In 1979 Pope John Paul II visited Ireland; the first Pope to do so. British authorities were annoyed and fearful for his safety in Northern Ireland, so he spoke instead at Drogheda near the partition border. He pleaded for a peace based on justice, the basic principles of brotherhood, the respect due to each person and against the evil of violence! “The moral law,” stated the Pontiff, “could not be set aside by the State not even for the cause of security or threats to law and order.” His Holiness humbled Communist rule in Poland but seriously underestimated British imperial arrogance and pride.
GARRISON RULE UNFOLDS
Emergency laws like internment were used to intimidate, part-time police (B-Specials) delivered beatings and MI-5 double agents were deployed to monitor, agitate and kill as instructed. As if to mock the Pope’s concerns, the British added juryless show trials, false imprisonments and orchestrated arms ‘thefts’ for their loyalist bigoted allies. Her Majesty’s government created the only non-rotating unit of the British Army, the Ulster Defense Regiment (UDR), which included members of the Ulster Defense Association and Orange Order, a virtual cornucopia of trained sectarian killers. The UDR had the highest number of members convicted of crimes of any other Army regiment. Britain’s deep State operators at Whitehall used their ‘Merchant of Menace’ Rupert Murdoch to label civil rights protestors as criminals and ‘terrorists, to smear victims as traitors and to print government lies as Holy Writ.
JUSTICE AND RULE OF LAW ABANDONED
The Pope appealed especially to those who held political office in N. I. to prove that the work of peace can secure justice. His plea fell on deaf ears. By 1982 PM Thatcher added a sinister element to Britain’s Irish policy by removing Corner’s powers related to cause of death ……. only in N. I. To this day, nearly 1000 civilian killings, including dozens of members of the political party Sinn Fein, remain uninvestigated in violation of British and EU Human Rights laws. Information requests of the Ministry of Defense relating to security services killings going back four decades, are denied using the cloak of National Security. Personal Immunity Certificates (PIC) are liberally issued as ‘Get Out of Jail Free” cards.
PEACE PROCESS SLOW WALKED
Over the subsequent 25 years (1998-2023) Britain would unilaterally suspend the N. I. Assembly to stall or distract. The stall strategy included long disputes over language in five negotiated agreements and the delay or ignoring of pact obligations. The Stormont House Agreement was shut down when the Police Ombudsman and the Historical Enquiries Team found that loyalist gunmen colluded with police and Army personnel in the murdering of unarmed civilians, mostly Catholics. Former London Police Commissioner Lord John Stevens, who conducted three major N. I. investigations, noted “…I was deliberately misled. I was criminally obstructed by Royal Ulster Constabulary and military for doing my job whilst MI-5 failed to disclose information.” Britain even secured CIA approval to break the South Africa arms embargo so their loyalist double agent, Brian Nelson, could purchase weapons. Those same weapons were subsequently used in 226 killings in N. I.
MURDERERS MESSAGE TO AMERICANS
With the ink on the GFA barely dry, the British deep-state operatives, resentful of America’s role, counter-attacked to discredit the peacemakers. In August 1998, the police, Army and MI-5 were all aware of a bomb threat to Omagh three days before it was detonated by opponents of the peace process killing 29. To be sure America got the Omagh message, less than a year later the prominent civil rights attorney Rosemary Nelson, long the target of loyalists and police death threats, accepted the invitation of Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) Chairman of the Helsinki Commission in Congress to testify to police harassment. Within a year, the mother of three was victim of a car bomb assassination. Britain, long presumed to be an American ally in the defense of democracy and the rule of law lost control of their N. I. narrative; the official label of a ‘State sponsor of terrorism” loomed.
PRIDE GOETH BEFORE THE FALL
On World Peace Day Pope Leo observed that “…the protection of human rights must prevail over the ambitions of belligerence.” If returned to power, Britain’s Conservative Leader promised to repeal the Human Rights Act of N. I., a key provision of the GFA. Leo’s remarks did not mention N. I. but he asserted “…pride is always at the root of every conflict.”
It was the pride of British Conservatives that crafted Ireland’s partition in 1920. President Roosevelt weighed Ireland’s plea to end partition against the wounded pride of England as the Empire crumbled. Thankfully, America’s indifference to the Irish conflict ended with the Good Friday Agreement. But pride propelled Parliament to cover-up crimes with the CHIS/SPYCOP (2021) and the NORTHERN IRELAND LEGACY ACT (2023).
N. I. Secretary Hilary Benn proclaimed it would be 30 years before Britain conducts an Irish unity poll. His successor, Chris Bryant, is even less forth coming. Such imperial hubris is expected from the slow learning British. But if America were to support Ireland’s reunification or if any UK re-entry to the EU would be conditioned upon the 6 counties return to the Republic that may substitute humility in lieu of pride and belligerence. That and removing the damn Churchill bust from the oval office to the British Embassy where it belongs.
Please give your voice and vote to Members of Congress who share these concerns for Ireland and the GFA. Visit www.irelandsfuture.com or contact@irelandsfuture.com and thank former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. For more info or to get involved in restoring the six Irish counties, please contact the Irish American Unity Conference (IAUC) contact@iauc.org; the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) aoh.com or mgalvinesq@aol.com; the Brehon Law Society (NYC) or go to the American Brexit Committee file in GOOGLE GROUPS.
