So my revulsion is not so much that Mary Lou keeps company but with the company that she keeps.
One atrocity alone, the killing in cold blood of 10 Protestant workmen, shows that the IRA were in a different league.
Yeh I get all that @Betsy Og, but the point is, knowing what we now know, isn't it time our political leaders took down the portraits of Dev, Collins and Connolly?
Instead they perpetute the "gallant rebel" myth whilst knowing that they were engaged in war crimes.
I am just saying that I would not like my Taoiseach to keep the sort of company or friends that Mary Loy keeps. Not trying to rewrite the GFA.To cry foul now, because 22yrs later, MLM attends a funeral of Storey is nothing but political bluster.
I have to say that I am really puzzled by this aspect. I agree with the following:I'm with the mainstream media and overall political thrust here, the apparent breakdown of social distancing being the main issue.
Even Arlene restricts her criticism to COVID. She realises that this one will be temporary. To criticise glorifying IRA terrorists would lead to a recurring and potentially terminal rift. Is she so desperate to hold on to power?Stephen Collins in the Irish Times today said:The manner in which SF leaders flouted social distancing has attracted widespread criticism, but the more sinister feature of the event was the paramilitary trappings that put the true nature of the republican movement on open display.
Gerry Adams is not looking for parity with loyalists which would be way beneath republicans but he sees a parity between the IRA and the British Army. I for one believe that parity is a rare thing and that there is a spectrum of barbarity. I actually put the loyalist murder gangs, the Shankill romper room psychopaths at the very lowest point of the spectrum. The Provisional IRA are actually a distance better than that but it is SF fantasy that they are on a parity with the official security forces. The plain fact is that when the IRA called a ceasefire the fire ceased - it was they who kept the whole thing going for at least 25 years too long (the demise of the old Stormont regime was probably worth fighting for, achieved in 1973)The Kingsmill massacre was a dreadful atrocity. You won't find me excusing or apologising these war crimes.
You are aware no doubt of overall blood-letting of the time, I think some 30 Catholics had been slaughtered in the weeks and months prior to Kingsmill?
They were the formation of our State....even Dev....
The pictures on the wall are not a real issue, these were people in government in Ireland.
If Mary Lou, as Taoiseach, were to put a picture of Thomas Begley on the wall,
give over with the SF quest for equivalence between the PIRA volunteers and people who fought 100 years ago.
McGuinness was not in the govenment of Ireland.Tell me the difference between - abduction, torture, murder and disappearance of alleged informers, the sectarian murder of Protestant civilians, the murder of children, the recruitment of children to the ranks - 100yrs ago and today, and I will drop the equivalence.
I am just saying that I would not like my Taoiseach to keep the sort of company or friends that Mary Loy keeps.
I have to say that I am really puzzled by this aspect. I agree with the following:
The plain fact is that when the IRA called a ceasefire the fire ceased - it was they who kept the whole thing going for at least 25 years too long
ok I don't think you are a wicked guy even though your sympathies seem to lie with folk that I would so categorise, but we obviously have different perspectives.That's someway short of inferring that the Irish State is in danger of being run by the Provisionals.
I have to say, I'm somewhat puzzled by the referencing to 'paramilitary trappings'. Yes, there was an obvious Republican guard of honor, but no masks, no weapons, no beret and gloves, no military paraphernalia. This does not signify anything sinister to me.
Somewhat a simplified version of events. You are aware of the collapse of previous ceasefires and ultimately the non-existent element of trust between the protagonists?
I agree it could have ended earlier, and I'm sure we all wished it would have. In the words of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
"With the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all."
As regards parity between IRA and BA, it depends on where you place authority. Authority is derives from complying with law & order. If the BA are not answerable for their crimes then they have lost all authority.
The despicable and brutal murder of Jean McConville is etched into the mind of most in my generation, rightly so.
But the murder of Joan Connolly and the continuing cover-up is no less a despicable act. The perpetrators of the murder and those who cover up have no authority. They are equivalent to the perpetrators of the Jean McConville murder.
You may hold a different perspective and that is fine, but I cannot imagine you don't at least understand my perspective?
*And with that, having defended my conscience in choosing to vote SF should I wish by exposing the demons of our patriot dead and relying on the words of the British monarch, I think I will call it a day on this topic!
To cry foul now, because 22yrs later, MLM attends a funeral of Storey is nothing but political bluster.
McGuinness was not in the govenment of Ireland.
One was a widely supported brief conflict that had the prospect of success
The other was a protracted campaign (30 years), utterly without prospect of "success" with little popular support, and mostly civilian casualties. Including no warning bombs in shopping areas, incinerating folk at a hotel, chaining a cook to a car bomb etc. etc. etc.
Bar a few very isolated cases the protestants of the 26 were not the target of the War of Independence.
Nor were the men of 1916 to '21 known for their paedophilia and cover up of same...
The occupied 6 county area is not Ireland or the State, McGuinness was not in the government of Ireland. Fact.He was in government in NI, a recognised authority across the world, and more importantly amongst the people of Ireland, unlike the Provisional Government of 1916.
1916 had no mandate, no popular support, no prospect of success, save the retrospective mandate, support and success attributed to it now.
The same type of retrospective success some are concerned SF will attribute to the Provos.
The greatest casualty grouping throughout the conflicts were innocent civilians.
Some 260 Irish civilians killed in a week including some 40 children.
For this our President parades? The slaughter of innocent Irish civilians!
The point is not how many, the point is the intent.
The occupied 6 county area is not Ireland or the State, McGuinness was not in the government of Ireland. Fact.
The War of Independence clearly had a mandate (1918 election before war 1919 to 1921).
There is no such thing as a retrospective mandate. It the Brits hadn't handled the aftermath so badly then 1916 would not have been the event it became,
but if Home Rule was not delivered there would always have been a justifiable war.
I'm fairly sure most of the civilians were killed by the Brits.
What the men of 1916 did not do was plant bombs in civilian areas, often crowded shopping areas, sometimes with no warning or sometimes at such a scale or intensity there would have to be lots of civilan casualties (Bloody Friday).
and handpicked the 10 protestants to execute them (Kingsmill)
You have a 30 year sectarian campaign versus 3 or 4 isolated incidents (West Cork & maybe 1 in the midlands)
He's right, there were always be some, the bit he leaves out that when we bomb recklessly you are knowingly the author of those deaths.
Pearse as I've said was a strange character, he didn't strap a bomb to himself but death was always on the agenda. He wrote some strange poetry, but that of itself is not a crime.
Theo are you sure you are not a Jesuit? You have done an excellent job in rubbishing the heroes of 1916 including outing PP as a pedo (what a poem? did Oscar Wilde not do time for less?).
Yet this republican demolition job seems to be in justification of your sympathies with the current SF.
This is turning into the long goodbye again......
That's a total misrepresentation of what I said and you know it.The inference here is that members of SF running for office, or elected to office, are pedophiles or, covering up for same?
These are of course outlandish, unsubstantiated allegations of a very serious nature. The information you hold should be passed onto the authorities lest you become complicit in the alleged cover up yourself. Can you substantiate these allegations and have you provided the information to the authorities?
For my part, if I knew anybody who was running for office was engaged in cover up or worse, I certainly wouldn't vote for them.
I admire your endurance!I've edited this comment, as I understand your comment now. Yes, my bad for calling time on my input and subsequently adding more comments.
My propensity to limit myself is weak I admit. I do try, honestly, but sometimes it is hard.
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