Leading Dissident Shot In Derry Attack

Leading Dissident Shot In Derry Attack.

The city—or at least certain parts of it— with the double barrelled name is fast  turning into the wild west town of Northern Ireland.  Dodge City of the North West Frontier.  And many of the reasons for this lie with one or other of the shades of dissident republicanism mushrooming across Nationalist Stroke City.

  There used to be an old joke about the number of Loyalist organisations which sprang up over the course of the conflict but even that record is being eclipsed by the advent of new found republicanism.  Barely a day goes by now without the mention of a fresh grouping springing up claiming to be representatives of their communities.  The reality is that the vast majority of them are in fact pariahs in those communities and only survive for short periods through their bullying tactics and grip of fear imposed on suffering residents.  Primarily these groupings are a mish mash of criminal elements and those claiming to be disaffected by the peace process.  This too is something of a misnomer.  There are many republicans disaffected by the peace process or to be more precise the path now being trodden by their former colleagues in the Provisional/Sinn Fein movement.  But the can oppose that stance in an often constructive way rather than use a set of initials to claim allegiance as a smokescreen for their nefarious activities.  These activities have been described as anti social—a vast understatement—what they should be described as are anti society.  Because the truth is that these dissident groups have nothing to offer to this or any other society.  Their vision of a New Ireland is one where they will dictate the agenda, control the working classes and continue to expand their burgeoning drug and criminal empires—and God help anyone who opposes them.  Already they seem to have the upper hand on the previous custodians of the nationalist working classes—at least Sinn Fein seem powerless to exert any sort of influence where once they had total authority, and are conspicuous by their absence of opposition.  Yesterday a so called leading dissident in one of the branches of this organised crime group—The 32 County Sovereignty Committee—was shot in both legs in the Creggan area.  Jimmy Deery was—at least until yesterday—a senior figure in this group and “sources” say that the punishment was meted out after some sort of internal dispute.  If this is what they do to the leaders of the gangs in an internal dispute, what chance is there for the foot soldiers?  Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels according to Samuel Johnson—although James Boswell pointed out that Johnson was referring, not to patriotism in general but in fact false patriotism.  In this context perhaps scoundrel isn’t the best choice of noun to describe these low-lifes.  Come to think of it, it would be difficult to come up with a suitable term that would portray them in the light they deserve.  At the start of the conflict we were regaled with stories of how these revolutionaries studied and spread the word of Marx and Engels and Guevara .  Their modern day counterparts heave I feel deserted those former literary heroes in preference of another—George Orwell.  And in particular his masterpiece—Animal Farm.