12 December 2013, The Tablet

Lethal Allies: British collusion in Ireland

by Anne Cadawallader

Murderous campaign

 
Photographs of two British army soldiers giving Nazi-style salutes were published recently. They were pictured in front of a huge Union Jack, emblazoned with the name of a Rangers’ fan club that supports Loyalist paramilitaries. These squaddies, thought to be serving in Afghanistan’s Helmand province at the time, would have been at primary school when the Good Friday peace agreement was signed in Belfast in 1998. They grew up under its benign canopy. Yet they still perpetuate the sectarian hatred of their forefathers. The Ministry of Defence said the men have been “spoken to”, adding, “This behaviour has no place in the armed forces.”Really? During what were known Irishly as the Troubles it was sometimes enough just to be thought a Catholic to get yours
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