An Open Letter to Northern Ireland by an Irish-American Catholic

[Dave Biggins]

Ya know, by having "American" follow "Irish" I know this excludes me from debate, but I feel that this is something I need to speak out on. Sinn Fein is bad for the Irish. Are you Irish and Catholic living in Northern Ireland? Fine, look to the SDLP. They seem to me to be the moderate faction that is not going to drag Ireland into the 4th world.

*Sigh* Look, I'm an American whose Irish ancestors were a mixed bag of peasants and highwaymen. When we came to America we came a mixed bag of Coal Miners and Boot-Leggers. After WWII, we somehow became a mixed bag of Engineers and Military Officers. Now we are branching out into the Buisiness Management and Intelligence fields.

Having said that, I ask you to look at Sinn Fein's dance partners: Fidel Castro, Mohammar Qadaffi, the ETA, and now the FARC. These folks are dead horses that are going to drag you into a patch of quick-sand that you will not be able to dig your way out of.

"Ah," you might pose to me, "but what about America?"

Get smart and look at the trends. We just got the WTC and the Pentagon taken out. Any implication of terrorism is going to put a sour taste in our mouths. Despite the PR Sinn Fein puts out, we are going to be looking at the people that spoke out for us. That includes Great Britain (Tony Blaire being the most outspoken), Germany (whose law enforcement agencies have cut weeks or even months out of our investigations), France (who have surprised even us), Netherlands, Argentina (who freezed a great deal of assets we thought untouchable), and Western World.

Let me put it to you this way: according to the AP wires, the EU is looking at freezing all assets belonging to the ETA and Sinn Fein. Guess who the US is probably gonna side with... [Contrary to the views on the BBC message boards, Mr. Blaire made a wise investment.]

What'll it be my fellow Irish Catholics? The West or the 4th world? Am I saying to accept whatever Britain proposes? Hell no. Look over ever proposal with a fine toothed comb. Every responsible government does that. Understand, however, that with every take there is a little give.

Erin Gogh Bragh and I hope that the rest of y'all will forgive me for wasting y'all's time.

[Capt.Hunter]

Sadly, it took until someone trod on America's toes to make them sit up and get involved. Painful as the truth may be, I feel that if the WTC attack had never happened, factions in America would still be funnelling money to Sinn Fein today. This is not just an American problem though - we're all guilty of ignoring other peoples' problems until they become ours. Human nature, I guess.

As another case in point, notice the aid packages shipped into Afghanistan recently. Before world attention focused on the region a few weeks ago, no-one appeared to give a damn.

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

It's a sad reflection on our society that it takes this sort of event to cement us together, and to make people act.

Let's hope this is the beginning of a new trend, not just a flash in the pan.

[Greg Smith]

It is indeed a shame that it took the events of September 11th to persuade America to bring presure to bear on Sinn Fein/IRA and the Isrealis and Palestinians. But every cloud has a silver lining I guess.

Capt Hunter: Afganistan was getting plenty of aid prior to Sept. 11th. Unfortunately the threat of US reprisals caused aid workers to withdraw from Afganistan. The much publicised aid-packages are just in lieu of that.

[dimeboy99]

Originally posted by Capt.Hunter
As another case in point, notice the aid packages shipped into Afghanistan recently. Before world attention focused on the region a few weeks ago, no-one appeared to give a damn.

Just as a point of clarification, the US provided about $70 million in humanitarian assistance in 1997; US continues to contribute to multilateral assistance through the UN programs of food aid, immunization, land mine removal, and a wide range of aid to refugees and displaced persons. The US was the single largest supplier of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan through the past decade.

[dimeboy99]

Originally posted by Capt.Hunter
Painful as the truth may be, I feel that if the WTC attack had never happened, factions in America would still be funnelling money to Sinn Fein today.

Captain:
<BR><BR>
I'd be interested in seeing how much money, and by who, was sent to Ireland to train terrorists. Do you have a web page source that could fill me in?

[Cdr Scot II]

You speak sense to me

Sinn Fein's relationship with the IRA has always been a nebulous one, and the necessities of the peace process have meant accomodations were necessary. However, they continue to prevaricate over the nature and actions of the IRA - even in their annual conference a few weeks ago, Gerry Adams condemned the acts of terrorists, but then said that it was essential to differentiate between terrorists and 'freedom fighters'.

I suggest he look up the definition of 'terrorist' in Websters or the OED, and then explain how IRA acts like those in Warrington, Enniskillen, Canary Wharf, Shankill Road (I could go on like this for pages) - all of which were aimed specifically at unsuspecting civilians - somehow manage to evade that definition and fall into the happy realms of 'freedom fighting'.

I have heard a former IRA member refer to Gerry Adams as a 'plausible bigot', and it's still the best description I've ever heard. Sinn Fein has some truly reprehensible fellow-travellers, and I'm sure the little we know of their involvement with FARC is only the tip of the iceberg (a lot of people tend to forget that at its root the current incarnation of Sinn Fein is as much Marxist as nationalist).

I can only hope that the horrors of September 11th bring home to their Irish-American supporters exactly what they've been financing for the past 30 years. I feel very sorry for America and its citizens, currently living with a new and corrosive fear of terrorist attack. This is what it is like to live in the UK or Ireland. Believe us, it doeas get easier, but you can never go back.

Dimeboy - for information on US funding of the IRA, check out the Noraid site (a farrago of romanticism and armchair revolution) here, and for a fairly Unionist-biased response, check out this. The truth probably lies somewhere in between these two extremes .