FIFTY years ago, on October 16 1972, two Official IRA men, John Paddy Mullan and Hugh Heron, were shot dead in the car park beside St Patrick’s Hall, Ardboe, Co Tyrone by the Staffordshire Regiment of the British army.
An official enquiry at the time revealed that the men were unarmed. Circumstances surrounding the final minutes of these men’s deaths have been disputed but what is certain is that they were members of the Official Republican movement.
That is why I find it astounding that the Sinn Féin of today had the bare-faced audacity to hold a commemoration for these two men on October 15. I will try to explain why.
At the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in January 1970 there was a split. A group broke away from the mainstream republican movement to form Provisional Sinn Féin. The split was mirrored in the IRA Army Council with the formation of the Provisional IRA. The main body of the movement became known as Official Sinn Féin/ Official IRA. The earlier ban of the name ‘Sinn Féin’ in the north saw Official Sinn Féin adopt the Republican Clubs name here.
This was the biggest fracture in the republican movement since the Civil War and reached its peak in the early to mid-70s with a bitter internal feud, marked by politically motivated assassinations, followed by a period of progression towards Provisional dominance, their timeline now finding them part of the Stormont devolved government.
‘Officials’ and their families became the victims of bitter harassment, threats, social ostracisation, intimidation and killings from Provisional quarters. Ironically, much of the Provisional vitriol was a consequence of the Official wing’s decision to end abstention both north and south of the border as a means of gaining social reforms through both Stormont and Leinster House. I will allow the reader to ponder on the irony of this ideological schism that led to a further 28 years of sectarian bloodshed.
The Staffordshire Regiment is also known as the ‘Prince of Wales’ regiment. This is the same title formally assumed by King Charles III, now Commander in Chief of the British Army. Five days after he assumed that title, he met with members of Provisional Sinn Féin, an event that I am sure many Sinn Féin voters found nauseating, as it points to their party now accepting the legitimacy of the monarchy and its inextricable links to the British army. Yet incredibly, on Saturday October 15, members of Provisional Sinn Féin stood at the scene of the 1972 murders at Ardboe.
Today’s Sinn Féin are trying to re-write history by colonising the parts which they hope to exploit for their own electoral advantage. Commemorating the dead of all traditions is important but it must be done with integrity and historical accuracy. Most of all it must be true to the beliefs of the dead themselves.
(In remembrance of my father)
GAVAN McELROY
Carrickmore, Co Tyrone
Abdication of responsibility
It is an often quoted truism that people get the politicians they deserve. So it seems to be in Northern Ireland and perhaps particularly so, even when compared with the shambolic scenes at Westminster.
Just when the population deserves leadership, whether through Westminster or Stormont, it is sadly lacking because of self-imposed and the often self-defeating strategies of many political parties, most noticeably in Northern Ireland from the DUP.
I have watched in recent days several TV interviews with DUP representatives trying to persuade the viewer of what seems to me to be a clearly contradictory position as regards the return of the party to Stormont.
On the one hand the DUP’s main contention, often repeated, seems to be that because the ‘levers of economic power’ are held in Westminster then it is pointless for the DUP to return to Stormont whether it is to do with the Northern Ireland Protocol, the crisis within the health service or measures to address the cost of living crisis.
Then on the other hand the DUP argues that budgetary over runs and the needs of the population in Northern Ireland mean that a Westminster administration should automatically come to the rescue without explaining how this is possible without a functioning Executive.
It is unfair to expect civil servants to bear the brunt of responsibility of the day-to-day management of the economy and Health Service in particular when so many policy decisions are crying out to be made.
It is telling to have observed that the DUP, through its spokesman Sammy Wilson MP clearly supported Liz Truss’s and Kwasi Kwarteng’s now derided economic policy. The DUP should be focusing more on how to address the currently critical needs of people in Northern Ireland.
Staying out of the Executive is not going to improve the DUP’s standing at Westminster, Dublin or Brussels. Far from it.
JAMES HOUSTON
Newtownabbey, Co Antrim
Time to talk about peace
LAST Monday it was eight months since Russia invaded Ukraine and when war is going on, it is absolutely the time to talk about peace. There will be no winners in this conflict and we are all losers. There must be an immediate cessation in Ukraine and the Russian troops must withdraw and an agreement between Russia and Ukraine on future security guarantees.
We all know from our history that all wars end in negotiations. Why wait and have more unnecessary deaths?
Surely Ireland, as a positive neutral country, can use its influences within the UN and the EU and start on the path to peace.
PAUL DORAN
Dublin 22
System needs to be changed
The Westminster government is in chaos and certainly will not bother to sort out our problems in Northern Ireland.
Their disastrous mini-budget has caused major financial problems.
The cost-of-living crisis is causing people to go without food and heat.
We elected 90 Assembly members last May but 25 DUP MLAs are preventing the rest from taking action to sort out all these problems.
This is not democracy and the system needs to be changed.
We have until today for them to act for the benefit of the whole population.
No-one wants another election just before Christmas – the £6.5 million cost would heat quite a few homes.
MARGARET MARSHALL
Belfast BT8
