The car bomb in Belfast earlier today is a bleak reminder of the fragility attendant on current efforts to sustain the peace process in Ireland.
It was timed to perfection as far as it perpetrators were concerned, coming just minutes into the day on which policing and justice was devolved to the Assembly in Northern Ireland.
The target, the new MI5 building, was also clearly chosen to maximise effect and to ensure maximum publicity. At a time when all recent attention has been focused on the impending election by the United Kingdom media it is clear that this objective was achieved.
The usual round of condemnatory remarks was issued by politicians and police but there now seems to be an almost tired resignation that these things are going to continue to happen. All in all it’s a dire warning that the peace process needs to be nurtured and sustained and with that in mind the question has to be posed, why was this target available to those the new Justice Minister David Ford accused of wanting to sow “dissension, distrust and disharmony”?
It seems incredible that at the same time as the United Kingdom has been dismantling its military presence in Ireland it should choose to allow its Intelligence apparatus to construct a new multi-million pound HQ in the heart of
Belfast.
The UK intelligence services don’t have a particularly good press in a lot of countries and probably nowhere is their record more compromised than in Ireland.
British intelligence is alleged to have itself participated in or facilitated terrorist bombings in Ireland, most notably the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. Its operatives directly, and via pseudo-gangs of para-militaries, also allegedly
have carried out targeted assassinations and murders spanning three decades.
Was there a scarcely coded message from the bombers to the effect that on a day Policing and Justice was devolved there is still one `justice agency’ that is outside the remit of devolved politicians and, if historical allegations are
correct, is itself outside the rule of law!
There is no place for bombs in Belfast or anywhere else in Ireland and there is no place for British military or intelligence bases either.
All decent people want the peace process to succeed and not be strangled at birth by dissident elements or British spooks!
J B Moffatt (Mr)
Director of Information
Celtic League
12/04/10