How do you solve a problem like murder?
PIRA Sinn Fein aspires to be a mainstream political party, but it has a problematic past.
They are responsible for approximately 1700 murders and thousands of more people injured in bombings, shootings and beatings. A number of murder victims were tortured before they were killed, whilst others were "disappeared" in secret burials.
Despite claims to the contrary, PIRA Sinn Fein was willing, not only to endanger the lives of civilians, but to deliberately target them for injury and death. This included nakedly sectarian attacks on protestants.
The terrorist organisation's modus operandi means that it is guilty of crimes against humanity.
When an organisation has all this and more in it's past, future political success requires a highly creative approach in managing it's history. Not just an airbrushing, but a complete reimagination of the past, involving a Disneyfication of terror that sanitises murder, maiming and mayhem.
Whilst PIRA Sinn Fein had to take on this tricky public relations exercise, we must not overlook the generous assistance of Tony Blair and others, who facilitated a smooth transition for PIRA Sinn Fein, from unrepentant terrorists in balaclavas, to unrepentant terrorists in suits. Tony provided the mad men of terror marketing, with early prisoner releases, comfort letters and royal pardons, with no expectation of genuine expressions of remorse or acceptance that they had done something wrong or immoral.
As if that wasn't enough, the British government looked the other way as PIRA Sinn Fein ramped up their propaganda war, to exact revenge on those who had defeated them in the intelligence war. This of course was part of a wider PR strategy for the legitimisation of past criminal behaviour, by employing conspiracy theories to demonise those who successfully opposed terrorism.
PIRA Sinn Fein were also given time and space to manage public perception, to ensure that not only their groupies, but the naive and uninformed could internalise the myth that there was an equivalence between terrorists and the security forces on the opposing side. Combatants engaged in a war on equal terms.
This process of reimagination and Disneyficaction of terrorism continues apace, largely unchallenged by government or media, or a busy general public that has other more pressing matters to attend to in our fast paced 24/7 world. However, the corruption of democracy, the moral compromises, the contempt for public concerns, the betrayal of those who gave their loyalty and their lives to defend principles and values necessary in a free and just society, are the causes of a disease that now infects wider society in Northern Ireland. In the rush to normalise the abnormal, the moral core of society was sacrificed.
Anyone beyond our shores, in the rest of the UK who had paid attention to how the peace process and subsequent events were handled, would have had an early warning as to what they could expect from the political class, when their status quo was threatened by Brexit. To patriotic Leave voters who feel that they have been shafted by a morally bankrupt, self serving political class that views you as a problem in need of management, may I say on behalf of many in Northern Ireland, welcome to our world.
The reimagined and Disneyfied past:
The brutal reality:
You can read my next blog here: The Black Stuff
