BRITISH CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH

BRITISH CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH

by

Michael J. Cummings

In Saint John’s  Gospel  Pontius Pilate responds to Jesus with the question:  “What is truth?”  It is a puzzling and profound question that colors history down through the ages.    Truth, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder.  Or so it seems in the N. I. conflict.    Truth is  on the minds of many there and is  pivotal to understanding  the legacy of British rule in Ireland. Since partition  Her Majesty’s Government views its role  as defending democracy, justice and the rule of law.  Nationalists argue that the British are entitled to their own opinion but NOT to their own facts. The facts reveal  a different truth.  

 This struggle for truth and ‘interpretation’ of facts is a fight for  power and the legacy of history around the world.  In China today journalists are instructed not to use certain words to describe the events of 1989 and Tiananmen Square.  The Tiananmen Mothers group continue to demand truth  and  accountability for their murdered children but few have heard their appeals.    Twenty-five years after the British government murdered her lawyer husband Patrick , Geraldine Finucane gets Britain’s version of the truth which is more significant for what questions it doesn’t answer.   She, too, is unyielding in her demand that the report not be the last word on his killing.    Leon Aron, author of Roads to the Temple:  Truth Memory, Ideas and Ideals in the Making of the Russian Revolution, 1987-1991, describes  President Putin’s new “State mythology” and labeling of “national-traitors.”  No doubt in a revised “history” of Russia. Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer,  would qualify as the latter.  Sergei  disclosed  the truth and facts of  corrupt  Russian tax officials and died in prison from beatings and neglect.

 Terrorism and censorship  are essential for  authoritarian regimes to retain power.  One need only read  the  2013 book Lethal Allies by Anne Cadwallader to see  it  practiced by the British  in Northern Ireland.  Fearful of losing the last of their empire, from 1968 thru 1974 the British unleashed a ruthless N. I. police  force  on those protesting internment and discrimination in housing, voting and jobs.    Army paratroopers launched an onslaught on Catholic ghettos and began a killing spree with the Ballymurphy (1971)  and  Bloody Sunday  (1972) killings.    In  1974  Britain  colluded  with loyalists to detonate  no-warning car bombs in the shopping centers of Dublin and Monaghan in an undeclared act of  war  against the Irish Republic  that cost 34 lives.   Thus began the campaign of labeling protesters as criminals and terrorists and spreading the State  mythology  of their defending democracy and the rule of law.  Russia and China have learned well from the United Kingdom’s example.    

 How does Britain do it?  How do they cover-up their actions and keep a prying media from uncovering the truth?   A few years ago the British bank Standard & Chartered admitted laundering $200 billion to undermine U. S. sanctions against Iran.   U. S. investigators also found  a handbook  for the secret operation complete with a codename of GAZELLE and a how-to step-by-step list of ways to mask the transactions. I am convinced such a manual for maintaining their beachhead in Belfast will be found  in the bureaucracy of Whitehall, Britain’s Ministry of Defense complex near Trafalgar Square.  Until such time as it surfaces, let me list some of the  techniques England has used to keep the truth of their deeds in Ireland  from the public, the Irish and U. S. governments and, most importantly,  from an  inquiring media.

1.      Greenmail—Millions of pounds have been spent hiring  back pensioned Royal Ulster Constabulary officers to review and assess the original investigations, if there was one, of nearly 800 killings of Catholics.   They get to bury the very crimes the security forces  are suspected of committing and are paid a bundle for it.   

2.      Personal Immunity Certificates—These are issued   to members of the security forces and their paid undercover agents.  A grant of immunity from prosecution and an incentive to lie.  The Official Secrets Act is the ultimate hammer against the truth.    

