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Conference tallis::celt

Title:Celt Notefile
Moderator:TALLIS::DARCY
Created:Wed Feb 19 1986
Last Modified:Tue Jun 03 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1632
Total number of notes:20523

1016.0. "Fr. Des Wilson article" by EPIK::HOLOHAN () Mon Mar 09 1992 12:37


 by Rev. Des Wilson, Director of SpringHill Community, Belfast

 When a gunman walked into a Sinn Fein office in West Belfast and shot
three people dead and injured others, it was by no means clear who was
responsible.
 Police accused an RUC officer, Moore, who was found two hours later
shot dead - "suicide".  Police said he suffered from stress.  Strangely
they did not print his picture in the papers.
 When the assassin left the Sinn Fein office a woman tried to hold him.
She failed but she did see him.  Observers believe the RUC did not print
Moore's picture because this witness could have said, this is not the
man.  In other words it is possible that the RUC has blamed a dead
policeman for a crime which others - still walking about freely-
committed.  Did he commit suicide or was he shot by the RUC?  Did he
have anything to do with the murders?  Was he a passenger in the car
which went to the Sinn Fein office while the driver committed the
murders and later shot Moore dead?
 The number and quality of questions being asked gives some idea of the
people's unwillingness to believe the RUC, even when they are admitting
to murder.
  The official theory is that Moore was under stress because of RUC
duties and the death of a friend, also in the RUC.  But the Moore family
deny that the death had anything to do with what happened.  A clergyman
stated- untruthfully - that West Belfast people were relieved when they
found that the crime was committed not by a loyalist gunmen but a
stressed out policman.
  The RUC man accused by his colleagues of murdering the people had,
they say, been behaving strangely.  One of his colleagues had been
murdered and the man's wife was now accused of the murder.  But they
say, Moore had gone and fired shots, while drunk, over the grave of this
murdered man.  He was then restrained, put into the care of a minder and
advised to go to a doctor the next day.  Many can't help but wonder if
the firing of shots and subsequent events indicate that both were
members of a loyalist militant organization.
  British Secretary Peter Brooke stated untruthfully that Moore was on
his way to the doctor when "the incident" occurred.
  Another theory requires examination.  It is that the killings in the
Sinn Fein office and those which followed in South Belfast were planned
in order to create the public opinion necessary north and south to
reintroduce internment and other repressive measures.  People remember
that British agents had been responsible for the bombing in Monaghan and
Dublin years ago which pressured Dail deputies into adopting repressive
measures in the south to which many of them were hesitant.  They
remember also, 20 years later, that British soldiers now admit that the
Bloody Sunday murders in Derry were done with a view to provoking an
armed response from the IRA.
  As Charles Haughey bows out and Albert Reynolds comes in,  and as the
British government grows desperate for internment, what could be more
likely than staging the Moore incident in order to bring about the
public opinion necessary to make internment palatable to the doubters?
Whether that theory is true or false remains to be seen, but it has at
least as much credibility as that of the un-pictured RUC man going
berserk and carrying out an operation which has none of the marks of
madness and all the marks of a careful planner(s).
  Church leaders followed the government line.  They also followed their
own line and arranged a publicized visit to a local hospital to be
photographed visiting the injured.  However, relatives of the injured
wanted nothing to do with this.
  The true nature of these recent killings has yet to be determined.
Perhaps it never will be.  But what is certain is, that the public mind
is filled with doubts, doubts which are no way lessened - they are
perhaps increased - by the official versions of what is supposed to have
happened and why.
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
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1016.1PEKING::WOODROWJThe Purple People EaterTue Mar 10 1992 07:3074
The man must be a total paranoid.  Furthermore, he accuses everybody, 
including fellow priests, of telling porkies, and then goes telling 
some of his own.

Porky No 1:	But they say, Moore had gone and fired shots, while 
                drunk, over the grave of this murdered man.  He was 
                then restrained, put into the care of a minder and 
                advised to go to a doctor the next day. 

