Posted by admin on March 20, 2014
Sorry, Helen, but I very much disagree with you. I supported the decision to invite the PSNI and believe that it is measures such as this that will help us to advance the peace process in the North.
PSNI officers are drawn from Catholic ranks and serve all citizens in the North with impartial and fair policing services. At the AOH parade in Cookstown, County Tyrone on Monday, three PSNI offic…ers placed themselves in front of a group of young men who came to the parade looking to cause trouble. You can thank the good work of the PSNI for ensuring that the AOH parade went off well and that no one was threatened.
I caution against any characterization of the PSNI as just a latter-day version of the RUC. There is a substantial effort ongoing in the North to build a modern-day police force that is fair, impartial and fit for purpose. For those in the RUC that colluded with the UDF (and for those in the Gardai that did the same with the IRA), they will have to answer for their own sins.
Finally, I remind you of PSNI Officer Ronan Kerr, a Catholic who who gave his life in order to build fair and effective community policing to Northern Ireland in 2011. In my mind, his service and sacrifice is all the reason one needs to justify the decision to allow PSNI officers to march in the New York City parade honouring the Saint of all-Ireland with respect and dignity.
My reply to John 3/19/14
John, first I would like to commend you on your honesty and openness, but with all due respect, I don’t see how inviting the PSNI/RUC/B-Specials to march in the St. Patrick’s Day parade will advance the peace process along? I find that a very far stretch of the imagination and wishful thinking.
As for the “PSNI serving all citizens in the North with impartial and fair policing services,” Please tell that to the McGeough family. Marian Price, Martin Corey, Stephen Murney and the list goes on and on and on John as they continue to arrest and intern republicans without trial.
“As for the three PSNI offices placing themselves in front of a group of young men who came to the parade looking to cause trouble. You can thank the good work of the PSNI for ensuring that the AOH parade went off well and that no one was threatened.”
Odd statement to make in lieu of the fact the PSNI/RUC can’t seem to control the Orangemen when they march through Catholic enclaves every July 12th.
“I caution against any characterization of the PSNI as just a latter-day version of the RUC”
Their continued adversarial behavior toward Irish republicans who do not support the status-quo imply nothing has changed. A rose by any other name is still a rose. John, they still call those who served in the IRA “terrorists” and they label anyone who thinks outside the box “dissidents”. So what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
“For those in the RUC that colluded with the UDF, they will have to answer for their own sins”.
That’s all well and good John, in the hereafter, but republicans who speak out against the misdeeds of the PSNI/RUC or don’t agree with some of Sinn Fein’s policies pay for their “sins” in this life. They are harassed, arrested and incarcerated. Some held for two or more years without trial and then released.
While I can understand the priority to move forward and leave the past in the past, justice has to be served first and the PSNI/RUC marching in the St. Patrick’s Day parade is not the answer. It was a slap in the face. It appears that since the Good Friday Agreement, it has been the Nationalist community who has done all of the “advancing” while Sinn Fein does the dancing to the tune of whatever the British government and the Unionist want.
John. You may have “justified in your mind the decision to allow the PSNI/RUC to march in the New York City parade because of the death of PSNI Ronan Kerr”, which to me was a tragic and useless murder, but I protested the PSNI/RUC invite because of all of the tragic and useless murders of innocent Irish Catholics at the hands of the security forces in the North and the continued internment of Irish republicans.
And finally, instead of praising the PSNI/RUC and forcing acceptance of them on the Nationalist community, wouldn’t it be more constructive to see to it that the Diplock courts be abolished in the North. They only serve to incarcerate republicans anyway. To ensure that anyone who committed an “offense” during the troubles, and prior to the Good Friday Agreement, no longer be pursued by the PSNI/RUC and those who did time have their convictions overturned. To ensure that all of the OTRs receive amnesty. And those, who like Gerry McGeough, the first Irish republican to be tried and incarcerated after the Good Friday Agreement, have their prohibitively restrictive probation (license), revoked. To me those would be the key issues for advancing the peace process forward not the PSNI marching in a parade.
Respectfully,
Helen
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