I didn’t really watch the Dail clips on the RTÉ news with the attention they deserved but I did pick up bits of it. Somebody said something about asking Gerry Adams to ‘call off the dogs’ and somebody else – or maybe the same person – made a similar appeal to Adams about his ‘keyboard warriors’. I really should have stayed with it and watched properly but I had this idea there’d be something funnier on other channels. But of course there wasn’t.
Please, now, before the other ‘attack dogs’ (or are they ‘keyboard warriors’ too?) start yelling that I’m treating a case of sexual abuse with levity, I’m not. I’m treating the comments about Gerry Adams being asked to call off the ‘attack dogs’ and the ‘keyboard warriors’ with a quiet smile.
I think these calls are funny because if there’s one thing can be said about Gerry Adams without much fear of contradiction, it’s that he’s been mauled by the attack dogs and keyboard warriors of the mainstream Irish media as no other politician has in recent times. It’s almost become an annual event, except that in the intervening ten or eleven months, the attacks continue as a kind of background music. Yet Adams is the one who’s told to call off attacks.
It was also kind of funny/peculiar if not funny/ha-ah to find the Dail/Adams item at the top of the RTÉ news. This at a time when the people of the state are in open revolt against a water charge that the government is busily back-pedalling on and hoping a diluted version (if diluted is the word I want) will be accepted, so they the government won’t look totally rebuffed and clueless. Plus, wasn’t there a report revealing that the gardaí haven’t been doing the job they’re paid to do nearly as well as they should? You’d think that’d worry the Dail but it appears it didn’t involve Adams so maybe that’s why it wasn’t stage front and centre. Plus wasn’t there a whistle-blower a couple of days ago talking about all sorts of chicanery got up to by politicians past and present? So it’s not as if there was nothing else to debate.
But before I went in search of cheerfulness on other channels, I found something happening that doesn’t happen often: I was in agreement with RTÉ reporter David Davin-Power. With uncharacteristic shrewdness, he agreed that the attacks on Adams could damage Sinn Féin, but if people saw the assaults from the leader of Fine Gael, the leader of Fianna Fail and the leader of Labour as being motivated not by sympathy for the victim but by pure political opportunism, the whole Dail brawl could rebound in Sinn Féin’s favour.
The law of unintended consequence, isn’t that what they call it? Or hoist with your own petard.
The Streisand Effect.
In this eternal debate it always comes down to this do you believe G Adams tells the truth I suspect many people believe he lies as easily as he draws his next breath however I know many people believe he is an upstanding individual will the real Adams stand up please?
Well you may see that as the central issue. I was talking about the dismissal of social media comment as dogs and keyboard warriors, whereas the Indo and to a lesser extent the Irish Times and RTÉ can attack GA at will and are deemed respectable. I reject vigorously such a notion.
I don`t understand the fixation some people have with Gerry Adams and `the truth`. No other politician is subject to such po faced morality. He helped end the war, he could easily have hogged the limelight by becoming DFM, in fact, I shudder to think what Unionist and Free State reaction would be like had he taken up that post with the very real possibility of becoming First Minister.His denials of IRA membership make very good legal sense, if he ever DID say he had been in the army there is no doubt the PSNI would willingly swoop on him.One thing you can not accuse him of is stupidity.
Neill, I believe G Adams is just as truthful – or untruthful – as any other leader of any political party in Ireland, north or south, especially south. Find me one of them who hasn’t lied publicly in the course of his/her career, starting with their broken promises.
i totaly agree with all that you have said it will make sinn feinn stronger it was a laugh in the dail i am sinn feinn my self living in tipperary a mother and a grandmother as that i have to ask wheres her family in all of this and why ant they behind her i read somewhere that her solictors told her to stay away from kenny or goverment why is she not doning it my heart goes out to the lady in cork who tuck the case to euerope last year why did kenny listen to her and the rest of rape cases in ireland when he leads a party for as long as gerry adams has and has all trun at him the that man has not one fg f f or labiour has heald the one leader for so long if they did i would have something good to say and as i have friends on all sides they are turning there own voters aginst themselfs if kenny cant see that he needs glasses
You’re right about Davin-Power and his remarkable circumspection on the matter, by his standards.
