THE SEEDS OF A POLICE STATE .There is substantial evidence that a major crime was perpetrated within the Garda Siochana five years ago .
The evidence for this crime has certainly been available to senior Gardai ever since then , but no enquiry whatsoever has taken place , let alone any Garda being disciplined in connection with that crime .
By Vincent Browne and Derek Dunne .
From 'MAGILL' magazine , September 1983 .
Furthermore , no agency , such as the (State) Department of Justice , has undertaken any investigation of the above-mentioned crime , and at least one (State) Minister for Justice , Gerry Collins , baulked at the opportunity to institute a formal investigation into what occured , even though he had earlier called for such an investigation !
The failure to hold an enquiry into the very persuasive prima facie evidence of this criminal conspiracy is made all the more significant by the subsequent promotion of a great number of Gardai involved in the case , although it would be quite wrong to suggest that those Gardai who we later name as having both been involved and promoted were individually guilty of any wrongdoing .
The crime in question concerns a conspiracy to subvert the course of justice and this involved a significant number of Gardai being involved in a plot to commit perjury.......
(MORE LATER).
(Martin McGuinness , left , with Henry Kissinger , as usual , on the right ...) DISARMING MARTIN .......
All (P)Sinn Fein leaders have a series of mantras and mini-speeches which they seek to get into every interview , regardless of the question .
The task of the journalist is to avoid setting off these reflex responses : the problem with Martin McGuinness is that he does it so pleasantly that it seems impolite to interrupt him .
From 'MAGILL' magazine , March 1999 .
By John Waters .
Martin McGuinness stated - " I think that from our perspective in (P) Sinn Fein , we have been conscious all along that there were always going to be people connected to the process who would be concerned at the prospect of , for example , (P) Sinn Fein becoming the largest nationalist party in the North. (P) Sinn Fein's electoral record has clearly sent a message to all of them that you could conceivably have an All-Ireland political party that quite possibly could be in government , both North and South , at the same time . "
He continued - " I think that does put the frighteners into people . And so they are going to , even in the context of a peace process , attempt to , as much as they possibly can , damage the possibility of (P) Sinn Fein ever arriving at such a position . And they're even prepared to do it at the cost of the agreement itself , which is most disturbing and most worrying . " ('1169...' Comment - "..they.." being the infamous 'Securocrats' which the PSF leadership blamed everytime their attempted surrender to Westminster was thrown back in their faces . And it was thrown back in their faces because Westminster had already neutralised the Provos as an effective opposition and had therefore little reason , apart from its own desire to play to the watching media , to hand over any 'prize' .)
It feels quite unreal , given the euphoria of last April , to be sitting around in Stormont talking to Martin McGuinness about the same matters that dominated the previous four years . Decommissioning has remained the slipping clutch of the peace process . ('1169...' Comment - the 'slipping clutch' of a genuine peace process is the lack of a date for British withdrawal) At the time of writing , we appear to have reached a point of absolute inertia , at which the unstoppable force and the immovable object have ground into one another and stand shuddering in their irreconcilability.......
(MORE LATER).
GUNS TO BREAD AND BUTTER .......EDDIE ROONEY looks at the transformation of the Official Republican movement from a revolutionary organisation run by its military wing to a social democratic electoral party .
From 'Fortnight' magazine , 1983 .
In a relatively brief period the Officials , who once prided themselves on the belief that the British government saw their ' revolutionary socialism ' as a greater long-term threat than the Provisional IRA's military campaign , have moved from being 'terrorists' to become the darlings of the British 'Northern Ireland' Office - under a British Tory government !
Seamus Lynch , former internee and now Workers' Party chief in the North , has become in the British view the 'responsible Irish politician' * ('1169....' Comment* - that 'honour' now belongs to these people - the latest Westminster house-pets) - a considerable achievement for a socialist revolutionary ! But the transition has not been totally painless - the main influence behind the left-wing political development of the Officials in the North of Ireland during the early 1970's was their military commander , Billy McMillen .
Billy McMillen had advocated a revolutionary approach that would blend political and military action in the struggle for an all-Ireland socialist republic : the concept of the ballot in one hand and the armalite in the other is more in line with the Official rather than the Provisional tradition .......
(MORE LATER).
