Letter: For the government to not criminalise words such as 'Up the Ra' is a dereliction of duty in upholding the moral right of what is good over the immorality of evil
A letter from Revd Canon Alan Irwin:
If government baulks at criminalising the provocative phrase and chant ‘Up the Ra’, it will be akin to sticking the preverbal knife in the back of the innocent victims of terrorism and then to take that knife and twist it repeatedly to inflict the utmost unimaginable pain anyone could ever be expected to bear.
It would not simply represent failure in criminalising the phrase ‘Up the Ra’ but equally the eulogising and glorification of terrorists and acts of terrorism past, present, and in the future.
This includes the naming of sports pitches, offices, or any other building in the offing, listed or not that elevates terrorism, and promotes the revisionist narrative and of allowing elected representatives to engage in acts that are merely a form of traumatised terrorism of the innocent victims.
To not criminalise this goading and vitriolic chant is to be complicit and could readily be perceived as to be in line with those who pulled the trigger or planted the bomb that took the lives of men, women, and children, also destroying business and livelihoods.
Not to criminalise such words and actions is fundamentally a dereliction of duty in upholding the moral right of what is good over the immorality of evil - the innocent victims/survivors of terrorism are watching closely.
Revd Canon Alan Irwin, son of Pte Thomas Irwin and nephew of Cpl Frederick Irwin; Lack, County Fermanagh