Friday, March 5, 2010

"Bandit Country"- South Armagh

On Tuesday we left Dublin by train and arrived in Dundalk just before the Republic of Ireland/ Northern Ireland border. We were met by former Sinn Fein MLA Jim McAlister who would be our tour guide for the day. Jim was an enthusiastic local of the border area and told us a little bit about himself while we took the short bus ride over the border to South Armagh, an area known for smuggling, and steeped in ancient mythology. It is here that the warrior Cuchulain was said to have defended Ulster from rival tribes, and notorious bandits like Redmond O'Hanlon made life hell for their British colonizers.

Armagh is also a very interesting place to study the political conflict in NI. It is a heavily Republican area, especially in the southern part, and the British Army used to prefer to travel anywhere in South Armagh by helicopter during the Troubles. The reason for this is because of the strength of the South Armagh IRA cell, and anytime they would travel somewhere on the ground, their vehicle would be bombed. This being said it is also the founding place of the Orange Order, a Protestant all-boys club that celebrates dominance over the Catholics of Ireland. So the population in this county is quite diverse and rich in history.

Crossmaglen is a city in S Armagh where the British Army had its headquarters during the troubles. Jim told us there would be fire fights here weekly between Republicans and the British, and sometimes the sight of the "barracks buster" bomb being hurled over the barracks wall. The Army has withdrawn troops from NI, and now a Republican monument of a warrior and pheonix stands facing the sight of the old military base, with clenched fists.

Jim told us the other day he had a substitute teacher for a class he is taking, and he recognized the man. The reason was because he used to be a British Paratrooper in Crossmaglen, and I'm assuming the two men had had a few run ins with each other. The former paratrooper said he came to Crossmaglen a paratrooper in Her Majesty's Army, and left a Republican. I don't exactly know why he had this change of heart, but I suspect it was the way they arrested (without charge) and abused the citizens of this largely Catholic population. Jim recalled being arrested one time and helicoptered away to the Army base just a day after the IRA shot down a helicopter. He recited a poem that he wrote about the experience which basically said that if they shot at the helicopter he was in, not knowing he was in it, at least he would die in the place he called home and the British soldiers around him would die in a foreign land that was simply a coordinate on a map. It is hard to imagine how the people of South Armagh could ever have a normal life after their experience during the Troubles, but somehow they have pulled through and maintain a warm community.

We also met the Quinn family. Their son, Paul, was murdered by Republicans for speaking out against their activities in the area. We were told about how Paul would not allow himself to be bullied by the South Armagh IRA, and this was what lead to his brutal death. Sinn Fein claims that Paul was a part of a criminal fuel smuggling ring, and the IRA beat him up to show him a lesson (even though Republicans themselves in this area are notorious for smuggling activities). Jim McAlister, our tour guide for the day, and former Sinn Fein MLA, is now the spokesperson for the Paul Quinn Support Group. The group puts pressure on the government to find out who murdered Paul, in order for the Quinn family to find closure.

This issue seemed to be one reason why Jim is no longer tied to SF, and he seemed quite disillusioned by their behavior over Paul's murder. When our program director asked him to talk about being SF's chief orator a while back, he responded, "More like nonsense talker and bullshitter." He also spoke a lot about how it wouldn't be right if you didn't change your mind as you grew older, and the most important thing to learn is the phrase, "I was wrong". I think a lot of the issues I have with the Republican movement in NI have to do with some of their hypocrisy in community vigilance. They say they killed Paul Quinn because he was a smuggler, but Jim said that most of the wealth in this community comes from smuggling. Therefore I'd assume there would be a higher level smuggler to "teach a lesson to" than a 21 year old kid. It was clearly a politically motivated murder. This was demonstrated further when the day after we left Armagh, a billboard advocating justice for the Quinn family was burned to the ground. Also a dissident Republican group that refuses to recognize the peace process recently murdered a drug dealer outside Derry city. This sounds like a way to cleanse their community from drugs and other poisons, however if you look closely at the Republican movement, you'd realize that selling drugs is one way they raised money. So one has to ask did this group murder this father of one to rid their community of drugs, or just drugs that they don't see a profit from?

Next it was on to Armagh City, where we saw the Church of Ireland's St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the Catholic Church's cathedral in Armagh, and guess what it's named? St. Patrick's. Both the Protestant and Catholic faiths lay a claim to Patrick, and rightfully so. He came to Ireland hundreds of years before the reformation and spread Christianity, not Catholicism.

We also went to the founding place of the Orange Order (named after William of Orange). I hate to even waste time writing about this group because I see them as nothing more than ethnic supremacists who celebrate the victory of Protestant King William over Catholic King James at the Battle of the Boyne every Summer. They march through Nationalist neighborhoods on their way to Church, and don't understand why the Catholics that live there are offended by the celebration of just another event in the long history of discrimination and defeat against Catholics in Ireland. The representative we met with told me that the marches celebrate how William separated church and state in Great Britain, and guaranteed freedom of religion, and they are not about victory over Catholics. That's an absolute lie. The marches take place on the date of the Battle of the Boyne, marchers carry banners of William defeating the Jacobite Armies, songs are sung commemorating the Boyne, and the freedom of religion part would make sense; but King WIlliam also supported the Penal Laws outlawing Catholicism in Ireland, and of course Catholics are not even allowed to join the order. So I guess their really just celebrating Protestant freedom of religion... which is nice.

We are currently in Belfast now and I am going to have plenty to write about at the end of our stay here. Tomorrow we are taking a tour of the Falls Road, the epicenter of the Republican movement by a former prisoner and IRA man, and tour of Shankill Road, the center of Loyalism by a former Loyalist paramilitary and prisoner. It will definitely be an interesting day.




St. Brigids well




memorial to the hunger strikers


Republican memorial in Crossmaglen


tricolor flying in Crossmaglen, protesting British rule

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