Opinion

Tom Kelly: Paramilitary gangs are choking Northern Ireland's chance of a shared future

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

 A few months ago, Doug Beattie, the Ulster Unionist deputy leader, was threatened by the UDA.
 A few months ago, Doug Beattie, the Ulster Unionist deputy leader, was threatened by the UDA.  A few months ago, Doug Beattie, the Ulster Unionist deputy leader, was threatened by the UDA.

A few months ago, Doug Beattie, the Ulster Unionist deputy leader, was threatened by the UDA.

Previously the SDLP’s Patsy McGlone and Stephen Farry from Alliance also received death threats from the same sinister organisation.

All brave politicians not afraid to stand up to bullyboy tactics.

Last week (and not for the first time) a journalist received a death threat from the UDA.

Journalists will be undeterred by such menacing messages. They will continue to expose the gangsterism at the heart of modern paramilitarism.

This writer has little time for paramilitaries of any shape, form, colour or hue. Not a single action by any paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland was ever justified. The murders of lawyers Pat Finucane and Edgar Graham were equally reprehensible and repugnant.

The empty rhetoric of militants and their eulogists - whether republican or loyalist - will never cover up the barbarity of their actions during the Troubles or indeed since.

This latest threat is nothing new. Dim-witted thugs always believe that by murdering the messenger they can kill an idea or free speech. They cannot.

Apparently, the source of these latest threats is the illegal UDA South East Antrim brigade. So-called loyalists.

Loyalist is a misnomer as their loyalty is to the half crown which they can extort.

They are little more than tin-pot corner-boys acting like characters from the Sopranos without the class, humour or intelligence.

That this cabal of murderous, drug dealing thugs and racketeers exists at all points to a collective failure by Stormont politicians and the security services to finally grasp the nettle of paramilitarism. Like coronavirus we have been expected to live with the continuing corrupt influence of paramilitaries in their various forms.

But paramilitarism grows unabated because it is too profitable for its leaders. The cannon fodder recruited to the rank and file are still lured by the smell of sulphur, the stench of sectarianism and the opportunity to make a quick buck as a mini-me gangster.

These parasites and leeches are a stain on society and are a lingering form of oppression within the communities they destroy with their drug dealing and thuggery.

Only last year, on the BBC flagship programme Talkback, the former PUP leader Dawn Purvis reminded us the UVF had not gone anywhere despite their public pronunciations that they had left violence behind.

All of which begs some fairly simple questions: Why have the UDA and the UVF not being taken out by the roots by the PSNI? Why are their leaders feted like D-list celebrities? Why are so many facets of these illegal organisations allowed to seemingly operate with impunity? Why is there no political willpower to dismantle their structures? Why do their apologists get so much airtime?

There is nothing benign about these organisations. These are not old boy associations. They are not welfare bodies - unless welfare means looking after themselves. Just how long are we expected to accept these so called ‘organisations in transition/transformation'?

Paramilitaries who rake in millions in drugs, extortion and racketeering have the audacity to seek public funds to help them transform. Transform into what exactly?

Mainstream unionists who control political levers need to address structural inequalities within poorer working class loyalist areas by delivering on educational, housing and employment opportunities rather than propping up and legitimising former paramilitaries within these very communities.

It is not acceptable to abandon entire communities to the control of paramilitary thuggery in any shape or form. The narrative that crime pays needs to be smashed. Those who live in fear under the cosh of paramilitaries deserve much better.

Paramilitarism in Northern Ireland has morphed into pure and unadulterated organised criminality.

These groups are little more than villainous gangs operating under the flimsiest flag of convenience. It is time to strip them of that flag and lay bare their vice like grip choking Northern Ireland’s chance for a shared future.