Steal a little and they put you in Jail, steal a lot and they make you King
It seems the peace process has broke down in the North again. You can tell from all the bluster in the Sunday Independent and it's ilk. When the peace process used to break down during the Balkans wars in the 90's people would start to get killed again, but in Ulster it seems that they just fire even more obnoxious insults at each other.
In fairness, the IRA have really pushed the envelope this time. All those bombings were one thing, but robbing a bank? There's no excuse for that sort of thing, after all it's not like banks ever rob us, is it?
Robbing a British Bank of British banknotes isn't going to win them any friends in Westminister or among the loyalist community, but my suspicion is that if they were to do something similar down here, robbing banknotes from the AIB and selling them back to people on the street at a knock-down price then it would actually win them votes. Of course, we use the Euro down here, so the governent wouldn't be able to put them out of commision.
It's unlikely to lose them any votes up north either, though there's the slight catch that the votes are for a non-executive assembly which won't have any power unless they give up all criminal activity.
Sinn Fein's denials of involvement in this incident strike me as being a bit half-hearted. It's obvious that everyone of a criminal bent up there is involved with some sort of parimilitary organisation and that the loyalists hardly have the requisite grey matter to pull off something as intricate and complex as a bank raid. On the other hand, there are plenty of people in the province with an interest in keeping the conflict going who all know that the provos credibility is at an all time low after the Columbia debacle.
It seems though, that they don't seem to care all that much about how much they've alienated the British goverment as they know that nationalists will be the majority within 15-20 years anyway and that the last straw holding the ill-concieved Ulster statelet will fall apart as this becomes more apparent. Down here, though, it will only increase the outlaw chic which draws a lot of their support.
Micheal McDowell, the man who insisted on the clause about "criminality" must be wondering why he didnt get the same sort of bounce in the polls when it was revealed that he was up to no good when building a new house. Then again, it seems mildly hypocritical for him to criticise Sinn Fein for involvement with criminals when he's been breaking the law himself.
But where would democracy be if any political party which was involved with criminals wasn't allowed participate in the democratic process? Fianna Fail have been involved with dodgy property developers who've robbed far more from the Irish exchequer than the IRA did from that Belfast bank, but you don't see Michael McDowell calling for their heads. Over in Britain, many of the Tories will still hunt in defiance of the Ban, but their party will still be allowed to oppose Tony Blair's goverment after the next election. Blair himself supported the miner's strike, which was technically illegal, in the 80's, and since he's changed sides, has supported an illegal war in which the death toll for the Northern conflict has been dwarved many times. Yet he remains Prime Minister. Only in Northern Ireland, it seems, are parties which have criminal associations barred from holding office.
At least for the meantime.
In fairness, the IRA have really pushed the envelope this time. All those bombings were one thing, but robbing a bank? There's no excuse for that sort of thing, after all it's not like banks ever rob us, is it?
Robbing a British Bank of British banknotes isn't going to win them any friends in Westminister or among the loyalist community, but my suspicion is that if they were to do something similar down here, robbing banknotes from the AIB and selling them back to people on the street at a knock-down price then it would actually win them votes. Of course, we use the Euro down here, so the governent wouldn't be able to put them out of commision.
It's unlikely to lose them any votes up north either, though there's the slight catch that the votes are for a non-executive assembly which won't have any power unless they give up all criminal activity.
Sinn Fein's denials of involvement in this incident strike me as being a bit half-hearted. It's obvious that everyone of a criminal bent up there is involved with some sort of parimilitary organisation and that the loyalists hardly have the requisite grey matter to pull off something as intricate and complex as a bank raid. On the other hand, there are plenty of people in the province with an interest in keeping the conflict going who all know that the provos credibility is at an all time low after the Columbia debacle.
It seems though, that they don't seem to care all that much about how much they've alienated the British goverment as they know that nationalists will be the majority within 15-20 years anyway and that the last straw holding the ill-concieved Ulster statelet will fall apart as this becomes more apparent. Down here, though, it will only increase the outlaw chic which draws a lot of their support.
Micheal McDowell, the man who insisted on the clause about "criminality" must be wondering why he didnt get the same sort of bounce in the polls when it was revealed that he was up to no good when building a new house. Then again, it seems mildly hypocritical for him to criticise Sinn Fein for involvement with criminals when he's been breaking the law himself.
But where would democracy be if any political party which was involved with criminals wasn't allowed participate in the democratic process? Fianna Fail have been involved with dodgy property developers who've robbed far more from the Irish exchequer than the IRA did from that Belfast bank, but you don't see Michael McDowell calling for their heads. Over in Britain, many of the Tories will still hunt in defiance of the Ban, but their party will still be allowed to oppose Tony Blair's goverment after the next election. Blair himself supported the miner's strike, which was technically illegal, in the 80's, and since he's changed sides, has supported an illegal war in which the death toll for the Northern conflict has been dwarved many times. Yet he remains Prime Minister. Only in Northern Ireland, it seems, are parties which have criminal associations barred from holding office.
At least for the meantime.
posted by seamus @ 5:36 pm
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