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THE NORTHERN ASSEMBLY will today debate a motion calling on the Irish government to apologise for the country’s role in sparking the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
A motion tabled by the Democratic Unionist Party, if passed, would see MLAs at Stormont call on Dublin to apologise for “the lack of support for the investigation of terrorist suspects”, with particular reference to the ongoing Smithwick Tribunal, which is is investigating alleged collusion in the murder of two RUC officers in 1989.
It has been alleged that Gardaí who were holding a meeting with the RUC officers, Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Robert Buchanan, in Co Louth had colluded with paramilitaries by informing them of the RUC officers’ whereabouts.
The motion being debated by MLAs says relations between the Republic and the North “would improve further if the current Government of the Republic of Ireland were to address the role played by the Irish Government of the day in the emergence of the Provisional IRA and the roles of past Governments regarding the pursuit of terrorists”.
It calls on “the Prime Minister for the Republic of Ireland” to issue an apology for the State’s role in this.
Speaking ahead of the debate, DUP MP Gregory Campbell said an apology from the Irish State would go some way to helping to improve the working relationship and co-operation between the governments on either side of the border.
“Undoubtedly events such as the recent visit of Her Majesty the Queen to the Republic have helped cement the kind of normal working relationship and co-operation which can take place when necessary across the border,” he said, before adding:
This does not mean however that we forget about the role played by the Irish Republic in the past, and this has been highlighted recently through theSmithwick Tribunal. We are all too aware of just how few people were ever extradited from the Republic of Ireland to face terrorist charges and the Smithwick Tribunal has once again reminded people of how republican terrorists were able to view the Irish Republic as a safe haven.
Campbell also said the Irish State had never apologised for its assistance in “establishing and financing the Provisional IRA”, and pointed out that the British government had previously apologised “for events that occurred as a result of ongoing IRA activities and to which the Army had to respond.”
Enda Kenny last week described the IRA has the “common enemy of all of the people of Ireland, of all traditions, North and South, and that their campaign of violence was strongly resisted by successive Irish governments.”
He was speaking after meeting the families of the victims of the Kingsmill Massacre, in which 10 Protestants were killed by the Provisional IRA.
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“establishing and financing the IRA’” I’m.not sure the government can be held responsible for that?
Anyway, its a bit rich that the DUP are looking for an apology, a completely innocent party in all this I’m sure!!!!
The DUP are very sore about the British apologising and are seeking bandages for their wounded pride. I wonder if the DUP are going to apologise to the people of Ireland and the United Kingdom for the “Paisleyite terror” which brought 30 years of death and destruction upon these islands?
We would still have had a peace process long before ’98 of the DUP didn’t exist. They were a political plague.
The Orange reactionaries tore into Terence O’Neill just for daring to cross the border and talk to Lemass.
Throw in the weather. There was some really shit weather during this time. And the buses. They ran late…
What the f**k?!
Céard sa f**k?!
Whit the f**k?!
Why don’t we apologise just for existing .
Wonder will the dup demand an apology from the british government for colluding with loyalist death squads in the numerous murders of innocent catholics throughout the troubles? Or will they pressure them to hand over information about the Dublin/Monaghan bombings?
The Irish government has nothing to apologise for, except standing back and doing nothing while the nationalist people of northern Ireland were treated like third class citizens by successive British governments.
Exactly!
Sure we may aswell, we’re already on our knees for the bondholders and the unions. Perhaps it’s time we apologised for the Famine too?
When they condemn harassing primary school children and stop White Anglo-Saxon Supremacist marches led by skinhead thugs through nationalist areas, then we can talk
The DUP are doing their usual stirring, trying to cause controversy.
The best thing to do is make the apology immediately and say it’s a good idea before the DUP can make it grow legs.
Don’t give them anything and come off as the mature ones.
Then we are in a position to question the DUP going forward.
Resel, maybe, just for once we could say something like “p#ss off, you sad bigots”
well said little jim. Have they nothing better to do than stir up trouble? sad lot.
So, they want the Irish Government to apologise for its role in “sparking the troubles in Northern Ireland” and their primary example is an incident which took place in 1989? Correct me if I’m wrong but I thought the troubles began a lot earlier than that?
