Stephen McBride ([email protected])
Thu, 4 Feb 1999 22:50:13 -0000
I am a unionist living in Belfast, and I am alarmed at how easily the
likes of Gerry Adams have pulled the wool over your eyes. There
are a myriad other interpretations of Bloody Sunday - such as
soldiers panicking after coming under fire, and then killing people in
error. Other things, such as corpses having bullets in them that
were not standard British Army issue (ie: shot by their "own" side,
in an effort to discredit britain), soldiers counting their kills (all
soldiers are trained to keep a count of kills, so they can monitor
how a battle is progressing), and coming to a total greater than 13 -
terrorists who were armed were killed, but their bodies being
spirited away, so as, again, to create the image of a massacre.
I'm not saying I agree with many of these conspiracy theories, but I
am saying they are as valid as the nationalist take on these events.
There are many, many, many inconsistencies with the Bloody
Sunday shootings, many of which Nationalists cannot explain.
This is why I, as a Unionist, welcome a fresh enquiry.
By marching with these people, you are not expressing solidarity
with all those Irish killed by violence. Did you read my post the
other day? you certainly were not expressing solidarity with me,
when IRA men maimed members of my family. You were not
expressing solidarity with the family of my school friend who was
murdered by the IRA, "in error". Unwittingly, you have identified
yourself with Sinn Fein/IRA. You are the sort of foreigner the IRA
loves, because you are easily convinced. Rememeber that it is the
IRA, and not Britain which has killed the vast majority of the 3000
deaths in Northern Ireland. Adams, before his conversion to
Armani suits, was an IRA man who openly advocated IRA murder
squads and their actions.
I am afraid courses such as "Peace and conflict studies" are just
another name for soft, left wing apologiae for the justification of
"armed struggles", and they most certainly do not possess the
academic rigours or validity of a proper History degree. You don't
mention the institution you are on sabbatical at, but I doubt it is the
Queen's University - THE academic centre in Northern Ireland. (If
there are any Wirelings at Coleraine, I'm sorry to have insulted you,
but you above all will know the truth in what I have said!).
I know you mean well, Chrissy, but your gullibility is the sort of
thing that Sinn Fein/IRA rely on. They rely on you to go back to
America, carrying your tales of those "brave Irish fighting
oppression", which is a myth, and an outdated myth at that. They
rely on you becoming an unwitting fund raiser for their murderous
activities.
U2's song has nothing to do with the spin that you have picked up
from these murderers. Remember that the Edge was recently
quoted as saying the original opening for "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
was to be "Don't talk to me about the rights of the IRA!"
Please, if you must indulge in this sort of flirtation with terrorism,
leave my country! I and others like me have suffered enough. We
do not need well intentioned, but nonetheless insensitive foreigners
reopening old wounds for us.
If anyone wishes to flame me for my directness, can I ask that they
first experience at least a good 30 years of living in Northern Ireland
before they do so?
Stephen R. McBride, B.A.(Hons.), P.G.C.E.
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Thu Feb 04 1999 - 14:56:40 PST