Independent Newspapers can’t handle the truth regarding political violence

Decommission your tongue, Mr. Adams

This was the headline of a recent editorial in the Sunday Independent in which Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams was taken to task for daring to make a favourable comparison between the violence of the 1916 rebels and those involved in the recent 1968-1998 conflict.

The editor didn’t spare the insults:

Mr. Adams should decommission his tongue preferably for a millennium or two.

The Sinn Fein leader has soared to new heights in self-delusion.

But it is the editor who’s occupying the heights of self-delusion when he tries to argue that the 1916 rebellion was:

Formally and massively endorsed (By the Irish people).

This, of course, is utter rubbish and is based on the ridiculous myth that the violence of 1916, War of Independence and the Civil War was all, in some magical way, different from the violence of the 1968 – 1998 conflict.

The editor goes on to ask:

Had Mr Adams been an IRA man and put himself forward as a car-bombing murderer, does he really believe he would have been handed a mandate?

When the 1916 rebels were being led away after surrendering they were spat upon by the people of Dublin for causing so much death and destruction.

So here’s the obvious retort:

Had Mr. Pearse been an violent rebel and put himself forward as a bringer of massive death and destruction, does he really believe he would have been handed a mandate?

And it is worth noting that the people of Ireland were generally content under British rule in the lead up to 1916 in stark contrast to Catholics/nationalists barely surviving under the exteme Unionist apartheid system prior to the 1968-1998 conflict.

In making the following quote the editor seems to be completely clueless about the obvious parallels between Sinn Fein’s rise to power in the aftermath of 1916 and the party’s current rise to power in the aftermath of the 2008 economic catastrophe.

Legitimacy was conferred on 1916 when Sinn Féin received its mandate in the 1918 general election. It was retrospective, but it was real. The election was the first democratic plebiscite to pass judgment on those events.

The course of today’s political events is an exact parallel with those of 1916.

Prior to 2008 Sinn Fein struggled to achieve significant political traction in the republic. Since 2008 they have become ever more popular principally because citizens are searching for an alternative to a political system that is corrupt to its core.

In other words, Sinn Fein received an overwhelming mandate as a direct result of the brutal response of the British government to the 1916 rising and now the party is receiving a similar democratic mandate as a result of the brutality inflicted on Irish citizens as a direct result of political corruption.

The editor ends with a quote about the truth.

You can rewrite history, but the truth is always the truth.

Indeed, the truth is always the truth. But it has been many years since
‘Independent’ Newspapers practiced truth.

Copy to:

Editor Sunday ‘Independent’

Dear fellow citizens…

Dear fellow citizens,

We live in a state where the Prime Minister can casually and illegally dismiss the most senior police officer in the state without the slightest worry that he will be brought to account for his corrupt act.

We live in a state where a judge, employed to investigate the matter, makes a finding that the guilty Prime Minister can easily manipulate to suit his defence. This is despite the fact that the average five year child knows very well that the Prime Minister is as guilty as hell.

We do not know whether the judge was acting out of fear or favour and we never will but we do know that his report is a disgrace to the principles of democratic accountability.

We live in a state where the media, and in particular the state media, readily allowed itself to be used and abused by the guilty Prime Minister in his cynical manipulation of the reporting of the judge’s report.

There was no angry, embarrassed or protest reaction by the media so it is reasonable to assume that the majority of our journalists are docile sheep more interested in careers and scoops than making the state accountable.

We live in a state where the chief legal officer, the Attorney General, can inform the guilty Prime Minister that the police had been involved in serious criminal activity for years and then turn around and deny to the commission that she ever made such an allegation.

We live in a state where the most senior police officer, who was involved in some very serious controversies one of which led to his sacking, can casually destroy large amounts of documents on the day he was dismissed by the guilty Prime Minister. It is almost certain that the destroyed documents would have provided the investigation with crucial evidence.

We live in a state where every single regulatory/law enforcement authority operates under the all embracing, all corrupting influence of our corrupt political system.

And because there is no law enforcement authority operating independently of our corrupt political system there will be no accountability. The state, as always, will act to protect the interests of the wrongdoers at the expense of democracy and the interests of the people.

We live in a state where the political/administrative system operates exclusively for the benefit of the corrupt ruling elite.

Fake regulatory authorities still betraying consumers

Grainne was on Liveline during the week telling the nation how she felt ripped off by a company that placed a limit on the life of her gift voucher.

