IRA threatens to burn out the McCartney sisters

The IRA threatens to burn down the houses of the women who have complained publicly about the IRA’s murder of their brother.

The IRA has chosen to celebrate the success of its Sinn Féin sock-puppets in the recent elections by threatening to burn down the houses of the sisters of one of the many victims of IRA murder. The women in question lacked the good sense to grin and bear it when their brother was killed on a busy street after a fracas in a crowded bar, without any witnesses present.

I suppose it’s a little bit rough on the children, but women are going to have to learn to keep their place sometime, aren’t they? Mark my words: if you start to let women complain in public when their family members are murdered, they’re going to want the vote next.

It’s past time for Gerry Adams to be treated as a pariah. (That doesn’t mean, of course, that Ian Paisley shouldn’t also be treated as a pariah. Both sides in a dispute can’t be entirely right, but both can be entirely evil.)

The European Union has made a good start by voting to spend money from its fund for the victims of terror to support the McCartney sisters. Of course the SF members voted “no.”

I’d like to hear from Bill Clinton about this. He has some hard-earned political capital in Northern Ireland and among Irish-Americans who care about the sufferings of Northern Irish Catholics. This would be a good time to spend some of that capital.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com