On and on it goes, endless concessions to unrepentent republicans.
An inquiry into the events on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry
in 1972 is costing millions, and according to some predictions,
it is likely to last another two years. It's time there was
justice and fair play for Protestants and Unionists who are
getting a raw deal from their Government.
The minority population - nationalist and republican - is
single minded in its dogged determination to focus maximum
attention and achieve maximum media coverage on what it considers
to be alleged cases of unfairness and bias, whether by the
security forces or by loyalists.
The Belfast Agreement may have been signed amid all sorts
of talk about new beginnings and starting with a clean slate,
but that has not deflected the minority community from pressing
on with renewed vigour to publicise its cases for inquiries
into a whole range of issues.
It's not just Blooday Sunday in Londonderry, but the murders
of Pat Finucane, Robert Hamill, Rosemary Nelson, and other
contentious issues. Nothing less than full and comprehensive
inquiries will satisfy the minority community. As in the past,
especially since the start of the Troubles, the minority community,
right across the spectrum, has tended to close ranks and demand
in unison that such inquiries be held.
Not so the Protestant, Unionist and loyalist majority community,
and this explains to a large extent why the Government is
reluctant to hold inquires into issues which still cause great
hurt and anger for the Protestant side.
There have been sporadic calls for inquiries into things
like the perceived injustice to the U.D.R., or the more recent
case of the murder of Billy Wright in the Maze Prison. But
it doesn't strike a chord right across the Protestant community.
Clergy and ministers do not make the demand in the way that
Roman Catholic clergymen have for public inquiries like Bloody
Sunday.
And the middle-class Protestant population, especially that
living in 'safe' areas of the Province, which have not felt
the full brunt of I.R.A. murder and terrorism, has not responded
to the calls for inquiries into atrocities committed against
members of its community in the way that the middle class
section of the Roman Catholic population has.
One has to wonder why there has been such apathy on the part
of Protestants, especially as it is that section of the population
which has suffered most from the terrorism of the past 30
years. Statistics as contained in the book 'Lost Lives' show
that two-thirds of the murders were committed by the I.R.A.
and other republican groups.
Yet there has been no head of steam for inquiries into events
like Bloody Friday in Belfast in 1972, the La Mon House atrocity,
the Remembrance Day slaughter in Enniskillen, the Kingsmill
massacre, the Tullyvallen Orange Hall murders, and a whole
range of such dreadful events.
It's hard to understand why Protestants and Unionists should
be so apathetic in regard to such murders. Bloody Friday,
as one example, was a terrible crime against humanity, and
surely it is time a public inquiry was held to establish the
facts. Who was the I.R.A. commander in Belfast at the time
who approved of the setting off of 26 bombs in Belfast with
the loss of so many lives? Who were the men who carried this
out?
These are only some of the questions that need to be answered,
and with nationalists and republicans continuing their campaign
for inquiries into murders inflicted on members of their community,
it is surely time for Protestants and Unionists to do the
same.
Otherwsie the impression will surely go out to the watching
world that only one section of the community in Northern Ireland
- the minority Roman Catholic community - suffered terribly
at the hands of terrorism.
That may seem incredible, given the extent of Protestant
and Unionist suffering, but it is a significant factor that
in the 30 years of the Troubles, the majority population has
always tended to lose out when it comes to having its case
presented to the worldwide stage and on the media.
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