I wonder how Enda Kenny would react if reporters repeatedly questioned him about the fact that Michael Lowry once belonged to the party which he leads. I suspect he would say that Mr Lowry is not running as a Fine Gael candidate and that they should address their concerns to Mr Lowry.
And I wonder how Micheal Martin would act if reporters repeatedly questioned him about the fact that Bertie Ahern, the man who didn’t have a bank account, was once the leader of his party. I suspect Mr Martin would say that Mr Ahern is not running as a Fianna Fail candidate and they should address their concerns to Mr Ahern.
Which makes it rather odd that reporters consistently question Gerry Adams and Mary Lou McDonald about Thomas Murphy, the south Armagh republican. Mr Adams has pointed out that Mr Murphy is not running in this election and should pay his taxes like everyone else. Both the president and vice-president of Sinn Féin have also said that Mr Murphy should have been tried, not in a juryless court, but like everyone else in a court by a normal jury of his peers. The reaction of the former Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, who was forced to leave his job after the Data Protection Commisioner had found he had broken the law, says that if Mr Murphy were tried with a jury, the jury would be intimidated.
Mr Shatter, as a former Minister for Justice, must know that evidence is an important matter. Oddly, he hasn’t produced any evidence for his claim that jurors, if there had been jurors, would have been intimidated.
It’s pretty clear that a number of reporters have no qualms about finding people guilty by association. No, not Mr Kenny for his association with Mr Lowry, or Mr Martin for his association with Bertie Ahern. But yes, Mr Adams for his association with Mr Murphy. After all, Gerry did say Mr Murphy was “a good republican”, didn’t he? So let’s forget about Mr Murphy having no part in this general election. Let’s instead tie Adams and McDonald to the alleged crimes of Mr Murphy. And of course since Mr Murphy is from South Armagh, and because South Armagh is, was and always will be Bandit Country, we have Mr Adams and Ms McDonald just where we want them: firmly linked to all the violence in South Armagh during the Troubles.
If juryless courts are used to sentence someone, there should be very grave and sustainable claims that a court with jury is impossible. I know of no sustainable claims of jury intimidation in the case of Mr Murphy. Secondly, as Gerry Adams says, Mr Murphy is not a candidate in this election. Alan Shatter and Michael Lowry are. Wouldn’t it make more sense for reporters to bombard those two men, or the leader of the party to which they belong, with questions? Or is it to be the lazy old mantra SF/IRA for the next three weeks, so the traditional set-up in Dail Eireann can continue undisturbed after 26 Februrary?
Ah good old deflection Jude who can beat it?
Of course were your argument falls flat is when Ahern and Lowry were found guilty the leadership of FF and FG didnt come out and say they were fine party members unlike the current leadership of SF that is the subtle difference.
No, not deflection, neill. It’s called consistency, sauce for the goose, etc. And you’re at least half-wrong – Enda Kenny is on the record as having said Michael Lowry was a very good man and politician. I’ve no doubt if we dug a bit we’d get Micheal saying something similar about Bertie. I’m not faulting them for it; I’m saying why don’t our reporters exercise consistency. That begins with a c, neill. Deflection – that’s a d. Go slowly through the letters and you’ll see the difference.
Neil.is.a.bitter.man.jude.Gerry.Adams.is.a.Great.leader.of.a.Great.party.
Great. Leader.of.a.great. party
That’s amusing though not to accurate though
What’s not accurate Neill?
Jim.Neill.is.just.a.very.confused.individual.he.just.needs.a.helping.hand.
I just don’t like people who harbour paedop
I just don’t like people who harbour paeodopiles and rapists but then I am strange that way I guess
I take it Neill that you have no time for the BBC or the British House of Commons?
John Bruton served as Taoiseach in a Rainbow Coalition from 1994 – 1997. Mr Bruton was interviewed on Radio Ulster this morning and made selected comments about killings in the past.
“John Gallagher was killed on the fifteenth of August 1969 outside the Cathedral in Armagh by the B Specials. On the same night there were nine people killed in Belfast during the invasions.”
The full context of Monsignor Faul’s statement may be found in Bill Rolston’s book, ‘Unfinished Business – State Killings and the Quest for Truth’ (303 – 308) In the same book, it emerges that Mr Bruton, other politicians and individuals with a duty to uphold the law and protect citizens, were reluctant to deal with evidence of collusion.
Bang on, as per usual, Esteemed Blogmeister.
Only the other day, Brian Hayes, MEP, the Director of Elections for the button-down blue shirt party, chortled uproariously on a rite and reasonable RTE at his own jokeen even as he dissed the mortal Shinners on the unholy grounds that ‘their policies would blow the economy up once again’.
Where DOES he get them from, Little Brianeen ?