He was disarmed, suspended from duty and released into the custody of 
a fellow officer on condition he attended counselling the following 
day.  It wasn't advice.  It was an order.

Porky No 2:	"British Secretary Peter Brooke stated untruthfully 
                that Moore was on his way to the doctor when "the 
                incident" occurred."

Peter Brooke did not say that Moore was on his way to the doctor when 
the incident occurred.  He said that Moore had an appointment for 
counselling which he failed to keep.

Porky No 3:	People remember that British agents had been 
                responsible for the bombing in Monaghan and Dublin 
                years ago which pressured Dail deputies into adopting 
                repressive measures in the south to which many of them 
                were hesitant.  

While there may have been speculation to this effect, there has never 
been the smallest shred of evidence produced to support the 
hypothesis.  It falls into the same unfounded rumour category as the 
same Fr Wilson going about in West Belfast during the hunger strikes 
whipping up panic that the security forces had conspired with the UDA 
to use the death of Sands to mount an armed attack on the Falls Road.

Porky No 4:	They remember also, 20 years later, that British 
                soldiers now admit that the Bloody Sunday murders in 
                Derry were done with a view to provoking an armed 
                response from the IRA.

British soldiers have never admitted anything of the sort.  Even if 
they had wished it, they had no need to provoke an armed response from 
the IRA.  It already existed and had existed for over a year.  62 
members of the security forces were already dead at the hands of the 
IRA. (14 RUC, 43 BA and 5 UDA). The British Army in Derry had come 
under fire almost 200 times during the week previous to Bloody Sunday.  
What the ex-colonel of the paras has admitted is that, after 20 years 
consideration, he had come to the conclusion his troops were probably 
mistaken in their belief that they had come under fire from the crowd.  
That they did come under sniper fire there is no doubt, and even the 
IRA admits it.  However, it does not matter what soldiers believe 20 
years later.  What matters is what they believed at the time, and 
whether or not they had reasonable grounds, at the time, for that 
belief.

And on what does this so-called man of God base his ridiculous and 
lying assertions?  The sole fact that the family of the unfortunate 
officer did not see fit to provide the press with a photograph of the 
deceased for them to publish in their paper.  I very much hope that 
the RUC does not go releasing pictures of the deceased to the press 
before receiving permission from the bereaved.  I'll tell you one 
thing for nothing.  If ever one of my family were to commit murder and 
then suicide, I'd see myself damned before I even spoke to the press, 
let alone allowed them access to a photograph of the dead loved one.

And what motive does he assign for this machiavellian conspiracy?  He 
alleges it was set in motion in order to set the mood for the 
reintroduction of internment and other repressive measures.  He claims 
that the RUC conspired to have a multiple murder laid at its own door 
in order for the RUC to reinforce the case for the RUC interning 
people.  The man's mad; hopelessly, helplessly, incurably mad.  He'll 
have the Jews conspiring with the Nazis to burn down the Reichstag in 
order to justify the gas chambers next.

Joe
1016.2SIOG::OSULLIVAN_DB� c�ramach, a leanbhTue Mar 10 1992 11:284
    I'm awfully tempted to reply to that last one, but the following bit of
    advise from my pork butcher restrains me:
    
    'Never argue with a pig, it wastes your time and it annoys the pig'
1016.3PEKING::WOODROWJThe Purple People EaterTue Mar 10 1992 11:437
    And I am awfully tempted to reply to that last one that you know when
    you have made your case when they attack you rather than your case.
    
    But then, it would never occur to me to argue with a pig.  We obviously 
    move in different circles.
    
    Joe
1016.4Sigh......MACNAS::JDOOLEYGo on outa dat,we don't believe yaTue Mar 10 1992 11:475
    ........and some people hope for peace and understanding between these
    two islands by the end of the century.
    
    	I won't hold my breath.
    
