Two Irish citizens, both petty criminals with some minor involvement in the drugs’ trade, separately “executed” in the Irish cities of Belfast and Derry by would-be Irish revolutionaries whose aim is the end of Britain’s continued colonial occupation of the north-eastern part of the island-nation of Ireland. So how has that noble cause been advanced in any way, shape or form by these ignoble deaths?
Since 1998 more Irish citizens have died through the operations or activities of those who claim the mantle of revolutionary republicanism in Ireland than have died at the hands of the British Occupation Forces or their terrorist allies in the UDA-UFF and UVF.
Some revolution.
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
Totally agree. Unthinking militarism just fills the prison cells and graves. There is a time and a place for armed struggle. This is not the time or place. The Fenians did not persist in armed struggle when there was no support.
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Very true, Jim. Even if one were amongst those in favour of continued military resistance to the British Occupation there must be some questioning of a strategy that seems to entail almost entirely in the killing or wounding of fellow Irish citizens, often for purposes quite unrelated to the stated goal of ending Britain’s colonial presence on our island-nation. The one simple fact that many in the circles of the “Real IRA” are unwilling to admit, let alone face, is this: since 1998 the Real IRA and those associated with it or acting in its name have killed and injured more Irish people than the British Occupation Forces.
One can remain a committed revolutionary republican, a Fenian in the true sense of the word, and still recognise madness when one sees it.
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The Real I.R.A. are simply following the template set by the Provos, who aggregated to themselves the right to murder, or exile, those they considered to be criminals,or drug dealers. Indeed, under the nom de plume of Direct Action Against Drugs P.I.R.A. killed about a dozen of these people after they were supposed to be on ceasefire. And the Provos, of course, also managed to kill and maim more Irish people than the British Army. So the Real I.R.A. are simply following the template set by their predecessors, which makes it difficult to listen to the condemnations of the recent killings by Gerry Kelly and others without uttering a hollow and cynical laugh.
Or perhaps the executions carried out by P.I.R.A. were noble, while the substantially fewer carried out by R.I.R.A. are ignoble.
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The PIRA were equally wrong to have engaged in the “anti-social” activities they engaged in, particularly the barbarism of punishment beatings, shootings, etc.
I disagree though that RIRA is following a template or if they are they have distorted it out of any recognisable pattern.
The vast and overwhelming majority of casualties inflicted by members or associates of RIRA, or those claiming to act in its name, have been non-combatant civilians or other Republican combatants. Very few indeed have been members of the British Occupation Forces, however widely one would apply that term.
In contrast the majority of casualties inflicted by PIRA were of combatants, albeit sometimes in highly questionable circumstances.
That does not deny or detract from the terrible loss of civilian lives, collateral or deliberate, for which PIRA bears full responsibility nor the numbers involved.
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unfortunately nineteenth century Fenian revolutionary zeal is relegated to the history books or – more worryingly – current historiography dominated by anti-Republican British Unionists such as Roy Foster et al — http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03c3cn4
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Fortunately we have a few brave souls countering the age-old imperial propaganda 😉
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thanks for that book reference, sionnach – too many books to buy and read (and too bloody expensive even without vat change in today’s budget) @
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