Where I Stand On the Irish QuestionSome of the responses to my effort to push the Robert McCartney story up the line have been less than sympathetic. Some have assumed that I'm anti-Irish, or that I oppose reunification. That is not true. My full name is Patrick Michael James Curley, I'm Catholic (mostly lapsed), and I support the eventual reunification of Ireland.
What I do not do is support terrorists and criminals who happen to be on the same side of that question. The IRA and Sinn Fein may have been necessary and beneficial at some point; they do not seem so now. Indeed, the folks who are describing them as the "RAfia" seem to have nailed it precisely.
And I don't pretend that the reunification is central to my life. I would hope that at some point it happens, but only if it happens peacefully, and only if the rights of all people in both the North and the Republic are respected.
