Murdering the Murderers

It could have come out of a comedy script, if only it wasn't so tragic. After weeks of pressure following the brutal murder of Robert McCartney by IRA members, the IRA have met the victims family and offered....to shoot his killers!

The last few weeks has seen an extraordinary turn of events. After widespread reports of witness intimidation, Sinn Fein not only admitted the killers were IRA members, but asked for witnesses to come forward (which is effectively asking people to sign their own death warrant). The IRA soon realised the killers were a liability to their organisation and expelled them. In other words they were saying to the killers: "intimidate witnesses in your name, not ours". But this hasn't worked either so they have now resorted to this!

In their statement they said:
“The IRA representative detailed the outcome of the internal disciplinary proceedings thus far and stated in clear terms that the IRA was prepared to shoot people directly involved in the killing of Robert McCartney,”
In the past "disciplinary proceedings" has meant the abduction and torture of suspects in order to gain confessions.

Over the last thirty years, the IRA have murdered thousands. In many cases, people merely disappeared without the IRA even admitting to their murder. Since the start of the "peace process", the IRA have murdered scores of people, including a policeman, Jerry McCabe during a bungled post office raid in the Irish Republic. Not only have Sinn Fein tried to get Jerry McCabes killers released from Jail, but they refuse to call his killing murder. It all suggests that their frantic efforts during the current crisis have more to do with their electoral standing than with any genuine remorse.

Sinn Fein have for too long have been able to hide under the cloak of legitimacy, whilst giving a nod and a wink to robbery and murder. As long as the IRA refrained from bombings, the British and Irish Governments tolerated their criminality as a necessary compromise, and many voters throughout Ireland have felt it was finally safe to vote for them. But there's a fine line between criminality and terrorism, and although the people of Belfast no longer experience bombings, they now risk an even greater danger of being governed by armed thugs who have no respect for human life.

Whilst the rest of Europe are signatories to the European Convention of Human Rights, Ireland is in danger of being hijacked by a political party whose methods bear more relation to the Nazi brownshirts than a democratic party. After their ceasefire, the IRA made a commitment to put their arms beyond use, yesterday's statement clearly shows the opposite is true. It can only be hoped that Irish voters will finally wake up to the threat facing their democracy and exclude Sinn Fein from office.