We all know what happened at the IRA funeral, in full view of the TV cameras

It is easy to dismiss people as conspiracy theorists if they believe that every organ of the state is capable of being manipulated in order to arrive at some pre-determined outcome in order to accord with a master plan.

That said, I would argue that the fallout from the Bobby Storey funeral suggests that such a situation does actually exist in our Province.

Last summer we all saw thousands of republicans take over Belfast to give a traditional IRA send off to Bobby Storey.

The rest of us buried loved ones at funerals limited to 30.

This happened in the full view of TV cameras We all knew what happened and why.

What followed?

Belfast City Council found no-one did anything wrong even though other funerals on the same day were treated differently.

The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said the people who wrote the regulations didn’t understand them.

The PSNI told us that they were acting an impartial force.

On Monday Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary told us nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Why? Because, as the report says, in Northern Ireland we have a “complicated social and political environment”.

Quite.

When exposed to forensic questioning on BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show yesterday morning the report’s author Matt Parr was seriously exposed.

It seldom happens in Northern Ireland but for once a good dose of paint stripper was applied to the whitewash.

We found that a request for a helicopter to oversee the wake had been overruled, police cameras were kept so far back that the footage was worthless and Mr Parr didn’t know or wouldn’t say who the events company was which took over Belfast.

Having dispensed with the normal legal process when we opened the prison doors open in 1998 and accepted that the robbing of the Northern Bank and murders like those of Paul Quinn and Robert McCartney couldn’t be allowed to derail the process why wouldn’t every ‘independent’ not conclude that the normal rules which apply to everyone else don’t apply in Northern Ireland — at least not when it comes to republicans?

One is reminded of the Alice in Wonderland line: “If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t.”

In any other world the precious process could not exist.

Once again we are being asked to suspend our disbelief and carry on regardless.

Samuel Morrison, TUV Dromore Co Down

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