What war in Ulster?
a livingstonemusic.net/article

As a child, I often used to wonder was there really a war going on in Ulster? I mean, did the occasional shooting of a person really constitute the term "war", or was it an employed method of keeping the Ulster troubles ticking over for some unknown reason?
I read and heard stories of other conflicts around the world where tens, sometimes hundreds were killed during a single days fighting. That sounded like "war" to me, and it wasn't what we had here in Ulster. To me it was a civil unrest, fed from the politicians down to grassroots.

"They pick wars and we die in them..."

For my young mind there were far too many examples of falseness being displayed amongst the media, the politicians and the paramilitary groups, and they all equated to me seeing the whole troubles as an example of the ruling classes manipulating the working class: a way of keeping 'them' busy.

I remember a news film clip shot outside Crumlin Road Courthouse in Belfast. The report was about how violence had flared up outside the Courthouse between loyalists and the police. The TV cameras were being jostled about in the middle of the trouble. The camera then went back for a few seconds away from the rioting crowd to show that there were no more than seven or eight people actually fighting with a few policemen. Initially, the report had indicated that it was a large riot.
A duplicate instance of this took place in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was deposed. The news reports showed what looked like thousands of Iraqis joyfully pulling down the giant statue of Saddam in Baghdad. In one of the film clips, the camera panned back to show that there were no more than a couple of hundred people. <Click here>

Between politicians and the paramilitary groups, there was always enough activity to ensure there was something which could be termed as a "conflict" happening in the North of Ireland. From the frothing, fire-filled hate-driven vomiting of Ian Paisley to the mysterious, unseen, cold-blooded men behind the IRA, they perfectly balanced each other, creating an ever-flowing fear and unrest among the public and both fulfilling exactly what the other needed.
Without the IRA, Ian Paisley would have been without his lucrative political and ministerial paychecks, and the loyalist paramilitary groups would have no reason for existence. Parallel with that also, is the truth that without the loyalist enemy, the IRA and the INLA would have no reason for existence either. A perfect marriage working towards the same goal - unrest, fear, anger and hatred under the claim of wanting an end to their very reason for being.

Westminster, Dublin and local politicians fed the IRA, UDA, UVF, and the INLA with war-speak and they in turn fed the ordinary man, woman and child with an over-passionate version of the same based upon their own jingoistic, romanticised folklore. Like children being raised by parents with no actual interest in them, apart from keeping those children occupied to enable an easy life for the parents. The Ulster people on both sides of the political divide were lied to by the next level up in the social hierarchy, and they, like parrots, repeated those lies to their children. And so the disease continued. The chain of deceit was strong and unbroken.

I came from a Protestant background and any 'Irishness' I had, I kept to my inner, secret self. I had to in order to survive living where I lived.
The two elderly sisters lived next door to me, revered Ian Paisley. A black and white photo hung in a frame in the hallway of their home. They used to tell me how salvation could only be attained through "Dr. Paisley". Like Siamese twins, they would sneak off to his church on Sunday to be further indoctrinated with false ideals. Even as a child, the religious rantings made no sense to me. Today, I see the surreal, diktat of religious and political leaders in Ulster for what it really is - lies.
Which flag billowed gently in the wind above Belfast's City Hall had no importance (and still doesn't) in my life. It's a flag. A piece of cloth. Nothing more.

People in Ulster have been deluded into two opposing systems of belief based on nothing more than differing perceptions of historical events. Events which have now, no positive input to this, Ulster in the twenty-first century. The IRA, UDA, UVF, INLA, Ian Paisley, Rauri O Bradaigh et al are the past. They have each assured their place in Ireland's history, but they must remove themselves from the future, if they really care about their homeland.

One question which has bugged me for most of my life, was why the working class communities in Ulster never stopped to think why rioting and disturbances only seemed to happen in their areas. Middle class areas were mostly free from street trouble. They were doing their fighting in political chambers and through the media. They kept their hands clean while the ghetto areas were stirred into frenzied hatred by politicians.

Melchett: "Well, fine body of men you've got out there, Blackadder."
Edmund: "Yes, sir -- shortly to become fine bodies of men."
Melchett: "Well, best of luck to you all. Sorry I can't be with you, but obviously there's no place at the front for an old general with a dicky heart and a wooden bladder...."
(Blackadder Goes Fourth)

Orwell wrote in '1984' that "if there is hope it lies with the proles".
As far as Ulster is concerned, it's "if there is an answer, it lies with the proles."
The ordinary people have to politically think for themselves with a view to the whole picture and not just what they think they want. Admittedly, that's a brand new culture to Northern Ireland and it will take quite a few generations to kick in.
Is it now time for people to see beyond what others think and to make their own minds up regarding the country they live in which after all, is NOT divided (it's just a big sod of land)? It's the people who have been divided - by dogma and romanticised notions of history.

"Ever had the feeling you've been cheated?" (John Lydon, San Francisco Winterland Ballroom 1978)

Don't buy the lies.


2005 - a livingstonemusic.net/article