Otherwise, in a pre-recorded interview with Mairia Cahill, the news anchor woman’s question about Adams’ Dáil statement that MC was an adult who had chosen not to go to the police was ignored by the interviewee. Ms Cahill later claimed on Twitter that her contribution had been edited but that’s an assertion for her for to take up with the station if she chooses. Either way, RTE will never be seriously described as a SF hotbed.
I don’t watch the RTE news very often these days Jude. I have long come to the conclusion that the order of issues which I feel is important to cover does not match up with the State broadcaster .I can not recall another occasion when an alleged rape victim got so much attention in the national parliament and I am sure it was right that she did. Hopefully all the other alleged rape victims out there will now seek to have their allegations given the same amount of attention. I won’t hold my breath that they will get it.
The establishment parties are afraid, very, very afraid and I predicted some time ago on your blog that the continual hounding of Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein will backfire spectacularly on them. People are not stupid and can see through their blatant hypocricy. The most recent opinion poll put Sinn Fein at 26%. Do I hear 30% in the near future anyone?
They are debating the future of a soccer player convicted of rape on the bbc talkback show. The presenter hinted that the courts made their decision and thats that, my, things have changed there. On the defence some english guy says the rapist will be monitored etc, etc and rightly so. Like its not as if he murdered somebody and was released a year later given a high powered rifle and the freedom to roam the streets, god forbid.
A disinterested observer of the proceedings in Dáil Éireann on12 November 2014 may have concluded that many T.D.s were unaware of suspected and actual abuse in society until yesterday or that there were policies and procedures available to address such issues. The complex issues in suspected and actual abuse ought to be left to the professionals who are competent in sifting evidence with a view to the prosecution of an offender(s). If T.D.s had in their possession dossiers on such matters, the evidence ought to have been brought to the attention of An Garda Síochána as a matter of urgency. It seems incredulous that some T.D.s had information in respect of alleged cases of abuse, that needed to be discussed in Dáil Éireann in the first instance, on the same day? A delay of even 24 hours may have resulted in further incidences of abuse, with children and young people being exposed to further risk. A disinterested observer may have concluded that the welfare of children and young people did not appear to a priority during the debate.
Iolar – there were over 200 reported cases of domestic sexual violence in the south last year. Have you heard a peep of sympathy from any southern politician? I rest my case.
I have an old aunt who lives in Cork.Now in her eighties , she worked as a social worker, both in the UK and in the Republic until retirement and she dealt with incest, daily throughout both countries. Sexual abuse , in families and in society generally is nothing new .You’d imagine it was something that had only been recently discovered when a stone had been upturned…maybe a year or two ago. Why are people so surprised? I should say, why are they pretending to be surprised? There’s absolutely nothing that surprises me, but then that’s me… and you all know what I’m like!
.I really don’t get it , other than some politicians are in denial, are completely stupid, never read anything, never go out of the house, or are pretending that dear old mythical Catholic Oirland would never possibly have anything as crass as sexual deviance lurking in its nethers.
My wife still occasionally works part-time within the health Service in the North of Ireland and she absolutely knows the horror of sexual abuse and incest that fills the mental institutions with damaged individuals…usually at the hands of their parents….male and female …who , not to put a fine tooth on it ..are equally damaged individuals out in society , already. She’s worked with all of that for some forty years and I live with her, so i’m aware of some of the horrors she had to deal with.
So let’s cut to the chase .Let’s get rid of the waffle. Non of these “revelations” are anything that we should all have been long- ago aware of .Every extended family , business or organisation has individuals within it, who are what we’d call borderline sexual criminals. Why has it it suddenly such a Big Deal when an election is looming?
As for trusting in the public’s judgement ..well that is always a two -edged sword. Look at the voting patterns in Northern ireland.
P.T Barnum was always good for a quote:
“Nobody ever lost a dollar by underestimating the taste of the American public.”
I think that works universally in politics too.
Well said, PK. I had a conversation with a woman in her 80s recently – she mentioned the sexual abuse topic, in particular ‘groping’. “Sure what are they talking about? We were all groped – only you got out of the way as best you could. But hardly a thing you’d put somebody in prison for”. Just one woman’s memory but…
I can only say Jude that we live in a world full to the cribs with naifs.
