PREPARING THE DEFENCE OF ULSTER LOYALISM .......
Ten years ago this month the ' ULSTER WORKERS COUNCIL' strike brought down the power-sharing executive of BRIAN FAULKNER and GERRY FITT .
ANDY POLLAK talks to UDA leader ANDY TYRIE , one of the men behind the 1974 work stoppage , and GEORGE SEAWRIGHT , one of the new breed of hard-line Loyalist spokesmen , about the outlook for Northern Ireland's (sic) Protestants in the 1980's .
From ' FORTNIGHT ' magazine , May 1984 .
Andy Tyrie (UDA) says the Protestant paramilitaries ... "...have been seen as pretty inefficient and I think those people hope to try to change that by attacking high-profile members of the Republican Movement . " It is generally believed that the 'Ulster (sic) Freedom Fighters' (UFF) is an organisation made up of UDA members .
At the end of the interview Tyrie is still insisting he is an optimist - he still hopes that the 'Official Unionist Party' will go back into the Assembly . He clearly wants to believe that there is some way in which the ultimate sectarian confrontation can be avoided , the UDA can be put out to grass , and the politicians can find some basis for agreement : " Most people who live in the North don't want to slaughter each other .
But because they're conditioned they are inclined to build more efficient armies , more efficient 'anti-each-other' machines . I have watched people over the years trying to perfect their war machines , their machines for a 'Doomsday' situation .
But I have also seen people , when they do perfect these things , look for the alternative - to live together and work together . " (' 1169 ... ' Comment - It has always been possible for us here on this island to "live and work together ... " : but not under the present constitutional 'arrangement' - any other country that laboured with a part of its territory under the jurisdictional control of a foreign country would suffer the same 'troubles' as Ireland is . There is only one solution - a complete British military and political withdrawal from this island . Anything else will just 'manage' the issue in the short term (as our history has shown us) - the occupation must end , politically and militarily , to 'solve' the issue .)
[END of ' PREPARING THE DEFENCE OF ULSTER LOYALISM '.]
(Monday , 15 August - 'The Inevitability of Sectarian Collision ' - by George Seawright , DUP . From 1984 .)
THE IRA HAS TO DO WHAT THE IRA HAS TO DO .......
The Sinn Fein electoral wagon is slowing down . As a result , the IRA is likely to begin stepping up its war against the Northern State . GENE KERRIGAN reports from Belfast and also interviews Sinn Fein's DANNY MORRISON on the party's recent successes and failures .
From ' MAGILL ' magazine , September 1984.
Danny Morrison , Director of Publicity for Sinn Fein , interviewed -
DM : " Another explanation for John Hume's large vote is that the Alliance Party absolutely and totally collapsed . Will that vote go back to Alliance in the local government elections ? It's obvious that sections of the Catholic nationalist middle class , clearly perceiving the SDLP to be in trouble - and we probably hyped it up and actually created the motivation for them to cross from the Alliance to Hume - and the fantastic machine that we had ; I mean , I have no doubt that we actually drove SDLP voters to the polls on June 14 ! (' 1169 ... ' Comment - to knowingly physically assist others to vote against you and then class yourself as "fantastic... " for doing so ... ?)
John Hume got a big vote . Now , why did we get a reduced vote ? The unpalatable things are that perhaps it's not entirely possible to totally harmonise the relationship between armed struggle and electoral politics (' 1169 ... ' Comment - ...as has been proved in July last - despite what the same Danny Morrision once said re carrying on the struggle "..with an armalite in one hand and a ballot box in the other .. " : both well-manicured hands now reach for the ballot box only , when dealing with Westminster or the Free Staters . The 'armalite' will be reserved for Republicans who have not surrendered . ) . And the one thing I have to emphasise , that all Republicans are united on , is that electoral politics will not remove the British from Ireland . Only armed struggle will do that . (My emphasis - Sharon : when Morrison made that remark (1984) Westminster claimed jurisdiction over six Irish counties - now (2005) Westminster still claimsjurisdiction over those same six Irish counties . Westminster has not changed regarding that jurisdictional claim - rather , Morrison and Provisional Sinn Fein have changed . They are now a Six County version of Fianna Fail - trading on the slight smell of sulphur that comes from them ....)
If the IRA was an absolutely huge well-armed guerilla army there would probably be no need for electoral politics . Because in most revolutionary struggles going to the ballot box takes place at the conclusion , the successful conclusion , of the armed struggle - as for example with the 'Patriotic Front' in Zimbabwe - rather than in the middle of the guerilla war , as is experimentally happening with the Republican Movement in the Six Counties ....... " (' 1169 ... ' Comment - "...experimentally.. " ? You mean as de Valera 'experimented' in 1926 ? And as Tomas MacGiolla 'experimented' in 1969/'70 ? And what were the results of their 'experiments' , Danny ..... ?)
(MORE LATER).
CHAOS IN THE GARDAI .......
The Evelyn Glenholmes affair not only involved unlawful activity by gardai , it stemmed from the chaotic condition of the force which has resulted from ignoring the warning signs of the past decade .
By Gene Kerrigan.
First published in ' MAGILL ' magazine , April 1986 .
In the wake of the chaos in Prince's Street , Dublin , both the ' Irish Press' newspaper and Charles Haughey called for the resignation of the State Minister for Justice , Alan Dukes : this was knee-jerk reaction , pure silliness , given that Dukes is not a wet day in the job and cannot be held responsible for the chaos which has grown over the past decade .
Only if Alan Dukes follows the custom of expediency , of finding individual scapegoats rather than assessing the state of a garda force in which large numbers of gardai feel themselves entitled to commit offences in pursuit of political aims , albeit the political aims of the government - only then could there be a legitimate call for his resignation .
[END of 'CHAOS IN THE GARDAI' .]
(Monday , 15 August - ' THE INTERROGATION OF STEPHEN MOORE' : From 1986.)
