Politics - John O'Farrell finds the Irish in Blair

[RogueTrooper]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1542927,00.html

Tony Blair's assertion that al-Qaeda and the IRA are fundamentally different elicited squeals of rage from Ulster's unionists and the Tory press. But his assertion that "I don't think the IRA would ever have set about trying to kill 3,000 people," is accurate and profound, underscoring his knowledge about Irish republicanism, his shared ethnic and religious heritage with it, and his knowledge and use of violence for political ends.

Speaking shortly after the IRA's declaration of an end to violence, Blair distinguished the republican movement from al-Qaeda, arguing that the latter was driven by a "combination of modern technology and the willingness to kill without limit". The Blair view is that the IRA, at least its leadership, understood the concept of limits. One Sinn Fein strategist describes this as "Catholic group thinking", which can backfire - the Provos were perceived to have "crossed the line". This has something in common with the Islamic concept of Umma. Being part of a world community allows you to understand the motives of your deviant "brothers" in a way that "rational" analysis of evidence does not.

Blair's mother was a Catholic from Donegal, an economic migrant who moved to Glasgow after the death of her father. He has recalled spending "virtually every childhood summer holiday" in Donegal. It was there that "I learned to swim, there that my father took me to my first pub, a remote little house in the country, for a Guinness". Blair would have been 16 in 1969, and as his father was bonding with him over illicit pints of stout, it is unlikely that he would have missed pub conversations about what was happening just over the border.

His experience at a Scottish public school would have revealed to Blair that sectarianism, then fairly open in Scotland, was not limited to the lower orders after Old Firm matches. Fettes at that time would have been dominated by the culture of the Established Church of Scotland, with few boarders of Catholic immigrant stock from Donegal.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1542927,00.html

[two gun sid]

1. Interesting article. Thanks for posting.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Link seems to go to an entirely different article

This seems to be the right one to me:

http://www.newstatesman.com/200508080004