She had a voucher worth €200 for a sky dive but because of bad weather there were several cancellations. Eventually, the company told her that she would have to pay a further €120 if she wanted to do the jump. It was all legal, all in the small print, she had no comeback.

For decades gift voucher scams have been endlessly discussed on shows like Liveline but nothing is ever done.

And nothing is done because all our so-called ‘regulatory authorities’ are fake. They are not set up to actually enforce the law but rather to give an impression of law enforcement. (See Irish cowboy town and fake regulatory agencies)

The fake authority in this case is the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC). There seems to be an inverse law that the more useless a regulatory body is the more cumbersome its title. It’s as if the organisation is trying to compensate for its complete lack of effectiveness with a long fancy title.

The CCPC also has a complex structure (again, it must be complex to impress and allow for buck passing) including an executive chairperson assisted by no less than four commissioners. All, no doubt on high salaries and generous expense accounts.

The CCPC was spawned from the merger of two other fake authorities – the Competition Authority and the National Consumer Agency.

So what will this super quango do if it’s not actually engaged in law enforcement?

Well, it’ll do what every other so called regulatory authority in Ireland does.

Conduct polls, carry out surveys, produce shiny/expensive annual reports and advise consumers to shop around while gobbling up millions in taxpayers’ money.

And it’s easy to monitor fake authorities like the CCPC. All we have to do is listen to victims like Grainne telling their stories on programmes like Liveline.

As soon as the airwaves go quiet regarding such scams we’ll know that consumers are receiving the protection they pay for.

Ripped off consumers are strongly advised not to hold their breaths.

Copy to:
CCPC

Denis O’Brien’s journalists miss the point

Denis O’Brien’s broadcaster Seán Moncrieff conducted a cosy conversation yesterday with Denis O’Brien’s journalist Daniel McConnell (Group political correspondent with ‘Independent’ Newspapers) on the government payment (bribe) to all those who have signed up with Irish Water.

McConnell argued that to dismantle Irish Water at this stage would cost a fortune. Millions would be wasted, redundancies would have to be paid for, the very expensive IT system would have to be scrapped and what would replace the company?

In other words, we are where we are, the damage is done, let’s forget the past and move on.

McConnell’s argument, which was, of course, fully suported by Moncrief, is simplistic and completely misses the point.

The setting up of Irish Water almost certainly involved some very dodgy dealings. The company was set up in almost total secrecy with deals done behind closed doors that involved the handing over of millions in taxpayers money.

In a functional democracy the whole dirty deal would have triggered an immediate police investigation.

McConnell’s attitude can be likened to a police unit coming across the scene of a suspected crime and, instead of doing their job, deciding to ignore the whole thing because an investigation would be too constly.

For decades our corrupt political/administrative system has engaged in massive corruption and criminalty. Nobody is ever made accountable, nobody is ever brought to justice. The evidence for this fact is overwhelming.

Journalists (and politicians) like McConnell, either out of ignorance or in defence of an agenda, repeadedly make the argument that it’s too late to do anything about it now, we should just forget about making anyone accountable and move on.

This attitude guarantees that the corruption and criminalty will occur again and again.

Manufactured ‘crisis’ to discredit Sinn Fein blows up

On the 19 August this year the following political/military situation existed in Northern Ireland.

The Good Friday Agreement had been in existence for 17 years, the war was over. The Independent Monitoring Commission reported, year after year, that the Provisional IRA (PIRA) had indeed decommissioned its weapons and had ceased all military actions. All interested parties accepted this reality. How could they do otherwise, if the war was still on it would have been pretty obvious to everyone.

As with every war in history, particularly dirty little civil wars like that in Northern Ireland, there were some who refused to give up and some who turned to crime but the vast majority of those involved got on with their lives.

On the 21 Aug, the political/military situation was exactly the same as it was on the 19 August.

This was the day after Detective Superintendent Kevin Geddes of the PSNI, who was investigating the murder of former IRA man Kevin Mc Guigan, said that a major line of inquiry was that members of PIRA were involved.

Det. Supt. Geddes was very careful about the words he used.

My assessment is that this is a separate group from the Provisional IRA. A major line of inquiry for this investigation is that members of the Provisional IRA were involved in this murder.

The allegation that former members of PIRA may have been involved in the murder is not news. Former members of all paramilitary groups have been involved in all kinds of criminal activity including murder.