There’s more sex and violence everywhere you look .on the net..on the film screen …in literature…in magazines for women , men and teenagers,,,Young people are supposedly more sexualised than at any other time in history….even children are not immune from the sexualisation…
.
They certainly are more loudly vocal about it in pop music.Especially rap music. Careers are built on the sexual element as opposed to any real talent.
Everyone is drinking more than they have every done at any time before…and a lot of it is hard liquor. .Recreational drugs are taken without knowledge, education as to their real effects or forethought as to how they might incapacitate some users….women fetishise themselves with more and more provocative clothing and disguise themselves under ever more body-altering procedures and fantastical make-up.Bodies are primped, dieted and preened into some brazilian, botoxed, plastic surgeon’s objects of sexual and physical perfection….. and yet nobody seems to have a bit of simple common sense. Nobody seems to know the simplest forms of self-protection and , self-preservation in a still largely cruel and savage world.
There have always been predators out there .Human beings and wolves are very good at it..This is not something ,anyway new.
Jude
I think Bobby Storey already instructed SF keyboard warriors to back off, perhaps in the realisation their attacks om Mairia Cahill were proving counter productive.
One of your own regular commenters Ruaidri, provides a good example of the nasty stuff in case you doubt it exists.
There is more on Slugger in particular from a SF councillor, and no doubt Mairia Cahill’s twitter account would be instructive too.
So, yes, those particular dogs should be called off, in my view.
I would agree – Mairia Cahill should not be the subject of attack from Ruaidri or me or anyone else. But my point was that the call came from people who had no problem with attack dogs and keyboard warriors mauling Adams on regular basis. People in glass houses, etc. The other point – that I didn’t mention in the blog – is that people on the social media are seen as dogs, in contrast to people who write in the mainstream media are seen as respectable opinion. I don’t buy that elitist bullshit.
Sorry Jude you simply are not comparing the same thing Cahill isn’t a full time politician Adams is. Adams by being a full time politician with aspirations of running a country should expect his character to be examined and inspected and in many cases has been found wanting Cahill is a private citizen that is the subtle difference Jude.
Fair enough, Neill. But don’t they ever get tired examining and inspecting Adams? In direct proportion to where SF is in the polls? There are lots of other politicians – including SFers, yes – who could be examined and inspected, but GA seems to be an obsession with a lot of hacks.
Perhaps if Adams wasn’t so po faced and self righteous he wouldn’t bring so much of this on himself?
I honestly don’t see a po when I look at him. Maybe you mean his inner po?
The other point – that I didn’t mention in the blog – is that people on the social media are seen as dogs, in contrast to people who write in the mainstream media are seen as respectable opinion. I don’t buy that elitist bullshit.
There is part of me that agrees with you however for whatever reason Social media does seem to bring out the worst in people well bar your blog!
I’m SO glad you added that last bit, Neill…I think highly of y’all…
Are we all part of this “barking dog” club , Neill…If so I think it’s time for us all to take a bow….no make that a bow-wow, eh?
Paddy I hope we are all pedigrees rather than mangey mongrels : )
Giordanobruno,
Firstly, I’ve never been a member of Sinn Fein and pay no attention to what Bobby Storey or others have to say about how I exercise my free speech right.
Secondly, Mairia Cahill offered herself up to challenge the moment she a) withdrew her claims before the court and b) stepped into the public domain using the Spotlight programme, other media outlets and indeed her constant trolling on Twittter.
Thirdly, I have in my blog post set-out the facts surrounding Ms Cahill’s case and further views expressed by her, her Father and others – if you have an issue with any particular point raised in my blog post feel free to identify it.
Finally, it’s rather hypocritical of Mairia Cahill and her supporters to condemn all who dare to question her while she and they endlessly use the internet and a range of media platforms to ignore the relevant ‘not guilty’ court judgment in her case and engage in their own kangaroo court conduct f wild, unsubstantiated accusations and condemnations… this would all be laughable if it were not so utterly sick and twisted.
