Father Benedict McArnold

US-based priest (Or perhaps former priest? I can't imagine how canvassing for the 'RA would be authorised by any Irish bishop) Sean McManus has been giving grief to Richard Develan for his excellent coverage of the McCartney affair and the laughable smear from McManus. In response to his statement I wrote him the letter below to his email address sean@irishnationalcaucus.org, as well as leaving several angry comments on his new blog.

I'm mystified by why Americans still haven't woken up to the fact that the IRA and Sinn Fein represent the most violent and extremist brand of anti-Americanism in Europe. Somehow, their aiding and abetting America's enemies, rogue states like Cuba and Libya and terrorists such as FARC or Hizbollah, and that's not to mention Sean Russell's little cruise on the Nazi u-boat. Quite how the third-world communist vision of Irish autarchy and anti-American "neutrality" accords with US interests and values is another mystery.

One of my acquaintances who knows a great deal about the topic referred to him as "very anti-British. Believer in purity of SF vision of an Irish Socialist republic. Sort of guy displaced by constitutional nationalism of peace process. "

Anyway, please feel free to share your opinions with the cleric yourselves.

---

Dear Father McManus,

I’ve recently read of your comments:

"If the purpose is to launch a campaign in America against not only the IRA but Sinn Fein, than that campaign is profoundly misguided because it's going to distract from the issue, and further it's not going to succeed."

It may have escaped your notice, but An Taoiseach and Deputy McDowell are the elected and lawful government of the Republic of Ireland. I would like to refer you to article 2266 of the Catechism: "The efforts of the state to curb the spread of behavior harmful to people's rights and to the basic rules of civil society correspond to the requirement of safeguarding the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense. Punishment has the primary aim of redressing the disorder introduced by the offense. When it is willingly accepted by the guilty party, it assumes the value of expiation. Punishment then, in addition to defending public order and protecting people's safety, has a medicinal purpose: as far as possible, it must contribute to the correction of the guilty party."

Could I humbly suggest that the best service you can render to a country several thousand miles away of which you are not a citizen and remain entirely ignorant would be to stop trying to finance and propagandise for gangsters and terrorists?

Why has it escaped your notice that the IRA have been close collaborators for decades with America’s enemies Libya, the Soviet Union, the FARC, Cuba and Iran? That’s not to mention its utterly cynical violence as the dominant force in the Irish underworld and the greatest threat to Ireland’s democracy? How would you react if there was a campaign launched in Dublin having both John Gotti and David Duke as its beneficiaries?

Having argued long and hard here against the stereotype of Americans as violent fanatics and religious hypocrites utterly unfamiliar with the world outside their borders, it’s ironic that you should be the one to prove it.

You have no right to call yourself and Irishman or an American and certainly not a Christian.


Peter Nolan