Possibly the House of Lords and Lairds, where he scratched the backbenches of late on the inadvisability of Brexit as he is effluent in the Q’s English and Europspeak alike, is the bilingual boy. Possibly too, he even got to chortle uproariously at insider tales of the Braxit for the Border Glennane Gang and its (ho-ho) connections with the Long Farm of the Law.
Or, maybe even, Bruxelles, to which he brought the X factor, and where he lets it all hang out these days and nights when, as is rumoured, he does his accclaimed p-take of The Mannekin Pis. A role for which the mannekin that is Brian H is uniquely qualified, with his eternal choir-boy looks. Folk always wonder whether this Bouncy Castle Catholic is on his way to or from: a no brainer, like the Choir Fella himself.
On the way to, of course. See that carefully combed choir-boy quiff, not a hair out of place, see that washed and squashed choir-boy face, not a sniff out of place.
Little wonder then that it was in that same city the Choir Fella aka PM in Waiting/ In Exile in a bout of nostalgia or possibly neuralgia itself came up with the Election Song of FG:
-And when our borrowed money is all spent
We will go to pee once more
Fine Gael y’are
So, fare thee well my lovely mynah
You’re the bird I do adore
But still I live in hope to see
The Own Goalie Ground once more.
To see which direction this media-managed General Election 16 is going one has put to glance across at the politically-charged sports pages of the same media this morning : different sports, same game.
Two stories kick out; one to put its best foot forward the other its worst foot. Once again, moola is the cause of all the roola-boola.
It is, mor an mhioruilt / a-mazingly , soocer, oops, football which gets to put its best foot forward. With the awesome announcement that the Dublin City Council is going to sink 20 million squids into the re-re-development of Dalynount Park , home of Bohemians FC, into a Fate of the Upstart Stadium.
Thus is completed a famous Hat-trick by the Local Authorities on Liffeyside, following on from the first spectacular goal achieved by South Dublin County Council to accommodate Shamrock Rovers and the Shams alone in Tallaght Stadium and the second super goal scored by the Fingal County Council in their sponsorship of Fingal Utd. (Sadly, Fingal Utd are now known as by the fans of the Shams as ‘ The I no longer Ams’).
Sink is the operative word where the 20 million squids which the Dublin City Council are poised to ink on the dotted line for the Bohemian Boys. Indeed, a gold tapped sink which these vassals and serfs of DCC are pledged to install in the marble halled stadium which the hand-out gypsies have long since dreamt of dwelling in, since they were mere kids. Paschal the Local Loveable Rascal O’Donoghue of FG was not backward in forwarding his heartiest congrats.
(Not at all to be confused with the 20 million plus squids which the Dublin County Board of the (gulp) GAA were prepared to cough up from (gasp) their own pockets for the Spawell Leisure Centre, for their new (aborted) stadium. In this instance it was NAMA who gave the thumbs down to the cough up. NAMA and DCC different acronyms, same mindless sets.)
Dalymount was the best foot being put forward.
Dromard GAA Club in Longford is where the worst foot was put forward by, a-stonishly enough, the GAA. For having the temerity to allow their grounds to be used for the (swallow) Jamie Carragher Soccer,oops, Football Summer Camp, they were fined (for shame, for shame) the sum total of Two Thou squids.
Unlike the Powers-that-Be In the Park of Croke the members of a small parochial club the midlands of Leinster were acutely aware and socially responsible enough to realise that even former Liverpool FC professionals need every financial assistance they can get, not matter how meagre the widow’s mite might be..
No wonder that Croke Park in the HQ for the Grab All Association.
2 thou into 20 million goes 20 thousand times.
Which oddly enough is the number of leagues the GAA Football League is rated by RTE below the rugga league of the Pro 12 / Premier (sic) League if one is to judge by the space devoted to each on this morning’s sports bulletins.
Even more oddly, 1: 20,000 corresponds more or less with the number of positive / negative menches the seated on the benches Shinners will get in the monolithic mainstream media during the course of G.E. 16.
PS.
Intimidation, especially when uttered in the yummy plummy voice of Alan Shatter, Esteemed Blogmeister, is a daaarlin word.
Funny thing, but just as there 1,203 words (at the last count) for snow in Inuit and Yupik, the languages of the Eskimo, there are even more words in Hebrew for (gulp) intimidation. Translated they range all the way from Gaza to Golan (and that’s just those which lie within the brackets of the G-words).
In the world of the sock exchange one of the Dream Bouts which never materialized in the modern era was that between Sugar Ray Leonard of Baltimore and Julio Caesar Chavez of Sonora, Mexico. That title fight between two gladiators with sonorous names would have been truly Lightning v Thunder, El Matador v El Torro. Alas, the opening bell never rang for that bout from hell which is heaven in boxing parlance.