Ruaidri
The speculation in your blog about the relationship between Mairia Cahill and her alleged abuser is not only very unpleasant but is not backed up with any facts.
If Mairia Cahill was indeed raped by this man (and most people seem to believe her) then it would be very upsetting I should think to read such “wild unsubstantiated allegations”.
Her own allegations are detailed and consistent and have been accepted by senior figures in the republican movement, who presumably have investigated the background. There are also other alleged victims too, but no doubt you think they too were simply seduced by this charming fellow with a few beers.
Giordanobruno,
You assert Mairia Cahill’s ‘own allegations are detailed and consistent’ but do you accept that is no-more than your opinion and one that’s manifestly inconsistent with points clearly set-out in my blog post? Furthermore, Padraic Wilson has just released a statement via his Solicitor rightly stressing ‘Maíria Cahill refused to take her case into court and have her claims against me subjected to cross-examination’ http://madden-finucane.com/2014/11/14/press-notice-from-madden-finucane-solicitors-press-statement-of-padraic-wilson/
I presume your contention Mairia Cahill’s version of events ‘have been accepted by senior figures in the republican movement’ pertains only to the alleged grooming/rape? Is it not rather farcical anti-SF people are willing to accept the personal views of certain SF members (who were not witnesses to the alleged grooming/rape events) if they seem to support Mairia Cahill’s narrative but then these same anti-SF elements will disregard anything SF say which seems to contradict Ms Cahill’s overall narrative?
As I repeatedly emphasised in my blog post, none of us know what actually transpired between Mairia Cahill and Martin Morris; we’re all just speculating. But, what isn’t speculation is the fact Ms Cahill refused to present her allegation before a Judge and be cross-examined under oath and consequently NOT GUILTY verdicts were promulgated by a court of law. Do you in reality respect the rule of law or only when it suits your personal opinion? Do you or don’t you believe in the right of EVERY citizen to be presumed innocent unless a court of law has determined otherwise?
Mairia Cahill is a highly political character who may or may not have been a victim of abuse over a decade ago. If you’ve not noticed, she seldom if ever refers to seeking justice against her alleged abuser then stop imagining you’ve been objective when considering her conduct and the relevant material facts in this case…
Jude, can anyone explain why M.C. went to the IRA with her allegations in the first place? As I have mentioned before, it was not as if the provos had learned of the rape from a rumour mill or a priest, but from the victim’s mouth herself. Now full disclosure, I fully believe her story and feel that she was very much denied justice; but part of me can’t help but wonder if it was revenge – not justice – that she was looking for decades ago. What would she think could happen by going to an armed insurgency group (with a history of violent internal housekeeping) with an allegation against one of their own? Did she think that the IRA would lock the man away like some pseudo police force or that he would have gotten a bullet in the brain? Again, I believe M.C. and sympathize with her situation, but it also seems to me that this whole ugly affair started when M.C. decided that the IRA should be the arbiter of justice and was dissapointed with the results
Sean
Mairia Cahill to my knowledge did not ask the IRA to investigate her claims but rather she spoke with other female republicans in a private capacity. The IRA subsequently learned of this and began an investigation. I accept what you say about Mairia being wronged and your sympathy for her plight. Where you seem to fault her it is based on the assumption that she approached the IRA with her claims. It appears there are more and more people coming into the picture now and there are lawyers everywhere – we even have our own resident lawyer here.
Do you mean on this site? If so, please identify. I’m too old to go to jail…
Yes, Jude, on your site. Sorry for unnerving you but I didn’t think it required an ID parade to identify RUC. Anyway I doubt you’re going to jail…
The keyword to emerge, Esteemed Blogmeister, from that Black Forest of blowhard uber-moralising known as the ‘Brawl in the Dail’ was the s-word: smirk.
Now, this is a keyword in which that keyboard gurrier (Dublin dialect word for ‘warrior’) Perkie has always taken a possibly unhealthy interest in for more years than he cares to remember. Not least, because it was the signature tune on the freckled face of his favourite loon, Alfred E. Neuman, and also, because it is a word which is derived from the Ye Olde Englishe word ‘smerk’ which in turn gets its etymology from the Proto-German word ‘smirkoff’.
