So roughly the Cory Report goes like this:
The RUC, Army, Prison Service and MI5 are all guilty of letting murderers
run riot, and elements in the army even arranged it.
At the same time all these agencies were charged with trying to keep murder
off the streets.
Now there will be full public inquiries into each of four murders, and the
next instalment in this sorry tale awaits somewhere down the line.
In the meantime we can entertain ourselves with the full version of the
Cory Report.
I've seen a copy and everything in it is familiar, until you hit parts like
this:
".............................................................................."
And there's page after page of that, whatever that means.
First I thought it was a newly discovered language, because you never know
when they'll pop up in Ulster.
But now I realise that it's the same old government censorship which has
stood, like the reaper, breathing over every written word in Northern
Ireland for a generation.
The situation we're in is that by the time any line is drawn under the
slayings of Finucane, Nelson, Wright and Hamill, their four families will
be wondering what really did happen to their great grandpa or grandma.
The truth may well one day be there for all to see, but at the moment it's
playing a long game of hide and seek.
And the place it's hiding is behind the clock.
When you think about it, time is the greatest censor of them all.
Because eventually passions die off, political debate moves on and society
changes.
I bet you £40 the government is quietly delighted at all these inquiry
demands.
The easiest way to shake off so much blame and claim is to go through every
single rigorously accurate and massively slow formal channel.
This not only passes the poison chalice onto a later incumbent at Number
10, but it also means that by the time the Ulster public get to read about
what really went on in their own society, we'll virtually all be sitting at
home with deaf aids, barely able to hear the telly from the toilet.
To be honest, when all this is said and done, we'll be none the wiser
anyway.
We can already take a guess at what went on, who did it and why.
It turns some people's stomachs to different degrees, but it's hardly
shocking anymore.
The only real argument left to be had about it all is political, about the
rights and wrongs of it, and each case has its own thorny issues beyond the
fact of murder itself.
No inquiry can or will ever settle all those squabbles and there will never
be full satisfaction on any side in this whole thing.
Do you think Mrs Finucane will ever crack a smile on telly? Will David
Wright ever say 'fair enough, sure he was a wrong'un anyway.'? Not a
mission.
But, when all's said and done, I'll still be annoyed at:
".............................................................................."
I don't believe for one second that every one of those dots have been put
in place, as the government claims, to protect people who might be at risk.
After all, it's the government itself which is absolutely convinced the
Troubles are over and the ceasefires have more stamina than Des O'Connor.
What those dots mask are things which the likes of Special Branch and
military top brass don't want us to see for lots of other reasons than
'national security,' and the government has obliged.
And that, I think you'll find, is straightforward censorship.
Time will tell. And it will be a time when Blair is no longer PM and when
fewer people than ever are bothered by the 'dirty war.'
I've nothing else to say about Cory really.
Other than wonder why a retired gentleman of his vintage isn't out enjoying
himself.
When - if - I'm in my seventies and I'm half as healthy, sharp and
well-heeled as him, I'll be out "..................." and
"................" and "................" all over the darn place.
