Day By Day

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Gerald Baker on the McCartney Affair

Gerald Baker in the Times makes some important points regarding the recent shift in Irish-American attitudes toward Sinn Fein.

He writes:
I have some questions for all these who have now suddenly decided that the Provisionals are a gang of thugs and murderers who must be brought to justice.

Why does it take the killing of an Irish Catholic outside a Belfast pub to open your perceptive eyes to the reality of Irish republicanism? Where were you when it was a couple of dozen innocent British — Protestants and Catholics alike — in a Birmingham pub? Why were you not similarly outraged when off-duty soldiers and their families were the targets in Woolwich and Guildford? What exactly were you doing and saying when they tried to wipe out half the British Cabinet as they lay sleeping in their hotel beds?

Good question! And he answers it thusly:
The tragedy heaped on the McCartney family and the brave stand of the McCartney sisters have not opened the eyes of Irish-American leaders to the horror of the IRA. They have not even shamed these leaders.

They have merely made them start to worry about the political expediency of being seen alongside men whose own standing has suddenly dropped sharply.

Read the whole thing here.

I'm shocked..., shocked! Professional politicians being cynical! Amazing!

The cheap moralizing aside, it is a good thing that finally Irish America has turned on the erstwhile heroes. Yes, the Provos and their Sinn Fein allies should have been shut down years ago, but rather than decrying the fact that they weren't we should be giving thanks that Gerry and his boys are now at last being marginalized.

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