1016.5Pigs in a pokeSIOG::OSULLIVAN_DB� c�ramach, a leanbhTue Mar 10 1992 12:0818
    reply: .3
    
    "you know when you have made your case when they attack you"
    
    Reading reply .1 certainly seems to make Fr. Wilson's case.  
    
    I'm not going into the individual 'porkies', by which I take it you mean 
    lies. My only overall comment is that each of your points are
    distortions, something at which you excel (don't blush please).  You
    know your real strength is what is behind your falsifications i.e. an
    army armed to the teeth capable of containing  and repressing a whole
    section of the Irish population.  As soon as that goes so does the
    mouth.
    
    -Dermot 
    
    p.s. I'm arguing in my spare time.
                     
1016.6PEKING::WOODROWJThe Purple People EaterTue Mar 10 1992 12:0914
    To the best of my knowledge, John, there is peace between our two
    islands though I would agree with you that understanding is in somewhat
    short supply.
    
    I would contend, however, that the growth of understanding is not
    helped by people who misuse their position as a minister of religion to
    sow hatred and dissent by the spreading of lies, innuendo and false rumour.
    
    And that goes for the Rev Ian Paisley as it does for Fr Des Wilson.
    However, I do tend to expect somewhat better from the Roman Catholic 
    church  than I do from the Free Presbyterians, the utter rejection of
    Episcopalianism & Catholicism being the very raison d'etre of the latter.
    
    Joe
1016.7A bad day's workMACNAS::TJOYCETue Mar 10 1992 12:1937
    
    I have little acquaintance with Father Wilson, but I can remember
    him going back to the start of the Troubles as a happy, roly-poly
    sort of man, the kind who would be good crack over a few pints.
    In the mid-70's, I can recall him declaring on RTE's
    "Late-Late Show" (a talk show) that he would sooner entrust himself
    to what he called his "Protestant Fellow Countrymen" than he would
    to the British government.
    
    I next saw Fr Wilson on TV during the Maze Hunger Strikes. I was
    startled by the change - this man seemed definitely in a state of
    acute stress. He assured the interviewer that Loyalist
    gunmen were trying to kill him. The happy man who had possessed
    an endearing faith in his fellow-countrymen of a different religion
    was long fled, it seems. Recently I saw him at a Peace Meeting (see
    1007) where I was surprised to hear him haranguing and abusing
    people who were struggling in their own way for peace and justice
    on this island.
    
    Personally, I believe that Father Wilson went through some terrible
    trauma during the Hunger Strikes (possibly a beating or assassination 
    attempt) that has permanently soured and embittered his personality. 
    He is another casualty of the troubles, a member of the walking wounded. 
    I am profoundly sorry for him, but I must agree with the .1 note. 
    Only someone with a paranoid mind could have put that particular 
    constuction on the events he describes, which were repulsive and
    distressing enough.
    
    For example, I watched the BBC programme on Bloody Sunday, and
    no one from the BA made the type of admissions he describes.
    Most of his other statements are unsupported by any reliable
    evidence, and if they serve any purpose, will only terrorise
    and traumatise people further, and drive them into the arms
    of the paramilitaries. I regret to say it, but this may be the
    very purpose Father Wilson intends.
    
    Toby
1016.8PEKING::WOODROWJThe Purple People EaterTue Mar 10 1992 12:2727
    Very well, Dermot.  You accuse me of distortion.  Justify yourself.
    Tell me:
    
    Was Moore not disarmed, suspended and released into the custody of a
    fellow police officer on condition he attended for counselling the
    following day?
    
    Did Brooke say that Moore failed to keep an appointment for counselling
    or did he say that he was on his way to see a doctor when the murders
    were committed?
    
    What proof can you present that the Dublin bombings were carried out
    by the SAS or some other arm of British intelligence?
    
    Which British soldier who took part in Bloody Sunday has admitted that
    it was an intentional ploy to provoke an armed response from the IRA?
    
    Were the figures I presented for the Security Force casualties prior to
    Bloody Sunday twisted?  If so, present the true ones.
    
