Quote of the Day

Today is the 21st anniversary of the Enniskillen Poppy Day massacre when during the annual Remembrance Day ceremony in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, a bomb planted by an Irish republican gang exploded at the War Memorial killing 11 people and injuring a further 63. The dead included three married couples: Wesley and Bertha Armstrong; Kit and Jessie Johnston; and William and Agnes Mullan. The others murdered were: Edward Armstrong, Samuel Gault, John Megaw, Georgina Quinton, and Marie Wilson. Another victim, Ronnie Hill, went into a coma a few days after the explosion and died 13 years later on 28 December 2000

Enniskillen was a turning point in the Troubles in that it woke up many in both the Republic and "Irish America" to the true nature of the "cause" they had unquestionably been supporting both emotionally and financially for decades; the direct consequence of their support were the pensioners, women, the "non-combatants" who lay buried under the rubble of the Enniskillen War Memorial. Post-Enniskillen that unthinking support the Republican movement had relied on was greatly diminished and the decision of the IRA to finally call a ceasefire undoubtedly dated from the events of 8th November 1987.

There's plenty been written and said about Enniskillen, but I've not seen a more angry, more poignant condemnation of those who from the safety of their bar-room stool had cheered on vicariously over the years as their fellow Irishmen human-beings had been murdered and maimed than this from Bono when U2 played in Denver on the day of the massacre:

Now let me tell you something. I've had enough of Irish Americans who haven't been back to their country in 20 or 30 years come up to me and talk about the resistance, the revolution back home. And the glory of the revolution. And the glory of dying for the revolution. F*CK THE REVOLUTION! *Crowd goes wild* They don't talk about the glory of killing for the revolution. Whats the glory in taking a man from his bed and gunning him down in front of his wife and his children. Wheres the glory in that? Wheres the glory in bombing a rememberence day parade of old age pensioners, their medals taking out and polished up for the day. Wheres the glory in that? To leave them dying, or crippled for life, or dead, under the rubble of the revolution that the majority of the people in my country don't want. NO MORE!