Sunday, March 16, 2008
“So he would be very well known..”
The 51-year-old man left critically ill after being attacked at his home yesterday evening was later named as a former Provisional IRA prisoner who, according to one report [not online], was convicted of a bomb attack on a bar. According to various reports, Frank McGreevey was assaulted at his home in Ross Street shortly after 1830 GMT on Saturday by at least two men. The Chairman of the Falls Road Residents’ Association, Robert McClenaghan, said “He is a former prisoner who served a life sentence. So he would be very well known.” The BBC report also notes Update It’s now a murder inquiry. And One man has been charged.
Police are treating the incident as attempted murder. A 20-year-old man is being questioned by police. Acting Detective Superintendent Jeff Smyth said they were following a definite line of inquiry.
...
“As such last evening in the middle of the night, members of the PSNI, under my direction, searched a number of houses in this community looking for a suspect,” he said. Detectives later said the 20-year-old man had handed himself in at Grosvenor Road police station.
And the RTÉ report has this
Local Sinn Fein Councillor, Tom Hartley, says residents of the area had phoned the police about some of the parties involved in the incident and they were unhappy about the slow response.
Pete Baker @ 10:51 PM
>>ncluding an Irish lad whose name I forget, whose only crime was having a chair leg in a carrier bag.<<
Mick, He was a Glaswegian. Rory has an interesting take on why he was executed, for executed he was. There was an IRA volunteer executed by the police in a flat somewhere in London whilst trying to surrender, perhaps you mix them up.
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 06:56 PM“There is a third law - security forces never need a get out of gaol card as they never get charged.”
“For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.”
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 07:14 PMTerrorist rulers are a teror to all and good but for evil
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 08:18 PMwill pete baker be attributing the past indiscretions of EVERYONE who is attacked a factor or just Republicans…
and pete stop hiding behind alter-egos…
Mick how can you contrast one killing carried out by the Met to the 100`s the RUC were involved in?
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 08:27 PMPlenty of stuff on here from the usual suspects about swords and retribution but not a mention of the conveyor belt ‘justice’ that operated during the 1970s.
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 08:54 PMI don’t know if the man who was attacked was involved in the bombing of the Klondyke Bar on Sandy Row in January 1976 but I do know that in that era plenty of people were fitted up for crimes they didn’t commit. Who’s to say this man wasn’t one of them?
Whatever the case, this outrageous assault is absolutely unjustified and our thoughts should be with the victim.
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 09:02 PMNorthsider, Republican stones,
the fact that the person who was attacked has a republican past is of interest to me and presumably to many of the people who post on this website.
I would far rather all the facts are presented and people make up their own mind as to their relevance.
Your remarks suggest over sensitivity and claims of bias probably have more to do with you not being comfortable with people who dont share your world view than with objective fact.
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 09:05 PMTwinbrook and others,
One of the rules on Slugger that make discussion between people who fundamentally disagree on this site is the golden rule: play the ball and not the man. Little else matters. Whataboutery is not disallowed, but where it is routinely engaged in we can see strategies for ‘disengagement’. This thread is replete with attacks on Pete, rather than on the substance of anything he’s actually written.
It has a distinct whiff of a Fair Game type stratagem about it: i.e. “May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed”.
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 09:06 PMGreat Post Sammy-just a pity that you don’t find the time to condemn the attack on this man somewhere therein. Very telling, that. I do believe that posters like Harry Flashman and you are clutching at straws these days, desperately looking for some sort of smoking gun belonging to the Provos.
It is pitifully obvious that people like Harry Flashman and you miss taking the moral high ground now that the IRA campaign is over. Shame that all your mock outrage and hand-wringing doesn’t have the same impact these days…Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 09:14 PMAn assault on anyone is a terrible offence, I only hope that those who seek to see the attackers of McGreevy imprisoned also hope to see the attackers of Robert McCartney face the same sentence. Sadly, I doubt they will or we would have seen those same people forced to hand themselves in. But what more can we expect of the child mudering psychopaths that are the republican movement, may they all rot in hell. When faced against an armed “enemy” they have shown what cowards they are, it was far easier for them to shoot an off duty police officer or soldier in the back of the head than it would have been to face one face to face.
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 09:19 PMDitto, ‘Intelligencer (sic) insider’.
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 09:29 PMaustin
what the feck are you talking about?
These are 2 seperate things 1) A man is attacked
2) The people who use this website should do so in a reasonable way.I choose to comment on point 2) - that’s it.
p.s. Your suppostitions as to my attitude to the Provos are completly wrong.
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 09:35 PMExactly, Sammy-you chose to comment on point 2)-think about it..
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 09:43 PMI’m a bit pissed at Pete’s presentation of this story too. The victim being well know in the area and the locals being pretty sure which of the otr Vallidays, who had been torturing them for days, did it shouldn’t be a cause for instant scepticism. As becomes clearer and clearer, this case shows how the cynical can cause a jaundiced eye and equivocation to be needlessly cast over crime from habitual street thugs when for some the victim isn’t worthy enough.