    If you wish to accuse me of lying and twisting facts, then establish
    the basis in fact for your allegation.  Otherwise I am driven to 
    conclude that you are as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal; unable to 
    dispute one single word of the reply I entered in .1, you are forced to 
    fall back on vulgar abuse.
    
    Joe
1016.9Take the log out of your own eye!SIOG::OSULLIVAN_DB� c�ramach, a leanbhTue Mar 10 1992 12:4928
    I do not know any more of the incident at the Sinn F�in offices other
    than newspaper reports.  The article in .0 is news to me.  Interesting
    news and the points raised within it (ones that you choose to ignore)
    deserve serious attention.  The locals in this instance have a set of
    facts which seem at variance with the story as put out by the RUC.  At
    the very least it is worth investigating both sets of stories .  Security 
    force collusion in the murder of civilians is a proven fact, a la
    Stevens/Stalker enquiries.  All your so called fanatasy and figures cannot
    take away from this fact and I believe reactions from locals in Belfast
    should be seen in light of the crimes committed against them by the
    "security forces".  
    
    It is also worth noting that since the increase of British troops on
    the streets in the north, harrasment of locals has increased noticably.
    This has been attested by many SDLP councillors in last Sunday's
    papers.
    
    Some questions which remain to be answered:
    
    Why wasn't this person at least locked up after firing guns over a coffin 
    (an IRA man would have been shot on sight for such activity)
    
    Why were 13 innocent civilians shot in Derry? 
    
    Why were bombs let off in Dublin & MOnaghan before a D�il vote on the
    offences against the state act?
    
    	-Dermot
1016.10PEKING::WOODROWJThe Purple People EaterTue Mar 10 1992 13:2020
    Re: .9
    
    What set of facts do the locals have that are at variance with the
    story put out by the RUC.  Fr Wilson doesn't tell us.  He merely 
    asserts that they exist.  If they do, in fact exist, what possible
    reason can he have to choose not to tell us?  Of course, if they do 
    not exist he has an excellent reason for not telling us.
    
    It ain't no good asking me why Bloody Sunday or the Dublin bombings
    happened.  I didn't do them, so I don't know.  So I do not present
    any hypotheses I may have as fact.  If I have an hypothesis to present, 
    I present it as an hypothesis.  If I have a fact to present,  I present 
    it as a fact.
    
    Father Wilson has taken a whole set of hypotheses and presented them as
    they were fact.  He is not an unintelligent man.  He knows full well
    what he is doing when he does that.  He is either insane or evil.  I
    give him the benefit of the doubt.
    
    Joe
1016.11EPIK::HOLOHANTue Mar 10 1992 13:4315
  Joe Woodrow is the only paranoid in this thread.  He starts off 
  accusing Fr. Des Wilson's statements as being "Porkies" (I assume
  this is British for falsehood?, for further reference Joe,
  porkie means a fat pig, or a fat person in the American language).
  Each of his first three "porkies" sounded more like analogies, and
  his fourth is a sick attempt to justify the British Army murder of
  Civilians.  Joe tries to make you feel for the murderers:
     "62 members of the security forces were already dead at the
  hands of the IRA",
     "The British Army in Derry had come under fire almost 200
  times".
  Joe, how can you in good conscience do this?  Do you always
  side with butchers?  Don't you have any morals?
                              Mark
1016.12Toodle-pip, OLD boyWREATH::DROTTERTue Mar 10 1992 17:1022
    re: .11
    
     <Do you always side with butchers?  Don't you have any morals?
                  
    Mark,
    
    You must be new to this file: Woodrow, or so he claims, used to
    enforce British colonial "law and order" on the Irish nationalist
    population, in NI through the barrel of a gun. That is to say, he 
    served in the *illustrious* British Army in NI. 
    
