18.07.1996

A return to arms?

History is repeating itself in Ireland, and it is not repeating itself as farce. The ceasefire ended some considerable time ago and the IRA has exploded bombs in mainland Britain, but in the Six Counties themselves there was still a relative absence of violence, certainly violence of an undisputably political kind.

In last week’s Weekly Worker (July 11), Jim Blackstock looked at the effects of the Orange Order trying to assert the protestant ascendancy in the manner to which they liked to be accustomed. They met resistance from the Royal Ulster Constabulary, who have protected such marches in the past but have sought to obstruct them when times are more sensitive. The US, British and Irish governments are undoubtedly keen on the ‘peace process’ continuing, and if that means impeding King Billy’s more vocal advocates from marching where they please, then impediments there will have to be.

However, the police made a U-turn last week, permitting a loyalist march to go ahead through a catholic area, and the response from nationalists has been to rally in defence of their areas. They had no faith in the crown forces which were responsible for the death of Dermot McShane, former Irish National Liberation Army member and prisoner, in Derry last weekend. The petrol bomb and the plastic bullet have made a comeback, obvious dissension has appeared between London, Dublin and possibly Washington.

Finally, a bomb exploded at a hotel. The Provisional IRA has gone out of its way to deny responsibility for the blast, and Sinn Fein has suggested that the bomb explosion was arranged by the British. Maybe, maybe not. Irish Republican splinter groups have been examined in the bourgeois media as being possibly responsible for the blast. Republican Sinn Fein, which split from the main organisation some years ago, denied planting it.

It is clear that Sinn Fein is under some degree of pressure to resume the war. The ability of loyalists to march at will was one of the sparks which lit the touch paper back in 1969, and events seem to be moving in that direction again. Thus far outbreaks of violence appeared as blips on the road to an imperialist-brokered settlement, and IRA bombs as weapons of negotiation. However, John Major’s tottering government is itself under pressure - it must not antagonise the loyalists too much for fear of having an election too early for its liking - and if the blips keep on coming there will be no ‘peace’ settlement left.

Sinn Fein is insisting that decommissioning is out of the question now. The ‘peace process’, which it assures the media it is still committed to, was never going to be a surrender. Nevertheless it has always been clear that the negotiations have been about resolving the revolutionary situation in the Six Counties negatively - in imperialism’s favour.

The events of the last week indicate a still volatile situation which has not yet been resolved. In such a climate the political landscape can change very rapidly.

John Craig