Following a period of conflict in any country all sides attempt to justify their position with a somewhat jaundiced view of the past. Our recent history was dominated by sectarian strife during the Troubles with the security forces attempting to keep a lid on the situation. We are now led to believe that it actually was a ‘glorious war against inequality,’ and those who prowled the night with murder in their heart were freedom fighters.
We are now assaulted daily with an opinion that is somewhat different to what actually occurred.
I listened with interest to Good Morning Ulster (November 9)when the writer/journalist Peter Taylor and Tommy McKearney, the convicted IRA murderer, were guests. I was somewhat surprised with the latitude given to both guests by the interviewer while they discussed the atrocity committed by the IRA at Enniskillen in 1987.
McKearney commented: “The Enniskillen bomb was devastating as far as the IRA is concerned.” I would suggest it was more devastating for the affected Enniskillen families and the wider community in the area. This is McKearney’s attempt at making the bombers and the IRA the victims, no thought was given to the real victims.
Peter Taylor went on to say: “I don’t think the intention of the bomb was to kill civilians. The target was the security forces who were at the Cenotaph.” The Provisional IRA always recced their operations. They would have been fully aware that it was civilians who stood beside the Reading Rooms and they were totally indifferent as to whether they murdered civilians and/or members of the security forces. Likewise, they planned to murder children in Tullyhommon at the same time.
Taylor went on to say: “The deaths of the civilians obviously lies with the IRA but in particular with the active service unit which I think was a cross-border unit who planted the bomb in the library in front of which many civilians were standing.” I would suggest that Mr Taylor would also be fully aware that there were a number of other IRA units involved in this operation and local guides assisted in scouting the routes and guiding the bomb to its final destination. Local people assisted in the placing of the bomb and not as he suggests outsiders who didn’t really understand what they were doing.
McKearney then went on to say that: “There never was a policy of killing civilians.”
I do not have to list the many hundreds of pre-planned operations where the IRA targeted and murdered civilians, including my own brother, yet the BBC gave this platform to McKearney and Taylor to give this interpretation of the past that shows no resemblance of what really happened.
McKearney also said: “I don’t use the term [murder] in relation to any of the deaths that were inflicted throughout the conflict in the north.”
I am at a loss to understand McKearney’s mentality, and if, in his mind, no-one was murdered throughout the Troubles, why are republicans pursuing retired members of the security forces and demanding public inquiries and Article 2 inquests?
What is clear is that while many commentators refer to the rewriting of history, this advance of revisionism is being assisted by organisations that should be more responsible.
KEN FUNSTON
South East Fermanagh Foundation
Lisnaskea, Co Fermanagh
God’s salvation is for all the nations of the earth
In reply to Colin Nevin (November 15) December 25 was not chosen as if ‘any old day’ would do for the celebration of the Lord’s birth. Scholar, William J Tighe has written on the subject of ‘calculating Christmas’ and Colin might find it interesting reading.
Only a very small number of fundamentalist sects obsess as if there was something wrong about the celebration of the Lord’s nativity on December 25. It is an entirely suitable day and season. The ‘appointed time’ in Scripture is the ‘fullness of time’ and is not tied to a calendar day but to ‘the latter days’ (Hebrews 1:2), the entire epoch of time in which we now live, which Scripture calls ‘the last days’ (1 John 2:18).
The early Church very properly used what was not sinful in pagan symbols and ‘baptised’ them. Not everything about the pagans of old was evil. God created them too and all that God created is good (Genesis 1:31). Neither did God leave them without hope and without inklings of the Truth that would dawn, in His Son, upon all the nations.
Therefore, the festival of ‘Sol Invictus’ (the unconquered sun) was used as a tool to evangelise the pagans and its meaning changed to teach them about ‘the Sun of Righteousness’ (Malachi 4:2) – the Lord Jesus Christ – the world’s True Light. In this way, paganism was superseded and eclipsed.
Finally, Colin Nevin is right about the Holy Name of Jesus/Yeshua meaning ‘salvation’. In every language, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Irish, German, Arabic, etc, it means the same thing. His salvation is for all the nations of the earth. Therefore, all can properly address Him and celebrate His coming at the Christmas season and, indeed, every day of the year.
Fr PATRICK McCAFFERTY
Belfast BT12
Two of a kind? Sinn Féin and Fine Gael
I have waited patiently for one of your readers to correspond to the letter from Anne Brolly (September 19) explaining why she left Sinn Féin. She quotes Mary Lou McDonald in quotes saying: “Sinn Fein could not give freedom of conscience.”
I do not believe that the Sinn Féin leadership is unaware of article 44.2.1 of the Constitution of Ireland. I do not believe that the leadership of Fine Gael, including Enda Kenny, were unaware of Article 44.2.1 at the time of the act in 2013 to intentionally destroy unborn human life [abortion]. Article 44.2.1 reads as follows: “Freedom of conscience and the free profession of faith are, subject to public order and morality, guaranteed to every citizen.”
I would expect the Sinn Féin leadership to give the same example as the president of Ireland in his declaration when he promises and declares that he will maintain the Constitution of Ireland and uphold its laws.
I trust that every member of Sinn Féin in the north will have seen the photo of the mother and child on the front page of The Irish News (November 14).
This one per cent chance of survival is now two years old. Read the story of Meabh McArdle then do not vote to favour the proposition that it should be legal to intentionally destroy unborn human life.
GERRY GLENNON
Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin
God save us all
As another Armistice Day has passed I was reminded of the furore which surrounded the singing of God Save the Queen in Stormont by the unionist MLAs as they ‘ambushed’ Sinn Féin.
Having witnessed the subsequent performance of these elected MLAs over the past two years I feel it would have been more appropriate if they had all sang ‘God Save our manufacturing industries, God save our Health Service, God save our Education System, God save the future of our children’ because these elected representatives seem to have total disregard for the people who elected them but are more interested in increasing the vote of their respective parties.
If you are on a waiting list for a hip replacement or behind in your mortgage because of factory close downs, it doesn’t seem priority if there’s an Irish language act.
Hopefully the DUP and Sinn Féin will get their act together and start doing what they are being paid for by the tax payer.
DAMIAN McCAUGHEY
Omagh, Co Tyrone
