Paddy’s Day War: ‘Belfast Battle’: Out on the Edge of Nowhere: Pt. 1 of a 4 Pt. Report

Wednesday April 09, 2003 16:13

by Gonzo is technically enhanced journalism

Xclusive to IMC IRL: From the ‘Peaceline’ in Belfast.

Watched BBC news yesterday evening in the Front Page Bar after a hard two days monitoring the activities of the ‘leadership’ of the ‘Irish Anti War Movement’ and their extensive co-operation with some of the more ‘hardened elements’ in the PSNI. I saw a tricolour being raised on Iraqi Soil. I saw Bush patting Bertie on the back. I didn’t see him offer Bush a pint of the Black Stuff in return. More’s the pity. I felt sick and wished that Bertie was in front of me so I could vomit on him.

So what did I see on my travels. Fear and Loathing everywhere. A tooled up McDonalds in a car park out in the middle of Nowhere somewhere in the Hillsborough Area guarded by more PSNI riot police with more guns and armory than a small town in Iraq. They were standing side by side with known Loyalists. Where am I? Jesus Christ I don’t know. In the USK? Later back in the Front Page I heard Bush refer to Young Northern Irish People as ‘Young Northern Irelanders’. Does that make me an ‘Irelander’. Anyway - back to the Global Village Golden Arches. An arrest at that location as buses left for Dublin carrying the ‘vanguard’ of ‘The Irish Anti War Movement’. Some kid was writing on the ground with chalk and he got snatched. He’s probably been charged with assaulting an officer by now.

Even Microsoft Word does not recognize the term Irelander.

Earlier on Monday evening I saw the vast Majority of those present on the road approaching Hillsborough take one look at the SWP (Irish Division) agreed end point of the ‘march’ and revel in bypassing it. They wanted to have a good eyeball to eyeball look at the Iron Fist behind the velvet glove which was waiting up the road closer to Hillsborough, whether or not Richard-Boyd-Barrett approved. I saw Fat Tv© crews try to run. I saw Fat Tv© crews pissing in the bushes. I saw hundreds beating pots and pans on the street in front of what was an armed USK encampment out in the countryside on Irish Soil. I heard older ladies talk about Burntullet Bridge at length standing nose to nose with the PSNI finest - new improved Italian Styling Riot Police. An American friend with a healthy sense of curiosity bent down to examine and photograph their transparent shields. He could see through the sticker which every officer can read from where he is standing. It said -‘Property of the RUC’. I plucked up my courage at one stage and approached the guy on the far left of the line. I told him about the ‘Ring around the Dail’ (When is a ring not a ring? When it is a ring presented as a gesture of good faith by the SWP) episode and the Paddy’s Day Riot Brigade not wearing their numbers. They had heard all about it and the guy I was speaking to along with his ‘comrade’ to his left laughed their rubberised asses off when I told them about our Minister for Justice’s excuses for the lack of numbers on their uniforms. I told them the first date that the Paddy brigade had appeared before us. March 1st. They laughed harder.

The clever officers who beat a man repeatedly while he was flat on his back being held by the feet by one of their number outside city Hall Belfast at about 2pm on Tuesday could teach our Paddy’s Day Brigade a thing or two about effective policing. Wear your numbers - watch out for Fat Tv © Crews - stay out of the line of sight of CCTV cameras in the area and beat merry hell out of a few young upstarts to frighten the rest of them so they will desist from their peace-terrorist activities. Assault a woman or two in the confusion and hope they all get paniced and fuck off before it gets too sweaty in your Darth Vader Clone outfit. Arrest all the ‘leaders’ you have ‘intelligence’ on snatch style from the sit down and charge them all with ‘assault’ or any other shit you can think up. Get the compliant media north and south on-message and hope the Chinese TV crews will not be available with their tapes when it all comes to Court. Caoimhe Butterly was on Chinese State TV being dragged by the hair from the sit-down. No similar shots on RTE. What’s the excuse from RTE? None. Not even when you deal with their producers over the heads of and through the walls of embedded montrose frontline-researcher drones and offer them exclusive footage of said events and similar. ‘Oh we had pictures from there yesterday’ said the drone I spoke to a couple of hours ago now. They’ve probably at this stage been warned about taking phone calls or even responding to e-mails from anyone ‘styling’ themselves as an independent journalist. ‘You grow up and you calm down, You’re working for the Clampdown’. RTE Fat TV © suks and allows civil liberties in both parts of Erron to go down the tubes beneath the fog of a 4th World War. Maybe they’re afraid the Rotweiller is reading their Mail.

TBC. Next Report (Pt.2) includes Minute by Minute transcribed from tape account of Stop the War Coalition Organisers Activities in the very - immediate run-up to Arrests and Batoning af individuals during a totally peaceable Sit-Down Protest outside City Hall in Belfast Yesterday. I have the smiles on camera folks.