| RE-INSTATE ARTICLES 2 AND
3
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR March 13, 2005 I have just returned from Belfast and Derry in the north of Ireland, and it has led me to reflect on your editorial of March 6th ("The Same Old IRA"). You get it all wrong because you don't seem to know much about the reason for the IRA or the reason why they are seemingly without direction now. Sinn Fein signed the Good Friday Agreement, allowing for articles 2 and 3 of the Irish constitution to be deleted. The reason the IRA (the most recent in a series of revolutionary organizations resisting English rule for hundreds of years) for better or worse, has fought on and off for nearly a century has been to make the words of sovereignty and unity of Ireland contained in those articles a reality. Now that the GFA is in trouble, and Sinn Fein seems to be floundering, the IRA has lost its raison d'etre. It is no surprise that thugs have been allowed into its rank and file, since there is no war and no clear way forward for the republican movement. The killing and butchering of Robert McCartney by IRA senior members in a pub over a verbal insult is as much evidence as we need. However, the only way forward, the only way to get rid of the IRA for good is to reinstitute articles 2 and 3 into the Irish constitution and for England to announce its long range plans to leave Ireland. If you really hate the IRA and want it to go away, tell England to get out. George Thomas McLaughlin |
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