Det. Supt. Geddes’ clear statement that PIRA was not involved has since been confirmed by representatives of practically all interested parties including the PSNI, the Garda Siochana and the British and Irish governments.

Only complete idiots and those who want to collapse the Peace Process are claiming that the PIRA still exists. Nobody else seriously believes that the Provisional IRA is back on a war footing.

So why the crisis, what’s all the fuss about?

Without a shadow of doubt it is Sinn Fein’s growing political power that lies behind this latest crisis.

The political establishments in the North and the South have been trying for years to destroy or at least nullify the growing power of Sinn Fein with little or no success.

Their greatest problem is that, on the one hand they must be seen to support and even praise the major contribution made to the Peace Process by Sinn Fein while on the other paint the party as a serious threat to democracy.

There’s only one way to do this – talk out of both sides of the mouth at the same time.

So the PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton had to speak out of both sides of his mouth when he said:

Some structures of the Provisional IRA still exist but the organisation is not on a war footing.

The allegation that PIRA still exists keeps those opposed to Sinn Fein happy and the claim, from the other side of the mouth, that PIRA is not on a war footing keeps those who put the Peace Process together happy.

Apart from a few mad Unionists everybody connected with the Peace process have been popping up, one after the other, to ape the Chief Constable’s double talk.

The whole affair is nothing more than the usual manufactured ‘crisis’ that has now become a traditional political ritual in the run up to elections.

Here’s what I wrote on 21 August last:

Arrests will be made, Sinn Fein members will be brought in for questioning, outrage at the (non) existence of the IRA will reach epic proportions.

All so depressingly predictable but on this occasion the hypocrites have lost control. The plan of manufacturing a ‘crisis’ with the aim of discrediting Sinn Fein by associating them with criminality has evolved into a real political crisis that threatens the interests of all parties.

Now they’re all scrambling to back peddle in a desperate attempt to preserve their power and privileges. The irony is that if the Assembly collapses it is Sinn Fein that will benefit most.

How the GAA and the State avoids accountability

I have very little interest in and even less knowledge of Gaelic games or how the GAA does its business.

But when I read about the recent dispute involving some guy called Diarmuid Connolly I instantly recognised the connections between the dysfunctional GAA disciplinary regime and our hopelessly corrupt political system.

For years the GAA has been struggling to establish an effective disciplinary system. The organisation has failed utterly in its aims principally because of its abject inability to face the reality of what needs to be done to clean up the sport.

Instead of creating a simple, easy to implement system of control and discipline similar to soccer and rugby the GAA has, for years, been trying out ever more complex systems of rules and regulations.

The creation of convoluted, labyrinthine systems of ‘accountability’ has just one consequence – the impression that there is accountability where none actually exists.

So, for example, if a player commits a red card offence in soccer or rugby, he’s immediately sent off, no question.

In Gaelic football a player who commits a red card offence may be handed a black card which means he’s off but, hilariously, he can be replaced by a substitute. The black card is, in effect, a mechanism that allows accountability to be bypassed.

Our corrupt political system operates along similar lines of denial and pretence. For example, if a Taoiseach illegally sacks a Garda commissioner an investigation can conclude that he’s guilty but also innocent thus creating a reality vacuum where accountability can be discarded.

Another similarity between the GAA and our corrupt political system is the existence of a whole series of committees and procedures to deal with alleged wrongdoing.

So we have the GAA Central Hearings Committee (CHC), the Central Appeals Committee (CAC) and the committee of committees, the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA). (For some reason all these committees remind me of the old Soviet Union)

This over abundance of cumbersome regulatory bodies is ideal for avoiding reality/justice. Wrongdoing can be put on the long finger until the initial crime becomes irrelevant/historical or the system can act as a mechanism to filter out accountability.

For example, a player like Diarmuid Connolly can commit a very serious foul but by the time his wrongdoing reaches the end of all the committee investigations (filtering) – he’s effectively found innocent.

Similarly, in our corrupt political system we have tribunals, committees, commissions of inquiry, reports, investigations of every colour and form, all established to one purpose – the avoidance of accountability.

So a politician can break the law but after a long drawn out investigation the crime is filtered/delayed to such an extent that he can be, miraculously, declared innocent.

This inability to deal honestly and efficiently with wrongdoing in the GAA can result in a loss of credibility and respect.

In the political sphere the consequences are far more serious for citizens, ranging in degree from serious financial loss to death.