Ditto, one Stand Off which never got off the high moral ground in modern times and in a different theatre of conflict was that between the Irish Unifil troops and the Israeli Forces on the Golan Heights when Alan Shatter was the Minister of Defence in the Free Southern Stateen. One would surely have been riveted by the feel on the face of Minister Shatter not to mention the steel in his voice should such an unfortunate eventuality have occurred. And which, thankfully, did not, of course.
It would have lifted the meaning of ‘conflicted’ to new , erm, heights.
Of course, the Golan Heights have always been a dogged bone of contention from Biblical times. And have seen a deal of Boyo Diversity since time immemorial itself. The good Old Testament testifies that King Og of Israel once routed dem boyos from Damascus and cleared them back to Syria.
Curious how elevated areas played such a crucial role in Israeli history Indeed, as Alan Og Shatter must have learned during his schooldays in was on Mount Sinai that Moses took delivery of the Ten Commandments inscribed, as they were, on two, (gasp) slabs of stone.
Hebrew, of course, is one of the great wonders of the linguistic world. Its revival as a spoken language is unique and unparalleled elsewhere in the globe. There are NO other examples of a natural language without any native speakers subsequently acquiring several million such native speakers.
If the Israelis /Zionists under the guise of the Provisional Irguna, on the one hand, bombed the be-haysu out of the King David Hotel which was the BA HQ in Jerusalem in 1946. Resulting in fatalities up to 90 and more, they also added an extra storey to the Tower of Babel. When they put a penthouse suite where no penthouse suite had ever been seen before.
Re-spect.
Now, one would have, erm, imagined that as the linguistic position of Leprechaun , parlous though the same posish be, is infinitely more promising even now than Hebrew was back then, that the Free Southern Stateen might have taken the initiative of taking a gawk at how Isreal went about their biz in his matter. Call it Gawking the Gawk with a view to eventually Talking the Talk.
Is it too late? Ca fios? / Who knows?
Might be even worth a try even at this late hour to appoint a Hebrew speaker to take charge of KEG (Kicking the Erse into Gear). One understands that in far more serious areas – say, Rugga and Soccer, oops Fotball –where the Free Southern Stateen has appointed bainisteoiri / managers from abroad (not a mention a substantial number of players in both codes) that it has met with SUU (Success Unlimited and Unprecedented)..
As a sweetener the Leprechaun (as happened in the case of Amhran na bhFiann
murphing into Ireland’s Call) might be called for the duration, erm, Hibrew?
After all, contemporary Hiberno-English has, let one see, how many words for ‘imagination’ ….?
consistency..juryless courts in the north and not a word.
I mentioned juryless courts because they are a factor in this case, billy. I feel the same way about juryless courts in the north, although I can see how the authorities might argue that with ‘dissident’ republicans in the north, intimidation is more likely. I don’t accept that it is but that would be the argument.
I’m no legal expert, even though my cousin trained as a Barrister and I, at one point, aspired to be one too but if a Jury can be intimidated by a defendant, what’s stopping the defendant intimidating a Judge or a number of Judges? The PIRA was known to target Judges, one was Judge Maurice Gibson (who acquitted a British soldier of shooting a 12 year old girl Majella O’Hare, the UK Government later apologised for Gibsons ruling and said his justification was “unlikely”, of course the British soldier never did a day in prison, like so many others). Everyone, including Thomas Murphy, is an entitled to a fair trial by a Jury but we all know a political agenda is going on here, hence why Murphy has been denied one.
The media, as was discussed in the previous article, is a very powerful tool. Its just one big brainwashing machine. As I quoted before Malcolm X said Newspapers can have you hating the oppressed and loving the oppressors. Over the next 3 weeks expect the media in the South to go into overdrive on their attacks on Sinn Fein, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mairia Cahill reappeared with her allegations (they didn’t make her a Senator for nothing) to refresh everyone’s memory. As Adolf Hitler said: Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it.
And as we know, a lot of big porkies have been repeatedly said about Sinn Fein, and also the IRA, over the past few decades…..
Re Alan Shatter
I’d be very, very afraid of giving any one man or woman the Portfolios of Justice and Defence.
I accept that it might save taxpayers’ money -just like non-jury courts. And firing squads are cheaper than prisons.
Jude
If you were called to a sit on a jury in a trial of a known loyalist who had been at the head of a group responsible for numerous killings, and if you knew that a witness in a previous trial of the same man had been brutally killed shortly afterwards would you not feel a little tiny bit nervous about having to pass judgement?
Gio
Don’t think we’ve heard much on this blog about Pearse Mc Auley who was one of the gang responsible for the murder of Garda Jerry Mc Cabe.The original charge was Murder but this had to be reduced to Manslaughter due to the”mysterious ” intimidation of some civilian witnesses.During the sentence of Mc Cabe and his co-accused were feted by Sinn Fein and attempts were made to have them released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.What happened to this model republican subsequent to his eventual release.He’s now serving a further sentence for a brutal assault on his wife.So let it not be said that intimidation is the sole prerogative of the “dissidents!
