Last week in Northern Ireland, British soldiers ordered pizza for delivery from a local pizza joint. When the pizza arrived and the soldiers opened the door of the barracks to collect it, a car pulled up and unloaded two long burst of gunfire before speeding off into the night. The attack was over in seconds but its consequences could go on for years. 2 British soldiers were killed in the attack and another 2 were seriously injured. The 2 pizza delivery men were also injured and remain in the hospital. The dead soldiers were about to embark on a tour of duty in Afghanistan. The killings are the first of British soldiers in 12 long years.
The next day a splinter group from the Irish Republican Army called the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the attack. This group split from the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1997 because they opposed the ceasefire that had been negotiated between the governments of Ireland and England. They have yet to declare a ceasefire and are considered to be a terrorist organization in England and the United States. Politicians on all sides denounced the attack in unison and said that it would not derail the peace process which has taken years to come this far.
Everyone including myself hoped that this would be an isolated incident but we were all wrong. Two days later, a member of the police service of Northern Ireland, the PSNI, was shot dead. The shooting occurred in the neighboring county not far from the British army barracks where the 2 soldiers were killed. Another Irish Republican Army splinter group called the Continuity IRA claimed responsibility for this shooting. They were also formed in the 90’s after splitting from the Provisional IRA. The killing of a PSNI was the first in 11 years. In the past, the PSNI was made up of mostly protestant men who did not support the notion of a united Ireland and wanted England to remain in control of the region. The police brutalized the catholic population in Northern Ireland before the peace deal in 1998. Since then many more Catholics have joined the police force and it is slowing gaining a reputation for being a non-biased organization. The killing of the police officer sparked anger in both communities and politicians and other leaders called for calm. Protesters took to the streets to show their disgust at the violence that has tormented the county for so long.
When I visited Northern Ireland last summer it seemed extremely safe and there were thousands of tourists flocking into the region. There had been relative peace for over 10 years and it looked like the region was finally getting on its feet. Everyone is condemning these attacks because it does not help any group gain an advantage in the peace process. Killings do not help Catholics or Protestants. Groups like the Continuity IRA want Northern Ireland to return to violence because they feel that by starting a war again they can force the British out of the region. This notion is pure folly. Nothing can be done in a peace process without peace and a return to violence is the last thing that everyone in Ireland and England want to face. At the PSNI officer’s funeral the catholic bishop of the region summed up the collective thoughts of everyone in the region when he said to the killers, “You are greatly mistaken, your way of thinking is backward-looking, the people of Ireland and Britain have chosen a better way forward, the way of reconciliation and accommodation.”