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Irish disgusted by IRA's threats on police officers and Queen’s visit

Tanaiste speaks out against IRAs hateful threats

KATE KICKEY,

IrishCentral.com Editor

Published Wednesday, April 27, 2011, 8:11 AM

Updated Wednesday, April 27, 2011, 8:11 AM

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The IRA have threatened to kill more police officers and said that the Queen's upcoming visit to Ireland is an insult. The IRA believes that Queen Elizabeth II is guilty of war crimes.

Tanaiste (Vice Prime Minister) Eamon Gilmore said he was absolutely disgusted by the IRA's comments with relation to threatening to killer more police officers.

Gilmore said "I think the sight of somebody appearing in a mask and menacingly threatening Catholics, who joined the PSNI, nationalists who joined the PSNI, that they would be killed, threatening the governments and threatening the people of this country, that belongs to the past and that is the past,"

The Tanaiste was meeting with the Irish American Congressman Richard Neal in Dublin on Tuesday when he made the comments.

In Derry Father Michael Canny has offered to meet with the Real IRA in an attempt to convince them to abandon violence. He told RTE (Ireland's national broadcaster) that he is eager to engage with them and stop them going down the road which leads to "death, despair and misery".

He said that the dissidents should be told at every opportunity that "human life is sacred".

Gilmore said "The arrangements in this country have been settled by the Good Friday Agreement, been voted on by the people of this country and nobody has any right to challenge that in the way that these people are doing. The Government is absolutely determined that they will not succeed…If there is anybody who can persuade these people away from the path that they are on and the threats that they are making, then certainly I would welcome that. And I would hope that that would be helpful.”

Leader of the Fianna Fail party, Micheal Martin said "These deluded criminals fail to comprehend the true meaning of republicanism and quite clearly have nothing but contempt for this country and its people,” he said. "Any terrorist group that believes they can return Ireland to the violence of the past is gravely mistaken. Foolish attempts to attack our peace process will not be tolerated and will not work.”
Independent member of Northern Ireland Policing Board, Trevor Ringland, said the threats in the statement were “appalling”, “sinister” and a “throwback to the past”. Ringland commented that the PSNI served both loyalist and republicans.

According the Irish Times reports, former SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the Real IRA’s words "are intended to intimidate everyone but their pretensions to legitimacy will impress no one…Politicians do not really have to argue that this group is morally and politically bankrupt when they are driven to attack and threaten nationalists who want to serve the community and their country through a policing vocation."

A statement released by the Real IRA on Monday said they were not in talks with the Irish or British government and refused to enter into any talks unless they revolved around "the restoration of the Irish sovereignty".

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barneyjo | May 03, 2011, 06:07 PM EDT

@FallsRNat - and what of the contradiction I noted in your post?

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FallsRNat | May 03, 2011, 05:50 PM EDT

Al Qaeda in simple terms known as the base has franchised it's terror machine throughout different parts of the muslim world & whilst they pay homage to bin laden as the 1st leader, they certainly work independently of his organisation, the West's insistence that the liquid bomb plot & NY subway attacks were based on direct links between the groups who planned these attacks & al qaeda are just fantasy, the much misunderstood term 'the base' does mean a centralised organisation per se, but should be viewed in the context of a localised base in a given country. The attacks won't stop because bin laden was an increasing irrelevance in the ideological war taking place, but the US painted itself into a corner, on the promise that he would be hunted down & killed.

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FallsRNat | May 03, 2011, 04:26 PM EDT

barneyjo - i certainly don't subscribe to view of bin laden's death that it will hurt al Qaeda. Their modus operendi compared to PIRA & the UVF is that the latter had tightly controlled leadership functions in which 99% of their activities had to be approved by this forum, there were a few incidents where local units ignored the command structure & people like dear Barney Green died as a consequence.

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barneyjo | May 02, 2011, 07:18 PM EDT

@FallsRNAT - I'm afraid you take too big a leap in your interpretation of my post. For one thing I think you make the same mistake that the US has made in assessing the impact of Bin Ladens death; the idea being that if you cut of the head of a snake then it will die. You also contradict yourelf by saying on the one hand "the future is built on peace, not war" and then "give the SAS free pass on taking these people out in the 26 counties" Your knowledge of history should tell you that 22nd SAS did have such a remit in the 80s and 90s (remember Loughgall, Gibraltar and a host of other firefights that never had any publicity) and did not succeed in the way you have suggested. The dissidents taking the field now DONT have a political machine to speak of. These are "Goons" that have profited from their involvement with Republicanism and dont want to give it up for that reason alone. However dont make the mistake of confusing that with those who have fought and died for their belief in a sovereign country and who have resisted all attempts by the (British) State to destroy that belief by solely military means. You cant kill an idea, especially one that runs so deeply within the psyche of Irish Nationalists. I have long since believed that Ireland will be re-united, but as you say it will be by the consent of all the peoples living on the Island and it will be endorsed by a majority of all those same people contrary to what sirpeter, clevelander et al wish to believe.

