I remember hearing once that Southern California has more Irish immigrants than either New York or Chicago. I don't know if that's true or not, but I did attend the Irish festival there several times, and it was a really big show. Sinn Fein (pronounced shin fayn) had its booth set up near the entrance, to funnel some more gullible Yankee dollars into the hands of the murderous Irish Republican Army.
The Irish presence may explain why the Los Angeles Times decided to print Anthony McIntyre's harsh critique of the current Sinn Fein/IRA. At first glance you might think that it was the IRA recent bank robbery, staged as Sinn Fein was trying to negotiate for a voice in the Northern Ireland government, that offends McIntyre. Or maybe it was one of the IRA's recent political murders. But that's not quite it.
As a young man not even out of my teens, I entered the ranks of this steely republican fighting machine. Within days I was pitting both my wits and my seriously inadequate sniping skills against the might of the British empire. I came through. Many others did not. Among those who died were the 10 hunger strikers in 1981.
I knew some of those hunger strikers from prison, where I spent 18 years for killing a loyalist paramilitary.
He was a terrorist and proud of it. A soldier "in an army — the IRA — not a criminal gang." What did the current IRA do to loose his affection? It tried to make peace.
The IRA leadership had embraced defeat in its acceptance of the Good Friday agreement. That "solution," with its built-in guarantee of continued British rule, enshrined everything I had spent a lifetime opposing. I could accept defeat. It happens all the time in wars. I was not, however, prepared to celebrate it.
Northern Ireland contains two populations, the larger of which insists on remaining part of Britain. There is no way that the IRA can compete politically even among the Catholics, most of whom have no patience for its heavy handed ways. McIntyre and those like him are simply bullies who will always resort to arms when they can't get what they want by more legitimate means.
Maybe one of these days the LA Times will give us a piece by some romantic insurgent, describing longingly how he used to lop off the heads of women voters back when the movement was pure.
For something more sensible, see the London Times on the absurd codling that Sinn Fein has enjoyed under the peace process.
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