    You remember the British Army, don't you Mark, the same colonial army
    of occupation that brought us The Boston Massacre, (5 unarmed civilians
    murdered in that one); Amritsar in India, (another "colony" where
    thousands of unarmed, peaceful, Ghandi followers were slaughtered
    wholesale); Bloody Sunday in Derry, (14 unarmed civil rights marchers
    gunned down in cold blood by (get this!) *elite* British Paratroopers.) 
    
    So you see, Mark, asking Joe if he sides with butchers, or has any
    morals, is kind of a non-sequitur. Kind of like asking a coward
    if he has any guts.
    
1016.13PEKING::WOODROWJThe Purple People EaterWed Mar 11 1992 04:3830
    Re: .11
    
    Your definition of a porkie is quite correct, Mark.  Porkie is
    abbreviated rhyming slang for a pork pie - lie.  However, to add to
    your 'further reference', porkies are also an American colloquialism
    for porcupines.
    
    There is no way in which Fr Wilson's first three porkies can be taken 
    to be 'analogies'.  An analogy is an attempt to demonstrate the truth
    of one hypothesis by showing a whole or partial similarity with the 
    logic of a proven hypothesis.  A lie, on the other hand,  is an 
    intentionally false statement.  Fr Wilson was not attempting to make a 
    logical comparison.  In the first two porkies, Fr Wilson was stating as 
    fact that which he knew not to be true;  in the second two porkies he 
    was stating as fact that which he did not know to be true.  All four 
    examples fulfill the definition of a lie.
    
    I do not attempt to justify Bloody Sunday.  However, I do not subscribe
    to any conspiracy theory regarding it.  If I were to subscribe to any
    hypothesis, it would be that it was the logical result of putting 
    overstretched and demoralised troops into a situation of endangerment 
    without adequate leadership and direction.  Were I to blame anyone, I 
    would blame the stupid bloody idiots who put them there and the stupid 
    bloody idiots who thought it clever to mount demonstrations in the middle 
    of a battle zone, thus forcing armed soldiers into positions where they 
    can be shot at and killed.  Something of the sort was bound to happen 
    sooner or later.  Indeed, its inevitability was such that one is forced to
    consider whether or not that was the intention.
    
    Joe
1016.14EPIK::HOLOHANWed Mar 11 1992 09:2418
  Re: .13
    The analogies I referred to were your statements.
  Are you really that dumb? or are you only playing 
  dumb? (dumb as in the British term "thick").

  You most certainly are justifying Bloody Sunday.
  Now you excuse the British murderers because they
  "were overstretched and demoralized".  You go on
  further to blame the victims,
  "the stupid bloody idiots who thought it clever to 
   mount demonstrations in the middle of a battle zone,
   forcing armed soldiers into positions where they
   can be shot at and killed".

   You're a sick individual!
                         
                     Mark
1016.15WMOIS::CHAPLAIN_FTempus Omnia VincitWed Mar 11 1992 09:5715
    
     On the contrary, Mark, he is very sane...simply filled with hatred for
    the Nationalist community of the north.  A true Paisleyite.
    
     I must admit, reading his notes for perhaps three years or so, he has
    provided quite the education for me.  I never fully realized the depth
    of that hatred among the English, so eager to lie, so willing to give
    up whatever integrity they may have possessed for the end of vilifying
    the Irish at home and abroad, so profound is his soul-sickness.
    
     I believe, however, he will be gone shortly.  Understand the sickness
    in his heart and let him go and be forgotten.
    
    Frank
    
1016.16amen.SUPER::DENISEshe stiffed me out of $20.!!!Wed Mar 11 1992 11:301
    
1016.17Enough is enoughMACNAS::TJOYCEWed Mar 11 1992 11:5426
    
    Re: Previous notes.
    
    I have lived as close to the English as anyone in this country
    (Ireland) and I must say the views expressed on the English do
    not correspond to mine. If fact I am rather reminded of Hitler's
    rantings on the Jews in "Mein Kampf".
    
    If you are to accuse the English of race hatred of the Irish
    (and I for one have never seen it) you do Ireland a great
    disservice by associating us with your own pathological race
    hatred. This Irishman at least will have nothing to do with
    it.
    
