Wednesday, March 28, 2007
“Let no one interfere with that”
Entirely unrelated to the previous post.. In this online clip [RealPlayer video] Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, after praising what he describes as an “indigenous” deal “put together by SF and the DUP”, upbraids the BBC’s NI political editor Mark Devenport - “Journalists have the right and the responsibility and the duty to ask questions.. you don’t have the right to ask stupid questions” - and, in response to concerns raised by former DUP MEP Jim Allister yesterday, insisted that, in his opinion, “The IRA have been, and will continue to be, a catalyst for the peace process.”
Pete Baker @ 01:37 PM
“...you don’t have the right to ask stupid questions”
I’ll buy so long as the politicians making such demands will reciprocate with a binding “… you don’t have the right to give stupid answers”.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 02:27 PMThe media need to be aware that they to have a responsibility in this huge moment in Irish history, and the negativity and search for a negative angle to this story does us all a disservice. Give this new dawn time to breathe before you try and engineer a crisis and jump to the agenda of the Jim Alisters of this world as well as the naysayers in the SDLP/UUP.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 02:43 PMThe media need to be aware that they to have a responsibility in this huge moment in Irish history, and the negativity and search for a negative angle to this story does us all a disservice. Give this new dawn time to breathe before you try and engineer a crisis and jump to the agenda of the Jim Alisters of this world as well as the naysayers in the SDLP/UUP.
Posted by JD on Mar 28, 2007 @ 03:43 PMThe last thing we need is censorship
Its something stinks then the media should let everyone see.Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 02:49 PM“The IRA have been, and will continue to be, a catalyst for the peace process.” Gerry Adams
I not sure what way to interpret that!
Does it mean that the IRA will remain intact? Or a catalyst for Unionist opposition?
The IRA remains an illegal force in this country.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 02:55 PMNo one mentioned censorship, I am talking about social responsibility when certain journalists create negative spin on statements were none exists, in order to stoke fears and get a cheap headline. If something stinks by all means expose it however an exhausted but elated population will not thank certain journalists who in a peace processes as delicate as ours attempt bring it all down for the sake of a headline.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 03:02 PM“search for a negative angle to this story does us all a disservice”
It is the moral duty of the press to search for every angle. They also have a duty not to get carried away with the sort of balirite hyperbole seen in the bbc news wesite:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6497393.stmPosted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 03:05 PMI have to agree with Gerry on this one. watvhing the news on Monday night on BBC all you could get from the journalist talking to Sammy Wilson and Connor (sorry cannot remember his name, living in London does that, must be the polution)were little digs at both people to try and get them to go off on a rant. As JD says give the blasted thing a chance and observer judging from your recent comments on threads I am not surprised at your comments.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 03:05 PMHear, hear, up to a point. Civility costs nothing. I’m not a fan of hostile questioning. In fact when a politician fails to answer a question, I think the journo, should allow the audience to draw their own conclusions from weak or non existent answers and move on.
But the questions themselves are the provinance of the journo, and most certainly not the politician! And the audience alone should judge the stupidty, or otherwise, of both!
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 03:11 PMMemo to Irish Republicans, beware the Eastern Europeans.
Any Modus Vivendi is a sting operation to discredit Republicans.
If there are any organised criminals out there who may have connections to the Republican leadership, and are in the process of dealing with certain Eastern European criminals, these are not genuine criminals but undercover securocrats that will expose their agent provocateur operation to undermine the powersharing on May 8th.
One for Bobby Storey to investigate !!
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 03:44 PMYet more smug grinning, condescension from Gerry that sounded like he was trying to put manners on Mark Davenport. The man is an out right hypocrite. For forty years the people of Ireland were telling the Provos and their political representatives to look at the positive potential to be gained from power sharing and he democratic process. Did they listen? No. Now Gerry has seen the light, he expects people to listen to him and not do as he did, and disregard electoral mandate of the majority parties of the day.
I am still trying to figure out how his party’s support for the treasonous murder of countless Irishmen, women and children tallies with “the IRA have been, and will continue to be, a catalyst for the peace process.” As the Provos were instigators of murder and mayhem, it’s difficult to see how realising you were wrong can make you a “catalyst” for peace. However he is right on one point though. This was a SF/DUP deal and if it doesn’t hold up, it will be the fault of the SF/DUP combo’.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 03:53 PMIt is incredible that Gerry Adams has the cheek to suggest that the IRA were some sort of catalyst for the peace process and remain to be! For 30 years the people confirmed at the Ballot box that they did not agree with their approach and for 30 years they continued their campaign.
It is astonishing that the international media are portraying Adams and Paisley as some sort of statesmen when the solution was evident so many years ago. 3700 people died and what for? A different version of Sunningdale.
As for our media, yes they should be balanced in their reporting but surely it is only right that they scratch beneath the surface. Afterall every other deal during the troubles failed, and we can only hope that this one is different.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 04:12 PMContinued sour grapes from SDLP and UUP supporters are not doing your respective parties any good in the wider public. Admit it you failed, this is not sunningdale any even close to it, this has the potential to genuinely end the centuries old conflict and grievance between planter and gael and move Irish politics in a totally new direction. Open your eyes and see the potential, get over your begrudgery its getting boring.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 04:23 PMJD,
go to the back of the class for being off message!
