Ireland Objects to war

Patricia Campbell

As George Bush and Tony Blair flew into Northern Ireland on Monday evening hundreds of anti-war protestors from all over Ireland made their way to Hillsborough Castle in protest. The journey to the rallying point was made more difficult as the PSNI closed off the motorway slip roads to the destination,  delaying those who wished to protest and indeed trying to deliberately confuse those unfamiliar with the local roads.

Despite the confusion and deliberate misinformation, the protestors made their way to the Co-Down village. A sizeable number streamed past the organisers midway rallying point in an attempt to reach Hillsborough Castle, a clear indication that many are willing to take a more meaningful stand and not just half hearted gestures. As the speeches got under way it became very apparent that nobody is fooled by ‘Gutless Nationalist’ politicians. The crowd booed and chanted the words “shame” and “collaborators” as the SDLP’s Alex Attwood and Sinn Fein’s Mitchel McLaughlin addressed the protestors. Monica McWilliams the Women’s Coalition speaker was also booed. The greatest response and loudest applause was given to those speakers who called on the politicians to show leadership and cancel their meeting with Bush and Blair. The response was a true reflection that many are outraged by those politicians who collude with and reinforce the notion that Blair and Bush were in Hillsborough as peace makers.

The determination of many ant-war protestors was further demonstrated at Belfast’s City Hall on the second day of the Bush/Blair visit. Approximately 200 protestors staged a peaceful demonstration by sitting in the middle of the road, forcing the diversion of traffic in the City Centre. The PSNI quickly lost their gloss.  They couldn’t contain themselves, giving true meaning to the proverb, ‘Old habits die-hard’. They tried to break up the peaceful protest by forcibly removing male and female, young and old alike, wielding their batons with force, crushing down on the skulls and bodies of those they were removing. PSNI brutality was screened live on the lunch time news and somewhere in some unknown room, some unknown security policy makers decided it was not a good idea to remind the people that the only thing that has changed about the PSNI is their name and their uniform. It was not a good idea to remind the people that at the end of the day the PSNI is a tool of the British State.

Big Brother decided that it is not a good idea to make it more difficult for parliamentary nationalism  to sell acceptance of and participation in the PSNI to the Nationalist community. After several arrests of bruised and battered protestors, the PSNI was ordered to retreat and they did so in almost theatrical style. The brutality was uncalled for and was an over reaction to a low-key peaceful protest. 

Nevertheless, those of us with a sense of humanity and a taste for justice will continue to show solidarity with the people of Iraq, Palestine and elsewhere and all those suffering at the hands of imperialist invaders.