Killing Catholics is part of the state
By Mary Nelis
The grief of the Catholic people of the North was
visible in the tears of the mourners at the funeral of
the latest victim of the Loyalist murder gangs, John
McColgan. Their anger and bewilderment was expressed by
the priest at John's Requiem Mass. Fr McKinlay said
that ``whole communities, and in particular the Catholic
community, feel close to rejection in this land, our
land, the place we call home.''
``Why?'' said the child of John McColgan. Indeed, the
entire nationalist community might ask why. What have
we done to be persecuted for so long in our own land?
What have we done? Is our crime that we were born in
that partitioned entity, the Six Counties? Or that we
are Catholic by religion and Irish nationalists by
politics? Is our crime a belief that we should all
equally call this land home, and that we should be
allowed to live without fear in every part of it?
In the eyes of those who murdered John McColgan, we
Catholics, Nationalist, we Irish ``are children of a
lesser God''. We are papists, Taigs, non persons, to be
disposed of in much the same manner, as the Ku Klux
Klan disposed of the African Americans.
Nowhere was this more apparent than on the walls of the
Loyalist wings in Long Kesh. The ``Kill `em all - God
will sort `em out'' mentality has been woven into the
tradition of militant Unionism and the demonic artwork
on the gable walls in Loyalist areas finds its
inspiration in the banners of the Loyal institutions.
Such institutions have fed and fuelled the sectarian
appetites of the loyalist killers and the legitimacy
conferred on the Orange Order by the British
establishment ensures that the killing machine is
continually oiled and ready for use in the event of any
threat to the Union.
The same British establishment pressurised Mo Mowlam
into conferring political patronage on the mass
murderers of Catholics in much the same way as David
Trimble did with the late Billy Wright. It was a hard
pill for the grieving relatives of those brutally
murdered to swallow but it was made much worse by the
attempts by the media in Britain and Ireland to
describe the current pogroms against Catholics as tit
for tat.
In the midst of the killing fields of Belfast, the
silence of the paper doves and lighted candle brigade
is palpable.
Those who came pouring onto the streets after the IRA
ceasefire ended, shouting ``Give us back our Peace'',
obviously don't equate the murder of 20 Catholics in
the past year as a violation of the peace process.
How come the white ribbon groups waited until 20
Catholics died to reactivate their ``support for peace''?
After the Warrington bomb and the terrible deaths of
two children, condemnation reigned down on the heads of
the IRA. Thousands took to the streets. Flowers and
books of condolences appeared in every City Hall from
here to Cork. Choirs were set up, and the relatives of
those so tragically killed became media stars overnight
and were sent on world tours.
It has taken 20 Catholic murders to produce a half
hearted response from the professional peace groups and
the Trade Unions. Could it be that the deaths of
pregnant woman, teenagers, men trying to earn a living,
are seen as part of a necessary sectarian consensus to
keep the status quo intact? In the eyes of the British
and pro Union establishments, murder is only murder if
done by the IRA or the INLA. All other killings are tit
for tat and the media with few exceptions have
willingly pursued this line, consigning the murder of
Catholics as non-events. Those who die are just
statistics.
Is it any wonder that the UVF, in a coded message to a
newsroom after the sadistic murder of the seven months
pregnant Kathleen O'Hagan and her unborn child, could
say to the Catholic community, ``Brace yourselves for
death, because you are going to see plenty of it''?
d is it any wonder that its counterparts the UFF,
whose representatives walked out of the talks this
week, could proclaim at the same time, that the British
government were preparing for a United Ireland and that
they would be targeting Sinn Féin, the Irish government
and the SDLP and that even if the IRA were to lay down
their arms permanently, they, the UFF, would continue
their activities?
Last year, prior to the elections and only days after
the killing of three Catholics in North Belfast, Ken
Maginnis defended the loyalists, stating that their
ceasefires were still intact but warning that if Sinn
Féin won seats at the election, it could result in an
upsurge of violence. Can you imagine the reaction were
Gerry Adms to make such a declaration? Yet the message
given to the Catholic community from the respectable
leaders of Unionism and the loyalist murder gangs is
clear, ``If we don't' get our way, you will get it in
the head''.
Political Unionism have never had a problem with the
loyalist killing machine, either publicly or privately.
Neither, it would appear, have the Labour Party. The
Heads of Agreement document was written over the bodies
of Catholic and it seems once more that the British
military establishment are literally calling the shots.
Why shouldn't Trimble laugh?
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