Deja Vu

I am old enough to remember the old ways and days. The 'Troubles' as only the Irish can euphemistic call them, were the terrible period of 30 or so years from the 1960s in which over 3,600 people lost their lives both in Northern Ireland and on mainland Britain. It was an awful period of history for which no side can feel proud.

Mercifully, this came to an end. Through the germ on an idea from John Major and seen through to conclusion under Tony Blair with the help of the USA, it seemed we all finally learned that fighting force with force was never, ever going to solve the problem. For every IRA volunteer who was arrested or killed, there were several others waiting to take their place - the prospect of martyrdom is always a glorious motivator for such people and their Cause.

What we suddenly got to grips with was the concept that if you can take way the reason to fight, then the fighting eventually stops. This took a lot of courage by a lot of people but it ultimately resulted in Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, and Rev. Ian Paisley, ultra hard Loyalist, to share a stand, laughing and joking as if they had been pals all their lives.

At the height of the Troubles such as sight would have been no more likely than putting men on Mars.

New Beginnings

It is a shock, then, after more than 10 years of peace, that the killings have started again. Part of the Good Friday deal was complete disarmament by the terrorists or putting their arms beyond use. In the complex world that is terrorism, the consent was given but never fully achieved and more importantly, not every splintered faction of the terrorists were fully bought in. But it was enough to obtain a peace. It is part of the modus operandi of such people that they sleep with their guns close at hand in case things are not going the way they want - to some extent this is the risk of dealing with such people as compromise is so hard for them to stomach.

The likes of McGuinness and Gerry Adams, part of the Sinn Fein team that brokered the peace, have condemned the recent killings and have said 'those dark days are behind us'. I applaud that although they really seem to think that the prospect of the Army occupying Northern Ireland, more checkpoints and restrictions on people are the unfriendly alternatives - they were very careful not to say that the Cause was no more.

They also, despite being serving Members of Parliament, have never taken their seats in the House of Commons - old Causes die very hard even for Peacemakers.

Peace Is The Victory

In all those terrible years, the common factor that fuelled the violence was that all sides were convinced that for every atrocity, a more violent response was the only answer. The belief was that guns, bullets and bombs was the only language that anybody spoke and understood. In such a strategy, there can never be a winner, as each last bullet must be followed by another to prove the point. Only until every last family ever touched by the Troubles was eliminated could there be no others willing to take up the fight, would be the ultimate and stupid logic.

So much of what we saw was abetted by the flow of funds through Noraid in the USA as Irish Americans seemed to think it was fashionable and wise to support the people of their roots in their oppression and history gave them a sound case to do so. The expanse of the Atlantic allowed them to keep the horror that is terrorism and its outcomes at arms length and out of sight.

That changed forever when terrorism came to the USA in the most devastating way on 9/11 2001. At first hand, the Firefighters, who had held an annual lunch which Gerry Adams always attended to keep the money flowing, were faced with the evil and total disregard for life that is terrorism.

I hope one thing - that in this first show of violence in the name of the Cause for over 10 years, that all sides show the defiance that enabled Peace to be the one Victor in Northern Ireland, and to expunge these evil people from society by everyone turning their backs on them and denying them their Cause.

Peace is the only thing that is ever worth fighting for.