There were the UDA killings in February when followers of Johnny Adair’s Shankill Road C Company were blamed for the murder of John ‘Grug’ Gregg and Robert Carson. There were threats of retaliation, and Adair’s wife and John White and others fled to Scotland. Ominously, the UDA said that fat lady hadn’t sung on this one.
The publication of the Stevens inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane stirred the pond. He found evidence of collusion between British intelligence, the RUC’s Special Branch and loyalist paramilitaries, leading to the death of an unknown number of people, mostly Catholic civilians. Stevens has evidence that Finucane’s murder could have been prevented, as could the murder of student Aidan Lambert, but for collusion. Moreover, he also made it plain that he was obstructed.
Writing in the Sunday Tribune, Susan McKay described the report as “profoundly shocking.” But Unionist politicians saw no great reason to do anything – David Trimble said there should be no inquiry and informants should be able to continue their work and Ian Paisley the Younger said the inquiry had been a waste of taxpayers’ money.
By way of counter-point, mid-May brought us a new tale and a new villain, with threats to reveal the identity of the British Army’s most highly placed mole inside the Provos, code-named Steak Knife. Or is it Stake Knife? Perhaps it’s both or, as one conspiratist suggested, there were two. Anyway, it was claimed that Steak Knife was allowed to carry out terrorist activities and that innocent people were killed in order to protect him.
Not long after, he was outed in a number of papers as Freddie Scappaticci, from Andersonstown. Some said he had been in custody and then to have left Belfast. Sinn Féin denied this, saying that his family said that he was still in the city. And sure enough, on May 14th, he appeared in public and denied he was Steak Knife. And said he was going to sue. “Nobody had the decency to ask me if any of the allegations were true,” he complained. Stranger and stranger.
But the final drama was reserved for the Good Friday Agreement. In the best traditions of Shakespearean theatre, there were alarums and excursions early on, especially in the Ulster Unionist Party. ‘Defining moments’ were as common as dolly mixtures.
One or two of these really justified the term. Elections were postponed in April pending hard work on an IRA declaration. But after a summer of spadework, attempts to refloat the process fell at the last hurdle in late October when the IRA refused to allow Gen John de Chastelain to disclose details of weaponry destroyed.
The UUP couldn’t swallow it and said the process “lacked transparency.” Everyone agreed Sinn Fein had gone a very long way. Gerry Adams made a speech containing a 201-word passage that had been agreed with Trimble. It was all pretty close, but no cigar.
Now all is changed utterly. Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party has emerged victorious from the recent election and Sinn Féin has eclipsed the SDLP. Bearing in mind that earlier this year Paisley taunted Brian Cowen over his lips, one wouldn’t be holding out a lot of hope for the immediate future. Except perhaps for some dreariness.