One man’s terrorist, goes the old expression, is tomorrow’s freedom fighter. Yesterday’s terrorist, Martin McGuinness, has died and I find it very hard to mourn his life. Regardless of the reasons for the “troubles” in Northern Ireland and who was responsible for what, a lot of innocent men, women and children died as a direct and indirect result of the actions of McGuinness. He is no longer suffering from the debilitating heart disease that ultimately killed him. The families of the victims of IRA terrorists will suffer forever.
Even the lavish praise from his political opponents in the Loyalist and Unionist communities doesn’t move me or change my mind and why should it? The IRA deliberately targeted innocent bystanders in pubs, in hotels, in shopping areas and they executed – yes, executed – members of the armed forces and police.
In a very small way, I experienced from a near distance the way in which the IRA operated. On a cold winter’s night in 1974, I missed a bomb attack on Dixon’s in Park Street by a matter of minutes. It was not an explosion that killed people but it sent the fear of God amongst those who were nearby. I was on my way to Tiffany’s “heavy night” in Clifton and we heard the explosion as we were walking along Whiteladies Road, a mere mile or so away. We walked past the actual shop barely 15 minutes earlier. I was never in danger, but I never forgot it. It changed the way I thought about terrorism forever. What if someone had been killed, purely in the name of people being terrorised? The IRA was the organisation of which McGuinness was a commander.
Of course, I recognise the peace process that changed Northern Ireland and the role of McGuinness, who morphed from terrorist to peacemaker, ultimately becoming friends with Ian Paisley, the leader of the hard line unionists. I cringed at the photographs, I winced as politicians shook his hands and I never once forgot the victims, their families and their friends.
I could not show the strength and compassion of Colin Parry, whose 12 year old son Tim was murdered by the IRA in the Warrington pub bombings of 1993 and who in the name of peace actually met McGuinness and his partner in crime Gerry Adams in furtherance of the peace process. People can apologise all they like, but none of it will bring back victims like Tim.
Doubtless, the funeral will be a grand affair, attended by the not very good and the outright bad. If I was prime minister, I would not send a representative and nor would I expect any decent mainstream politician to turn up either.
My condolences are with the family of McGuinness but I cannot bring myself to mourn his death. He was a terrorist before he became a so called statesman and many innocent lives were lost before he changed his ways. For me, his past cannot be undone and outweighs anything that came later.
