There is an old saying: “If it waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.” And so it is with the DNA in paramilitarism.
You can dress it up, polish it, platform it or give it cover under any flag which is convenient but you can’t disguise the similar traits of villainous tyranny, murderous intent and depraved objectives amongst paramilitaries.
Whether they are the loyalist thugs running amok and terrorising locals in Newtownards or the deluded hoods within dissident republicanism who target police and their families; these heinous organisations are two sides of the same coin.
They are cut from the same cloth, unified by their desire to strike terror and fear into local communities. Some have also profited through a shared interest in their nefarious ‘fundraising’ tactics such as racketeering, protection, drug dealing and loan sharking.
If cooperation is required, these sworn enemies can become useful frenemies.
There are no depths to which paramilitaries would not sink.
Some commentators would have us believe there are good and bad paramilitaries. There are not.
Whilst there are some who would like to put their feet up and retire, they won’t let go of the prestige and clout they have within those organisations and communities. A few live in fear that younger rivals will usurp them by any means possible.
All paramilitaries share a long and bloody history of barbaric internal housekeeping. Loyalists seem particularly adept at mafia-style executions of former comrades. Who can ever forget the calamitous and lethal fallout from Johnny Adair’s infamous and misnomered 'Loyalist day of culture' on August 19 2000?
Many ordinary citizens are aghast that in 2023 loyalist paramilitaries can brazenly march down a town high street wearing balaclavas and brandishing their thuggery with threatening brutish behaviour. It was reminiscent of Mosley’s Blackshirts.
The Loyalist Communities Council ( LCC) has said it doesn’t regard those who gathered in masks “as loyalists”. Perhaps then, they could issue a statement calling for an immediate disbandment of the UVF, UFF, UDA and Red Hand Commando? And then, promptly dissolve itself.
The proverbial duck is quacking...
Press reports via the PSNI have said that the attacks in Bangor, Newtownards, Donaghadee and Ballywalter are from rival factions “previously linked to the UDA”. We already have the farce of the New IRA, the CIRA, ONH, IRB and ANP... is there now to be a similar reclassification on the loyalist side?
I admired the late Martin McGuinness - not least for his belated but welcome sea change analysis on the future for Ireland, north and south. “The war,” he told Sinn Féin delegates in Kerry, “is over.” He went on to say: "People who think that a new Ireland can be built without unionists, their participation, involvement and leadership are deluded."
Where is the similar leadership and bravery coming from within unionism? It has to be acknowledged that it’s difficult for many within the unionist community to accept the reversal of Sinn Féin from what they were during the Troubles to their role today in a power-sharing Executive.
Sinn Féin still has to fully transition from a movement to a fully fledged political party but it’s clear to anyone with an open mind, their trajectory is clear and irreversible.
Though some in the wider republican family still struggle to understand the prophetic nature of McGuinness’s remarks on the inclusion of unionism in any agreed Ireland.
McGuinness declared dissidents “enemies of Ireland”. The time has come for political unionism to unshackle itself (and the wider unionist community) from the yoke of loyalist paramilitarism. Clarion calls for unionist unity shouldn’t give the semblance of political cover or acceptance of ‘those close’ to paramilitaries or the various paramilitary factions.
Past experience has shown that when loyalist paramilitaries gut each other either out of greed or internal feuding, the entire community suffers. There should be no velvet glove in tackling the scourge of paramilitarism. The only answer is law enforcement and the lock and key.