This is all very stupid. The Irish state opposed the IRA at all times and worked to defeat them. If members of the Gardai broke the law to assist the IRA then that is no more the responsibility of the state that any other time members of the Gardai break the law and although members of the Government at one point tried to provide arms to the IRA they didn’t succeed and were stopped by the state.
Ireland has noting to apologize for and at all times the Irish government worked to bring peace and justice to Northern Ireland.
It’s not going to happen, don’t these people know that no politicians down here are accountable for anything ever !! And for the d.u.p to look for an apology is laughable, it must be someone’s idea of a twisted sick joke
Ya. If we can’t get an apology then they sure won’t. Join the queue lads.
I think the government should apologise and I think they should get Fr. Jack to deliver the apology in his own special way!! :))
There are no words. My blood is actually boiling.
No doubt at all Enda will apologise. ‘The Irish went mad killing people before they went mad borrowing’!
coming from a party that has not got the decency to call our ‘prime minister’ his proper title. if enda seriously even for one second thinks about what these brain washed confused fanatics are asking that is enough for him to resign in my opinion. these people are a curse to Irish society clinging onto whatever bit of trouble they can use to try keep the divide in our peoples. they are annoyed over the eventual union of this country and would rather try stir a bit of controversy to hang on to them scraps of power London has left them. I for one hope that this government can see what is really going on here and do the right thing and ignore them.
The Irish Constitution, no less, defines the role as Prime Minister.
Yeah Edna Kenny will go off to Europe and get us a lend of a really expensive apology that we’ll have to pay for in the decades to come. Then he’ll make an announcement here telling us we all had our part to play. We all killed the occupying forces just like we all lived it up with the euro bond holders.
Where they are getting this from is a memo written in April 69 that discusses the possibility of encouraging a split in the IRA. However, I have went through the state papers for this period and have went through Lynch’s own private papers and from what I have seen it was never government policy to engage with the PIRA. When people like Paddy Devlin came down to Dublin asking for guns in August 69, they were sent away. This argument that the PIRA were helped by the Irish government places the view that Neil Blaney was the face and driving force of NI policy, which he was not.
Blaney in August 69 advocated military intervention in NI, he did not get his way. He was always going rogue on NI policy constantly undermining Lynch but the majority of the government never backed his policy on NI. While yes there is a document that considers how the deal with the IRA, there are plenty others which look at invading NI but as we know that never even came close to happening. I can show memos from top advisors like Ken Whitaker, Erskine Childers etc arguing for tough action on the IRA and advocating a moderate approach which Lynch set out in his Tralee Speech in September 1969.
I would also point out that Lynch sacked the entire RTE authority for broadcasting interviews with PIRA figures and banned them from speaking on TV. He with Des O’Malley set up special courts for IRA suspects. This was years before similar action was taken by the British government.
Also I would argue that even during the worst moments of the Troubles, Lynch maintined informal but friendly contacts with Unionist PMs, Chichester-Clark and Faulkner.
There is evidence that a split in Nationalist politics in NI was encourgaed by the Irish government but it was not with the IRA. It was overseeing the creation of the SDLP IN 1970, helping the gain money and support.
If Smithwick does find evidences of collusion between the state and PIRA, then of course it should give an unreserved apology but there is little evidence thus far that it was ever a sanction government policy to support and help the PIRA.
Apologise? Let Britian apologise to Ireland for their 500 year rape and pillage of our country and their attempts to wipe out our religion, customs and language. !!!
Tony Blair apologised for the effects the famine had on our country and its people. It didn’t go down well in some parts of the country. The DUP are clutching at straws here, almost invisible straws. I actually find the whole thing laughable…
Where did St. Patrick come from?
Where did our form of government come from?
At least we contributed to the evil English language.
Interesting: The Brits apologised for their involvement while the Irish government still plays dumb.
Maybe it’s time for a full disclosure and show the public how and what?
Then we can slam the likes of the DUP or apologise…
They should be asking Thatcher to apologise for everything she neglected to give them. Have these people not hit better things to be doing, like getting rid of all this sectarian out dated crap?!
some of you on here need a history lesson, look up the ulster plantation
Mick why do ppl need a history lesson? What has the ulster plantation got to do with this thread?
