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1990

IRA Bigotry

THE PROVOS like to blame all of our problems on the English. Sinn Fein claims that the English have used `religion to divide the Irish people'. Certainly the British State has a lot to answer for in its dealings with this island as in other parts of the world. We would suggest that for all their leftist socialism, the Provos are every bit as sectarian as, for example, the Protestant Action Force.

The Provos claim to be waging a national liberation struggle against British imperialism. Most of their victims, however, are fellow Ulsterfolk, whether civilians, unionist political activists or members of the RUC and UDR. To claim to be resisting foreign oppression when in fact they are waging a vicious war against their fellow countrymen is their Big Lie. It provides a cover for the IRA's undeclared but blatant religious sectarianism. The Dungannon priest, Rev Dennis Faul has described Provo ideology as, `a religion with theology strong on identifying heretics'.

IRA propaganda regards the Protestant people as congenital bigots whose opinions count for nothing. They parrot the words of Wolfe Tone who wished to unite, `Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter'. The truth is that their claim to support non-sectarianism is in reality a sly way of getting one over on unionists and loyalists who generally make a big thing of their Protestantism.

In the Sinn Féin periodical, Iris (November 1988), a republican supporter from a Protestant background - a very rare breed indeed - complained bitterly:

"I want to be Irish as I am, but feel that Catholics do not allow me to. They expect me to move a bit of the way to towards being 'Catholic', or at least something different from what we [Protestants] are... the obstacle [is] what I would call the Catholic community, which identifies its total ethos as the criterion of Irishness.
"Then I have to say that I see the Republican Movement of today as a Catholic movement, with negligible Protestant input and consisting of people, practising Catholics or not, who are governed by the total ethos of a community which considers us [Protestants] less than fully Irish... since the 1860s, it has concentrated on the needs of the Catholic community and ignored the Northern Protestants."

Since 1971, the Provisional Republican Movement has ceased to ignore Protestants. Most Protestants can quite easily fit into their sweeping definition of a 'legitimate target'. The Provos have no chance of ever gaining any votes or political support from the Protestant population who watch what they do rather than what they say. They are not fooled by Provo posturing. The !RA and Sinn Féin know this - but they don't give a damn!

Ulster Nation believes that religious differences in Ulster ought to be matters of theological controversy alone - not political barriers dividing our people. Unlike that of the the Provos, our Ulster-nationalism is genuinely non-sectarian. WE will work hard to give our people a new focus of loyalty, not to Westminster, Leinster House, Brussels, Rome or Canterbury but our own Motherland ULSTER!

David Kerr

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A THIRD WAY FOR ULSTER