By that logic Gio, then no one should have a trial by Jury because it is possible for any defendant to threaten the Jury, they don’t have to be a member of a paramilitary, they could be a gangster, a common criminal, etc and they could still threaten the Jury. I see the point your making but it still doesn’t justify not giving Thomas Murphy a proper and fair trial.
Also, where exactly is the evidence that Thomas Murphy would threaten any Jury? Are you honestly trying to say there has been no Republicans/Loyalists trialled by Jury here or in the South in the past?
As I noted in another post, wouldn’t it be possible to threaten a Judge? If Thomas Murphy can threaten a Jury (as anyone else can) then what’s stopping him from threatening a Judge? It doesn’t make sense…..well, It actually does because we know the man isn’t getting a fair trial because the motive behind his trial is political.
Everyone is entitled to a fair trial by Jury, and yes I would be saying exactly the same if it was a Loyalist paramilitary leader in the dock.
Ryan
I agree everyone should be entitled to a trial by jury. I am simply pointing out that refusing to acknowledge there might be a difficulty is just putting ones head in the sand. I am referring to Jude’s comments in this instance.
It is true any accused could attempt to intimidate juries or witnesses. But in a case where we are all aware of the history,as any juror surely would be, and we know there is a well organised armed group connected to the accused, as any juror would, I think the cause for anxiety would be very real.
Let us at least not pretend there is no problem.
Are you saying the IRA is armed and active, gio?
Jude
They haven’t gone away you know.
Do you really think it would be beyond the boys in South Armagh to get hold of a shotgun?
What would be needed after all to intimidate someone? A baseball bat would do it.
You did not respond to my hypothetical situation with a loyalist,I wonder why.
Are you refusing to acknowledge that it would be a problem?
As Argenta has pointed out above,it has happened before.
Nothing like leading with a weary old quotation/verbal brickbat, gio. ‘the boys in South Armagh’ – that’d be different from ‘the boys of Lisburn’ or ‘the boys of Cullybackey’? Of course intimidation is a possibility, for every trial, with or without a jury. Were the authorities keen on maintaining normal democratic standards, they could find ways to maintain the anonymity of a jury, if the jury felt that was necessary. You know and I know that the juryless court for Thomas Murphy over his income tax was a political move with one political target. To believe otherwise is touching in its naivety.
Jude
I do broadly agree with you. All efforts should be made to have a jury and to protect that jury. Yet you seem to be minimising the risk factor despite what happened to Eamon Collins, despite the example provided by Argenta regarding the murder of Garda Jerry Mc Cabe.
And you never told me how you might feel about that hypothetical jury for a prominent loyalist. Would you be happy if one of your family had to sit on that jury?
The organisation to which Murphy belonged had a great deal more resources than the average accused person. The risk of information being leaked about jurors identities would be greater than in the average trial.
Also the rest of Murphy’s ex comrades have an incentive to intimidate jurors even after any trial is concluded ‘pour encourager les autres’ in future trials.
I would say that refusing to acknowledge that is the true naivety.
You believe this to be a political move because that is what you want to believe, even though the given explanation has real weight to it.
I suspect Jude wouldn’t be allowed to be a witness…..
I take it Neill that you have no time for the BBC or the British House of Commons?
Completely correct they had a duty of care they failed miserably and the people involved should be chased down and convicted.
You know and I know that the jury less court for Thomas Murphy over his income tax was a political move with one political target. To believe otherwise is touching in its naivety.
So by your logic if a prominent FG FF Labour SDLP DUP or UUP supporter was found to be be abusing his income tax declarations they shouldn’t be prosecuted because it might be a little bit political how interesting indeed Jude.
No, neill – read again. They should be prosecuted in a court with a jury – as should Mr Murphy. Try to keep up, would you, neill??
If you could find jurists that wouldn’t be intimidated by Republicans i would agree with you but with Republicans track record.
But knowing people of your ilk you wouldn’t want Slab to be tried anyway as he is a good republican.
You presume a great deal when you presume to know what I would or would not want,neill. Very silly of you.
Reading your blog gives me a very clear idea of what you want.
neill
It seems to me that the powers that be might well have preferred to have a jury trial too. It would have been a much stronger result if Murphy was found guilty of a jury of his peers.
On the face of it there seems to be a strong case, what with Slab keeping all his records and his income under a pile of hay! There would have been no reason to suppose they could not secure a guilty verdict with a jury, in normal circumstances.
So although Jude is calling this a political move by opponents of SF I don’t see the logic myself
I agree Gio they certainly would have preferred a jury they certainly had a very strong case however they felt they had no alternative as they felt jurists might be intimidated and who in the right mind would wish to serve on a jury if they felt they would be intimidated?