"Not in Our Name"
13 September 2012
‘Not in our Name’
Speaking at tonight’s protest against ‘the Maze Shrine’ TUV Leader Jim Allister identified concession to Sinn Fein as the currency by which it was being purchased.
In the course of his remarks Mr Allister said:-
“I am not against regeneration of the Maze – but most assuredly against the obscenity of the glorification of terrorism, republican or loyalist.
“The First Minister tells us there’ll be no shrine, but the same FM and DUP blocked a stadium, unconnected to prison buildings, simply because the prison buildings were on same site and because their presence tainted the site as a republican shrine. Was that a wrong call?
“Yet, now, the same DUP supports not just a Conflict Transformation Centre, but the same prison buildings as an integral part of that development, but expects us to believe they won’t become a shrine.
“Sinn Fein has been very clear as to future use of these citadel Provo buildings: Raymond McCartney, former Provo leader in the jail, has boasted:
“listed and retained buildings…will be open to the public. There will be the opportunity for the many stories of the gaol to be told.”
“You hardly need me to translate. It couldn’t be clearer the prison hospital will be open and used to glorify the Hunger Strikers. These buildings will become the focal point of Provo revisionism, a place of pilgrimage for physical force republicanism.
“It couldn’t be clearer. Nigel Dodds was so right when in the past he said:
“However it is dressed up, whatever spin is deployed, the preservation of a section of the H-Blocks — including the hospital wing — would become a shrine to the terrorists who committed suicide in the Maze in the 1980s. That would be obnoxious to the vast majority of people and is something unionist people cannot accept.”
“Was Nigel Dodds wrong? Or is it Peter Robinson who is so transparently wrong when he tries to delude us by proclaiming it will be a “mecca for tourism”?
“It will be a mecca alright, but a mecca for terrorists, not tourists. ‘The Maze: the must see mecca for terror tourism, visit the very place where the peace-loving Bobby Sands and 9 comrades were driven to death by the wicked British oppressor.’ Make no mistake, that’s what Raymond McCartney means when he boasts the stories of the jail will be told.
“Since the stadium was rejected I have to ask, what has changed, apart from the DUP?
“If a stadium on another part of site was unacceptable because of the shrine buildings, how come a so called peace centre, which incorporates them, is now enthusiastic DUP policy?
“Simple. In Stormont what Sinn Fein wants Sinn Fein gets, because that is the price of power for the DUP. £18m may be the price tag, but the real familiar currency by which this hideous project is being purchased is that of concession to Sinn Fein.
“SF insisted on the Conflict Transformation Centre being here. If we need one, why not put it on an untainted, neutral site? Because SF said no and what SF wants SF gets, for make no mistake this is a Provo Project, where terrorism will be glorified.
“The famed architect to whom they’re going to pay buckets of our money, Daniel Libeskind has said his design will give voice to all associated with the past use of the site – that inescapeably includes the hunger strikers and the IRA.
“I’ve one pertinent Question for Mr Libeskind, “when you designed the Ground Zero memorial, did you include Al-Qaeda, for they most assuredly were associated, with the Twin Towers?” No, of course not, because they were wicked, vile terrorists, yet you come to NI and tell us your brief is precisely to give voice to the wicked, vile terrorists of the IRA. Well done Peter! No wonder Marty finds you so helpful and congenial.
“If all that is proposed is not about allowing the rewrite of history, the glorification of the Hunger Strikers and their bloodthirsty compatriots, then, why not defuse the controversy by demolishing these ugly buildings and remove the blight from the site. Again, the answer comes back, Marty says no and what SF wants SF gets.
“This sorry saga at the Maze typifies the outworkings of roll-over unionism. We shortly celebrate the heroic valour of our Covenant forefathers. How they would have despaired that after all their sacrifice unionist leaders in this generation facilitate the glorification of the very IRA terrorists that butchered our kith and kin and bequeathed us thousands of innocent victims. Victims whose memories and sacrifice are tramped in this Maze gutter of the glorification of terrorism.
“At least those of us here tonight can say “Not in Our Name”.
