Return to the bad old days?

[TiggerCCW UK]

Latest news update this morning. 17 year old male and 37 year old male helping with enquiries. Large peace protests organised for today in Belfast, Lisburn, Londonderry, Newry and Armagh. It looks like people are reacting sensibly and not seeking revenge or retribution.

Legbreaker, I don't think I buy the conspiracy theory - its too risky that it might just kick it all off again. There have been loads of conspiracy allegations over here over the years, including claims that the army deliberately targeted civilians on both sides to get the terrorists fighting each other rather than the army. I think this is unlikely as I don't think they could have kept it a secret for nearly 40 years - something would have leaked by now. There was a book written a few years ago by a man claiming to have been an army assassin over here (can't remember the name offhand) but I give it little credibility. The security forces would never have allowed it to be published if it was true, and also the author showed a massive lack of knowledge about the geography over here, both physical and political. On one occasion he describes targeting a random protestant in the middle of the loyallist enclave Short Strand - in reality the Strand is the only catholic area in East Belfast, and (certainly in the early '70s) not somewhere random protestants would have been found wandering. Any army officer who served in Belfast would have been aware of this, especially if they were supposedly a highly trained government assassin.

As to why it happened now, thats the question of the hour. It may just have been a reminder that the dissidents haven't gone away, possibly its the start of a new campaign over here, in which case I think they badly misjudged public feeling but my guess is that its possibly more politically motivated - the devolution of police powers to the local assembly has been being debated recently and I don't think its beyond the bounds of possibility that its connected to that. On the other hand it may just be random chance that it happened now - a lot of the attacks here over the years don't bear up if you examine what happened and try to figure out why. For example the La Mon bombing in the late '70s when the IRA blew up a hotel and killed 12 members of the Northern Ireland kennel club hardly seems to further the cause of Irish independence. Likewise the Shankill butchers snatching random catholics off the street and torturing them to death hardly seems to help the province stay part of the UK.