A Treaty Once Again
In what seems to be going against the trend of modern times, the Irish Republican Army (Oglaigh na hEireann in Gaelic) agreed to lay down its arms. For those who are really interested, here is the full text. For the really interested, here it is the video. If you follow around the Sinn Fein site, they have reactions from various leaders around the world, from Ken Livingstone, to the official US statement to reactions from the Basque state. And of course, there are reactions from traditional opponents of the Irish Republican Army.
There is no room to get into the history here. Read The IRA, Michael Collins, The Man Who Made Ireland, Eamon De Valera, the Man Who Was Ireland and The Troubles, Ireland's Ordeal and the Search for Peace all by Tim Pat Coogan and get back to me. LONG story short, over 800 years ago the British Empire conquered Ireland by turning the Irish against each other. And by whooping the hell out of the Irish. The next hundreds of years saw various forms of oppression and all but genocide against the Irish people. Language and culutre made illegal, treaties made and broken, occupation, slaughter over religion, slaughter over race and slaughter over land grab. It is an interesting fact after the British made Ireland become a single crop nation (the potato), it caught a blight and nearly wiped out the country, the Great Famines. It's more interesting that the Americans gave more aid in the early years than the British. Country's population went from 8 million to 3 million. Between 1845-1851, about 1 to 1.5 million died, 1.5 million emigrated to Britain, 1 million to America and another million to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Needless to say, emigrants were a little angry, sad and passed this on. This is why Irish-Americans tend to be a little more fervent in support of the IRA than those who live in Ireland.
Suffice it to say, the IRA, a terrorist organization, declaring to lay down arms is a big step. They also told their volunteers and soldiers ot cease any illegal activites. This is a reference to a rash to robberies worth millions of dollars that have taken place all over northern Ireland, including one in Belfast worth 22 million pounds (about 40 million dollars). This also, hopefully, refers to the illegal drug trade the IRA got invovled in to give them money for arms and explosives. The IRA are not the standard lovey-dovey freedom fighters against an evil empire that they portray themselves to be. They murder the innocent, they deal drugs in their own neighborhoods to raise money and the knee cap (shoot the knee cap off of someone) or murder those who go against them. So, if they really are going to give up all this illegal activity to take up the only peaceful means of building a new government as spelled out in the Good Friday peace accords, than this is a hell of a step. The next move would then be the British and Protestant para-militaries' move.
So what is the next move? Well, real elections real quickly would help. Real progress and real tangible effects of this lay down would also be necessary to keep the process moving forward. Like Iraq, a real effect the real people can really feel will go long away to making a political process be real to the people who are supposed to be governed. While there have been cease fires in the past, by the score, this is the first statement that was ordered as a directive from the Ogliagh na hEireann to all the Brigade Commanders over each cell. Previous communiques had come form Sinn Fein with some assocaition with Ard Righ (IRA High Command) and then expressed as statements. This came from the IRA itself, which is also novel. This could be the real sign observers and people living in Northern Ireland have been hoping for. But, given Irish history, this vould be the start of something worse: bloodier civil war, British ambush or gods know what.
The one thing Irish history has taught anyone is that there are no happy stories in Ireland.
So it is written, so do I see it.
There is no room to get into the history here. Read The IRA, Michael Collins, The Man Who Made Ireland, Eamon De Valera, the Man Who Was Ireland and The Troubles, Ireland's Ordeal and the Search for Peace all by Tim Pat Coogan and get back to me. LONG story short, over 800 years ago the British Empire conquered Ireland by turning the Irish against each other. And by whooping the hell out of the Irish. The next hundreds of years saw various forms of oppression and all but genocide against the Irish people. Language and culutre made illegal, treaties made and broken, occupation, slaughter over religion, slaughter over race and slaughter over land grab. It is an interesting fact after the British made Ireland become a single crop nation (the potato), it caught a blight and nearly wiped out the country, the Great Famines. It's more interesting that the Americans gave more aid in the early years than the British. Country's population went from 8 million to 3 million. Between 1845-1851, about 1 to 1.5 million died, 1.5 million emigrated to Britain, 1 million to America and another million to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Needless to say, emigrants were a little angry, sad and passed this on. This is why Irish-Americans tend to be a little more fervent in support of the IRA than those who live in Ireland.
Suffice it to say, the IRA, a terrorist organization, declaring to lay down arms is a big step. They also told their volunteers and soldiers ot cease any illegal activites. This is a reference to a rash to robberies worth millions of dollars that have taken place all over northern Ireland, including one in Belfast worth 22 million pounds (about 40 million dollars). This also, hopefully, refers to the illegal drug trade the IRA got invovled in to give them money for arms and explosives. The IRA are not the standard lovey-dovey freedom fighters against an evil empire that they portray themselves to be. They murder the innocent, they deal drugs in their own neighborhoods to raise money and the knee cap (shoot the knee cap off of someone) or murder those who go against them. So, if they really are going to give up all this illegal activity to take up the only peaceful means of building a new government as spelled out in the Good Friday peace accords, than this is a hell of a step. The next move would then be the British and Protestant para-militaries' move.
So what is the next move? Well, real elections real quickly would help. Real progress and real tangible effects of this lay down would also be necessary to keep the process moving forward. Like Iraq, a real effect the real people can really feel will go long away to making a political process be real to the people who are supposed to be governed. While there have been cease fires in the past, by the score, this is the first statement that was ordered as a directive from the Ogliagh na hEireann to all the Brigade Commanders over each cell. Previous communiques had come form Sinn Fein with some assocaition with Ard Righ (IRA High Command) and then expressed as statements. This came from the IRA itself, which is also novel. This could be the real sign observers and people living in Northern Ireland have been hoping for. But, given Irish history, this vould be the start of something worse: bloodier civil war, British ambush or gods know what.
The one thing Irish history has taught anyone is that there are no happy stories in Ireland.
So it is written, so do I see it.