Thus, just like the Windsors are descended from the Saxe-Coburgs-Gotta line ‘smirk’ is a word which has gotta whole lotta Hun in it, honey.
Though seemingly ‘honey’ is not what Mairia read into Mary Lou’s facial language when their paths crossed outside the chamber of potshots known in some though not all quarters as Sinister House. One of those paths being extremely cross indeed. Rather Mairia read it as a ‘smirk’. And, quel surprise , she just happened to have had a companion along with her who could conveniently confirm same. That companion turned to be, mirabile dictu, a member of the Labour Party.
Well, curry my yoghurt, if you’ll pardon Perkie’s Londonderry Leprechaun.
At this juncture, PW must apologise most profusely to Mairia for the absence of the unique fada which is perched on top of the first i of her first name. Unique as it is in the topography of Leprechaun, at least since the time of the annals of the Four Mastiffs. It has been the single most intriguing aspect of this whole somewhat fraught-provoking saga and the very one at which the watchdogs of the media have failed to bark. Whatever can that mean?
Fada being the Leprechaun for a stroke, specially a stroke over a vowel to lend it length. It can also mean, simply, ‘long’, as, for example, ‘yesterday’s brawl in the Dail went on for a long five hours’.
Alas, Perkie’s limp-along Leslie of a laptop has long since declared an intifada against all fada’s, having been bought in the capital of the Middle East of the Free Southern Stateen, Dublin. Nothing personal.
Now, Mary Lou, alas, didn’t have the benefit of having a handy, labour-saving backer-up of unconsidered stifles beside her when Mairia and her witness went into Ricky Nelson mode:
‘Well, hello Mary Lou, goodbye h.
I saw your lips I heard your voice
Believe me I just had no choice’.
Thus, when challenged by RTE’s resident rotweiller on Morning Ireland said Mary Lou had only her own two eminently presentable legs to stand on. Despite G.O’s contention in Animal Farm that ‘two legs bad, four legs good’ it did not hold up today. For, Cathal Mac Coille (for it is he!), while arriving in his typical SF-induced temper, slunk off in a desperate distemper entirely, his terrible eireaball between his humbled hindlegs.
Hello ! Mary Lou turned out to be the SF of Sinn Fein rather than the SF of Sinn Fein, the Smiley Face rather than the Smirkey Face. Just as G.A. of SF must now be reading G.O’s Animal Farm with a long face and a quiet smile (not at all to be confused with a smirk) these long nights after Samhain.
That would be the same Gerry Adams whom Pat Kenny somehow inadvertently confused with Mairia Cahill this morning on his DOB-sponsored programme when he stated: ‘Mairia Cahill upon whom such odium has been heaped in recent weeks’. Odium being a smaller version of Big Brother, opprobrium. (Hard to avoid George Orwell or indeed Eric Blair himself these days).
So how to reconcile these two seemingly irreconcilable accounts? Perhaps the key to this keyword lies in its very definition.
Now, ‘Smirk’ is defined as ‘an uneven, often crooked smile which is insolent, self-serving or scornful’.
Hmm. One keyword jumps out unconditionally at Perkie the Proviso here: the c-word itself. Who better to consult about what precisely constitutes a ‘smirk’ than Gregory Crooked Mouth himself on Foyleside? One understands that as Ms Cahill has already been hoist into the august presence of Petard Robinson in Stormont, the next best stop on the journey to clarify this matter which craves clarification, might well be the bilingual barrio of Loyalist Londonderry.
While it is now universally known that Leprechaun is one of the two languages spoken in Loyalist Londonderry the other lingua franca is not so readily obvious. The Q’s English? Hardly. Every try comparing and c. the patois of Greagoir and Elizabeth side by side, for comparison purposes? Even when the former is in full poppy-wearing mode.
Rather is it a dialect of the Anglo-Saxon called Cockney. Or, to be more precise, Oak Leaf Cockney, as befits a city with a London-prefixation. And which when the oak-leaf locals are croaking the local anthem ‘Somme Enchanted Evening’ are always quick to point out that the composers were ‘Rodgers and ‘Ammersmith’.
