, corrupted, destroyed, raped,
> murdered, and simply left to die by the side of the road, it still surprises
> me that they are even allowed the dignity of retaining the title of being a
> "Country" on the face of the Planet Earth.
> 
> Much less one that retains the actual global status of "Highly Respected
> Democracy".
> 
> If Americans are in "Dream Land", then the English remain in nothing short
> of the most hypocritical "Nightmare World" this galaxy has ever seen.
> 
> While the actual *Peoples* of a Nation do not necessarily reflect the crimes
> of its Leadership or Government, the English have been conditioned to hate
> the IRA, murderous or not, as a "Terrorist Organization", rather than see
> them in the light of "Freedom Fighters", from which they first sprang in
> opposition to England's ongoing murder spree, real estate confiscations,
> offshore oil drilling off the northern coast, and etc, in Ireland.
> 
> When I lived in LA, a long time ago, I remember having a conversation with 2
> English ladies.  They remarked during the conversation and frowned the
> phrase "Those filthy Irish people!!  Useless vermin!!".  I asked them what
> they meant, and they replied "They have their own murder squad, the IRA, the
> entire Irish have no moral structure whatsoever!!".  When I tried to relate
> to them some of The Crimes Of Britain against not only The Irish People but
> against the world, they would not have any of it.  They put their hands on
> their ears, began singing "God Save The Qu*en" or something loudly so they
> could not hear my words, and walked away down the hallway.
> 
> It was like trying to relate the worth of Native American Indians to someone
> named General George Armstrong Custer.
> 
> Mass brainwashing of a country's population at its finest.
> 
> I have the greatest respect for all kinds of countries in this world, and
> their peoples, including even England, however, my patience with Governments
> who murder for pleasure and profit and then point their fingers and use the
> international air waves to cement their points while exonerating themselves
> from any and all crimes now, then, and forever throughout the future and
> history, still makes me want to barf.
> 
> End of England Out Of Ireland Rant.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Cheeseburger
> 
> - No, children, the cheeseburger was NOT invented in England.  Nor was
> pizza.  And no, we still do NOT have to sing "God Save The Queen" each time
> we eat a meal.  Those days are over.  At least as far as we know, unless, of
> course, you live in either Ireland or The Middle East....
> 
> .
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> Mb-civic at islandlists.com
> http://www.islandlists.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mb-civic

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