Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil don Cheann Comhairle as ucht an t-am seo a thabhairt dom. I am glad of the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment.
Yesterday we had a debate on the carnage in Enniskillen and we expressed our outrage and our feelings against those who perpetrated that massacre. During the course of that debate I emphasised that what occurred was entirely consistent with the strategy that the Provisional IRA have been pursuing for the past 18 years — sectarian warfare. The objective of this is to provoke an all-out civil war between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. Evidence of that has been clear for many years and it is amazing that that fact has still not been grasped by serious media people in this country. In the Le Mon massacre 15 or 17 years ago, 17 Protestant kids who were at a disco were killed by bombs and burned to death. In the Kingsmill massacre people were taken from a bus on their way home from work. The Catholics were told to go home and 11 Protestants were murdered in cold blood. That also happened many years ago.
Last night I was amazed to hear Pat Kenny, when he was introducing the "Today Tonight", describe what occurred in Enniskillen as a major error of strategy for the Provisionals. During the course of the programme the massacre was apparently excused on the grounds that it was not sanctioned by GHQ — it was carried out by a maverick group — it was unfortunate that it happened and it is not part of the Provisional IRA strategy. For many years it has been the clear, deliberate strategy of the Provisional IRA to kill Protestants. We hear about sectarian murders on the radio and television. The sectarian murders are always when a Protestant murders a Catholic. When the Provisionals murder Protestants all sorts of excuses are given, for example, the person was formally connected with the UDR or the RUC he was a brother of a prison officer, he was a judge or because he worked in a particular company. All of this is trotted out on television and radio programmes. A Protestant killing is never regarded as a sectarian killing by the media. That was the point I wanted to get across last night. It is important that we understand that this is part of the strategy of the Provisionals.
It was sickening to hear the sanctimonious statements made by Gerry Adams which attempted to disguise the essentially sectarian nature of the attack. He is the man who called the Brighton bombing as a blow for democracy. He called the attempted killing of a British Tory Prime Minister as a blow for democracy. It was a blow against democracy, as was the assasination of Aldo Moro by terrorists in Italy. Unfortunately Gerry Adams was given widespread friendly coverage in some of our newspapers. The Sunday Tribune regard him as a charismatic figure. Peculiarly enough the same Sunday Tribune editor regards Dominic McGlinchey as a charismatic figure. I suppose the more people you kill the more charismatic you become. Hitler was a charismatic figure, as was Rasputin, the Mad Monk, and in our own day Charles Manson is a charismatic figure as well. Charismatic does not mean good; it can mean evil as well as good.
We have to be clear about what occurred in Enniskillen and what we want to do about it. It is most important that we now attempt to do something positive and constructive against terrorism and for reconciliation. We were all impressed and affected very much by the attitudes of the relatives of the victims in Enniskillen and the people of Fermanagh generally. The Protestant people of Fermanagh have not shown sectarianism and have not answered back killing with killing. What has been made clear over the past number of days is that their attitude is totally without bitterness and is one of reconciliation and openness. Nobody has called for revenge and we should now support them. We should try to channel the anger and outrage that we expressed here yesterday, and which is widespread among people in the South, in a positive direction to ensure the total rejection and isolation of this type of sectarian terrorism and outrage from our society.
I asked for this debate because I believe the Government should consider in what way the public might be allowed to demonstrate their sympathy for the victims of this attack, the revulsion which they feel, their opposition to those who engaged in that attack and their determination to ensure that attacks of that sort should not happen again in the future. As I mentioned last night, earlier this year a Basque terrorist group set off a bomb in a supermarket in Barcelona in a similar type of attack to the one in Enniskillen. It had devastating results. The Spanish Government organised a silent demonstration in which over 100,000 people took part. This was very effective. Our Government should give the people of this country a similar opportunity to publicly demonstrate their abhorrence at Sunday's events. I am sure that such an event would demonstrate to the people of Northern Ireland that the vast majority of people in the South have nothing but contempt for those who carried out the Enniskillen attack.
For such a demonstration to have the necessary impact it would have to be organised nationally, involve as many people as possible and be done as soon as possible. I do not think it should be an occasion for speeches. Something in the nature of a silent march or vigil through the streets of Dublin is what would be required. I do not think it should be organised by a particular group or political party; it should be done at a national level. The Government represent the people and they and the Members of the Oireachtas should, on behalf of the people, take an initiative in this area.
I understand that there is a commemorative service arranged for the victims in Saint Patrick's Cathedral next Sunday. I hope that as many people in this House as possible will attend that service. I hope also that the Government will be represented at the highest level possible, at that service. I believe, from today's papers, that the remembrance service which should have taken place in Enniskillen last Sunday, and which was so cruelly interrupted, is to be held on Sunday, 22 November. Again, I hope that the Government would be represented at a high level at this ceremony in Enniskillen. In addition I hope that as many people as possible from here will attend this event. This is not a time to become tangled in diplomatic niceties or protocol but it is time for all our people to make a statement on their opposition to terrorism, and their determination to isolate those engaged in terrorist activities. I think people are looking for leadership in this direction. Very often when something dreadful occurs we say that perhaps some good will come out of this. There have been attempts in the past to develop something of this nature: for example, the Peace People movement arose out of such an outrage. I think on this occasion the feeling is so high, so widespread and so positive that if the Government were to give the proper leadership we could bring something good out of this terrible massacre at Enniskillen.
