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by Robin Livingstone (Reproduced from Ireland On Sunday)
23rd October 2000
THERE WAS a time when the sight of masked men in combat uniform, firing
weapons into the air as a final salute to a fallen Republican would
provoke
whoops of approval and defiance the length and breadth of West Belfast.
But
the final salute fired by the so-called "Real IRA" in memory of Joe
O'Connor seemed almost comically incongruous and faintly ridiculous.
In
truth, the images triggered more deep, tired sighs than lusty cheers.
The
smell of gunsmoke hung heavy in the Ballymurphy air, but so, too, did
a
deep and wearying sense of utter futility.
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the "Real IRA" and those noisily
proclaiming their right to continue the fight, is not in taking on
the
military and political might of the British establishment in Ireland,
but
in discrediting those former comrades who have decided that it's time
to
take their struggle onto another plane.
How, one wonders, is it possible for these faceless super-Republicans
to
question the credentials or motives of, say, Gerry Kelly, a man who
has
spent his life fighting the Brits inside and outside prison walls?
Here's a man who enjoys huge respect among that large constituency,
republican and nationalist, which fervently hopes that the Good Friday
agreement will work but is horrified at the prospect of the IRA tugging
its
forelock and saying it was wrong all along.
For the majority of Nationalists who never swore an oath or fired a
shot,
he's an able and articulate politician. For the considerable rump of
serving and former IRA members discomfited by certain aspects of the
Good
Friday agreement, Kelly has the necessary gravitas to calm their frazzled
nerves.
To provide sufficient water for their nascent movement to swim in, the
"Real IRA" and its supporters need to convince large numbers of
Nationalists and Republicans that men like Kelly are collaborators
and
quislings.
Given his military and political CV, that's not going to be easy for
them
to do - but they won't fail for lack of trying. Given the delicate
state of
the peace process at the moment, the threat of a potentially bloody
spat
with the "Real IRA" is a distraction that the republican movement could
well do without. But if the leadership of Sinn Fein and the IRA are
honest,
they will have to admit that they have made a rod for their own backs.
Unrest among the grass roots took hold and spread, not because of any
real
sense of unease over the direction that the movement was taking, but
rather
because nobody knew what that direction was.
Throughout the years of the long war, when questioned about the direction
of the conflict, Republicans would respond with a wink and a breezy
thumbs-up. Post-1994, that irrepressible optimism turned to palms-up
shrugs
because, quite simply, nobody was telling them anything.
So widespread was the sense of disconnection and uncertainty, that the
wonder is that more didn't sign up to the "Real IRA", Republican Sinn
Fein
and the rest. That, amidst the feud fears and bickering, is the good
news
for the republican leadership. But there's little room for complacency
if
Sinn Fein is to maintain the electoral advances essential for the political
plan they didn't bother telling any of their supporters about and (more
importantly for the rest of us) if they're to thwart the people behind
the
Omagh bomb.
Part of Gerry Adams's problem is that while publicly he maintains that
it's
not his job to keep David Trimble in office and that the peace process
should not live or die on the political fortunes of one man, he's loth
to
say anything that's going to give ammunition to Trimble's opponents
as they
gather for their latest attempt to unseat the UUP leader. His "well
done,
David" message to Trimble after a previous UUP gathering was manna
from
heaven for the anti-agreement Unionists and the Sinn Fein leaders have
since been coy about saying the things that large sections of an uncertain
base are pining to hear.
Should Mr Trimble survive the Ulster Unionist Council vote, and Seamus
Mallon is betting that he will, the Sinn Fein leadership will have
to start
being more open with its supporters - in public and in private.
JOE O'CONNOR MURDER SPILITS REPUBLICAN COMMUNITY
by Anne Cadwallader (Reproduced from Ireland On Sunday)
23rd October 2000
BALLYMURPHY TURNED its back on the grieving O'Connor and Notorantonio
families on Wednesday. Fewer than 300 people attended the funeral of
Joe
O'Connor. The rest voted with their feet and stayed at home, only curiously
peeking through windows to see the cortege as it passed. On that evening's
television news, there was a filmed report of the paramilitary colour
party
following orders shouted in Irish, and of the first volley of gunshots
publicly fired at a republican funeral in many years. But few local
people
witnessed it at first hand.
An estimated 25% of the adult male population in Ballymurphy has been
jailed for republican activity. When people heard that Marion Price,
in her
graveside oration, had referred to the IRA as the "armed militia of
the
British state" they were deeply offended.
Joe O'Connor's funeral had been turned into an occasion for propaganda
and
used to send a very political message to mainstream republicans throughout
Ireland from the group to which he belonged, the so-called "Real IRA".
