Hi Sean,
I’m not sure I’m following you about the KKK not being bully boys of the state…especially since many sherifs, and elected officials in the south were memvers of the klan just like many members of the orange order are elected officals and police.
I do have to disagree…if sinn fein insisted the men who attacked Martin’s car were arrested it would have showed that sinn fein really did care about proper police services instead of just giving it lip service. Thanks for the discussion.

The buly boys of the KKK were not the state while the bully boys of the oo were and some still wish are. Martin got way more media mileage out of them attacking his car then the paltry fine the perpetrators would have paid, they were doing more for SF publicity then any advertising agency ever could. You mean he made the education mandarins come to him instead of going where we was outnumbered, gee that sounds like a bad strategy. I know I hate it when the meetings are on my home turf and where I am not outnumbered 3 or 4 to 1.

Panic
I agree now it is just a matter of slowly ring fencing their little hate fests into smaller and smaller non-events, if the oo would follow their “christian ethos” and out right ban the buckfast brigade they would be over(but still allowed) in 5 to 10 years. Infact now that the polarization is slowly being sucked out of the 2 solitudes I think we will see less and less of them.

If any one thinks they can get everything they want with out giving up something then they must be in the dup

Perhaps if he did he would see history catching up with him.

Poor deals with the British that result in serving only their interests …. Michael Collins, John Redmond..etc.

There day has gone.

Though not every one realises it yet.

Sean,
My position and SF’s differ greatly. I do not feel there is room for orange order marches and I think they should be banned from all of liz’s highways and byways. I’m not advocating SF should march in neighborhoods where they’re not wanted…I was stating that Martin Luther King stood up to the bully boy hate mongers of the KKK and those who held the same feelings of the klan. Martin McGuiness and sinn fein as of late…do not stand up to the hate mongers of the northern ireland klan…sinn fein wants to ensure the oo/klan can march in a united Ireland.
Do you remember several years ago when Martin Mcguiness was the Minister of Education and there were pictures of unionist attacking his car with other people in the car with him? Martin did not use this incident to demand from local police that the men who attacked his car were held responsible and arrested for attacking an elected official who was on official business. He let the entire thing slide and no one (to my knowledge) was arrested for the attack. He ran from the Education Department building…he didn’t insist that unionist who attacked his car were arrested…and now he and his party support the idea of the oo/klan marching in a united Ireland.

You are advocating that SF should start contentious marches in places they aren’t wanted? That would look good wouldn’t it, trying to out orange order the orange order. Maybe they could even get their own buckfast brigade organised.

PS SF position is that there is room for oo marches not that they should be allowed to wander lipstick liz’s highways willy nilly

I believe Martin was saying he is safe with other nationalists I very much doubt he would feel safe walking down the Shankhill on a saturday night.

Sean, Martin McGuiness refused to go to the Education Building because he feared for his life because of the welcome he received with the flying of the unionist flag from in front of the building when he went to take his office seat. He then moved his Education office to the safer confines of stormont. Now here’s the thing— As the Minister of Education he could have done some good regarding the flying of the unionist flag at government offices and using it as a tool to intimidate workers…aka Martin. Yes, sinn fein has worked to some degree on the flag issues but Martin let the issue slide when it could have been tackled and hopefully resolved. Now we have sinn fein–Martin’s party stating that another symbol of unionism has a place in a united ireland…the parades. This weekend a unionist parade is taking place and the unionist flute band named and dedicated to the unionist who killed a Catholic is being allowed to march banging a drum down the street to the spot the man was murdered. This is the symbol sinn fein says has a place in the new united Ireland. Martin says he is safe in his own neighborhood…how safe do you thinnk these Catholic Republicans feel in theirs with this situation. Personally, although Martin is the politican of the year on slugger…I find him to be week and lacking courage. The family members who are standing up to the parades commission and unionist over this issue, I feel are brave.

does the queen have to sign off on what the assembly decides? Is this what SF signed up for.? what if the assembly gets agreement between loyalists and republicans, and decides on something the British government doesn’t like-gay rights or abortion for example-while a british prime minister get lizzy to block in?

so much for democracy

I do remember a time when Martin Mcguiness was the Head of the Education department and was fearful of going to the building that housed Education because it was in a Unionist part of town. He went there once and they had a unionist flag flying outside the department of ed…and after that brave Martin worked out of his stormont office rather than the Office building for the department of Education. It is real easy for Martin to say he doesn’t fear the sdlp or his neighbors…a real tough guy…but let him say that AFTER he moves to a unionist neighborhood…

Now whose propaganda is it get the muppets to argue that they have no right to national self-determination and that British sovereignty is legitimate? The British state’s propaganda, of course.

Pancho, I’m right most of the time.

That’s fine and dandy. It seems Dave, like others, recognise that some’s new found love of legitimacy through electoral returns is just that new found and as a consequence maybe a tiniest bit hollow.

I know my beliefs require neither the endorsement of the masses or the point of a gun to remain what I believe in.