He is dead. Our Uncrowned King is dead.
O, Erin, mourn with grief and woe
For he lies dead whom the fell gang
Of modern hypocrites laid low.He lies slain by the coward hounds
He raised to glory from the mire;
And Erin's hopes and Erin's dreams
Perish upon her monarch's pyre.
Last weekend, my children marched in the local Saint Patrick's Day Parade under the banner of their Catholic parochial school, two miles up the old Albany Post road in a celebration of all things Irish in the new world. As I watched my little ones walk by - the middle lad in my own green tweed cap - I thought of the praise I'd be sending the way of President George W. Bush this week on this Weblog.
No, not a common occurence in these parts; as rare as a shamrock in January or an Italian-American Club banner in the St. Paddy's march - oh wait, there was one of those. No, I give President Bush credit for banning terror's apologists from the White House, from these shores, from the traditional celebration of the contribution of the sons and daughters of Eire to these United States, a significant contribution indeed. The world knows why. The why is Robert McCartney, who may or may have not made a remark about a female friend of the lying, killing, thieving, sub-human Provos in a Belfast pub. They took him outside, slit his throat like swine in the slaughterhouse. Then they stepped through the blood, went back in the pub, locked the door, and swore their countrymen and women to secrecy in the name of Irish republicanism.
But the secrecy didn't hold. Robert McCartney had sisters, five to be exact, and as the world knows, courage lives in the hearts of Irishwomen. They talked. They named names. They called out Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness for the Arafat-like liars and cowards that they are.
Reports Wikipedia: Last week, the Daily Mail named the following men as three of the four men, all acknowledged members of the Belfast Brigade, whom the PIRA offered to shoot in retailation for the murder of Robert MacCartney - Jim "Dim" McCormack, Gerard "Jock" Davison and Gerard Montgomery. The Mail stated that McCormack, aged about 42, is the Officer Commanding of the Belfast Brigade of the PIRA. It also stated that Davison, 41, is a current and senior member of the Belfast Brigade, and its former O.C. According to the Mail, Montgomery — whom it showed in a crowd photograph — is also a long standing PIRA member, and has acted as a bodyguard to both Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. All three men have close ties with Gerry Adams.
This week, President Bush played the right kind of politics, banning the IRA apologists from St. Patrick's Day in Washington and inviting the brave McCartney sisters instead. They visit the White House later today, in a somber and politically charged St. Patrick's Day visit. Yesterday, the sisters met with Senator Edward Kennedy, certainly the most prominent Irish-American politician - and the Democrat Kennedy echoed the Republican Bush and like the President, cancelled his traditional visit with Adams and excoriated Sinn Fein:
"No political party can also have an armed unit that continues the violence and criminality in today's world. [The McCartney sisters'] presence in Washington on this St. Patrick's Day sends a very powerful signal that it's time for the IRA to fully decommission, end all criminal activity, and cease to exist as a paramilitary organisation ... There's no question that the Sinn Féin and the IRA are involved in a cover-up there, and Gerry Adams has to free himself. [Political parties] do not, and should not, and cannot have private armies, and cannot be involved in criminality and violence."
Speaking truth to power, and overcoming fear of retribution, this is our band of sisters upon this day of green: Catherine, Gemma, Claire, Paula and Donna McCartney. If they put the stake into the heart of the IRA, which has become nothing more than an organized crime operation, they deserve the thanks of the world, and certainly the gratitude of New York, the world's largest Irish city. To my eye, the Seattle PI got it right:
This St. Patrick's Day, the Irish Republican Army could do everyone a favor. The brutal organization ought to disband. After years of diplomatic efforts to create peace in Ireland, the IRA remains committed to its violent roots. It still hasn't given up its weapons. Even as the United States, Ireland and Britain try to advance justice and democracy in Northern Ireland, the IRA favors thuggery.
James Joyce understood the painfully thin difference between a political movement and a web of street gangs when he wrote Death of Parnell into Ivy Day in the Committee Room. Mourning for Charles Stewart Parnell more than a century ago, the Joycean characters recognized treachery when they saw it. It was a tale that could only be written in exile. Amidst the new Ireland of technology and call centers and software, Robert McCartney's brutal murder seems like the return of a strange and violent past. But it's just another attack on modernity and law, the same brand of killers on the march in Spain and Baghdad and the skies over lower Manhattan.
