Editorial

No parity of esteem for volunteers

..It is hard for a man who did not live at the time, to believe or
comprehend the extent to which misrepresentations were carried
out at the end of our struggle... Jemmy Hope, United Irishman

Martin McGuinness must be applauded for the manner in which he refused to disclose the names and locations of IRA supporters during his recent appearance before the Saville inquiry in Derry’s Guildhall. It would have been a grievous breach of faith for him to have done otherwise. The fact though, that he is compelled to hide the identity of republican freedom fighters demonstrates the huge disparity between the status of the British Army and that of the Irish Republican Army in Ireland. Martin’s admission to the Tribunal that he left the IRA in the early Seventies contrasts starkly with the open and ostentatious display of support for the Royal British Legion (and therefore the British military machine) throughout both the Six and Twenty-six Counties in the days following his testimony. There is clearly a serious gap between the recognition granted to the contending sides in the recent Irish conflict.

If parity of esteem is to mean anything, the men and women who fought and suffered for the creation of a democratic republic across this island must demand that they receive at the very least, equal status with those who contested their vision. This is more than a simple matter of injured pride - it involves recognition of a community’s commitment to justice and to the fundamental worth of its cause during the final decades of the 20th century. Any retreat from this position places that community and its struggle in a precarious position, implying that their actions and cause was illegitimate, their activities no more than criminal and their position thereafter one at best of gratitude for rehabilitation.

Reality indicates that it is not within the gift of Irish republicans to make their opponents warm to the IRA and its cause. It is, however, well within the power of republicans to campaign to have their struggle and its supporters accorded equal status with that of the British. We could, for example, demand that if local broadcasters wear a remembrance day poppy that they also wear an Easter Lily. We could demand that a republican monument similar the the cenotaph be erected at Belfast City Hall. We could insist that no Irish republican spokes-person visits the USA or deals with its representatives until Washington stops treating republican ex-prisoners as terrorists. There would be many other steps required of course but these simple steps would signal serious intent.

Some might argue that to do so would be unrealistic and could endanger the current process. This is a spurious argument. If polical progress is dependent on accepting criminalisation for a significant number of republicans, then we must question whether it is progress at all and moreover - what type of arrangement could possibly be built on such a foundation. Nor is there any advantage in pointing to the extensive round of republican commerative events, important though they are. The question is not about republicans recognising their own worth but insisting that others accept us as equal.

If the thirty year struggle of the republican people cannot be afforded the same recognition as that of its opponents, then we must conclude that the Good Friday Agreement does not even stand up to initial scrutiny because there is no equality, no parity of esteem and no one should try and pretent that there is.

FOURTHWRITE, PO BOX 31, Belfast BT127EE