Ciaran’s Peculier [sic] Blog

The murders of the two British soldiers at the week-end and of PSNI constable Andrew Carroll can only be described as the cowardly acts of people who have a maniacal dependence on violence and destruction. They are psychopaths who try to cover their deranged actions with appeals to bogus political causes.

Any armed conflict contains such elements. There are those who make the transition to “normal” democratic life and activity fairly easily. Then there are those who have enjoyed a level of power, influence and prestige, often accompanied by financial gain. They are often criminals who clothe their criminality behind the ideals of the organisations they join. Once the armed struggle is over they usually revert to criminality as one (often the only way) to hold on to the lifestyle.

But then there are the sickoes. Sometimes they suffer from apparently mild neuroses with obsessions towards criminal damage and vandalism. Sometimes they achieve a surprising degree of reintegration into society. But then there those who should be in very secure mental facilities. Perhaps they were sick even before the conflict broke out and used their involvement as a means of achieving recognition. Others may well have started out unscathed, but conflicts scar even the sanest. Even at the height of the armed struggle period they are often sidelined by the mainstream who recognise in their psychological volatility threatens the entire outfit. They no doubt have senses of their own importance out of all proportion to reality, and no doubt bear deep resentments towards those of their former colleagues whom they consider to have overlooked their “manifest” abilities. So there can often be a degree of internal score-settling going on.

But leaving aside the pop psychology, the fact is that three people are dead who should still be alive today.

I’m old enough to remember how horrible the North was during the Troubles. True I was on the periphery but those people who lived throughout in a border county were only too well aware of easily the whole thing could have spilled over. How awful it is to remember those days when seated before the TV, a BBC entertainment program would be interrupted with the news of the explosion of a devise in some Northern Irish town, accompanied by a plea to key-holders to check their premises, or how the Six O’Clock news would begin with a shot of a blanket-covered body surrounded by scene-of-crime tape.

The Real IRA, Continuity – whatever they’re called, for me they seem very like a group such as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda, who don’t give a damn about anyone, especially their victims. These dissidents, as racists, would be outraged at being compared to “niggers” and “black bastards”.

For let me reiterate they are racists. I pity the poor Polish delivery man who got shot on Saturday night. The Poles in the North are getting it from all ends. There are those in the “Unionist” camp who hate them, not only as foreigners but as Catholic foreigners. For a small handful on the other side they must be enemies, because they are serving the British. And all British people are enemies. One of the soldiers killed was of Indian origin – all the more reason in the eyes of some on this island for him to die.  

I dare say that some of those behind these murders are probably staunch, not to say bigoted in their religious beliefs. They are probably dead set against abortion – and homosexuals.  But then Joseph Kony, internationally-indicted war criminal, is fighting for the creation of a state based on The Ten Commandments.

I should have kept my mouth closed and not written the above, as sad to say there are probably quite a few resting terrs around here. Still, I have to speak out.
PS. Psychopaths they may be, but I’m not suggesting for one minute that when they are eventually brought to trial they should be able to make use of the M’Naghten test.