stuff

[waider]

Fascinating documentary on RTÉ last night about the IRA, specfically about their bombing campaigns, the mechanics behind them, etc. An actual honest-to-goodness documentary, strangely enough, as opposed to some fly-on-the-wall crap or "reality" TV. Several interesting points made:

1. While the IRA never intentionally used suicide bombers from their own ranks, they did at one point "volunteer" a few people for suicide attacks on border posts by tying them into the driver's seat of a van loaded with explosives;
2. During the 80s, they managed to simultaneously get support from both the US and one of the US's greatest enemies at the time, Libya;
3. The Docklands bomb of 1996 was built in Northern Ireland and driven right into the middle of London's Docklands, which is a pretty audacious way to go about such a spectacular display of force;
4. By the time of the Docklands bomb, which was the "mainstream" IRA's biggest event, the IRA had a well-established system of warnings to the police designed to minimise civilian casualties while maximising damage; inept use of this system by the so-called Real IRA was a major contributor to the high body count in the Omagh bombing;
5. The Docklands bombing pretty much led to the Good Friday Agreement despite stock political rhetoric about not giving in to terrorists because the powerful financial interests threatened by such an attack leaned heavily on the British government, suggesting that if their security in London could not be guaranteed they would likely move their business elsewhere.

The documentary featured ex- and possibly current IRA members, including those with bomb-making expertise, security forces, library footage from various events, and reconstructions of some of the major bombings.

Comments

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I recall reading in the paper a week or two ago that Ulster turned down the latest IRA disarmament offer. What's up with that?

[waider.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's either poor summarizing on your part or really crass underreporting. Basically, the UUP and Sinn Féin got together and hammered out an agreement to more-or-less forget the past year of fingerpointing and what not with some cajoling from the Irish and UK governments. This in itself is a pretty big deal, as is seeing David Trimble and Gerry Adams hanging out in a lounge together, joking with each other and generally behaving more like best mates than politicians from opposing sides of the Northern Problem. The deal was brought forth with great trumpetting by the various parties, the Irish and English Governments in particular, since everyone likes to claim credit when any progress is made. Sinn Féin made a fairly blunt statement to the effect that guns had no place in any aspect of Irish politics, and the UUP said they were willing to move forward in some sort of governing body with Sinn Féin. Yay. Then the IRA made a statement to the effect that they agreed with what Sinn Féin said. Yay. Then the independant observer for decomissioning, General de Chastelain (sp?) said that the IRA had decommissioned a whole assload of weaponry, more than the first two bundles they'd trashed. Yay! But they had also exercised their option - granted under the Good Friday Agreement - to not reveal exactly what had been destroyed. At which point the whole deal pretty much fell apart, the UUP saying that this wasn't the deal they'd agreed to. Even Sinn Féin seemed to be tacitly admitting that the IRA were WAY off base here in not being more open about what had been decomissioned. The Irish PM, Bertie Ahern, expressed no surprise that the Unionists were unhappy. He even hinted that he felt this was going to be the snag all along. The UK PM had his spin doctors conjure up a storm about how it was just a hitch, etc. etc. Gerry Adams and David Trimble still appear to be on good terms; there's unspecified behind-the-scenes work being done to try and get the IRA to see how idiotic their stance is; and the elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly, which has been suspended for over a year, are going ahead next month. So some progress has been made. The IRA, however, keen to show they can be as ass-headed as the much-lampooned DUP (that's Ian Paisley's crowd), have said they're withdrawing whatever it was they were offering until after the Assembly elections, which feels like they're suggesting if the elections don't turn out "right" they'll take their toys and go home.

If only.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I am certain the poor summarization is mine. I didn't actually read the article beyond the first paragraph, and i'm not sure i actually read the paragraph... maybe kinda skimmed it.

What is the deal with the IRA/Sinn Féin schizoidness? Have they been growing further apart lately or have i just not been paying attention?

[waider.livejournal.com]

Dude! Didn't you know? They're *completely* *separate* *organizations*!!

Actually, I don't know if they've tried to persuade anyone of that since Martin McGuinness admitted he was in the IRA around about the time of Bloody Sunday and was at some point fairly far up the, uh, management tree. This is your NI Minister for Education, kids! He used SHOOT PEOPLE!

I digress. Basically, I think what's happened is that Gerry Adams, dragging Sinn Féin behind him, has approached the middle of the road from the Republican side, while David Trimble, dragging the UUP behind him, has approached it from the Unionist side. They're both far closer to each other politically than they are to their respective causes (personified, as it were, by the IRA on one side and the "Rebel Unionists", the DUP, and whoever else on the other), and that gives me hope that I might actually see some useful political settlement out of this. And then they can get down to proper political things, like the passing of unspecified sums of money in brown envelopes in exchange for property rezoning and such like, just like we do here in the good ol' Saor Stát Éireann.

[pobig.livejournal.com]

Recalling some years ago when you politely but firmly refused to say anything at all about the situation, this and other entries are my clearest sign at how it's improved.

[waider.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I vaguely recall that. The biggest problem with talking about The Troubles is that so much can be read into what you say by people with their own agendas or filters or what not. So in the past, people have mistakenly believed that I support the IRA, or their actions, or their struggle, or whatever the hell. At one point I did harbour notions that it was perhaps unwise to say negative things about the paramilitaries on the grounds that the net is a public forum and you don't know who's reading what you write, but fuck it. To be honest, I think my willingness to state my opinion is at least partly a reflection on my own changes of attitude as well as the more-or-less peace we've had for the last several years.