Note the dropped H. It should form the perfect counterpoint for Mairia’s superflous fada in her long, traumatic quest to stay out of the Spotlight.
Meanwhile, the chamber of potshots, known as Word Brawl Eireann, located on the high moral ground of Kildare Street in Dublin 2, prepares for the next five hour debate on the next case of AVOCA. (A Victim of Child Abuse). Next Wednesday and each subsequent Wednesday till each and every AVOCA case has been debated, as a matter of national urgency.
One knows this, because one has heard it from a card-carrying member of the Labour Party. Whose identify a petrified Perkie is not at liberty to disclose but will divulge to his nearest Garda Superintendent a.s.a.p.
The keystone of those with constitutional cop-on in the Free Southern Stateen is that ‘it cherishes all the children of the nation equally’. Not to do so would be nothing short of subversion. And that is the ultimate no-no in the FSS.
There are currently thousands, some contend, tens of thousands of other AVOCAs out there, some the victims of abusers with a SF, others the victim of abusers with a SF (see above).
Whatever, it looks like a S.F. ahead of us: a Sineadh Fada.
Sineadh Fada meaning in the Leprechaun a ‘Long Stretch’ ahead, for all child-cherishing democrats.
Wonderful, Mighty Perk….
GRMA, paddykool.
Perkie’s inner questioner has his dirty-nailed hand out again, begging: is Social Media the Hiberno-English word for the Russian word, Samizdat?
Perkie himself suspects it well might be, having spent some time in Rush, Fingal in the North County Dublin where the locals are known as Russians and where zey all speak’ a little biz lik zat, rizt, nyet?’
The Samizdat, of course, was the underground system of publication for the Sinntelligentzia (including dissidents and datidents) during the Section 31 Reign of Error in the Free Soviet Stateen.
It was defined by Vlad the Impaled (aka Dracula from Dublin North County) thus: ‘I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and get imprisoned for it’.
Now, to judge by her soporific calls in the Dail Brawl yesterday Babushka Bruton (65) is all for the wrapping of the Gulagging jacket around the ‘laptop warriors’ and other ‘attack dogs’ of the Social Media Samizdat. Also, known as Gagging. A nose-boned democratic tradition with which the Swahili-speaking deputy will be particularly au fait, on accounts of its having been instigated by Congo Crisis O’Brain of the same, erm, dark parish.
It is not without relevance that one cultural institution which actually thrived during this Reign of Error was the Soviet Stateen Circus, whose word jugglers, moral contortionists and trick recyclists won world renown.
One of the circuses which this examplar of performance art inspired was the celebrated French-Canadian circus, Cirque du Soleil.
Like its Soviet Stateen original the Montreal-based circus specializes in themed shows.
One of its most spectacular successes was called ‘O’ and was performed in a 1.5 million gallon water tank on the Strip in Las Vegas. Its title was derived from the phonetic spelling of the French word ‘eau’, for, erm, water.
Oh?
Pennies or roubles or even sous theysleves are beginning to drop. Drip drop. When the Tin-eared Tanaiste (for is it she!) was having some difficulty uttering the word ‘water’ in the chamber of potshots it appeared to disinterested observers and other Perkies that her face struggled to form a frown in order to better expel a word which rhymed with ‘eau’: ‘NO !’
In other w., the word ‘uisce’ was, erm, dead in the water.
All of which in turn is beginning to provoke Perkie’s inner poetaster. Such was the abundance of emotion and the dearth of tranquility in the Dail Brawl he has no other option but to recollect:
Send in the Frowns
Louth mouths and deep throats did not shirk
S.F. to irk with a facial dirk known as a smirk
For five hours non-stop
This three ring Big Top
Out-Aesopped old Aes in this fabled Cirque.
I think that this quote from the Jack Nicholson movie Hoffa is rather apt for Smirkgate.
“Jimmy Hoffa: If a guy’s close to you, you can’t slight ‘im. You can’t slight that guy. A real grievance can be resolved; differences can be resolved. But an imaginary hurt, a slight – that motherfucker gonna hate you ’til the day he dies.”