Planter? Gael? Sure, aren’t we all ‘indegenous’ now?
According to Mr cough cough Adams.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 04:35 PMI do not have any sour grapes whatsoever. The DUP and SF won the election fair and square. In fact I am delighted that Paisley and Adams have finally sorted out their differences. That said it is shameful that it took so long to get to that position.
Devolution is the only step that could possibly lead to a revival of the SDLP and the UUP. It gives them the opportunity to show what they can do and of course keep SF and the DUP accountable for their performance.
Also in my first post I mentioned how I am a youth. I am at university in England and it is imperative for people like me that local ministers are in a position of power dealing with local issues. This is why a healthy reality check needs to be kept. We have been on the dawn before, let’s wait until May to be sure that power sharing takes place.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 04:39 PMJD,
QUOTE sunningdale any even close to it UNQUOTE
So true!
Sunningdale never asked for or demanded the Irish state renounce ALL TERROTORIAL CLAIMS TO THE NORTH.Nor for Republicans to recognise the Northern state to exist or for Republicans to work inside a paid BRITISH administration.
Sunningdale was a much better starting point, today we are thirty odds years late with three thousand dead and from a point further back.
That is some negotiation. LOL
Ding Ding
Martin
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 04:40 PMLets wait indeed, so can the naysayers, begrudgers and doom merchants both journalistic and otherwise calm down, take a breath, suspend their cynicism, dare to dream and as they say in Derry ‘take their oil’.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 04:44 PMOh fuck looks who’s back.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 04:46 PMNo one mentioned censorship, I am talking about social responsibility when certain journalists create negative spin on statements were none exists, in order to stoke fears and get a cheap headline. If something stinks by all means expose it however an exhausted but elated population will not thank certain journalists who in a peace processes as delicate as ours attempt bring it all down for the sake of a headline.
Posted by JD
Good god JD you sound like Comical Ali, Saddam’s press minister, when politicians demand social responsibility from the press what they really mean is dance to our tune, and when they start speaking on behalf of the people that they will express their disapproval, it is normally just before they send out the Broys Harriers to send any offending journalist to the gulag.
I find what you have written both offensive and extremely worrying, for Adams is well aware there will be no opposition within Stormont to the incoming administration, bar the odd Green or Alliance party MLA. So what he is attempting is to intimidate the media, which will be in all probability the only organization who will be able to defend the public against any mis-doings within the new mockney northern ‘government’.
You may say this was not his aim, but why attack the media, especially the BBC now, for if anything the recent events have been portrayed more like a chocolate box. No he is laying a marker down for the future, and shame on him for doing so.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 05:07 PMMickhall,
My comments were uttered out of my own frustration not Gerry Adams’. I am tired of the lazy journalism that has become the norm here. I make no attempt to censor anybody, certainly not a very entertaining Blanket contributor, likr youself. I just wish this cheap journalism was challenged more and occasionally have to justify itself.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 05:21 PMAdams is no different to the DUP members who blithered on for years about the pro-agreement media consensus, until the DUP joined that consensus and will now presumably shut up, while Adams continues complaining about an anti-agreement media consensus. You couldn’t make it up and I suggest Gerry stops doing so.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 05:32 PM“Continued sour grapes from SDLP and UUP supporters are not doing your respective parties any good in the wider public. “
Are derisory comments about the SDLP/UUP all we can expect when the DUP/SF combo is criticised? More ad hominem ranting by supporters of the parties that gave us the worst of our past is only a cynical ploy used to avoid responding to the issues raised. Here on the Slug it doesn’t matter a great deal but if it is a reflection of how the two parties are going to respond to criticism when in government, well that’s more worrying.
Having supported those who took it on themselves to murder their fellow countrymen means Gerry is a hypocrite of the highest order and his smug mug on UTV only made him appear shallow.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 05:38 PMSour Grapes
Just read the hanzard for Tuesday,s N.I. Bill tochange the 6th March date
L.Sylvia Hermon was the sourest grape of all,she is doing the UUP no good by her begruging.
It was a good debate overallPosted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 06:09 PMUTV reporting that the case against the Ward chap regarding the Northern Bank raid will collapse because of covert conversations recorded covertly in Belfast and in the Canary Islands while Ward was on holiday cannot now be used.
http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=81164&pt=n
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 07:09 PMJD LOL
http://ingramsblog.wordpress.com/
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 08:25 PM“Does it mean that the IRA will remain intact? Or a catalyst for Unionist opposition?”
The IRA are no longer intact, but can and will continue to remain active in supporting the peace process. As everyone well knows, all it takes is a few words to say the army council is no longer active, but is that really necessary? Allister and his ilk are reaching for something that isn’t there.
“The IRA remains an illegal force in this country.”
There’s nothing illegal about them at all, since they are no longer in business. If they were an illegal force in this country, and both governments felt strongly about this, you’d be hearing a cry from them to completley disband. The fact remains, they are still considered a positive force for making changes, only this time it happens to be for peace.
Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 @ 08:34 PM
