Irishmen of myth

If stupidity is defined by the inability to connect an oft-repeated policy with the failure that it always produces, then Irish republicanism is easily the stupidest political movement in Europe. The claim of Irish republicanism is that it unites Catholic, Protestant and dissenter under the common title, Irishman. This is mountebank bluster. In fact, Irish republicanism usually unites people under the common title, corpse.

Brendan Hughes truly personified this bloodthirsty idiocy. He was a major player in the IRA campaign from 1970-1996, and his is the most important voice heard in Voices from the Grave, in which the journalist Ed Moloney has sewn together the tapes of interviews recorded with Hughes and with the loyalist terrorist leader David Irvine. It was a mistake to bring the two narratives together. There is too much in Hughes’ account which requires detailed deconstruction, while loyalism’s paramilitary tradition is too shallow and reactive to reward much examination.