By the late Brendan Hughes .. The Greatest IRA Leader of our Time. (Thanks , Derry Doire)
Written in 1999
“In 1969 we had a naive enthusiasm about what we wanted. Now in 1999 we
have no enthusiasm. And it is not because people are war weary - they
are politics weary. The same old lies regurgitated week in week out.
With the war politics had some substance. Now it has none. The political
process has created a class of professional
liars and unfortunately it contains many republicans. But I still think
that potential exists to bring about something different. And I speak
not just about our own community but about the loyalist community also.
Ex-prisoners from both and not the politicians can effect some radical
change.”
“Stormont is still there, but it is a Stormont with
Republicans in it. Stormont has not changed. The whole apparatus of the
Stormont regime is still there, it is still controlled by the British,
it is still unjust, it is still cruel. The RUC is still there. The whole
civil service are still there, the same civil servants who controlled
the shoot-to-kill policy, who controlled the plastic bullets, who
controlled the H Blocks of Long Kesh, who took responsibility for ten
men dying. It is all still there. But, saviour of saviours, we have two
Sinn Féin ministers there, who happen to close hospitals. The sad thing
about all this is that the British set this up. This is the British
answer to the Republican problem in Ireland. It’s a British solution,
it’s not an Irish solution. It’s not a solution that we have control of.
There are people up there and the British ministers are handing money
out. But the whole thing is built on sand.”
“I am not
advocating dumb militarism or a return to war. Never in the history of
republicanism was so much sacrificed and so little gained; too many left
dead and too few achievements. Let us think most strongly before going
down that road again. I am simply questioning the wisdom of
administering British rule in this part of Ireland. I am asking what
happened to the struggle in all Ireland—what happened to the idea of a
thirty-two county socialist republic. That, after all, is what it was
all about. Not about participating in a northern administration that
closes hospitals and attacks the teachers’ unions. I am asking why we
are not fighting for and defending the rights of ordinary working
people, for better wages and working conditions. Does thirty years of
struggle boil down to a big room at Stormont, ministerial cars, dark
suits and the implementation of the British Patten Report?”
“It
has been the futility of it all. From a nationalist perspective alone
what we have now we could have had at any time in the last twenty-five years. But even nationalist demands don't seem to matter any more. And in the process we have lost much of our honesty, sincerity and comradeship."
“The republican leadership has always exploited our loyalty.”
Vol.Brendan Hughes, Oct 16th 1948 -- Feb 16th 2008.
