Orde hits nail on the head

national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Tuesday October 16, 2007 19:43 by Jolly wally

Hugh Orde of the PSNI hit the nail on the head today in comments on dissident republicans.

Hugh Orde at a cross border conference on organised crime made some strikingly sharp comments on dissident republican organisations today. He said that whilst the RIRA, CIRA and INLA remained a threat in terms of potential for violence, they were bereft of any serious political strategy.

I find myself in agreement with him on this issue though I neither support him nor the police or state he works for. The last 9 years have demonstrated clearly that the dissident republicans mentioned above are incapable of evolving a poltical strategy and implementing it with any effect.

None of them produce a newspaper worthy of serious contemplation. Saoirse has had one interchangeable headline about provo sellouts for the past 10 years, the Irps occasionally manage to put out a paper that's international section seems obsessed either by surviving communist dictatorships or any group prepared to use guns to further a national liberation struggle, on their forum the hot issues are always violence related, a recent commemoration for seamus Costello saw a 50 strong colour party in black combats at the same time the party claims to be building a revolutionary political project. The Sovereign Nation is almost as boring as the Socialist but lacks its coherency, after regular reading I still cannot figure out what exactly their politics are apart from Brits Out.

The star of the class for dissidents must surely be Eirigi who actually have a political existence and some sort of strategy. Note Hugh Orde didn't mention them. The other three organisations would be apalled if they went without mention.

No disrespect to all those who cling to the ideal of a 32 county republic buts its campaigns in the here in now that are effecting peoples lives that will win people to revolutionary ideas.