Perkin,
As always, you perk us up and render us speechless 🙂
I think that this quote from the Jack Nicholson movie Hoffa fits well with the Smirk story.
“Jimmy Hoffa: If a guy’s close to you, you can’t slight ‘im. You can’t slight that guy. A real grievance can be resolved; differences can be resolved. But an imaginary hurt, a slight – that motherfucker gonna hate you ’til the day he dies.”
Enda Kenny is a horrible little man. Just wanted to say that.
You’re wrong, AJ. I’ve met him and he’s quite tall.
Enda is a sad creature – a sort of Putin wannabe.All that bicycling and climbing Croagh Patrick. If he really wants to acquire some strong man charisma, he should invade Rockall, an easy conquest now that Shell aren’t interested any more. Better than hiding in his bunker from his irate public.
But he IS still horrible, right? Of course I mean politically.
Enda is a fine man he despises Adams what isn’t to like?
Ha haaa – would that be my enemy’s enemy by any chance, Neill??
I am hurt that you would even suggest a thing like that Jude truly hurt i will have to raid the larder to find comfort food now!
Neill
You may or may not be aware that Jude interviewed Enda for his last book.So he musn’t be all bad!!
Sorry i forgot that he had done perhaps jude should send his more regular contributors on his blog a copy of his book?
It would be interesting to know just how many articles have been published in, let’s say, the last six months in the Independent that could be regarded as a anti-SF. I’m guessing that it’s in the hundreds. Measure that against a six month period five years ago and we might get a clearer picture of what is going on. Let’s also look at how many victims of the troubles Enda Kenny has taken an interest in throughout his career. How many victims of the state or of loyalist paramilitarism has an Taoiseach taken into his confidence in a search for justice? With these numbers laid out, most observers will be able to see, as DDP suggests, whether or not this is blatant opportunism from FF, FG and Labour. If however, there is plenty of material to prove that the parties and the papers have always been deeply concerned, then everything they have done so far will be justified. I don’t know the answer to this, but could have a good guess.
The security (?) forces fired 55,834 rubber bullets and 42,669 plastic bullets since 1970. A number of children were killed in contested circumstances. Anne Cadwallader’s book, ‘Lethal Allies’ poses many questions about the role of the state and the rule of law. With the exception of a few T.D.s, there was little interest in the social and economic conditions prior to 1970, that contributed to the violence in the north of Ireland. Some T.D.s are not aware that when they point a finger at a political opponent, there are three fingers pointing back. The electorate in the Republic will have its chance to speak eloquently in the near future and the rivers will continue to run free.
I see the Donegal st rag is now aping the Sindo, quoting the ramblings of the gombeen man Mehole Martin as if they were based on fact and giving credence to the insane preposition that Gerry Adams needs to apologise for correctly stating how Collins dealt with the Independent newspaper.
Jude, a woman alleges she was abused and brought charges to that effect and then dropped same charges when the matter went to court, WHY??? WHY BLAME GERRY ADAMS OR SHINN FEIN??? unless her motive is not to highlight the abuse but to try and damage g.a. or shin fein because the whole case does not make sense unless its been used for polictical purposes.One has to ask who is backing this lady and why.Enda Kenny met this lady but would not meet the cork lady who had her day in court and embarrassed the irish courts who didn’t belive her and proved her case in the e.u. court and won….This is scumbag politics at its worst.The sooner this government goes the better MAY THEY DROWN IN IRISH WATER.
We all know the Irish media have an on-going smear campaign in progress against Sinn Fein, its so obvious to everyone that I don’t even see it doing Sinn Fein much damage in the long run. Even the behaviour of the leaders of FF and FG have been so opportunistic that the public see them as just jumping on the bandwagon and not really having any real concern for abuse victims. The latest polls, even after the Mairia Cahill story came to light, still have Sinn Fein as the most popular party in Ireland. No matter what happens, I don’t see the current government surviving when it comes to 2016.
I think Gerry should do the decent thing and step aside. It is kind of irrespective of culpability or otherwise. He’s a distraction. All I know is that Cardinal Brady had a chance to bow out with a scintilla of credibility but ignored the opportunity. I think he is viewed with less respect as a result. Gerry might be wise to avoid that scenario.