Molloy claims Sinn Fein never endorsed violence!
The audacity of Sinn Fein revisionism never fails to awe and amaze. On Slugger Pete Baker has drawn attention to a statement by Francie Molloy which sets the bar for rewriting history higher than anyone would seriously have imagined it could go. During an attempt to hijack the legacy of the civil rights movement (whose 40th anniversary is imminent) for republicans on Hearts and Minds, Molloy claimed “our party never endorsed violence at any stage”.
The statement is so preposterous that it almost belies the seriousness of SF’s incessant attempts to excise and edit elements of their own past and the history of the Northern Irish Troubles in general. There seems to be a belief amongst republicans that if they repeat their lies often enough eventually they will come to be accepted as fact.
Sinn Fein’s attempts to wrest the heritage of the Civil Rights Association from the SDLP are predictable and typical of the republican movement’s campaign to rewrite history. There is an ironic symmetry to the fact that 40 years after republicans attempted to attach themselves to a non-violent movement and harness its dynamic to foster their campaign of terror, the same people are now disclaiming that campaign of terror in order to re-attach themselves to the legacy of the non-violent movement.
Tom Kelly wrote in the Irish News last week about the competing claims on the legacy of NICRA and correctly identified the SDLP as the genuine inheritors of that organisation’s ethos. He points out the disproportionate number of leaders in NICRA who went on to found the SDLP. Principally though what differentiated the ethos of NICRA from that of physical force republicanism was its explicit refutation of violent methods, a refutation which the SDLP has echoed throughout its history. Other civil rights campaigners, such as Bernadette Devlin or Eamon McCann, whose politics differed from the SDLP can also legitimately lay claim to that non-violent legacy but it is manifestly clear that those who went on to wage a war of terror cannot.
The statement is so preposterous that it almost belies the seriousness of SF’s incessant attempts to excise and edit elements of their own past and the history of the Northern Irish Troubles in general. There seems to be a belief amongst republicans that if they repeat their lies often enough eventually they will come to be accepted as fact.
Sinn Fein’s attempts to wrest the heritage of the Civil Rights Association from the SDLP are predictable and typical of the republican movement’s campaign to rewrite history. There is an ironic symmetry to the fact that 40 years after republicans attempted to attach themselves to a non-violent movement and harness its dynamic to foster their campaign of terror, the same people are now disclaiming that campaign of terror in order to re-attach themselves to the legacy of the non-violent movement.
Tom Kelly wrote in the Irish News last week about the competing claims on the legacy of NICRA and correctly identified the SDLP as the genuine inheritors of that organisation’s ethos. He points out the disproportionate number of leaders in NICRA who went on to found the SDLP. Principally though what differentiated the ethos of NICRA from that of physical force republicanism was its explicit refutation of violent methods, a refutation which the SDLP has echoed throughout its history. Other civil rights campaigners, such as Bernadette Devlin or Eamon McCann, whose politics differed from the SDLP can also legitimately lay claim to that non-violent legacy but it is manifestly clear that those who went on to wage a war of terror cannot.
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