More Thuggery from the IRA; Will Gerry Adams Step In?Here's a story in the Guardian about the
threats to the late Robert McCartney's fiancee:
Republicans have picketed the home of Bridgeen Hagans, the one-time fiancee of Robert McCartney, and demanded that a friend allegedly attacked by IRA men withdraw his statement to the police, the family said last night. On Tuesday night, a crowd of 50 people gathered outside the home of Ms Hagans and her two young children, chanting: "Out! Out!"
After McCartney was murdered outside a Belfast bar in January, Ms Hagans, along with his five sisters, accused IRA members of the murder and a cover-up. They led a campaign for justice that sparked international outrage at the killing and gained White House support.
Ms Hagans, who lives behind bullet-proof windows after earlier attacks on her home, is said to be terrified after the recent pickets. The family say that on Monday night IRA men involved in McCartney's murder used the cover of loyalist riots to attack a relative, who was reportedly assaulted outside the family home. Afterwards they are said to have severely beaten McCartney's best friend, Jess Commander, 34, as he went through the nationalist enclave of Short Strand, which had come under sustained attack during the riots.
Almost unheard of in a nationalist area where the IRA are "protectors of the community", Mr Commander complained to the police, naming his attackers. Picketers outside Ms Hagans' home then demanded that no charges be pressed.Let me specify here that from my reading of the events in Northern Ireland, the problems in the last week have been largely the fault of the loyalists and this absolutely moronic stuff about "marching season".
Unfortunately, some of the thugs on the Republican side took advantage of the confusion. And the part about the IRA men being "protectors of the community" is laughable. In the 1970s one could make that claim, but most estimates are that more Catholics have been killed by the IRA than by Protestants in the last ten years.
Hat Tip:
Saoirse32
