Our Brave New World.......

Has Sinn Fein now become a victim of their own countless spin? On hindsight we need look no further than the Blair years and the Good Friday agreement and how they brought us to that point in the first place, lest we forget! To reach that momentous point in our embattled history the SF leadership on numerous occasions re-iterated upon the republican movement 'of not a bullet not an ounce' attitude would be the driving force on negotiating any agreement with the British government.

However, since then the republican movement (the very foundation upon which SF are built) has had to endure anything but! They have been forced to sit back and witness the steady dilution and possible erosion of their core fundamental ideas for which many of them devoted their lives and energies to strive for. The major repercussion is that serious issues and commitments being swept under the carpet by media manipulation and good old fashioned hood winking. Does this strategy of

‘eyes wide shut!’

seem familiar? And hence, this apparent refusal to accept and deal with disgruntlement among the grass roots has all culminated in the inner vacuum, which has unfortunately manifested itself in the happenings over the last few days.

How can Martin McGuinness expect genuine republicans (not the band wagon ones who SF seem so keen to need to keep their votal dominance), to believe a man who in the one hand exacerbates about the hurt the soldiers caused on our streets yet on the other hand can find nothing to say about the fact that his Stormont government is HARBOURING & TRAINING foreign forces here, until they await deployment in Iraq & Afghanistan. This defies all logic and flies in the face of true republican beliefs. In an essence, we are aiding and abetting in the British imperialist attempts to occupy foreign lands. I personally find it despicable that all of our illustrious leaders and self-professed freedom fighters can only sit back and watch unabated at the suffering caused by conflicts in the Middle East! Have they now taken a vow of silence to appease their new bedfellows in Stormont?

Complacency and arrogance that accompanies the notion that

'the job is done boys!'

has befallen the movement as it turns its attention to trying to become a voice in the Republic. But wait a moment; surely their whole '

raison d'etre'

was to deliver 32 counties and emancipate their people! There current strategy, or lack of, seems to be shrouded in mystery to the point that is frankly farcical!

So alas, we find ourselves in our current predicament. Many may feel that my comments are lambasting the leadership of SF as having failed, but this not entirely so. Yes, in some respects without them we probably would not have got to where we are today. But there in lies the conundrum! Where exactly are we today? Are we any closer to a United Ireland, the Holy Grail for republicans? To get to the Good Friday agreement we were bombarded by ‘Road Maps’ and time deadlines. However, since then there has not been a single mention of complete and unequivocal removal of British forces from Ireland. Yet the British government has made their precise withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan a key focal point of their PR machine to their own people.

Over the last few days we have been witnessing a doomsday scenario from all forms of the media. All this is doing is fuelling the flames of resentment and hostility already being felt on the ground. Also, to right of the perpetrators as criminals and cowards is extremely counter productive. This aloof attitude is only acting as a recruitment mechanism and serves only to appease the masses in the short term. Like it or not their core fundamental belief system exists and is there main driving force. Fortunately for now, we are no where near the point of no return but it would be futile, arrogant and extremely fool hardy for anyone to under estimate these mini-eruptions of dis-contentment, especially for the ranks of SF. To prevent a further escalation of unrest and dis-quiet it is time for our leaders to show true leadership as indicative of their forefathers and predecessors. It is time to admit truthfully to their electorate that their original aims and objectives will not be fully achieved, and give a full and frank state of the nation like appraisal to their electorate of where the hopes and dreams of Irish Republicans actually lies.

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Political Solution or Political Illusion Part I

I have always been intrigued through out history about the mystery of illusionists and now they captivated and enthused their audiences. Not to bore you with the details, the art of illusion falls into three broad categories, optical, auditory and tactile, with the former two the best known by most of us.



However, prestidigitation or misdirection is the fundamental backbone of many illusions. The true art of illusion involves focusing the audience’s attention on one object or place while the actual trick is conducted elsewhere.
The art of illusion has always been synonymous with politics through out world history and unfortunately our own shores have not escaped it’s effects.
However, when an entire society subscribes to an illusion, mankind will inevitably correct the transgression, or perish as a whole. Have no doubt; confronting strong proponents of illusions requires eternal vigilance. Vigilance in this context can only mean; confronting a persistent political illusion with a legitimate political vision.

‘Facts are stubborn things; and whatever maybe our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence!’ (John Adams, 2nd American President, 1797–1801)

,

So how can the art of illusion be adapted to our current political situation. In one word ‘The Good Friday Agreement’!! In my opinion this agreement provided the imaginary cloak for Britain’s plan to burden us with the next phase of it’s very calculated and visionary imperial agenda!

In my previous letter I made reference to British Imperialism and it’s effect upon the Irish people. But on closer inspection Imperialism can take many guises and not just the military form which we all pre-occupied ourselves with and were subject to up until The Good Friday Agreement. (and to some Republican’s still are!!!)

As the British government will know, through their practices both here and on foreign soils, military imperialism is only the first step in establishing imperial hegemony - (a word I will explain later)- and a very uneconomic one at that! It is costly and, by itself, produces few long-term benefits for the colonizer. Therefore, it must be followed by strategies to persuade the colonized to accept their condition and transfer their allegiance to their conquerors to ensure an uninterrupted flow of benefits from colonized to colonizer without further military intervention. Hence military imperialism transforms itself into linguistic and cultural imperialism.

Hegemony can be best described as the processes by which a dominant culture maintains its dominant position: for example, the use of institutions to formalize power; the employment of a bureaucracy to make power seem abstract (and, therefore, not attached to any one individual); the setting up a police force to control opposition. To the sceptics this will resemble very much our Stormont government of today and on the ongoing debate regarding The Irish Language Bill, The Policing & Justice Bill and cultural and emblems issues. The recent rumblings of disquiet from dissident Republican groups are just the repercussions of when, once insurgent ideology, threatens to become hemogenic.

However, let us not kid ourselves that we are any better off from having no more military imperialism. By their very nature, linguistic and cultural imperialism are more insidious than the military form!! There is a very fine line demarcating political vision and political illusion especially since memory and recollection play such a major part in our nationalist and republican tradition.

So to all you traditional Republican’s out there, I will sign of with an extract from one of two ballads inserted in the play ‘The Freedom of the City’ by Brian Friel: and depicts the aftermath of three IRA volunteers who were shot in the Guild Hall Square, Derry.

“We’ll not forget that sunny evening, nor the names of these bold three
Who gave their lives for their ideal – Mother Ireland, one and free.
They join the lines of long-gone heroes, England’s victims, one and all.
We have their memory still to guide us; we have their courage to recall”

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