‘Kelly’s internment’
EDITORIAL: Kelly’s internment provocative move
We are entitled to wonder why, if the PSNI had evidence that Seán Kelly had got himself involved again in “terrorist” activity, the force acted on that intelligence just as an IRA response was expected to Gerry Adams’ call on the IRA to take a purely peaceful path.
After this provocative move, the prospects of another positive IRA move appear more distant this morning. There are too many within the PSNI and the Northern Ireland Office to whom that is good news.
We are not allowed to see the evidence on which the PSNI has moved to suspend Seán Kelly’s licence because it is intelligence-based. Of course, the PSNI’s intelligence is not exactly top-drawer given the embarrassing ease with which sensational crimes can be pulled off in this part of the world but the quality of the intelligence is not the point. The point is that the terms of the Good Friday Agreement effectively give the PSNI the power of internment and it is no surprise that the force has wielded that power at such a delicate and sensitive time in the peace process.
For his part, new secretary of state Peter Hain’s stock with unionists will have risen considerably after a difficult week when he had reminders of his Troops Out past thrown up in his face. Handy that.
What is particularly galling about all this is that anyone who has been on the ground at any of the recent episodes of interface violence will have seen with their own eyes that Seán Kelly was using his influence as a well-known republican to calm things down.
Unionists have been up on their high horse demanding that Kelly be returned to prison after pictures of him appeared in the press at sectarian disturbances in north Belfast following the most recent Old Firm match.
The pictures, of course, proved nothing except that he was there. Were similar pictures to appear of Gerry Kelly with his hands on PSNI riot officers during Friday night’s disorder, no doubt the same siren voices would be similarly outraged. Except that TV pictures prove conclusively that Gerry Kelly was acting as a peacemaker, as was Seán Kelly on previous occasions.
It would be nice to think that sanity might prevail and a no-talk, no-walk policy be implemented straight away.
However, the Orange Order has long since cottoned on to the fact that, when it comes to a choice between upholding the rights of residents to be accorded the dignity and respect due to them or caving in to the threat of widespread Drumcree-style disorder, the batons will always be turned on the Catholics.
The actions of senior republicans in attempting to calm all concerned — not least those baton-happy PSNI members straining to get stuck into the residents — ensured that Friday night’s violence did not deepen and spread.
It is fair to ask for how long can republicans literally hold the line when, as was seen on Friday night, they are being heckled on one side by young nationalists and being threatened on the other by ninja-style PSNI men whose commanders appear to have learnt little from the history of the past 30 years. Others must help take the strain before disaster strikes.
