‘Shove your communal guilt – I am responsible for my own actions, not the past racial sins of others’: Troubles campaigner

I see many parallels in the issues of race and race-baiting relating to George Floyd, and the pigeon-holing of people in Northern Ireland.
June 3, 2020: Demonstrators at Belfast City Hall (despite Covid-19 lockdown curbs)June 3, 2020: Demonstrators at Belfast City Hall (despite Covid-19 lockdown curbs)
June 3, 2020: Demonstrators at Belfast City Hall (despite Covid-19 lockdown curbs)

If you are Protestant/Unionist or Roman Catholic/Nationalist you are expected to assume a lot of attitudes – and guilt – that may or not be rightfully yours.

Back in 2016 I was guilted-by-association into being responsible for the death of Jo Cox MP.

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Now I am, apparently, implicated in the death of George Floyd.

Aileen QuintonAileen Quinton
Aileen Quinton

Sorry, but you can shove your communal guilt.

I have long been revolted by this communal guilt abomination. I am responsible for what I do. I’ll be damned if I’m adding anyone else’s sins to mine, just because they too burn easily in the sun, or were born in the same place, or for something which my ancestors were probably not involved in anyway.

Am I due an apology from French Roman Catholics because of the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of my Huguenot forebears?

Anyway, isn’t the idea of your value and your guilt being defined by your ancestry a bit (checks notes) racist?

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The killing of George Floyd was atrocious and I can’t twist my head round any way that says it wasn’t murder.

Why though does that mean that it was racially motivated?

I would not be surprised if it was; but how do we know the killer is not just a common-or-garden thug?

Also why does anger at the killing give others, including those who never knew the victim, the right to riot and loot?

My mother was murdered by the IRA in the Poppy Day Massacre in Enniskillen. I was, and still am, angry.

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I didn’t get the memo that said I was entitled to break into John Lewis for some footwear, or to murder someone else.

We, along with the other families, did not want retaliation and were horrified when we heard the UDA had murdered someone in “revenge”.

Not in our name!

The added twist to the knife was that the lad murdered, Adam Lambert, was a case of mistaken identity and his family known to members of mine. They got the wrong “tribe”.

This is an extreme manifestation of the sickness of a terrorist mindset praying on supposed communal guilt.

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I remember Cardinal Ó Fiaich apologising for the Enniskillen bomb on behalf of “all Catholics”.

Far from being mollified by this, I felt insulted at the notion anyone would think I was impressed or would want this. It was the IRA who did it – not “all Catholics”.

Although I believe we are, in the main, a very non-racist country, I fear what the repercussions of the last few weeks might be, coupled with the devastating impact lockdown may have on the economy and people’s livelihoods.

Differences which had more or less ceased to matter may be used to divide us like never before.

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The shocking murder of Jo Cox in the final stages of the EU referendum campaign was dreadful. There were many who made heartfelt statements of distress, focusing on her and their anguish at the loss of a valued colleague, friend, etc.

Then there were others who tried to paint all Brexiteers as basically, well, murderers.

The blame for her horrible murder belongs where the courts allocated it.

I did not dwell too much on Jo Cox’s murderer. The perpetrator was caught and dealt with, not something that always happens to murderers.

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I have nothing, including motivation, to challenge reports his objection to her was her support for refugees. I also don’t suppose that differences between legal immigrants, refugees, and illegal immigrants registered strongly with him. Mind you, he would have that in common with many in the “woke” faction.

I am never going to blame innocent people for the crimes against other people, just to fit in to identity politics.

I am never going to accept blame that is not mine. Sorry, but you can shove your communal guilt.

• Aileen Quinton’s mother was among those murdered in the IRA’s Enniskillen bombing. As well as speaking out on victims’ issues, she has also campaigned for Brexit, and divides her time between London and Fermanagh

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