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FallsRNat | May 02, 2011, 06:33 PM EDT

barneyjo - any normal rational person would be willing to see both sides of the argument, unfortunately, sirpeter, seanomelbourne & their other acolyites are from the Al Qaeda school of politics, where they are blinded to anybody else's point of view except their own. Thankfully the majority of the irish people have woken up to the fact that the future is built on peace not war, you can never stop a minority of common foot soldiers from being convinced that war is a winnable solution, but if u do to their leadership what the US have done to Al Qaeda & killed most of the leadership, then the warped political machine hits the buffers, if we can't bring ourselves to take on the dissidents, maybe it is time to give the SAS a free pass on taking these people out in the 26 counties, the grunts will soon fall into line as most are apolitical & not recruited to be the 'brains' of the organisation, bvut just the cannon fodder, once they realise this, it will be game over for the RA.

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barneyjo | Apr 29, 2011, 11:02 AM EDT

@sirpeter - in reference to your critique of my response to Clevelander on his "limited" view (which I still contend it is) of social history, it may have passed your notice that I used the qualification of "contemporary." I am well aware of the punitive measures adopted to eradicate vestiges of Gaelic Culture in all its aspects in Ireland. Clevelander (God help him) makes the case that the historical scenario he has outlined represents and underpins in some mystical way, the status quo currently which is evidently NOT the case. HE IGNORES the fact that the GAA did away with the rule that prevents British Security Forces from playing Gaelic sports. HE WOULD NOT WISH ME TO REMIND HIM that my son who is a student at a British University took part in this years British Universities Gaelic championship on a team which included students from both a Republican and Loyalist Background. BUT MOST SIGNIFICANTLY, he chooses to bury his head in the sand rather than acknowledge the powerful yet dignified role of the GAA at the funeral of PSNI Constable Ronan Kerr, at which an Uachtaran of an Cumann Lúthchleas Gael carried his coffin. Clevelander ( and whoever else) can choose to stem the tide of history in his own mind as he wishes. I DO NOT, and when I am in the company of the majority of the Irish Nation, its diaspora abroad, the GAA and many other august bodies representing Irish society, thats good enough for me!!

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Towngate | Apr 29, 2011, 04:59 AM EDT

Stephendoyle: Your reading of the situation is very understandable and to be wished for, but I can't help feeling that Dream has taken a step further away from us today by the Palace Announcement of the elevation of Prince William to the Duke of Cambridge and Baron Carrickfergus. As he is the Colonel of the Irish Guards, they will form his Guard of Honour outside Westminster Abbey today. I hope it is, but I wonder will it really be 'A Great Day for the Irish' in the long run, as we wait one hour to the Marriage of the future King Billy! P.s. Thanks,Sparklet,very nice of you.

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paddyRanger | Apr 28, 2011, 12:38 PM EDT

Sirpeter "peterson..Well you won't qualify anyway. The IRA don't take special needs people".......on the contary, sirpeter, the people calling themselves real IRA now, are all special needs.. it is part of the requirement clearly to be a member ...to be brain damaged to join

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Sparklet | Apr 28, 2011, 12:32 PM EDT

And Towngate too.

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Sparklet | Apr 28, 2011, 11:27 AM EDT

Stephendoyle, very well said.

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stephendoyle | Apr 28, 2011, 09:47 AM EDT

This is not a monarch coming to see what she has, but one coming to see what they have lost. Ireland and the Irish are better people than to be petty and vindictive. It is time to say look at us and who we are, a free and independent country that will one day be inclusive of all the island. Violence will not unite Ireland, time will and the Catholic birth rate. If it unites now it would be the Irish army in Belfast dealing with loyalist bombings. In time the majority will want a united Ireland...........

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Towngate | Apr 28, 2011, 06:41 AM EDT

Now back to serious matters raised in the Kate's Article. ~ If any harm comes to The Queen in accepting an Official Invitation by the President of the Irish republic as an attempt to display to the World the Peace,Friendship and Harmony that now exists between two Nations who have shared a turbulent history, it will be to Irelands eternal detriment and shame.

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esatdigiwank | Apr 28, 2011, 04:24 AM EDT

"restoration of Irish sovereignty" ho hum! Whats left of that, the i m f & frankfurt has now. Do the slow-learner, flat-footed, pot-bellied wonders in army fatigues wish to take on the faraway suits also )

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Sparklet | Apr 28, 2011, 03:07 AM EDT

Theres too much of the old inferiority complex around these days and it's not necessary. This obsession that people might think England is better than us is so outdated. Your average English person who has visited Ireland usually goes back over and over, because they love it there - I've several English friends who have said they wish they were Irish because of the respect Ireland has worldwide, and because they love the place and the people. And (mainly because I've educated them :) ) they are appalled about their own history there.

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jamieLM | Apr 27, 2011, 10:30 PM EDT

Can one person speak for "all Irish" as if everyone in Ireland were of one mind and one voice and just a clone of one another? If "all Irish" hated the British so much, why would so many of them move to England and stay there to live, work, and even inter-marry? Searlit and Sparklet, I agree with your posts. Violence and hatred just fuels more of the same and then it becomes never-ending. Who really benefits from a continuing cycle of death and sorrow? Is NI better off now that a young Catholic policeman was recently murdered? What good things would result for Ireland from killing one old British woman? Btw: didn't someone from Ireland INVITE the Queen to come?

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