THE WORD is "complete". The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as having several meanings "Having all its elements, entire, full, total" is one, as, for example, in "the blackout was complete". A second meaning is "finished, concluded, having run its course", as in "his ten years' toil was complete". A third is "fully accomplished, consummate", as in the antique expression "complete angler".
Different meanings but related ones all of them conclusively indicating that something is over, done with, finished, achieving a comprehensive thoroughness. The word complete means what it means completely.
Read, please, the following statement "Recognising the potential of the current situation and in order to enhance the democratic peace process and underline our definitive commitment to its success, the leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann have decided that, as of midnight, there will be a complete cessation of military operations. All our units have been instructed accordingly."
That statement came out some 16 months ago. The word "complete" has not changed in its meaning in the intervening period. Complete is complete, as ever. And those who, 16 months ago, said that there would be "a complete cessation of all military operations" did not define those operations. They did not refer to a cessation of some operations against the Brits or peelers or "anti social elements". No. The word was complete.
That statement certainly did not reserve the right of the IRA to stiff a few leagues if the need or the inclination so arose.
Complete Means Complete
Remember, complete means complete. A complete cessation of all military operations means that there are no military operations at all. Against anybody.
Yet, in the past few months the fine people who uttered the words "complete cessation" have shot dead six people in Belfast and, most probably one in Dublin. Seven dead, in military operations which needed intelligence planning, authorisation from the highest level within the IRA it required arsenals to be opened, cars to be acquired killers to be nominated, briefed, shown pictures of the intended victim, collected, driven to and from the target their clothes changed and burnt, their hands scrubbed, the car disposed off, the gun returned to its dump.
Remember also this imperfect understanding of the term complete cessation of military operations" did not occur just once, but six times in Belfast, and once in Dublin. So what is going on here? At what point do people say that this is not a ceasefire? When do governments declare, with deadly calm No ceasefire, no talks?
For what would Sinn Fein make of loyalist paramilitary murderers who whiled away their time before all party talks bumping off Fenians they've got a grudge against? Would the republican leadership tell the lads to stiff away to their hearts' content, then when the invitation to the polished round mahogany table and the silver coffee pot and those nice iced biscuits arrived maybe they should cool it?
No Right To Murder
Would it? Never Ditto if the 1st Battalion the Parachute Regiment took it into their heads to manage half a Bloody Sunday on the instalment plan. Simply stated, the IRA has no more right to be murdering Catholics than it has Protestants, policemen or soldiers. The right does not exist, no matter how "anti social" their victims allegedly are.
Which brings us back to what have always said about the IRA. Will it cease to be the IRA? It will not. It is defined by the gun. The gun draws its volunteers to it around that gun the conspiracy forms rites are performed and secrecies invoked to honour the purpose of the gun. The gun is all.
That is why it is out again, not merely to dispose of a few people whom the IRA regards as something of a nuisance, but to reassure those who have come to worship at the shrine of the gun that even in the midst of a complete cessation of violence, their god still exists. Its potency is still undiminished. It enforces its law on those who threaten its sovereignty and each time it puffs out a life both it and its followers take strength from the departing soul.
What we want is not what we get, not in Northern Ireland anyway. It would be oh quite simply spiffing if the Northern Ireland majority population were represented by Heidi of the Tyrol and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, but they are not. Instead of Heidi and Rebecca, read Ian and David.
Call Their Bluff
What are Ian and David going to make of an IRA which is busy plugging people in the midst of "a complete cessation of military operations"? Because they are not Rebecca and Heidi, they would not, for example, take my advice, which is Go on, call their bluff. Provided the ghetto killings stop, go into talks with a still armed Sinn Fein/IRA. Let Sinn Fein learn, properly and clearly, that the ten percenters in genuine democratic political conferences get the coffee and some nice iced biscuits and maybe even a lift home but that's all.
Shame That's the way of democracy. But Ian and David refuse to go into conference with Sinn Fein while the IRA remains the IRA. Since they're not Heidi and Rebecca, is this surprising? John Bruton applauded Gerry Adams's remark last October that Sinn Fein would not use threats of violence during all party talks but are those reassurances as intellectually and verbally valuable as, say, the term "a complete cessation of military operations"?
God be good to George Mitchell, but he will ungun the Michigan Militia sooner than he will the IRA. The Provisionals new ghetto campaign, completely, uncondemned by John Hume and Gerry Adams, proceeds apace, towards disaster for what will happen if an RUC patrol comes across a murder squad en route from its capers and there is a shoot out? How complete then is "a complete cessation of military operations"?