A web site that has offered a
platform for republicans
opposed to Sinn Féin's
involvement in the peace
process will log off this
evening (Sunday), seven years and 25m
"hits" after it was launched.
The demise of The Blanket,
named after the five-year
protest by the Provisional IRA
in the Maze prison during the
1970s and 1980s, is likely to be
welcomed by Gerry Adams, the
Sinn Féin president, and his
inner circle.
The site, set up in 2001 by
Anthony McIntyre, a former
IRA prisoner, and Carrie
Twomey, his American-born
wife, had proved a thorn in the
side of the Sinn Féin party
leadership.
Described as "a journal of
protest and dissent", it served
as a space where various
dissident groups tried – but
failed – to find a way forward
for the divided strands of
republicanism that opposed the
Good Friday agreement.
Twomey has said the site
proved so controversial that the
couple's home had been
picketed by Sinn Féin and the
family were threatened by the
Provisional IRA.
The decision to close it was
taken because of time pressures
on the McIntyres, who recently
moved with their two young
children from Belfast to
the republic. The success of
the peace process was also a
factor.
When McIntyre, who served
18 years in jail for the murder
of a Ulster Volunteer Force
member, and his wife created
the site, they declared its
purpose was to protect freedom
of speech from what they
claimed was an attempt by the
Provisionals to crush opposition
to Sinn Féin.
McIntyre was released from
jail in 1992, having spent
several years on The Blanket
protest, which started in 1976
when the IRA prisoner Kieran
Nugent refused to wear a
prison uniform. It eventually
escalated to dirty protests and
hunger strikes.
In 1998, McIntyre resigned
from Sinn Féin in protest at its
endorsement of the Good
Friday agreement. Since then,
he has castigated the party's
leadership, while remaining
apart from any of the dissident
groups, and vehemently
opposing the continued use of
violence by groups such as the
Real IRA and Continuity IRA.
The Blanket has published
contributions from a wide
variety of authors, including
loyalists such as Davy Adams,
the former Ulster Democratic
party politician.
The Blanket can be found at
lark.phoblacht.net.
