In Reply to: Re: Respect for the dead posted by Abu on May 08, 2005 at 12:52:26:

Shamelessly plagerised from the Irish times heres Newtown Emerson's satirical "tribute" to Joe "Camel"

Saying goodbye to a great neighbour

Newton Emerson was deeply touched by a moving tribute to "a true patriot

The funeral has taken place in west Belfast of former IRA chief of staff, Joe Camel, who died last week after a long battle against everyone. In a grave graveside oration, Sinn Fein president for life Gerry Adams paid tribute to the veteran republican. "Without Joe there could not have been a peace process," he said, "for without Joe there would not have been a war process."

Thousands attended the burial in Milltown cemetery, described by one grieving bystander as "Joe's last republican plot". Many had travelled from the Irish Republic, lending the event a truly international flavour. Among
the leading mourners were Sinn Fein MP, Martin McGuinness, representing the IRA army council, Sinn Fein TD Martin Ferris, representing the IRA navy council, and Sinn Fein MEP, Mary Lou McDuck, representing Dublin council.

"I'll never forget the first time I met Joe Camel," Ms McDuck told waiting reporters. "He turned to me and said 'Who's this pretty little thing then?' Joe had a revolutionary approach to the role of women in the struggle." Joe Camel was born in Belfast in 1920, just months before partition created the separate state of west Belfast. This traumatic event radicalised him from an extremely young age. "That was just typical of young Camel," recalls one neighbour.
"He was always getting the hump over something." In 1935 Camel founded the Andersonstown 1st Battalion A-Company IRA Brigade. "He worked his way up the ranks just as quickly as he could invent them," the brigade's only other member informed the RUC regularly. This daredevil early phase of Camel's career came to an abrupt end in 1942 when he was sentenced to death for the
murder of a Catholic policeman. Camel only escaped the hangman's noose after an appeal for clemency from Pope Pius XII, who is fondly remembered for his courageous wartime stand against the execution of non-Jewish people.

Camel's accomplice in the killing was not so fortunate, although he was exactly as fortunate as the victim. (In his release from prison Camel
rejoined the IRA, taking part in the inherently partitionist Border campaign of the 1950s and the inherently pointless armchair campaign of the 1960s, during which he became chief of staff.

In 1969 Camel played a key part in the split between the Official Irish Republican Army and the breakaway Northern Ireland Republican Army.
Returning to active service he spent much of the next four years moving between safe houses while planning operations: "During that lonely time I
often thought of my family," he later said, "although obviously I didn't think twice about anyone else's family." In 1973 Camel was imprisoned again for attempting to buy weapons from Col Gadaffi. He subsequently described the
Libyan gunrunning debacle as the biggest mistake of his life. "1 should have asked Charlie Haughey for the gear like everybody else," he said.

Throughout the rest of the 1970s Camel oversaw the Northern Ireland Republican Army campaign from his cell and was responsible for some of its
most celebrated military operations, including the Ballymena school bus bomb, the Lisburn church picnic massacre and the Enniskillen orphanage
shootings.

"Joe was an unashamed physical force republican but he saw this as his last resort, not his first resort," Gerry Adams told mourners. "You may not
realise, for example, that Joe stood for election until he was blue in the face before finally killing a policeman at the age of 22." In 1979 Camel's moral authority was curtailed when Pope John Paul II appealed to the IRA for clemency. Mindful of his own pardon, Camel felt he now had little option but to kill the Pope.

It is around this time that Gerry Adams suddenly replaced him and, eventually, everyone like him. Republicans took their first tentative steps
towards peace soon after Camel's retirement and less than 13 years later he was persuaded to support the new agenda. His final contribution was an appearance at the 1998 special ard feis where he spoke movingly in favour of the Good Friday agreement. "1 was never wrong!" he screamed before being wheeled off the platform.

Joe Camel is survived by his wife and one million Protestants !