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The town centre of Portadown wrecked again! The village of
Moira devastated by another republican bomb! Two more innocent
people murdered in the hitherto unaffected village of Poyntzpass!
A rocket attack on Armagh police station that has all the
hallmarks of the I.R.A. as the attacker!
These are the highlights of a month of mayhem in Northern
Ireland that has rekindled memories of the I.R.A. campaign
at its height, and there have been a 'whole series of 'minor'
incidents such as 'punishment' beatings, the destruction of
a public house in West Belfast - a dastardly deed bravely
pinpointed by the owners as an I.R.A. attack - and many other
assorted crimes.
Yet Her Majesty's Government resolutely refuses to acknowledge
that the I.R.A. has been involved in many of these crimes,
even though it is the only organisation which has the resources
and the means of carrying out bombings and mortar attacks.
A refusal to publicly accept what the dogs in the streets
in Northern Ireland know - that the I.R.A. is carrying out
these attacks using flags of convenience like 'Continuity
I.R.A.' and other fig-leaf covers.
All the cause of the so-called 'Peace Process' - a process
which has outraged most clear-thinking decent people. An almost
daily diet of 'goodies' and concessions handed out to the
republicans reinforces the viewpoint of most law-abiding loyal
citizens of this part of Her Majesty's realm that almost anything
is acceptable as long as it maintains the wafer-thin veneer
that the I.R.A. is on 'hold'.
On top of this the Ulster loyalist majority have to behold
the squalid spectacle of Dublin and the Clinton administration
in the White House having a say in the affairs of this part
of the United Kingdom.
This government does not carry all the responsibility for
the sickening appeasement of terrorists and their fellow travellers
- sadly most British Governments since 1969 have had a part
in this - but the alarming tendency for this Government to
bend over backwards to meet republican demands is mind-bogging
in its magnitude.
Leading figures of Sinn Fein/I.R.A. are ushered into No.10
Downing Street for talks with the Prime Minister and other
Ministers - a reception that most law-abiding British citizens
can never hope to receive. It is appeasement on a grand scale,
an unprecedented climbdown in the face of threatened terror.
Running side by side with this cowering surrender to republicans
is the full-scale attempt by the government to convince the
Ulster people to accept even greater involvement by Dublin
in the affairs of this Province. No doubt that campaign will
reach a crescendo in the weeks leading up to the referendum
on the future of Northern Ireland.
The next few weeks will be of the utmost importance to the
people of Northern Ireland when decisions may be taken which
will decide where the long-term future of this Province is
governed - London or Dublin.
This will be the most important referendum in the history
of Northern Ireland since partition. The liberties and freedoms
enjoyed by Ulster people as British citizens - a birthright
earned by their forefathers through blood sacrifice for the
Crown - will be under threat as never before.
The loyal people of Northern Ireland must be motivated into
casting their vote for undiluted British citizenship - full
membership of the United Kingdom, the same as that enjoyed
by people in England, Scotland and Wales.
This is an election in which Ulster loyalists and unionists
cannot afford to be complacent or to abstain from doing their
duty. For Northern Ireland to be set on a course which would
lead to eventual incorporation into a united Ireland would
be to put in jeopardy all that has been achieved since 1921.
Since 1921 the once substantial Protestant population of
the 26 counties has been reduced to a tiny proportion of three
per cent of the population. Can anyone doubt that the same
thing would happen to the Protestant population in Northern
Ireland if it was to lose its British identity and citizenship?
Protestantism and Unionism would face a bleak and barren
future in a united Ireland, and indeed those many brave Roman
Catholics who prefer to be British and to enjoy the benefits
of being part of the United Kingdom would experience the same
feelings of despair.
There are tens of thousands of loyal Roman Catholics in Northern
Ireland and they want no part of a unitary Irish State even
if their resistance to this has to be more low key than that
of the Protestant majority.
Northern Ireland, contrary to what the enemies of Ulster
constantly claim is not a Protestant State for a Protestant
people. It is part of a largely secular United Kingdom, but
a part where most people have strong religious convictions.
It also contains many people who do not have any religious
affiliation, or growing minorities like Moslems, Chinese,
Vietnamese and others.
The best guarantee of the freedom and toleration of Protestants
and people of other religious - or none at all - is to remain
part of a United Kingdom and the larger European Union.
It does not lie with joining an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic
country where British and Unionist traditions have largely
disappeared.
It is the responsibility of Unionist politicians of all shades
to spell out the message to the people before the Referendum
and the Orange Order will, as always, be standing foursquare
for the British link, exporting all its members and supporters
to exercise their democratic right and prove Ulster's loyalty
is undiminished.
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