In the north of Ireland, both faiths are in the minority. The Protestants are outnumbered on the island and are deathly afraid of the Republic. The Catholics are the distinct minority in the six counties of Northern Ireland. Somehow, notwithstanding a shared ethnicity and shared back-breaking poverty, they have developed a tribal hatred based on confessional idiosyncrasies to rival any on the planet. That hatred has waxed and waned over the centuries and came to the forefront once again in the late 1960's This book is nominally about the murder in 1972 of Jean McConville, a mother of ten, a Protestant who crossed the line and married a Catholic. What it really is though is a history of the Troubles, the violent era from 1969-1999, and its aftermath. Sectarian violence accelerated throughout the sixties and in 1972, over 500 people died. The Troubles also meant the return of armed republicanism with the birth of the provisional wing of the IRA. The Provos accepted women for the first time as front line fighters and not handmaidens. The Price sisters, Dolours and Marian, were the daughters of committed members and early joiners. The year 1972 also saw the the legendary Bloody Sunday, when British paratroopers killed thirteen and London imposed direct rule. The British Army soon had 30,000 men in the north and, under the Special Powers Act, could intern anyone for as long as it wished without trial or any form of redress. Indeed, the UK was in full colonial suppression mode, utilizing any and all tools of counterinsurgency, including clandestine assassination. In the waning days of the year, a few men showed up at Jean McConville's apartment and took her away. Her children later said that her crime had been to provide a pillow to a British soldier bleeding to death in the street. Republicans said she was a traitor. A tactic that the IRA had been pursuing was car bombs. They eventually recognized they were killing people in Ireland and no one in Britain was paying much attention. Dolours Price suggested targeting London, and in March, two bombs went off in the capital. There were hundreds of casualties, but no deaths. Dolours, her sister Marian, Brendan Hughes and half a dozen others were captured at Heathrow. They were sentenced to twenty years. They demanded to be transferred to Ireland and be declared political prisoners. They went on a hunger strike and were force-fed for five months, but eventually prevailed and were transferred to Armagh. As the conflict continued, Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA in the north, concluded that a political victory, not a military one, was the true prerequisite to the eviction of the British. But the 1979 murder of Lord Mountbatten and the election of Margaret Thatcher, followed by the car bombing of Thatcher's campaign manager, pushed any resolution out to the future. Thatcher was unmoved as Bobby Sands was the first of ten hunger strikers to die in a British prison. However, as anorexia and other health issues plagued the Price sisters, the government remitted their sentences. Gerry Adams was elected to Westminster in 1983, but never attended. He began to push the movement to the political arena, acting on constituency and everyday living matters. Behind the scenes, he discussed the possibility of peace with moderate Catholics. The violence in the eighties toned down and in 1994, the IRA declared a cease fire. In 1998, Adams, retired US Senator George Mitchell and newly-elected British PM, Tony Blair, were negotiating a real peace. The ensuing Good Friday Accord provided that the six counties of the north could, at some stage in the future, join the Republic if a majority desired to do so. In the new century, the idea of creating an honest record of the past grew and led to the creation of the oral history program at Boston College known as the Belfast Project. By agreement, no one's recollections would be available until after their death. Many of the faithful who spoke to the BC interviewer were disappointed in the GFA. They felt betrayed by Adams for giving up on the fight to evict the British and felt the rationale behind many of their actions, certainly criminal but done for a higher purpose, had now been reduced to the mundane. Two who spoke to BC were Dolours Price and Brendan Hughes. In 2003, the corpse of Jean McConville was found and interred. Before he died in 2005, Brendan Hughes had arranged for his oral transcript to be used in a book, and in 2010, 'Voices From The Grave' told many stories and, in particular, named Adams as the man who ordered innumerable actions including the London bombing and the murder of Jean McConville. Price too said that Adams ordered the McConville assassination. Adams, by then a member of the legislature in the Republic, was arrested in 2014, but no charges were ever filed. Twenty-years after the GFA, Northern Ireland is at peace, but it hasn't really changed. Ninety percent of children go to segregated elementary schools. No one has been held responsible for the atrocities committed by the government or the Provos and no admissions have been made by either side. The population of 1.5 million suffered a total dead during the Troubles of 35,000. The conflict is paused at the moment as Brexit wreaks havoc with the structure of the United Kingdom.This book is on every 'best of' list and is very, very good. My mother's grandmother came from what is now the north and was a staunch Republican. My father's grandfather came from County Cork. Thus, I have always leaned left on this topic and sincerely believe that the British oppressed the Irish for centuries and deserve to be tossed off the island. This story depicts chapter and verse the atrocities inflicted on the Catholics in the north. I'm sympathetic to their right to rebel, but am truly saddened by the cold-hearted extremes of their tactics. There is much blame to spread around on this topic.
No comments:
Post a Comment