Gerard Hopkins
Ireland and violence
Irish Republicans take no satisfaction in tragedies like that which occurred on the Shankill Road on October 23. No matter how many times we reiterate that statement, it will fall on deaf ears. Every shade of unionism, every shade of pseudo-nationalism prefers instead to regurgitate the comfortable lie that the IRA is engaged in a sectarian campaign geared towards the annihilation of the Protestant people.
Despite the fact that the IRA does not gun down innocent Protestants drinking in bars, shoot indiscriminately into taxis ferrying Protestant passengers, or bomb homes occupied by Protestant families — the apologists of the status quo still persist in perpetuating the lie that the IRA is engaged in a sectarian conflict characterised by activities like these.
The IRA is typecast as the demon of Irish politics, the perpetuator of war for war's sake, and the only obstacle to peace.
Lest I be misunderstood, let me say quite categorically that the victims of tragedy have a right to sympathy. Anguish and the pain of loss transcend political boundaries, and none of us has a monopoly on them. What I do question, though, is the sincerity of the crocodile tears shed by people who are more interested in manipulating the emotional turmoil of people's grief than genuinely seeking to find a solution to the problems of our divided society.
The Shankill Road bombing cannot be viewed in isolation: it did not happen in a vacuum. It must be analysed in perspective, unpalatable as it may be for some. It occurred against a backdrop which is an unprecedented level of genocidal slaughter against the Catholic people (30 assassinated this year so far).
The Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Fighters do not even attempt now to portray themselves as "soldiers fighting the Republican enemy": the whole thrust of their campaign is naked sectarianism, their targets each and every Catholic — irrespective of age.
In an attempt to hold the UDA leadership accountable for their genocidal campaign against the Catholic people, the IRA planted a bomb at the UDA headquarters on the Shankill Road. That bomb went tragically wrong. It was a bomb intended for the UDA command structure, not a deliberate attack upon the civilian population of the Shankill Road.
The grief felt by the families of the victims of that particular bombing incident is no less real than the trauma suffered by the families of the victims of Castlerock, the Derby House and Devonish Arms massacres, Sean Graham's betting shop ... Need one go on? All of which, in contradistinction to the Shankill Road bomb, were premeditated, cold-blooded, intentional acts of sectarian terrorism.
How many Anglo-Irish Conferences were suspended for the Catholic victims of genocide? How often has the British prime minister got himself on the television to voice sympathy with the Catholic victims of loyalism run wild, armed and supported by the British state?
[Gerard Hopkins
is a prisoner in Long Kesh. This article appeared originally as a letter in the Irish Times.]