    For the record, I disagree with the views expressed three
    notes ago on Bloody Sunday. I do agree that the leadership
    of the paras on that day are mainly responsible. General
    Ford, commander of the BA in the North, called "Go, Paras,
    Go!" as they charged. I believe murder was committed and 
    I would still hope that the Widgery Enquiry is re-opened,
    and someone may yet stand trial for that terrible day.
    However I refuse to dishonour innocent dead men, by 
    condone the killing of more innocents in return. 
    Enough innocents have been slaughtered. 
    
    Toby
1016.18ZZZZzzzCHEFS::HOUSEBWed Mar 11 1992 12:165
    Please do not generalise with the English hate the Irish stuff.  It is
    untrue in a general sense, although true among some individuals, and is
    tiresome to read.
    
    	Brian.
1016.19Amen!MACNAS::TJOYCEWed Mar 11 1992 12:241
    
1016.20PEKING::WOODROWJThe Purple People EaterWed Mar 11 1992 12:2526
    Mark,
    
    When I refer to bloody idiots, I am not referring to the victims.
    I am referring to the officers who committed the paras in tactical
    circumstances which, in my opinion, rendered it highly likely they
    would lose control of the situation, and to the people who organised
    an illegal demonstration in circumstances of increasing violence and
    which had been condemned by all responsible people from both sides of
    the sectarian divide.
    
    The victims themselves I believe to have been just young, innocent
    idealists that I suspect were sent like lambs to the slaughter.  In the
    circumstances, sooner or later there was bound to be a cock-up, and
    a lot of innocent people were going to get hurt, as indeed happened.
    
    I do not regard the squaddies as murderers.  I believe that they were
    victims as well.  They are more and more coming to realise that the
    people they killed were innocents who had been set up.  That's
    something they are still having to come to terms with.
    
    Personally, I do not believe reopening the enquiry would achieve a
    great deal.  Most people have already made up their minds, and I don't
    think anything is likely to change them.  Too much blood has flowed
    since.
    
    Joe
1016.21WMOIS::CHAPLAIN_FTempus Omnia VincitWed Mar 11 1992 12:458
    
    re .18
    
     Yes, asleep you seem to be.
    
     For the largest part I was referring solely to the English involved
    in this discussion.
     
1016.22Pax BritannicaSIOG::OSULLIVAN_DB� c�ramach, a leanbhThu Mar 12 1992 06:3816
    Toby, I do not read your interpretation into Frank's comments, which
    are directed specifically at Porky and his likes.  You are a bit quick
    getting on your high horse.  If there are nazi comparisons in Ireland
    then it is evident in the massive military control infrastructure which
    has been built up and refined over the last 20 odd years.  But then I
    suppose you would prefer to get a bargain in downtown Belfast than
    bother yourself about that. 
    
    I shouldn't have to say this, but your note by implication paints
    people like myself as rabid English haters.  I refute that and I resent
    the implication.  What I cannot abide however is the cringing
    colonialist mentality that has ever enabled the English to parade
    suitable paddies to lend them credibility in their unjust and divisive
    control of this country.  
    
    -Dermot
1016.23PEKING::WOODROWJThe Purple People EaterThu Mar 12 1992 09:0927
    Believe it or not, Dermot, Brits more sensitive than I, both in Britain
    and in Ireland, somewhat resent being compared to the Nazis when it
    was the Brits, both on the mainland and in Northern Ireland, who bore 
    the initial responsibility for stemming the Nazi tide while the
    Republic sat on its backside doing nothing, applauded the Nazi invasion
    of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, and denied access to her ports by
    the British Navy while the IRA actively colluded with the Nazis.
    
    However, we also remember the thousands of men from the Republic who
    voluntarily crossed over to Britain to fight by our side, and who now
    lie forgotten in the war graves of Europe tended by the British.  And
    we remember the firefighters from the Republic who came to the aid
    of Belfast after it was bombed.
    