3.      Media Massage—The conflict is viewed as a  small  foreign policy problem.  The UK thoughtfully provides  all  journalists  with what  they ‘need to know’  briefing materials and arranges the ‘right’ people to interview.  The last reporter to ignore these inducements, and who chose to independently search out for the truth,  Ms. Jo Thomas of the New York Times, was removed from her  London post for “unexceptional reporting.”  Smears  in the tabloid press are a favorite.  Gerry Adams is ‘linked’ to the McConville killing, IRA commander Gerry Kelly  is  “romantically linked “ to Senator Mitchell’s aide and Chief Inspector John Stalker was “associated with gangsters.”    All  in an attempt to obscure truth and impugn their  integrity.  To this date Stalker’s report on police killings in the North  has  not been released.

4.      Inquiry & Ignite—In order to quickly silence criticism,  Britain authorizes a inquiry   and some solicitor looking for an Order of the British Empire is appointed to conduct it.  Naturally Sir Desmond de Silva dismissed any “overarching conspiracy” in the murder of Pat Finucane.   Sir John Stevens, a  former  Metropolitan Police Superintendent conducted three  inquiries into police corruption in N. I.  An arsonist somehow entered  his  highly secure offices  in Antrim and set alight records.  A report of 3000 pages was never released but  a  summary of  27 pages was.    

5.      Jamming Justice—Some coroners inquests into killings in N. I. have not been conducted for 30 years.  A coroners report contains important facts into the cause and circumstances of death. N. I. has   separate rules  for  coroners inquests from the rest of the UK.  Their funding and staffing is   reduced.  The Ministry of Defense maximizes delays with litigation.  Closed Material Procedures or 'secret trials now are used also for civil matters.     

6.      Disappeared—A frequent government response to many inquiries into official misconduct is that requested files have ‘disappeared.’ The RUC took the   most unusual response to an asbestos problem in an old station building.  They destroyed all their records.  

7.      Assassinations—A too curious   journalist like Martin  O’Hagan  and  too successful  lawyers like Patrick  Finucane and Rosemary Nelson were executed without  charge or trial.   Those who expose deceit or corruption of law enforcement are natural targets.  Five Sinn Fein elected officeholders   espousing  anti-government views  were assassinated.   No   modern democracy has witnessed such slaughter of a political party which  also  included  the murder of 8  campaign workers.  

  British governments difficulty with the truth is not limited to N. I.  The Hillsborough Inquiry into  the  1989 deaths of 96 football fans is still ongoing   25 years  later  after earlier reports  found authorities attempted to hide data and police had altered witness statements.  The Not-So Reverend Ian Paisley once held aloft the book The Narrow Ground by local historian A. T. Q Stewart declaring  to the multitude “…this book was the truth.”  That  author once stated “they [the Irish] have woven themselves a garment of myth and legend which they call Irish history.”  It is, in fact,   the British who have woven this shroud of deceit  in Ireland because they can’t handle the truth.

Michael J. Cummings

12 Marion Ave

Albany, NY 12203-1814

518-482-0349 & 505-2851

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael J. Cummings, a native of Springfield, Mass., is a graduate of St. Anselm’s College (B. A., 1968)  and  New York University (M. P. A., 1970).   A member of the National Boards of the Irish American Unity Conference (1996-2013),   the Ancient Order Hibernians  National Board (2001-2008), and  the National Executive of the Irish Northern Aid Committee (1988-1996),  he served six National AOH Presidents ,  5 IAUC  National Presidents  and two National Chairman of INA primarily in  public relations capacities.   He is the only person to serve on the national policymaking bodies  of all three  major Irish American organizations.    He also served on the Commission on Peace and Justice of the  Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.

Cummings has appeared on American, English and Irish television and radio and his commentary and letters and those of the Presidents have appeared in major American, Irish-American, Catholic print media. He is a frequent columnist for the weekly IRISH ECHO newspaper.   He has been  married to Nuala Hogan,  a nurse and native of Ireland,   for 41 years and resides   in Albany, New York .  They are the parents of five children and two  grandchildren.   

 To contact Mr. Cummings for speaking engagements or for an opinion piece, please  call 518-482-0349 or 505-2851 or via  e-mail at michaeljohncummings@outlook.com