Last week someone within the oxymoronic loyalist ‘political research’ organisation better known as the UPRG posted a Halloween message with the infamous haunting words from the Greysteel massacre “Trick or treat” - ”Stay safe at Halloween”.
Those who posted it were not mindless. The phrase used was intended to heap hurt onto pain. It purposefully mocked the slaughtered victims and their bereaved families.
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The barbarous and bloodthirsty gang responsible for the execution of the dark and inhumane deed at Greysteel were members of the UDA, consumed with hate and sectarianism. By the standards of any just society, life should have meant life for these vile perpetrators.
But the north has never been normal and justice has been blunted. One of the biggest compromises made for peace resulted in all survivors and their families enduring the macabre spectacle of loyalist and republican killers freely strolling the streets like cock of the walk.
They got a second chance not afforded to the murdered.
So having made such a heart-rending compromise, the survivors and families of victims should not have to endure the ignominious taunting from paramilitary apologists and lickspittles. There should be no shrines to glorify those who spread the stench of bigotry, sectarianism and bile. Warped ideology needs called out. Pedestals are for the peacemakers- not warmongers.
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The UDA has no place in society - simples. Nor for that matter does any paramilitary grouping. The door to political opportunity is open to all. No public money should grease the pole to the top table for carpetbagging miscreants.
To give some context, from 2021 to March 2024, £10 million of public monies was allocated to so called ‘communities in transition’ mainly - though not exclusively in loyalist areas - whilst holistic support for victims of paramilitary groups got a paltry £100k.
The joint British-Irish funded Independent Reporting Commission which monitors paramilitary activity has cost approximately £1.8m since 2017, telling us something which the PSNI and security services already know.
Tackling the existence of paramilitaries has become an enterprise all of its own - but those same resources should be directed to the PSNI to deal with the problem via law and order.
Loyalist paramilitaries seem to believe the rest of society owes them a living. Nothing could be further from the truth - it is they who owe society
Also last week, loyalists invested more of their resources aimed at intimidating an Irish language primary school from being established in east Belfast. Unsurprisingly their social media marionettes spread the message of bile and hate. Whilst blocking the growth of education is beyond comprehension, these keyboard lackeys can’t disguise their stupidity or sectarianism.
Loyalist paramilitaries seem to believe the rest of society owes them a living. Nothing could be further from the truth - it is they who owe society. It was the benevolence of ordinary citizens which granted those accused of heinous murderous crimes to have sentences cut short as part of the Good Friday Agreement. (And before the east Belfast massif rush to the Nolan Show, grandstand on their soap boxes or appropriate blue bins for a lecture in whataboutery, it needs to be remembered that the same was expected of all paramilitaries).
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Part of that community generosity of spirit was pinned on loyalist paramilitaries (and others) disappearing or retiring. There was no deal to allow paramilitary parasites to expand criminal empires through mayhem, menace and muscle. The UDA/UVF have taken everyone for a ride, not least the NI Executive and the British and Irish governments.
The gravy train has to stop. The only politician brave enough to pull the pin on such public spending was Margaret Ritchie, and the DUP tried to rein her in for doing so.
Nothwithstanding Sinn Féin’s current self-inflicted woes, they realise the patience of the nationalist and wider community has run out when it comes to non-transitioning loyalist paramilitaries, the organ grinders and their monkeys.
Doug Beattie and Mike Nesbitt get it that unionism has to be more pluralist, inclusive and non-sectarian to maintain a majority for the Union. Unfortunately that penny has yet to drop with loyalist paramilitary groups, despite them bagging millions in swag from the public purse.
