Last month, the terrorist organization with the longest history issued an apology for the impact of its senseless slaughter on the families of its victims.
The Irish Republican Army (ira)—mentor and friend of every major global terrorist organization that currently exists, catalyst for a Catholic Ireland—followed in the wake of its Vatican apologist pope, who not long ago tried to bury the slaughterous sins of Catholic history—including the annihilation of multiple thousands in the name of its religion—by a mere public statement of apology.
It is true that the entire Christian way of life is underpinned by the principle of reconciliation of man to God, and of man to man, under God. But this process involves what the ancient Apostle Peter declared was the proof of “fruits meet [fitting] for repentance” (Matt. 3:8). For the ira, it’s too little, too late.
Over 30 years of horrific violence, designed to sever Northern Ireland from British rule and catholicize the north, demand more than a token apology to convince any realist that the ira has gone soft.
Conservative politician Lord Norman Tebbit, himself injured and his wife confined to a wheelchair as a result of ira terror, summed up the reality surrounding this latest ira tactic to lull Britain into a false sense of security: “There’s no remorse, there’s no repentance, there’s no penance. … If they are serious and they want to make a real apology, they could lay their guns and their bombs on the table” (Reuters, July 17).
The ira’s litany of slaughter is legendary. While it is true that the ira has stood by its 1997 statement declaring a self-imposed cease-fire in respect of military operations, the organization continues its policy of carrying out “punishment” shootings and beatings and the murder of Northern Ireland drug dealers.
The ira used the expression “sincere apologies” in its formal statement of apology to the families of its long list of victims. Yet, we may ask, how sincere is the word of a terrorist enterprise that is founded upon a policy of deceit, lying, falsehood and corruption?
“Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble told the Commons, ‘It is quite significant that this statement says nothing at all about the recent violence that the ira has been involved in, nothing about what their future conduct is going to be’” (bbc News, July 17).
Contrasting with David Trimble’s assessment was the limp-wristed response of the British government to the ira apology. A Downing Street source said, “The government clearly regrets all deaths during the Troubles [Protestant/Catholic conflict], but if this addresses the painful legacy of the past, then it is welcome” (ibid.).
The father of Tim Parry, a youth killed by an ira bomb in the northern England town of Warrington, declared, “‘On a personal level it is meaningless. … There is nothing anyone could ever say that would mitigate the death of my son.’… Tim’s father took issue with the careful wording of the ira statement and its reference to ‘non-combatant’ victims. ‘Using that kind of language is offensive. Tim was a 12-year-old boy; he wasn’t a ‘non-combatant,’ Parry said. ‘There are thousands of victims who were simply people going about their everyday life, shopping or walking, and they were ruthlessly killed and seen as collateral damage by the ira’” (Reuters, op. cit.).
As this magazine has consistently pointed out, the ira can never be viewed as having changed its modus operandi until it gives up all its weapons. This it will never do. The sooner the British government realizes that, the sooner a foundation for true peace in Northern Ireland will prevail. It appears this will not happen this side of the return of the Prince of Peace to impose it by loving, corrective, supreme and supernatural force! (Isa. 9:6-7).