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Peacemakers of South Armagh
Two days before the introduction of internment on 9th August 1971 the British army shot dead the driver of a van which was passing Springfield Road barracks in West Belfast, dragged the passenger from the vehicle and brought him into the barracks where he received a vicious beating.
In a statement the British army said that two shots had been fired at them from the vehicle, whereas, in fact, it had backfired. The British army were never to apologise and at the inquest two months later unidentified soldiers were still insisting that they had seen what looked like a weapon protruding from the open driver's window, heard two shots and saw smoke. That killing and their lies, repeated hundreds more times after controversial killings, represent the nationalist experience of law, order and justice.
The dead man was 28-year-old Harry Thornton from Crossmaglen, a quiet village in South Armagh. Although South Armagh had not been untouched by the various conflicts that have peppered Irish history, it had no great tradition of physical-force republicanism. In fact, as far back as June 1920 Crossmaglen Rural District Council rejected a motion pledging allegiance to the proscribed Dail Eireann, in contrast to other nationalist councils, including nearby Newry. Subsequently finding itself cut off from its natural hinterland of Louth and Monaghan and stranded in a sectarian northern statelet, when it had expected to join the fledgling Free State, local people looked to smuggling as a means of supplementing low farming incomes, partially compensating their loss of freedom.
If few had heard of Crossmaglen before 7th August 1971, they certainly were to become familiar thereafter for its association with the most professional of the IRA's battalions and its rural guerrilla warfare.
Once again South Armagh is in the news but not because of a mortar attack or a landmine explosion but because the British army is denying the people the peace dividend they deserve for backing the IRA cease-fire and being committed to the Belfast Agreement.
Last May the political deadlock in the North was broken, the Assembly and the Executive re-established when Tony Blair at Hillsborough pledged to implement the Patten proposals and demilitarise South Armagh. For its part, the IRA pledged to initiate a confidence-building measure (by opening up dumps to international arms inspectors, which has happened twice) and re-engaging with John de Chastelain's decommissioning body.
But during the passage of the new policing legislation through Westminster, Patten's report was gutted in order to appease unionists, and the British army, whilst it closed down two small sangars in South Armagh, consolidated and expanded its occupation of land and hilltops. In its most recent statement the IRA accused Tony Blair of going back on his word. Last week British army chiefs warned Blair that he must bear personal responsibility for any dissident republican activity which leads to military fatalities, should any army watchtowers be dismantled.
South Armagh is an area fifteen miles by ten miles with a population of 23,000 people. It is believed that there are over 3000 British soldiers and RUC personnel assigned to the area. A former Secretary of State, Merlyn Rees, dubbed it 'Bandit Country' in 1975, and the British media (and some Irish) enthusiastically embraced the demonisation of the people.
A book published just this week, 'The Chosen Fews' by Irish journalist Darach MacDonald (Mercier Press), at last does justice to the warm and proud people of this underdeveloped scenic area and explodes the media myths that have been perpetuated. In a series of interviews with people, many of whose voices have not been heard before, MacDonald paints a picture of a vibrant community which desperately wants peace so that it can reach its full potential.
We are all familiar with the unionist mantra of ethnic cleansing but who has heard the Rev. Mervyn Kingston, Church of Ireland rector at Creggan, whose previous parish was in the Upper Shankill? He rejects the allegation of ethnic cleansing and ascribes the shrinkage of the Protestant community to a fall-off in church members throughout many parts of Ireland. "The first time I visited this area, I knew I had come home at last. It's very easy to be a Protestant in Crossmaglen," said the clergyman who can boast of hosting five ecumenical services a year.
That's not to say that there were not unconscionable acts of violence against Protestants (Tullyvallen Orange Hall, Kingsmills) during the worst days and nights of the conflict. Or that the undoubted support for the IRA mean support for all IRA actions.
In almost all the interviews people return time and time again to how their landscape remains blighted by the British military occupation, by constant low-flying helicopters which have killed off not just livestock but a potentially lucrative tourist industry. A guide published last year in the USA advised travellers to stay out of the Falls Road and the Bogside after dark but "avoid South Armagh altogether."
Locals reject the pretext for the continuing occupation. Former Sinn Fein Councillor Jim McAllister said: "I'm not saying there aren't some who are unhappy with the way some things are going… But there is no breakaway group in South Armagh. We know that this peace process is the only way to go and every single republican in South Armagh is going that way." Mo Mowlam once told Paddy Short, the renowned, octogenarian publican, that Crossmaglen "had gone over to CIRA."
"Well," said Paddy Short, "I've lived in Crossmaglen all my life and I know everybody in it and I know what their politics are. But I never even heard of this CIRA till you said it now. And I know, whatever it is, it's not about Crossmaglen."
This timely book is a tribute to a people who yearn for normality. Unfortunately, the Sandhurst boys have never grasped the equation that military presence and political vacuum equals armed resistance and alienation.
In simple English, they should just remove the targets.
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© 2007 Irish Author and Journalist - Danny Morrison