Eric Holder Clueless or Turning A Blind Eye?
British Mock 1998 Irish Agreement
Michael J. Cummings
National Board
Irish American Unity Conference
Picture this. It is the beginning of the civil rights marches in N. I. in the 1970’s and the British respond with plastic baton rounds, arrest w/o charge, internment and a murderous police force more interested in creating insecurity thus guaranteeing decades of job security.
Looking to insure no interference in this violent subjugation of the Catholic ghettos, Her Majesty’s Government arranges the no-warning Dublin-Monaghan bombings delivered by her loyalist subjects. This act was the largest loss of life in the entire conflict and was aimed solely at civilians. It was brought to Ireland by the British NOT the IRA. It achieved its objective. Ireland’s government did precisely what Prime Minister Lynch said they wouldn’t do and stood idly by while the pogroms of Catholic ghettos continued.
Many living in those communities in the North would rather live free or die and took up arms to rid themselves of British treachery. Although widely misrepresented by British controlled or British manipulated media, the war that followed showed a loss of life at the hands of security (sic) forces and loyalist death squads that focused heavily on the civilian Catholic population. It nearly equaled the loss of life at the hands of Republican forces which focused their arms primarily on police, military, judges, prison and government personnel. It is a distinction with an important difference.
In 1998 President Clinton brought the British to their senses and a line in the sand was drawn from that day forward to a new future. Or not. Two of those who stood up to the British at the peak of the persecution were Gerry McGeough and Marian Price. They are political prisoners today by any definition. Both are in ill health. And here is the irony.
Throughout the entire conflict the British have absolved every British soldier…even those convicted of murder…. returning them to ranks, and rewarding the corruption of the police force with fat pensions and Get-Out-Jail-Free cards called Public Immunity Certificates for collusion with loyalist death squads. To this add insult. Many of these same pensioned officers with Special Branch backgrounds etc have been hired back to make sure files go missing and to obstruct the work of the Police Ombudsman and the Historical Enquiries Team investigating the ‘unsolved’ murders of nearly one thousand Catholics.
You can hear the laughter on this side of the Atlantic as the men and women of the newly reconstituted Royal Ulster Constabulary lift their glasses in a local pub in Lurgan celebrating what it really means to be a loyal Subject of her Majesty. Gerry McGeough and Marian Price are to rot for their actions prior to 1998. There is, however, another source of laughter. This time it emanates from the corridors of Whitehall in London as civil servants marvel how easily they can get away with murder… Bloody Sunday, the Dublin Monaghan bombings and the assassinations of lawyers Patrick Finucane and Rosemary Nelson. No accountability. No justice for the victims. Your basic “special relationship” where America’s compassion for human rights and its concern for justice and freedom everywhere else in the world is missing in action in Ireland.
It gets better. Attorney General Holder has rubber stamped a request from this same corrupt police force and subpoeaned records held by the Irish archives of Boston College. It is true he is clueless about the people he is dealing with but Secretary of State Clinton could send him a lifeline by briefing him on British violations of the Belfast and Weston Park Agreements and the extraordinary imprisonment of Gerry McGeough and Marian Price. Will she? Senator Kerry, Chairman of Senate Relations asked her to do just that back in January. He is still waiting for an answer.
Boston College Subpoena News 