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 09:56 PMSo lets look at the theories bandied about on this thread, local man who is fed up with local thugs confronts them in an attempt to get them to cease criminal activities is then followed home and beaten to within an inch of his life by the thugs. Or was it paramilitary beaten in revenge attack by young misunderstood boy? The intellect and neanderthal thinking of some posters on this thread must be questionable. This doesn’t happen in loyalist areas simply because the guns are still there, in order to have policing properly addressed loyalist guns must be removed and then rather than condemnation coming from one section of the community it would be, as it should be, condemned by all right thinking people.
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 09:57 PMMark
I realise you’re arriving late on the scene and that there’s already been a lot of misdirection in-thread.
Being “a bit pissed” at my presentation of facts is one thing.
I tend not to reach for conclusions.
As for your comment - “when for some the victim isn’t worthy enough.”
As I said before, in response to this much earlier comment
“This blog has descended into chaos, when a blogger suggests that violence against an individual is somehow diluted and negated by who they are.”
This blogger has suggested nothing of the sort.
More generally,
If people are going to criticise what I’ve said, make sure I’ve actually said it first.
And if everyone could get back to the actual ball.. there might be a conversation worth having here.
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 11:07 PMBut what more can we expect of the child mudering psychopaths that are the republican movement, may they all rot in hell. When faced against an armed “enemy” they have shown what cowards they are, it was far easier for them to shoot an off duty police officer or soldier in the back of the head than it would have been to face one face to face.
Posted by Intelligence Insider on Mar 17, 2008 @ 08:19 PM
Oh yes and the child murdering psychopaths on the unionist side undoubtedly hold the high ground.
so many plastic bullets .... so little time
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 11:13 PMSo mick, baker can condone and vainly justify the attack on an innocent man…
why else did he mention his past?
will he now be mentioning the past of everyone else?
Now he tries to deny it made this point!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One accusation too many by this T`internet warrior and a sign of how far down into the gutter this site has gone…
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 11:16 PMThe crap posted from know alls who know fuck all on this thread is the prime reason why this once terrific website has went to the dogs.
Just like Harry Holland, a man was beaten to within an inch of his life because he dared to stand up to a gang of hoods, one of whom (who so many dicks on Slugger are keen to try and understand) has been on the run from Hydebank for two weeks.
Forget the politics wankers, this was a random attack that could have been visited on anyone.
Regardless of his past, although Bap McGreevy was a Provie and served 17-years for something he didn’t do, this was a sickening attack by a drugged up hood who was on the run from jail.
An attack that could have easily been visited upon any of the know all keyboard assholes so quick to condemn the victim, rather than the twat responsible. What next, are we to feel sorry for the bastard who beat Maurice McCracken with a hammer as he lay sleeping in his Malone Roard bed four years ago?
Wake up would yous, put politics and whataboutery aside for a second and see something how it really isl.Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 11:22 PM“whataboutery is not disallowed”
aslong as its not directed to Baker and any of the ludicrous assertions he made…
So baker is this man innocent, did he deserve this brutal attack and what has his past as a Republican got to do with this assault?
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 11:23 PM‘Your remarks suggest over sensitivity and claims of bias probably have more to do with you not being comfortable with people who dont share your world view than with objective fact.’
Sammy, the ‘world view’ remark....extremely immature. and as regards ‘objective fact’. that is precisely the point, you seem to have missed it.
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 11:29 PM“what has his past as a Republican got to do with this assault?”
Twinbrook
Direct your question to the Chairman of the Falls Road Residents’ Association, Robert McClenaghan, as quoted in the original post.
“He is a former prisoner who served a life sentence. So he would be very well known.”
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 11:30 PM“Steve”, plastic bullets and lead bullets. A big difference! There were a few people hit my plastic or rubber bullets mistakenly but most of them were involved in riotous behaviour, catholic and protestant. You see, I make no difference Steve, criminality is criminality, no matter what the religion of the perpetrator is, I condemn each and every one of them. Can you do the same?
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 11:34 PMIndeed Pete, ‘presentation’ is the issue not the facts - you haven’t added to any or provided much. You admitted you approached the murder with jaundice (no matter how late I joined, you laid that down early).
Seriously, it does read like - why would he have got beaten to death...fill in your own blanks. Either I and others are reading it wrong, you phrased it badly or that’s what you did put out there.
If you’d like to clarify, maybe starting with why you picked that pointless top line it might help?
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 11:35 PMOnce again the red mist descends. The term hierarchy of victims springs to mind when reading some of the drivel posted on this site. To quote thathcher, ‘crime is crime is crime is crime’; who can argue that this man wasn’t a victim of crime? How can this statelet have any semblance of a peaceful future if bigotry prevents justice. The past of a victim of crime matters not a jot if they are a victim, I await a post saying all prostitutes can expect to be rape victims next. How can people preach peace and harmony but not deliver justice? The camels back must be close to breaking point as far as policing goes in nationalist areas, people need results not excuses for criminal activity.
Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 @ 11:36 PM
