BRITISH CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH

Posted by Jim on June 3, 2014

 

 In Saint John’s Gospel Pontius Pilate responds to Jesus with the question: “What is truth?” It is a puzzling and profound question that colors history down through the ages.  Truth, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder. Or so it seems in the N. I. conflict.  Truth is on the minds of many there and is pivotal to understanding the legacy of British rule in Ireland. Since partition Her Majesty’s Government views its role as defending democracy, justice and the rule of law. Nationalists argue that the British are entitled to their own opinion but NOT to their own facts. The facts reveal a different truth.

This struggle for truth and ‘interpretation’ of facts is a fight for power and the legacy of history around the world. In China today journalists are instructed not to use certain words to describe the events of 1989 and Tiananmen Square. The Tiananmen Mothers group continue to demand truth and accountability for their murdered children but few have heard their appeals.  Twenty-five years after the British government murdered her lawyer husband Patrick , Geraldine Finucane gets Britain’s version of the truth which is more significant for what questions it doesn’t answer. She, too, is unyielding in her demand that the report not be the last word on his killing. Leon Aron, author of Roads to the Temple: Truth Memory, Ideas and Ideals in the Making of the Russian Revolution, 1987-1991, describes President Putin’s new “State mythology” and labeling of “national-traitors.” No doubt in a revised “history” of Russia. Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer, would qualify as the latter. Sergei disclosed the truth and facts of corrupt Russian tax officials and died in prison from beatings and neglect.

Terrorism and censorship are essential for authoritarian regimes to retain power. One need only read the 2013 book Lethal Allies by Anne Cadwallader to see it practiced by the British in Northern Ireland. Fearful of losing the last of their empire, from 1968 thru 1974 the British unleashed a ruthless N. I. police force on those protesting internment and discrimination in housing, voting and jobs.  Army paratroopers launched an onslaught on Catholic ghettos and began a killing spree with the Ballymurphy (1971) and Bloody Sunday (1972) killings. In 1974 Britain colluded with loyalists to detonate no-warning car bombs in the shopping centers of Dublin and Monaghan in an undeclared act of war against the Irish Republic that cost 34 lives. Thus began the campaign of labeling protesters as criminals and terrorists and spreading the State mythology of their defending democracy and the rule of law. Russia and China have learned well from the United Kingdom’s example.   How does Britain do it? How do they cover-up their actions and keep a prying media from uncovering the truth? A few years ago the British bank Standard & Chartered admitted laundering $200 billion to undermine U. S. sanctions against Iran.   U. S. investigators also found a handbook for the secret operation complete with a codename of GAZELLE and a how-to step-by-step list of ways to mask the transactions. I am convinced such a manual for maintaining their beachhead in Belfast will be found in the bureaucracy of Whitehall, Britain’s Ministry of Defense complex near Trafalgar Square. Until such time as it surfaces, let me list some of the techniques England has used to keep the truth of their deeds in Ireland from the public, the Irish and U. S. governments and, most importantly,  from an  inquiring media.

1.       Greenmail—Millions of pounds have been spent hiring back pensioned Royal Ulster Constabulary officers to review and assess the original investigations, if there was one, of nearly 800 killings of Catholics. They get to bury the very crimes the security forces are suspected of committing and are paid a bundle for it.
2.       Personal Immunity Certificates—These are issued   to members of the security forces and their paid undercover agents. A grant of immunity from prosecution and an incentive to lie. The Official Secrets Act is the ultimate hammer against the truth.
3.       Media Massage—The conflict is viewed as a small foreign policy problem. The UK thoughtfully provides all journalists with what they ‘need to know’ briefing materials and arranges the ‘right’ people to interview. The last reporter to ignore these inducements, and who chose to independently search out for the truth, Ms. Jo Thomas of the New York Times, was removed from her London post for “unexceptional reporting.” Smears in the tabloid press are a favorite. Gerry Adams is ‘linked’ to the McConville killing, IRA commander Gerry Kelly is “romantically linked “ to Senator Mitchell’s aide and Chief Inspector John Stalker was “associated with gangsters.”   All in an attempt to obscure truth and impugn their integrity. To this date Stalker’s report on police killings in the North has not been released.
4.       Inquiry & Ignite—In order to quickly silence criticism,  Britain authorizes a inquiry   and some solicitor looking for an Order of the British Empire is appointed to conduct it.  Naturally Sir Desmond de Silva dismissed any “overarching conspiracy” in the murder of Pat Finucane. Sir John Stevens, a former Metropolitan Police Superintendent conducted three inquiries into police corruption in N. I. An arsonist somehow entered his highly secure offices in Antrim and set alight records. A report of 3000 pages was never released but a summary of 27 pages was.
5.       Jamming Justice—Some coroners inquests into killings in N. I. have not been conducted for 30 years. A coroners report contains important facts into the cause and circumstances of death. N. I. has separate rules for coroners inquests from the rest of the UK. Their funding and staffing is reduced. The Ministry of Defense maximizes delays with litigation. Closed Material Procedures or ‘secret trials now are used also for civil matters.
6.       Disappeared—A frequent government response to many inquiries into official misconduct is that requested files have ‘disappeared.’ The RUC took the most unusual response to an asbestos problem in an old station building. They destroyed all their records.
7.       Assassinations—A too curious journalist like Martin O’Hagan and too successful lawyers like Patrick Finucane and Rosemary Nelson were executed without charge or trial. Those who expose deceit or corruption of law enforcement are natural targets. Five Sinn Fein elected officeholders espousing  anti-government views  were assassinated. No modern democracy has witnessed such slaughter of a political party which also included the murder of 8 campaign workers.

British governments difficulty with the truth is not limited to N. I. The Hillsborough Inquiry into the 1989 deaths of 96 football fans is still ongoing 25 years later after earlier reports found authorities attempted to hide data and police had altered witness statements. The Not-So Reverend Ian Paisley once held aloft the book The Narrow Ground by local historian A. T. Q Stewart declaring to the multitude “…this book was the truth.” That author once stated “they [the Irish] have woven themselves a garment of myth and legend which they call Irish history.” It is, in fact, the British who have woven this shroud of deceit in Ireland because they can’t handle the truth.

 

Michael J. Cummings

Albany, NY 12203-1814

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael J. Cummings, a native of Springfield, Mass., is a graduate of St. Anselm’s College (B. A., 1968) and New York University (M. P. A., 1970).   A member of the National Boards of the Irish American Unity Conference (1996-2013),   the Ancient Order Hibernians National Board (2001-2008), and the National Executive of the Irish Northern Aid Committee (1988-1996), he served six National AOH Presidents , 5 IAUC National Presidents and two National Chairman of INA primarily in public relations capacities.   He is the only person to serve on the national policymaking bodies of all three major Irish American organizations.   He also served on the Commission on Peace and Justice of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.

Cummings has appeared on American, English and Irish television and radio and his commentary and letters and those of the Presidents have appeared in major American, Irish-American, Catholic print media. He is a frequent columnist for the weekly IRISH ECHO newspaper.   He has been married to Nuala Hogan, a nurse and native of Ireland,   for 41 years and resides   in Albany, New York . They are the parents of five children and two grandchildren.

 

To contact Mr. Cummings for speaking engagements or for an opinion piece, please call 518-482-0349 or 505-2851 or via e-mail at michaeljohncummings@outlook.com