“One day, we built a house on the hilltop high
Bob and I
Storey and me , a spoof that Sinners could fill
And were had a laugh to be called
The players who lived on the Hill
Now , we’re subtracting a thing or two
A paramilitary wing or two
So now we’ll no longer be called the thugs who lived on the hill”
My apologies to Hammerstein and Kern, who were never in the IRA, not even Ira Gershwin.
Humpty Dumpty told Alice that if he ever fell off the wall, the King would send all his horses and all his men to pick him up.
Our own policing Humpty Dumpty can look forward to the Queen sending him a knighthood, providing he stays on the fence.
Last night Sharon O’Neill asked him a very obvious question; “Who is the leader of PIRA?”
His answer was that membership is a criminal offence and he wasn’t going to do or say anything or speculate on anything which could undermine any future court proceedings.
So there you are Dear Reader, the Chief Con is on the case “following the evidence”. Can’t you see him with his magnifying glass and cape , accompanied by Joe 90, examining the footpaths of West Belfast?
Of course he could have arrested a sizeable proportion of PIRA high command the other week when he met them in a hall in West Belfast, a hall being guarded by a PIRA run security company. He shook hands with a man who has murdered many innocent people. The butchers boy from the Bogside.
To imagine for a moment. George causes a file to be sent to Barra-Boy. It contains evidence against senior members of PIRA, it being a proscribed organisation. Barra, because of his past would have to pass it to the team which bought you such block busters as Cahill and McCartney.
This is just a little fantasy for two reasons.
No senior member of PIRA has ever been convicted.
As Northern Ireland descends into chaos and farce with this , Nama, Red Sky and other imbecilic acts, will the unionist parties have the courage to act?
Don’t hold your breath. As they often say in Ahoghill; “Deus ex machina”.
It is said that it originated as a way of showing that you were unarmed.
English barristers do not shake hands because as ‘ learned friends’ that have no need of this display.
There have been many famous handshakes. Hitler/Chamberlin, Nixon/Mao, Sadat/Begin, Rabin/Arafat, McGuinness/ Elizabeth Saxe- Coburg-Gotha.
These have been ground breaking moments.
So why did George Hamilton , stolid, NIO Gopher, go to West Belfast and shake the hand of McGuinness, terrorist, gunman, murderer of policemen and others, member of PIRA Northern Command, and sometime member of PIRA Army Council?
What was the hidden agenda? What was the purpose? McGuinness confessed to having been momentarily in PIRA, like Clinton confessed to smoking dope but not inhaling.
Is there a clue in what was said?
Hamilton said ” there were serious problems with policing in the past”.
McGuinness said “tonight is another act of reconciliation”.
Leaving aside the Relate-like language of these two almost former lovers [you don’t bring me flowers anymore], on whose behalf does Hamilton speak? Certainly not those officers killed, maimed or still living daily with their scars.
Certainly not on behalf of my parents, whom he refers to as a “legacy issue”.
Perhaps on behalf of Bryan Harold Harris or Anne Harris? The brother and mother of his deputy, whose father was killed by PIRA on 8 October 1989, on the orders of McGuinness?
Will he look his deputy in the eye on Monday morning?
Is the message from the PSNI that there will be no more arrests of senior Provos? Their head of intelligence Bobby Storey shared the platform. Hamilton had no issue with that.
And what of the other branches of government? Who knows what messages are being whispered into the ears of the judges in the back corridor?
The Secretary of State may not be able to fix welfare reform but there is a lot more on the republican agenda that we don’t see and which can be attended to.
Not all landmark handshakes survive. Hitler, Arafat…maybe we can add Marty and Liz to that list?
But wait! the most famous modern handshake of all! Blair and Gadafy! I’m coming for you soon Tony!
seftonblog 