These Orange bastards would not exist in our country but for the ulster plantation, put them on a boat and send them back to Scotland.
We don’t have a prime minister so they might as well table a motion asking the tooth fairy to apologies too.
As well as that, we are called neither the Republic of Ireland nor the Irish Republic.
Try reading the Constitution.
I did.
Sorry Dennis that was aimed at Mike’s post. You are indeed correct.
These unionists are living in cloud cuckoo land, if they were not capable of horrendous acts of terrorism they would be laughable.
I was going to list all of the unjustifiable acts carried out by ulster unionists, lotalists, b.specials, ruc, psni, orange fanatics, politicians, and there cohorts in Britain, then I thought why bother, there is not a sane person on this planet who could possibly think, what was going on in the six counties of this island of ours bore any resemblance to justice.They are the people who thought it was proper that Irish people living on the island of Ireland, should remain second class citizens
Under no circumstances should we apologise.
Gregory Campbell didn’t seem interested in improving community relations when Cameron apologised to the Bloody Sunday victims.Watch this interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAgAU0Ww4Lo
I don’t really understand where all of this has suddenly come from.Tourism is down a massive 13% this year despite a large promotional campaign,they’ve lost nearly a thousand jobs last week and contrary to the rest of the UK unemployment is on the rise.We’ve also seen a return to sectarian violence on the streets of Belfast with the DUP taking 3 days to condemn the behaviour of those in their community who were responsible.Haven’t they got anything more important to tackle in Stormont today?
With Ulster Unionists it’s always about winning and losing.An apology will be a victory for Unionists and not a victory for cross border relations.
Campbell and donaldson straight from the paisley school of c#ntism
I wonder why no one came up with an idea to ask the former prisoners of Auschwitz to apologise to the Germans for the bombs that fell on Dresden at the end of the WWII…
why should the irish goverment apolgise, they didnt have the balls to take part in the war,
p……s off gregory campell
These people have no right to be on this Island, they are an abomination and an insult to every Irish person who still living in the North.
‘These people’ are as Irish as you or I Mick. Using words like abomination only feeds into the anxiety of the Unionist Community that they are under siege, and therefore become more extreme. Try to remember what our National Flag represents.
Eh no they are not, they are here illegally and have occupied our country illegally for centuries, and I hope they are very anxious because one day soon they are going to find themselves in the minority in the North and perhaps then they will leave.
@ritchie they dont consider themselves as irish as us.sure isnt that why they burn tricolours on bonfires.change the orange on the tricolour to gold i say cause the reality is these animals want nothing to do with us.
@graham any time I hear not as Irish as ‘us’ followed quickly by referring to somebody as an animal and then take the Orange out of the Tricolour, nah, I’m out. I reckon this thread has run its course.
Check your constitution there Mick, the new versions of articles 2 and 3 we voted for in 1999… Anyone born on the island of Ireland or its islands or seas is welcome to be part of the Irish nation and they are welcome to bring their culture and history with them
The people in the north of this island are as Irish as any of ‘us’ whether ‘us’ like it or not. It’s attitudes like Mick’s that partitioned this country and split its people.
Now, now,@ Mick you do not do yourself any justice. We use history to learn from the mistakes of the past, not to live in it. If you want to use history go and research how this island was settled after the Ice Age. We are all decended from invaders and settlers we did not just spring out from under the ice. Do not be fooled by the old religious and 19th century version of nationalist history that is espoused by the politically dubious on this island. It is just a silly play on words to claim that “they are here illegally and have occupied our country illegally”. This island has been settled by many different peoples and it is a process that is still going on wether you like it or not, it is just a fact of life. If you cannot accept that people decended from a settlement 400 years ago are Irish maybe you should look into your own past you never know what might turn up to bite you.
Sure we’ll apologise soon as the 1974 bombins in co Dublin n co Monaghan are apologised for n all the peeps brutlised by the RUC n military. In other words FEKIN NEVER!!!!!
when the comander and cheif(the queen) of the British army is arested and charged for crimes on killing Irish people..and tatcher is arested for crimes againest humanity on the Irish people across the border and for 700 years of terror and when we get our 6 countys back and all the unionist leave the Ireland of Ireland then and only then u will get ur apology
Pot calling the kettle black
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