I’m
gobsmacked. Ireland has lost its way morally. The values that should underpin a
state have been turned upside down for all to see. Anyone who’s seen a picture of yesterday’s funeral of a prominent gangster will know why.
This man who was himself shot dead is
believed to have been involved by gardaí in a number of killings arising out of
his criminal activities in North Dublin.
We know that much petty crime is about finding the cash for drugs and
that drugs in Ireland is big money. The
murder victim’s coffin was draped in the national flag and accompanied by men
dressed in paramilitary uniform. A
graveside oration was accorded at the graveside, something usually reserved for
someone who has served the state or been a member of the garda or defence
forces. Media comment seems to have
missed something that is glaringly obvious. What right has this man’s loved
ones to subvert the state in this way to cloak a life of crime with
respectability of the symbols of state?
There is a
roll call of communities that have been thrashed by this type of crook. These people have set back communities
decades and destroyed Ireland. I
understand that as one of the offertory gifts at the funeral mass was the 1916
proclamation. Sadly the murdered crook
never took the time to read it. One of
the people who signed it was James Connolly who in his day was anti alcohol as
he understood the damage that alcohol addiction did to families and saw the
control of the pub trade by employers and payment of wages in pubs as anti
family. Surely any follower of Connolly
can see parallels with the modern drug trade?
Let’s taken
as read the standard line of treating all the children equally and ask the
32CSM about the life’s chances in this state of some young children who are
born in the wrong place at the wrong time and end up addicted. Another line of the proclamation asks God “Whose
blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause
will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine”. Is the drugs trade not
inhuman or cowardly?
But the
question that needs to be put to the hundreds who turned up to the funeral is if
they cared for the deceased would they not have served his ultimate interests
better by going to the garda with whatever information they had to see the man
convicted and the crimes that he was central to, some of them murder resolved for
the sake of those other victims and their families who are equally entitled to
justice?
There is
something deeply troubling and menacing when this man’s supporters can obstruct
garda policing of the funeral on an otherwise peaceful sunny day in an ordinary
suburb. Unless society deals with this
type of crook and tthey are sent down for time commensurate with their deeds we
are going nowhere morally.
2 comments:
There is nothing new in this. Cllr. Ryan makes the familiar assumption that the people here have no real knowledge of 1916 and what followed. He's wrong. They see themselves as part of the tradition of using crime and murder to achieve political aims.
Hi Colum, The assumption I'm entitled to make is that those who claim to draw their inspiration from 1916 would at least be familiar with the proclamation. I think that citizens are entitled to that too. In fact these crooks have no interest in 1916 and need to be exposed for what they are, a state within a state using history to justify the unjustifiable. Whether we like it or not the Defence Forces evolved from the 1922 IRA into the organisation that is now a professionally regarded army internationally, We established our own unarmed garda force in 1923.
These bodies are outside of day to day political control and are the 21st century representation of the values that a state should aspire to.
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