LEFT: An Irish Republican Army (IRA) gunman poses with an American Armalite assault rifle, photographed in Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 1972. American sympathisers were important fund-raisers for the IRA, which was later designated a banned terrorist organisation by the United States Government. Right: Thatcher

Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter

While I was growing up in England, Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombing campaigns were frequent. Thanks to this, an Irish accent could often arouse suspicion, more so the harder Northern accent, the part of Ireland remaining under British rule. There were always the racist 'Irish jokes' and before that the infamous 'No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish' signs posted outside pubs and lodgings, reminding Irish and Caribbean immigrants of their new social standing.

Decades later the 'War on Terror' means the Caribbean is beginning to share once more an unwelcome experience with the Irish, being associated with terrorism. Until recent prosperity and the stability of the Peace Process, terrorism was the favoured tactic among hard-line Irish Republicans seeking their objective of a united Ireland by forcing the British to surrender Northern Ireland to the southern Irish Republic.

While many Jamaicans might recognise the Irish for better reasons, such as Digicel and happy drunks at Sabina Park during Cricket World Cup 2007, the English once took a very different view. Those two favourite modern one-size-fits-all words of the 'War on Terror' - 'terror' and 'evil' - were frequently used adjectives.

Never mind that the opposing 'loyalists' to Britain had their own terror groups, with shadowy links to security forces. Among the public there was little attempt to understand what motivated Republicans. The problem was referred to historically as the 'Irish Question' - what to do with the subordinate peasant nation?

As someone with dual Irish and British nationality who took family holidays in the Republic, the English view seemed, well, unfair. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whose tenure dominated my childhood, and who was not a personal favourite, banned Sinn Fein politicians, the political wing of the IRA, from appearing in the national media. Instead, their voices had to be played by actors, which seemed slightly ridiculous on the television news. But then the IRA had previously tried to kill her by bombing the annual conference of her Conservative party in 1984, claiming five lives.

Caribbean and terror

The unfortunate links between terrorism and the Caribbean have become ever more real since al-Qaida flew airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001. The region's young have also taken up arms and fought in the services of the United States and British militaries.

On the other side, Caribbean people have been involved in terrorism. There were the three Guyanese and one Trinidadian who allegedly plotted to blow up John F. Kennedy International Airport recently. Jamaicans will remember Jermain Lindsay, who, having left the country as a baby, was among four young British Muslims who blew themselves up in the coordinated suicide bomb attack on the London transport system that killed 52 people in 2005 - an attack as severe as that was always feared from the IRA, but never delivered.

Then there is Abdullah el-Faisal, the recently Muslim preacher who left Jamaica in his early 20s, and was said to have influenced Mr. Lindsay and served a British jail sentence for inciting racial hatred.

Back on the other side is Inspector George Rhoden, a Scotland Yard detective who attended the scene that day and helped victims of the bomb blast. A man who falls into the rank of uniforms lined up in the 'War on Terror', he is proud of his Jamaican heritage.

Who is a terrorist?

One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. NelsonMandela, for one, formerly advocated terrorist tactics t civil disobedience against the white-supremacist apartheid government in South Africa. Today, nobody would deem Mr. Mandela a terrorist or criticise the father of the Rainbow Nation for his past. Furthermore, his example might prompt us to question, when can such actions be justified? And what is as bad or worse than terrorism - many in the Islamic world, and in our hemisphere, such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, would reply, George W. Bush.The label of terrorism might be applied to the actions of Jamaican politicians, namely the use of gunmen to intimidate poor residents of inner-city garrison communities. Both main parties have used political indoctrination, much like terrorist groups.

The politicians have armed a legacy, which they protest is increasingly out of their control, capable of facing down the forces of the state for criminal ends. Fortunately for the security of the existing political system, this power has not yet been wielded in the name of social uprising.

Those same or similar young gunmen in the inner cities are feared outside Jamaica for drug and gun crimes. Poor and often with little hope, it surprises the eyes of this foreigner that given the extent of their firepower, and a willingness to kill other gunmen, neighbours and police, that they have not turned their guns more defiantly outside of their community and against the 'system'.

There are now fears in the U.S. that the Caribbean provides the social conditions which would allow it to become a fertile recruiting ground among similar young men. With revolutionary socialism defeated by globalisation, Islam is fast becoming one of the the world's leading ideologies of the powerless versus the powerful - lightly armed 'insurgents' in Iraq and Afghanistan tackling the might of the U.S. and its allies. All terrorism recruiters need today is 24/7 television news to provide images of American and Israeli military actions in the Middle East that so inflame Muslims worldwide.

In Northern Ireland, recruitment into the IRA was similarly aided by acts of repression, perceived or otherwise. The current 'troubles' began in the late 1960s when Catholic Republicans, inspired in part by Martin Luther King Jr., started marching for civil rights. The violent reaction of the Loyalist Protestants, descended from British colonialists, helped revitalise the IRA. I haven't been back to Northern Ireland in over a decade but the political-paramilitary situation is reminiscent of Jamaica.

On my last visit I saw pavements and murals painte Irish green (Republican) or orange-Union Jack colours (Loyalist) and the presence of the security forces was often more overt than in Jamaica with military outposts guarded against missile attacks.

Social justice and terrorism

The troubles began due to a lack of social justice, while in Jamaica the poor often complain about a similar lack.

Is there a similar threat facing Kingston as faces the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, by Muslim fundamentalists articulating the anger of disenfranchised young male subjects seething at both their rulers and the West? It would be hard to envisage a similar atmosphere in Jamaica, but as the IRA warned the British after 1984 bombing, "Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once - you will have to be lucky always."

A worrying question for Jamaica might be, were there a young gunman as angry as Jermain Lindsay, where would he look, the White House or Gordon House?

ross.sheil@gleanerjm.com