I am not advocating dumb militarism or a return to war. Never in the history of republicanism was so much sacrificed and so little gained. I am simply questioning the wisdom of administering British rule in this part of Ireland. I am asking what happened to the struggle in all Ireland - what happened to the idea of a 32-county socialist republic. That was what it was all about. Not about participating in a northern administration that closes hospitals and attacks the teachers' unions.
I am asking why we are not fighting for and defending the rights of ordinary working people - for better wages and working conditions. Does 30 years of struggle boil down to a big room at Stormont, Ministerial cars, dark suits and the the Patten Report?
What has been shown here is that no matter what nationalist politicians say about all of this they merely spend what the British allow them. Their grasp on political power is no stronger than my grasp on special category status. One morning in January 1978 I was the 'officer in charge of the republican prisoners' in Long Kesh; in the afternoon I was '704 Hughes', by edict of the British Government. In the morning I was a political prisoner, in the afternoon a criminal naked in the H Blocks. The nationalists' power at Stormont, like my clothes, the British consider to be a privilege, to be taken away at any time.
It seems now that we have even reached the stage, as in Animal Farm , where some republicans are more equal than others. If the reports from Stormont are correct then it would seem that a senior member of Sinn Fein - who would proclaim himself quite green - has discriminated against other republicans on the false tactical grounds that they 'are too identifiably republican' to be employed in the Sinn Fein Ministries.
For 30 years we sought to destroy this hatred and bigotry. The British fed it and bred it. Are we really expected to believe that the British alternative to republicanism - the Good Friday Agreement - will see Britain destroy its own baby? I don't think so.
If, as some tell us, a united, just and egalitarian Ireland is so close, why are there still republicans taking up arms and risking their lives in order to achieve it? Are we going to be part of an administration that tortures and interns them? Where will it end? Twenty years ago this month a hunger strike began in the H Blocks of Long Kesh. Twenty years on there are republicans in prison. British troops are still on the streets; the RUC is still there, whether Royal Ulster Constabulary or Patten Ulster Constabulary.
Our experience up to now has been humiliating. We have danced to every tune, broke every promise ever made, pursued all the policies we used to term others 'collaborators' for pursuing, and have dressed it up as something progressive in order to deceive our base. Have we merely proved the old adage that the first casualty of war is truth?
I understand that articles like this written by people like me cause annoyance to some fellow republicans. But it is my very republicanism that causes me to speak out, just as it did during those years on protest. My republicanism then was legitimate, and is no less legitimate today. Twenty years ago they called me a fenian bastard. I remain an unrepentant fenian bastard. My republicanism and hunger strike were against British rule. I still refuse to conform to it or the views of those administering it. Brendan Hughes was the leader of the 1980 IRA hunger strike in the H-Blocks which started 20 years ago this month
