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Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland
  Orange Standard

Scourge Of Paramilitarism

Article 5 ~ May 2006

People who watched a recent programme showing a young Belfast man, David Hanley, who was blinded last July, when he became yet another innocent victim of paramilitary feuding, cannot fail to have been moved by his gentle Christian attitude to his great handicap.

David, who suffered horrendous injuries when shot by mistake during a loyalist feud in North Belfast, only survived because of the brilliant surgeon who carried out the lifesaving operation.

Not everyone would have been so brave and positive in such a situation, which speaks volumes for David Hanley's character and Christianity.

The dreadful reality of paramilitarism and its effects on Northern Ireland and its people have been spotlighted once again, this terrible crime and the affliction has visited on a lovely young Ulsterman.

It should never have happened, and the same applies to the murders of thousands of people in this Province, and the wounding of tens of thousands during the 35 years of the Troubles.

The primary blame for the suffering caused by so many people, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, lies with the paramilitary organisations who carried out these dreadful crimes.

But a large share of the blame must rest with successive British Governments who had responsibility for governing Northern Ireland during the years of the Troubles.

Failure to deal with the Provisional IRA in the early years of the conflict, fighting the terrorists with one hand behind its back, and an unwillingness to allow the security forces to use the measures needed to defeat the IRA campaign.

All this led to utter frustration on the part of the Unionist population, and unfortunately an element resorted to counter-force against republican violence, and the formation of loyalist paramilitary organisations.

All this, primarily IRA violence, with its murders and explosions, and the counter violence of loyalist paramilitaries, practically destroyed the fabric of Northern Ireland society.

It speaks volumes for the decency of the vast majority of Northern Ireland folk that the Province did not disintegrate and fall apart, or that civil war did not erupt on the scale of Yugoslavia.

Eventually, the British Government, prodded by the United States of America, reached a flawed Agreement with the Provisional IRA, which is called the 'Peace Process'.

Under this process, hundreds of murderers have been allowed to walk free, the Government, along with that of the Republic of Ireland, is committed to getting Sinn Fein-IRA into a restored Assembly at Stormont.

As part of this deal, the RUC was destroyed, a new police force with inbuilt discrimination against Protestants has replaced it, and every effort has been made to airbrush the real victims of the Troubles, the families of murdered policemen, soldiers and innocent civilians, out of history.

In the 'new' Northern Ireland, crimes like the shooting and blinding of David Hanley have little chance of being solved, especially if the result of people being brought to the bar of justice, the 'peace process' could be jeopardised.

What a sad commentary on the situation in the 'new' Northern Ireland, where the law-abiding majority are hit with rising taxes and costs, with the suspension of a democratic assembly due to the appeasement by the Government towards Sinn Fein-IRA, and justice is stood on its head.

It is time that the real victims of the Troubles and their families had their needs addressed, and the needs of suffering victims brought to the top of the agenda.

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