I.R.A. – I Ran Away – Again

If there ever was a mural in Belfast in 1969 criticizing the IRA for its failure to ‘protect’ the Catholic population from attacks, there is no photographic evidence to prove it. It’s a neat story, however, and it might have been true.

A truer story, though, is that the IRA is currently running away from a bigger Bogeyman – this time it’s running away from its own past and the truth of its horrific Human Rights’ violations over the thirty years of its dirty armed struggle.

Top republicans, leaders of the IRA and now prominent Sinn Féiners are all on the run from the truth of the IRA’s atrocious record on Human Rights – they are ashamed and embarrassed by it and hope that by making a constant din about British and Loyalist human wrongs their own consciences will not have to hear the cries of victims of the IRA’s many anti-civilian atrocities.

In this pathetic and immoral endeavour, they are aided by a cadre of one-eyed and self-proclaimed ‘Human Rights Lawyers’ and a larger body of civic IRA Atrocities’ Deniers [IADs] lacking any conscience toward IRA victims and Truth recovery.

Gerry Adams wants to live in Ra Ra Land – a place where he can find at the drop of a hat the IRA murderers of Portlaoise Prison Chief Brian Stack some thirty years after the murder and after the IRA’s years of denial that it was involved – and smuggle Brian Stack’s sons in the back of a van to meet an IRA leader giving details of the attack – and meanwhile tell the rest of us that this time the IRA has really gone away, has no records of any kind and can’t be held to account for thirty years of Human Rights’ atrocities.

Meanwhile, leading IRA operators are able to go on a Three Monkeys’ Tour bragging about escaping temporarily from The Maze prison and giving a talk in The Patrician Hall in Carrickmore, originally built and run by the Catholic church before its ownership was transferred to the local community [no objections from the Catholic church to the Patrician Hall being used to glorify IRA murders].

Getting back to the IRA – did anyone in the IRA [young volunteers serving very long sentences, or young men about to die on hunger-strike] ever foresee that one day the IRA’s entire leadership would be in denial about even membership of the IRA? Did any of these young IRA volunteers ever imagine that IRA Army Council’s entire membership would end its days denying any part in the IRA’s armed struggle?

If there was ever a symbol of the IRA’s shame and embarrassment at its horrific past, that symbol is none other than Ivor Malachy Bell, former IRA volunteer and Chief of Staff of the IRA who has been charged with aiding and abetting murder [in relation to the abduction, torture and murder of mother of 10 Jean McConville] and membership of the IRA.

What is Bell’s response to these charges?

Does he stand up bravely and honestly and boast – “I did what I did for the IRA and I am proud of it” or else “I did what I did for the IRA and I am sorry for it” – no, neither of these.

Bell is your perfect symbol of the IRA’s embarrassment and shame about its past Human Rights’ atrocities.

Bell has instructed his legal team to put forward a defence of “dementia” – which is effectively the IRA’s new strategy with regard to ‘Legacy’ and ‘Truth Recovery’ – can’t remember anything, will deny everything and won’t participate fully in any proposed trials.

Was there ever a bigger coward than Ivor Malachy Bell?

Yes – the IRA is an even bigger coward than Ivor Malachy Bell.

Jean McConville couldn’t appeal to a legal team when she was being tortured by the IRA into admitting to being an informer and couldn’t hide behind a claim of dementia and couldn’t get a visit from Amnesty International, from The Pat Finucane Centre or from Relatives for [Partial] Justice before she was shot in the back of her head and dumped into a hole on a beach and buried possibly alive before she expired.

What does the IRA stand for nowadays?

Truly it stands for I Ran Away Again, this time from the Truth of thousands of Human Rights’ atrocities in Northern Ireland, in the Republic of Ireland, in Britain and in Europe.

Thank you, Ivor, for highlighting the shame, embarrassment and cowardice of the IRA, of Sinn Féin and of republicans in general – a truly shameful Human Rights’ legacy written into the historical record for all time.