Brady condemns 'intolerable' IRA

By Cian Molloy in Dublin and Simon Caldwell
IRELAND'S leading Catholic bishop has condemned paramilitary vigilante attacks on civilians as "unacceptable and intolerable".
Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh spoke out after seven young men — two from Belfast and five from Dungannon, Co Tyrone — were ordered by the IRA to leave Northern Ireland because of their "unsocial behaviour", or face murder by the paramilitaries.
Indirectly, Dr Brady also warned the British and Irish governments of the "extremely dangerous" situation they could be helping to create by their turning a blind eye to terrorist activities inside the Province.
Dr Brady told our sister paper The Irish Catholic: "Those who receive death threats, punishment beatings and orders to leave the country are victims of injustice.
"Their basic human rights are being violated by private armed groups who take the law into their own hands.
"All victims of criminal activity deserve sympathy and understanding. They should be helped to seek and get redress in proper quarters.
"It is extremely dangerous to tolerate private individuals setting themselves up as judge and jury of other people's behaviour.
"The solution to criminal activity is to be found in the efficient administration of a fair and equitable system of justice for all." The IRA has expelled more than 400 Northern Irish Catholics since it declared a ceasefire five years ago.
It has also inflicted about 800 punishment beatings and killed about five Catholics a year because of "undesirable activities".
In the latest Dungannon incident, terrorists approached Catholic priest Fr Joseph Quinn with the message for the boys targeted by the IRA.
Fr Quinn said: "I was confronted by armed and masked men who named these people and told me that the community was sick of them and their behaviour.
"They were very cold and matter of fact about it. They just made the threat and then dismissed me."
Mgr Denis Faul, a Carsickmore priest and justice campaigner involved closely with the peace process, said domestic terrorist activity took hold some 15 years ago when the IRA ordered a nationalist boycott of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
"In big Catholic estates, if you sent for the RUC you were called an informer and ordered to drop the charges," he said.
"West of the Bann, if someone was injured in a fire, the emergency services coming to their rescue would be stoned.
"The Provos want to be the police, fire and ambulance services. It is all about power.
"They are Fascists, like the Fascists who destabilised the Weimar Republic.
"Because of the climate of fear, people with no connection with the paramilitaries can intimidate their neighbours with anonymous phone calls."
Mgr Faul added: "The way to get rid of the intimidation is for leaders of public opinion to condemn it.
"The Church has a big moral voice and speaks out at funerals, but sometimes you have to ask what is causing these funerals.
"Mo Mowlam made a good statement last week and I want the talks to go on and prisoner releases must continue because no RUC men are being killed.
"But Mo Mowlam should be reporting the real situation that exists and should be shaming Sinn Fein/IRA into stopping the intimidation."