Copyright newsletter
Why is it that both the British government and unionist politicians have failed to hold the Irish government accountable for their role in policing Irish republican violence directed against the unionist community in Northern Ireland during our recent troubles? Having read the book, The Northern Ireland Conflict on the Margins of History - Protestant Memory on the Border, by Kenneth Funston and Cillian McGratton, the shocking and horrendous violence perpetrated against Protestant families on the border has been covered up for too long by historians and academics. Dressing up Irish republican violence as some form of entertainment is a shocking indictment on Irish republican and nationalist communities on the island of Ireland. When Protestant families were left standing in their pyjamas watching their family homes and property being burned, how can Irish politicians continue to remain silent in condemning such death and destruction perpetrated in their name? The causes of political unrest in Northern Ireland have been well documented. Have these allegations been exaggerated for justifying the deaths of 3,500 people during 30 years of political and sectarian violence? The book, The Northern Ireland Question - Perspectives on Nationalism and Unionism, edited by Patrick Roche and Brian Barton, would dispel many of the political myths around discrimination in housing and employment. Why was Irish republican violence tolerated by Irish government politicians from their jurisdiction? Several publications, including Border Cleansing published by Maurice Wylie, and two books written by Jonathan Trigg (Death in the Fields: The IRA and East Tyrone and Death in Derry: Martin McGuinness and the Derry IRA’s war against the British), along with Killing Rage by Eamon Collins and Mick McGovern, document the role played by the Irish border counties of Donegal, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth in sustaining the Irish republican terrorist campaign against unionist communities in Northern Ireland over 30 years. The question I ask is why the Irish government is not providing reparations to Protestant families who were forced to abandon their farms and businesses on the border? It is all too easy for Irish and nationalist politicians to draw a line on the past without acknowledging their failures in ending Irish republican violence. George Millar, Newtownards