    So we know that the true spirit of the Irish people is not always 
    represented by their leaders as neither is it represented by those
    who seek to draw such vile comparisons.
    
    I would suggest to you, however, that it does not aid the cause of
    Irish Unity to compare your putative compatriots, who happen to be
    protestant and unionist, with Nazis.  Strangely enough, it does not
    persuade them or cause them to love you more.  Possibly, they are more 
    sensitive than I because I, being British and living in England, do not 
    need you to love me whereas you, if you are ever to unite Ireland, need
    your protestant and unionist co-habitants to love you.
    
    Joe
1016.24WMOIS::CHAPLAIN_FTempus Omnia VincitThu Mar 12 1992 09:2314
    
     Ah now Dermot, you've got him raving now.  I guess the comparison with
    the Nazis was too close to home.  Not surprising his defensive reaction
    then.
    
     His talk of Irish unity, the necessity of good relations between the
    Nationalist and Unionist communities, yet not a word of Britain's 
    culpability in causing and continuing the war.  
    
     And then, of course, the barely cloaked venom against the Irish
    throughout the little man's diatribe; that same venom I've seen
    manifest itself in all its hateful glory time and time and time 
    again over the years.  
    
1016.25zzzzzSIOG::CASSERLYEireannach is ea meThu Mar 12 1992 09:3719
    In all levels of society we have extremists. From what I have observed
    in recent notes in this file we have come upon a number of people who
    would appear be extremists in their own right. 
      I have many friends who live in NI and mainland Britain. I have
    friends from NI with whom I associate with in my social life. They all
    have opinions on the 6 counties situation and I am happy to say none
    are extremist. Like myself,they live for the future and not for the
    past. One or two of you experts should try the same instead of talking
    in ever decreasing circles about a subject of which you feel so
    strongly about. 
       What has happened in the past is part of our history and heritage.
    But to grow as a people and a nation we must learn to move on from the
    past and educate our children to do the same.
       The personel insults which have been flying around of late do
    absolutely nothing for your opinions or arguments and serve only to
    show you extremists up for what you really are. Extremists!
       Are there no moderators on this notes file?
    
    slan 
1016.26The New Nazis on the Block.WREATH::DROTTERThu Mar 12 1992 09:5196
   How is it that, one of the "world's older democracies" has debased and 
degraded itself to such practices as found only in fascist dictatorships?

  I say Dermot's right: the term "NAZI" still applies.


             'The Troubles' Also Corrode British Liberties.
                           by Maureen Johnson

                         Manchester Union Leader
                               8/14/89

   LONDON (AP) -Behind the lives destroyed by 20 years of violence in Northern
Ireland, lies another casualty: the corruption of civil liberties in Britain
itself.
   
   In its attempts to crush the Irish Republican Army (IRA), a nation that
ranks among the world's older democracies adopted laws which opponents
say would look more at home in a fascist dictatorship.

   Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher defends the practice of detaining suspects 
for a week without charging them or banning British radio and television 
stations from broadcasting interviews with IRA members as part of the price
for fighting terrorism.

   "To beat off your enemy in a way you have to suspend some of your civil
liberties for a time," she said after last October's imposition of the 
broadcast ban, which also covers members and sympathizers of 10 other 
militant groups.
   "None of us can be neutral as between the terrorist and the law-abiding
citizen", added Thatcher...

   Her critics, however, detect a gradual warping of democratic freedoms since
"the troubles" flared and Britain dispatched troops Aug. 14, 1969, to keep
Northern Ireland's Protestants and Catholics apart. Twenty years later,
the troops remain.

The "Financial Times" of London, in an editorial in December, commented on
a "lengthening list of recent government decisions each of which has given
greater weight to reasons of state than to the civic rights of the individual.
Most, but not all, arise from the troubles in Northern Ireland."

