I recall Ruairi O'Bradaigh's oft-repeated war cry: "One more push and we'll drive them into the sea."
Perhaps he was talking about the British Army but I had my doubts.
A significant number of people in The Republic seemed to think likewise.
The atrocity in Enniskillen didn't cause noticeable shock and horror in The Republic -- the atrocity in Omagh did. Seemingly it was all right to murder Protestants.
We must face up to a terrible truth: a succession of governments allowed the Republic to be used as a launching pad and a safe haven for the subversives. Of course it was impossible to seal off The Border completely but a better attempt could have been made. The men who planted the bombs in Monaghan and in Dublin had no difficulty in coming down or getting back.
There were occasional arrests but in general the subversives were allowed the freedom of The Republic.
More a case of turning the blind-eye, I think, rather than actively allowing them the freedom of the Republic, but a lot more could have been done south of the border during the period of the Troubles to make life as uncomfortable as possible for both the provos and their bar-stool supporters.
Anyway, it’s encouraging to see that in some quarters, at least, times are changing...
For the first time since the Irish state was founded, Edward Carson - the founding father of unionism - is to be honoured in Dublin. The current leader of unionism, Ian Paisley, is to deliver the first ever memorial lecture about the life of his hero later this month.
OK, fair enough it is at Trinity, the bastion of West Britism (according to Sinn Fein Jugend anyway), but still...Paisley (The 2007 Model) delivering a lecture on Carson in Dublin; can imagine that happening ten years ago?
Paisley (The 1997 Model) would have had a word or so (probably "Lundy" ad infinitum to) say about that!
1 comment:
This is a really interesting piece of work, although I know little about it myself anyways, but still its cool to hear about it from a Unionist perspective.
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