There were no fewer than four firing parties over O'Connor's coffin
- two
on Monday night, one on Tuesday night and one as the remains left for
Corpus Christi Church on Wednesday. A little girl was seen scooping
up the
used bullet casings.
The guns used included a handgun, a semi-automatic rifle and two new
Czech-made MP50 assault rifles. The displays were clearly intended
to
impress, but the ostentatious show of firepower had the opposite effect.
On Thursday night, groups of over 30 people picketed the homes of two
former republican prisoners who had penned an article in the Irish
News
blaming the IRA for the murder.
The pickets, mostly the wives and neighbours of those being named publicly
as responsible for the killing, carried placards reading: "Speculation
costs lives." At least one family has left home temporarily, for fear
of
arrest or retribution for a murder they say they had nothing to do
with.
On Tuesday, members of the Upper Springfield Community Forum had held
their
regular meeting. Many were incensed at the article carried in that
morning's Irish News, written by the two former prisoners, now prominent
critics of the Sinn Fein strategy.
They were angry that the authors, Tommy Gorman and Anthony McIntyre,
claimed to have made an exhaustive survey in the area, yet had not
contacted them to seek their views on who was truly responsible for
the
killing of O'Connor.
In the article, Gorman and McIntyre said they had been asked to "to
begin
the unenviable task of interviewing people who had knowledge of" O'Connor's
murder. They said they felt "compelled to probe, press and challenge,
declining to accept anything that was speculative".
"There is no room for doubt. We state publicly that it is our unshakeable
belief that the Provisional IRA carried out this assassination." When
asked
who they had interviewed, Gorman said: "Local people."
These local people had, he says, witnessed the killers tearing off their
hoods in broad daylight "at the top of the street" just a few short
yards
from the scene of the killing. They had no other evidence.
Of the two men accused as gunmen, one lives 150 yards from the scene
of the
murder.
Would he really have been reckless enough to "tear off" his hood
immediately after the shooting on his own doorstep? The second man
has a
cast-iron alibi. Six others, being named as "scouts" and accessories
to the
murder, are understood to have been in the area on their way back home
from
shopping or buying newspapers.
As a result of the picketing, Gorman, genuinely and deeply hurt by the
reaction to his article, said he was "now aware of the distress caused"
and
that his purpose had not been to cause distress and "certainly not
to
endanger anyone".
He admitted that "unfortunately" it had "resulted in many people in
the
Ballymurphy and Springhill areas feeling vulnerable. This we deeply
regret.
Our only concern was to prevent further bloodshed".
Whether the "Real IRA" will take revenge on those it believes were involved
is extremely unlikely. They know the mainstream IRA will be hard on
them if
they do. Discretion, in this case, may prove to be the better part
of
valour.
Some of the dead man's associates certainly want retaliation. One person
is
openly demanding "widows in Springhill" (a republican stronghold within
the
greater Ballymurphy area).
One group in the area has within it, members of the IRA, CIRA, RIRA
and
OIRA. They and their associates are involved in selling smuggled liquor
and
cigarettes and then laundering the proceeds by buying up houses in
Ballymurphy.
One member is closely linked to the CIRA. About seven months ago, he
was
visited by members of the mainstream IRA. Some accounts say he was
beaten,
stripped, tied up and questioned. Others that his shirt and shoes were
taken off and he was questioned "in depth".
Whatever the details of this incident, it is clear he was assaulted
and
left in no doubt as to the IRA's intentions, should he ignore their
warnings. O'Connor did not take kindly to the attack on the man and,
armed,
kicked in the doors of at least two men he believed were involved.
The names of these two people are the ones being bandied about as
responsible for O'Connor's death, although why they would attack him
in
Ballymurphy and not at his home in Springhill, in the intervening seven
months or so, is far from clear.
Although the family say local people saw the killers pulling off their
hoods, other people in the area say they saw them speeding out of the
estate in a car, later found burned out, wearing baseball caps and
sunglasses.
Evidently the persons who did kill O'Connor were aware he was visiting
his
mother, Margaret, at Whitecliff Crescent. The CIRA member assaulted
by the
IRA seven months ago was in very close vicinity at the time of the
shooting
yet, inexplicably, no attempt was made to injure him.
It may be that members of the IRA, unlikely at it seems, with or without
sanction, chose this precise and sensitive moment in the peace process
to
kill a member of a smaller, rival republican grouping.
The other possibility is that O'Connor was murdered for far more complex
reasons than that, and the truth has yet to come out.
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