   However, the most controversial legislation, The Prevention of Terrorism Act,
is a legacy of a Labour government - enacted in 1978 after 21 civilians
were killed by an IRA bomb in an English pub.

   The act, which applies throughout what is known formally as the United 
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, includes police powers to detain 
suspects for up to a week without charge.

   In the decade of rule by Thatcher's Conservative government, Northern 
Ireland's death toll climbed past 2,700 and Britain has been cited 21 Times
- the most by any country - for violating the European Convention On Human
Rights. 

   Her government imposed the ban on paramilitary groups and limited, or
proposed limiting the right of a suspect to remain silent.

   Since last fall, courts in Northern Ireland have been able to interpret
an accused's silence after arrest as an indication, in some circumstances,
of guilt. Those circumstances are:

   - Failing to mention during interrogation any fact offered in defense
     at trial.
   - Refusing to be sworn or answer questions at trial.
   - Failing to explain any possessions or marks on the defendant's
     clothing or person at the time of arrest.
   - Failing to give an account for being at a particular place at the
     time of arrest.

   The courts themselves, which are convened without juries which might be
intimidated or split along sectarian lines, are also an extraordinary step
taken in 1973 to combat terrorism.

                        [End of article.]


   One of the "Older democracies", eh? Wot a joke. Without stessing the obvious,
I'm sure even the most languid British observer knows why HMG has stooped to 
such aberrant, uncivilized behaviour by passing such Nazi-like laws, and 
WHO these "laws" were designed to subjugate. 

    It certainly isn't your own citizens, is it? 

    I mean, if a Diplock court were such a great thing, why don't all of the
good citizens of one of the "older democracies" run right out and DEMAND of
your MPs that this form of "equitable" jurisprudence be installed in jolly olde 
England for everyone??? Eh Woody?

    One of the ironies of life, or moreso, paradox is to see people,
governments and countries actually become what they fear most.

And considering how Britain mobilized so completely against Hitler and the
Nazis, isn't it now ironic that Britain has become the "new Nazis on the block"
with their fascist behaviour in NI.
1016.27WMOIS::CHAPLAIN_FTempus Omnia VincitThu Mar 12 1992 09:5914
    
    re .25
    
     Becoming angry over injustice and bigotry is extremism???  If that's
    the case then fine...an extremist I am. 
    
     I personally see extremism, however, as incorporating violence into 
    one's political philosophy, and I've not seen anyone advocate that here.
    
     Or are you simply shy at the expression of anger?  One man's 'insult'
    is another's justified rebuttal.
    
    Thanks
    
1016.28EPIK::HOLOHANThu Mar 12 1992 11:1013
  Yes, in all levels of society we unfortunately have extremists.  The
  Joe Woodrow's and Ian Paisley's of life are sad.  In society we also
  have those who are apathetic.  I think I find them more disturbing
  than the extremists, because they share a general lack of compassion
  and understanding of their fellow man, and turn a blind eye when their
  fellow man is treated unjustly.
  You're right to want to live for the future.  You shouldn't live for 
  the past, you should learn from it.  The more you learn from the past,
  the less likely you will be to repeat, or allow to be repeated, the
  mistakes from the past.

                               Mark
1016.29A word for Ian PaisleyMACNAS::TJOYCEFri Mar 13 1992 05:298
    
    While I disagree with Ian Paisley, kindly remember that he is an
    Irishman elected by Irish people to represent their views. If
    you are working for a United Ireland then it is the Ian Paisleys
    of Ireland and their followers you must convince that such a 
    political entity would be in their interests.
    
    Toby
1016.30PEKING::WOODROWJThe Purple People EaterFri Mar 13 1992 07:2710
    It is also important to remember, Toby, than Ian Paisley's party
    represents less than a quarter of the Unionist vote, and his Free
    Presbyterian church represents just 1.6% of the non-catholic
    population.
    
    To stereotype every Unionist and every Protestant as an Ian Paisley
    represents to me people who, when they look at Paisley, see only a
    reflection of themselves.
    
    Joe