Denis: People of Ireland will not be denied peace

Mar 13 2009 By Denis Kilcommons

DELUDED splinter groups of Republicanism have brought death to Northern Ireland this week and at the same time caused an undreamt of show of unity by its population.

Former IRA leader Martin McGuinness, now Deputy First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly, called them "traitors to the island of Ireland" and described them as "micro-groups who are living in cloud cuckoo land."

Unfortunately, it doesn’t take many of them to mount terrorist attacks that have left three dead and could have killed many more. For, in recent years, good policing and intelligence has thwarted planned operations that could have claimed as many as 40 lives.

Those responsible – the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA – would like a return of the violence of the Troubles that took 3,700 lives. The head of Special Branch in Belfast said: "They lack public support, they lack finance, they lack personnel, munitions and equipment. What they can do is sporadic murder and bombing attacks."

A Sinn Fein supporter from Drumbeg where the police officer was shot said: "It is only a handful who think the way these people do, but they are dangerous people. I can tell you they don’t enjoy much support. They only have people’s fear. What I can’t understand is why the police don’t just lift them. They know who they are. The police say their hands are tied as they have to prove it."

I’m a frequent visitor to both north and south and am still shocked to drive through towns and housing estates that so openly show their loyalties with flags and murals. But is it so strange that some communities remain segregated after a colonial history of 500 years in which Protestant settlers from Scotland and England were imposed on an Irish Catholic country?