One version for Dublin and another for Belfast
From IRISH TIMES August 3rd, 2000
By MARY HOLLAND
There were champagne and confetti to greet the 46 Provisional IRA prisoners
who left the Maze last Friday. Even al lowing for the joy of their relatives
in welcoming the men home, this was a breathtakingly insensitive display.
It may not have been designed to rub salt in the wounds of many victims
who watched the scenes of celebration on television, but it might as well
have been. It was also in marked contrast to the discretion of the loyalist
prisoners, most of whom tried to hide their faces from the waiting media
and slip away as quickly as possible. For many thousands of people, the
early release of prisoners has been the most difficult part of the Belfast
Agreement. We tend to forget that the suffering caused by the conflict is
not confined to Ireland. There are many people in Britain and further afield
who had no part in our hatreds, but whose lives have been bitterly scarred
by them. Jane Gow, widow of the Conservative MP who was killed by an IRA
car bomb in 1990, probably spoke for many of them last weekend. She said:
"I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the injustice of it all. Any criticism of the peace process has become a form of blasphemy." The miracle, for which
we should all give thanks, is that so many people, on both islands, have
been prepared to accept their own pain as part of the price that has to
be paid for peace. One thinks of Rita Restorick, whose son was the last
British soldier to be killed in Northern Ireland, and of the way she has
campaigned tirelessly for a peaceful settlement in a country which is not
her own. Last week many families must have shared her feelings. "I think I have treated it in a rather detached way up to now, but actually seeing the men released, it just brings back all the emotion again and it is very hard." She had chosen, she added, "to hope that it will help the peace process".
Alan McBride's wife, Sharon, died in the bomb which devastated a fish and
chip shop on the Shankill Road in 1993. On Friday he said: "I've had to accept it, but I've never felt it was just, quite the opposite. I've always thought this one part of the agreement was wrong and unjust. Having said that, we wouldn't have had the Good Friday agreement - or the peace process or the setting up of a government - if it hadn't included prisoner releases."
Where would we be without the moral courage of Alan McBride and so many
others like him? At the very least, they challenge us to look again at our
own attitudes to the release of the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe. The
Government insists that it was made absolutely clear at the time of the
Belfast Agreement that the people responsible for his death would not qualify
for early release. Sinn Féin denies this is what happened. Whatever the
truth of this argument, the key question remains: why should this difficult
part of the agreement apply in Northern Ireland, but not in this State?
The only obvious explanation is one of political expediency. The Government
believes that public opinion down here would not wear the release of these
particular killers. I would not for a minute wish to cause further hurt
to the family of Det Garda McCabe. There have been claims that Mrs Ann McCabe
has already been given assurances that the men who killed her husband will
not benefit from the early release scheme. That puts the Government in an
extremely difficult position, but there are broader issues here in relation
to the Belfast Agreement and this Government's commitment to implementing
it in a way which is seen to be fair and above board by both communities.
This does not allow for secret assurances to be given to individuals, however
great their claim on our sympathy. Already it seems to many people in Northern
Ireland that the murder of a member of the Garda Siochana is regarded by
the Government and citizens of this State as morally different to the murder
of an RUC man. By extension, it appears that we expect the widows and children
of, say, the two community policemen murdered in Lurgan to bear a weight
of injustice (albeit in the furtherance of peace) which is considered intolerable
down here. The fact that all the major political parties in the Dail have
lined up to back the Government's stance, that the killers of Garda McCabe
must not be released, has exacerbated suspicions that the agreement was
always designed to mean different things in Dublin and Belfast. All the
pious talk about equality of sacrifice was just that - talk. There is now
speculation that the men imprisoned for the killing of Det Garda McCabe
will mount a legal challenge to the Government's decision and could be released
as a result. |
