Wednesday, October 20, 2010

A memorial plaque for Ian Gow.

A couple of months ago I spoke about the Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell's campaign to have a plaque installed in the House of Commons in memory of Ian Gow who was murdered by the IRA in 1990.

It's now been agreed:
Commons speaker John Bercow said the memorial plaque would be placed in the Commons chamber.

Mr Bercow said: "The matter was considered at the House of Commons Commission meeting last night and I am pleased to advise the House that the commission decided unanimously that there should be a permanent memorial to the late Ian Gow and that would likely take the form of a plaque.

"That plaque will be put up in the chamber of the House of Commons, similar to the plaque that has been long-established in recognition of the distinction and the terrible fate of the late Airey Neave."
I'm only surprised it has taken a full twenty years after his death for it to happen.

5 comments:

Dilettante said...

Glad to hear it.

The Aberdonian said...

Never understood why they killed Ian Gow. Never have. He just spoke his mind but was hardly a demagogue. He operated within the democratic sphere.

Never understood why they killed Mountbatten either.

I undertand why the Republicans targetted Airey Neave considering what he was proposing (return of hanging etc). Sometimes wonder if the Irish Secret Service might have had a hand in that one.

O'Neill said...

Aberdonian,

You are being extremely naive if you think that the provos cared a jot about whether anyone operated within the democratic sphere or not- the murder of the law lecturer and UUP politician, Edgar Graham was only one example that proves the contrary.

Gow was (or had been) very close to Thatcher and was still regarded as one of her closest allies in a Conservative Party that was starting to sharpen the knives against her. Excuse enough.

Lord Mountbatten, again, I think you're being very naive. The blowing upo of any British royalty, even one nearly in his 80s and even with the accompanying murders of 2 young schoolboys and old woman, brought glee and delight to many Irish nationalists in NI.

Sometimes (or actually often) the motivation was simply:
"Look, there is another Brit/Prod we 've taken out"

Regarding the Irish Secret Service's involvement, I really do doubt it.

Anonymous said...

Now a plaque for Robert Bradford MP for South Belfast, murdered by the IRA while attending an advice centre.

O'Neill said...

I've been trying without success to get my dad to do a post on Robert Bradford. About a month or so before the provos murdered him, he had been helping out my dad and other people on our estate with a (non-political/terrorist)problem.

Like when they shot Edgar Graham in the back of the head, like when they blew Ian Gow and Airey Neave to smithereens, with Bradford's murder the IRA were telling us exactly where we fitted into their "United" Ireland scenario.