Gerry Adams and 'the past'

Sinn Fein want to rewrite history and to eradicate the IRA's responsibility for so many murders and so much destruction.  They also seek to operate a 'factory of grievances', generating more and more investigations into the actions of others, while refusing to acknowledge the wrong-doing of leaders such as Gerry Adams.

 

Unfortunately for Sinn Fein, the truth keeps coming back to haunt them.  This morning Newton Emerson wrote in his 'look back at this week' in the Irish News:

Sinn Fein has pompously demanded that CNN refer to Gerry Adams by 'his proper title' after the American news network called him 'a former IRA paramilitary commander'.  Cue guffaws of laughter all round.  So what might have caused this unusual lapse in Sinn Fein's media judgment?  Last May, CNN screened a documentary on the Boston College tapes dispute by its international correspondent Nic Robertson, which repeated IRA commander Brendan Hughes's allegation that Mr Adams 'had control' over the murder of disappeared mother-of-10 Jean McConville.  Mr Adams refused to be interviewed for the programme.

Meanwhile Gregory Campbell, the DUP MP for East Londonderry has tabled a motion in the house of commons calling for Chief constable Matt Baggott to ensure that if soldiers are to be questioned regarding Bloody Sunday then republicans should be too.  'If there is to be an investigation now  by the police then it must also look at the role played by senior Provisional IRA personnel including Martin McGuinness in the weeks and moths prior to January 30, 1972,' he said.

Sinn Fein must not be allowed to forget the bloody history which they used to report and eulogise in their 'War News' column in Republican News.  'War News' has gone but Sinn Fein still eulogise those who perpetrated murder and mayhem during the republican terrorist campaign.

I welcome the fact that they now condemn the same actions when they are carried out by dissident republican terrorists but they are inconsistent when they continue to eulogise Provisional IRA terrorists.  The murder of a policeman is wrong today, just as the murder of a policeman or the murder of Jean McConville was wrong in the past.  Murder is always wrong.

 

Moreover, the eulogising of Provisonal IRA terrorists is an encouragement to dissident republican terrorist, who rightly point out that they are only doing what the Provos used to do.

 

It is therefore imperative that Sinn Fein are not allowed to rewrite history and that will require determination, perseverance and above all, a coherent strategy.