Friday, March 21, 2008

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1. I have waited a few days to comment because too much emotion sometimes clouds your thinking; you can’t see the wood for the trees. On reflection it is a bit unfair and inaccurate to pin the ENTIRE blame on Adams OR Sinn Fein for the nightmare situation many people are living in. What is happening is West Belfast is happening in other parts of the city, particularly North Belfast. It is also going on in Dublin, Limerick, Cork and other urban parts of Ireland. If you look across the water at Britain fathers, brothers & sons are being killed on the streets by anti social elements so it is NOT particular to Belfast. This point of course is NO comfort to long suffering people in these areas. When it’s going on in your backyard your ONLY concern is YOUR own backyard. It is also VERY true to say that the PSNI is turning out to be a totally incompetent Police Force with LITTLE or NO concern about the problems or day to day troubles of these areas, republican OR loyalist. As someone who has had dealings with them on anti social elements and loutish behaviour I can say with experience that most of what gets reported to them is logged and quickly forgotten about. It is NOT investigated. Their call out times on 3 reported cases of recent interface trouble in North Belfast were 40 mins, 35mins and 40 mins and confidence in them within these districts is virtually NIL. Their attitude is mostly distant, aloof, nonplussed and smacks of ‘I couldn’t really give a stuff, what time’s the Chippy/Chinese opened to Norman we don’t want to miss it’. 
   HOWEVER the actual piece by Squinter and his criticisms of Sinn Fein are different arguements altogether and perfectly valid. This has been a pressure cooker that’s been waiting to blow for a while because the VAST majority of people across Belfast who vote for the party now feel that they have been VERY badly failed and let down. Sinn Fein is a detached, elite oligarchy more concerned about representing Sinn Fein interests than the 1000’s across the city who gave them an X. When they negotiated with the British Government & Ulster Unionists it was solely for the Sinn Fein/IRA leadership and NOT for the Republican community OR Northern nationalists. Some have commented that the standard of Sinn Fein representative in certain areas is POOR and having also dealt with some of them I would have to agree. Many Sinn Fein reps and councillors are basically intellectually incapable of formulating strategies, formulae or simple plans to deal with anti social behaviour, poor housing, unemployment or interface trouble etc. Consequently much of this is palmed off by the party to ‘community workers’, government funded local groups or voluntary agencies who are left to get on with it. Many local people who took part in rallies or got involved with anti social behaviour networks ended up being targeted by these hoods and eventually got out because they were being left to take the hits and abuse, NOT Sinn Fein. They felt abandoned and ignored and were no longer prepared to put themselves or their families at risk anymore.
   Gerry Adams & Mary Lou McDonald etc were badly exposed at the last Southern elections for not even having a basic grasp of economics, social strategy and workings of the Health Service. The Southern electorate didn’t give a twig for the North or the Peace Process and anyone with sense could have told party strategists that. Instead of tuning in to the electorate they banged on about decommissioning and what Republicans have done for the Peace Process without researching their audience and consequently fell flat on their arse. It’s now happening here. We have aloof old men in their late 50’s and 60’s without a clue and senior party members like McGuinness but especially Adams and his clique should step aside. Paisley and the DUP felt the wrath of their own constituency following the Dromore by-election and Nationalist communities are now also saying “WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH -THESE PEOPLE DON’T REPRESENT OR SPEAK FOR US ANY LONGER” and have condemned us and our families to a life of misery. The reason that their vote remained solid throughout the North was because there is NO viable alternative. The SDLP remain largely a nice, remote, rural middle class outfit with NO desire to get involved in dirty inner city street politics. The 10th Anniversary of the GFA is upon us but it might as well be for an island off the coast of Australia for MANY for all the good it has done OR it’s relevance to their lives. Yes, less people are being murdered for their religion or politics but we can’t use this as an excuse for ever and a day to justify an agreement to a conflict that many more young people don’t remember. It’s all about TODAY for them and what’s happening in their lives and to their families. On this score Sinn Fein and other politicans have FAILED badly. Bap McGreevy and Harry Holland are in their graves but hold the front page because they WON’T be the last.

   Posted by  on Mar 23, 2008 @ 01:19 AM

2. Lurig, I’ve also refrained from speaking out, but squinter AKA Archie, like yourself, is hitting home a few home truths.

   We need to make a new beginning, yes, for the sake of Bap and others, but more importantly, to show our kids they can have hope of a better future than one that condemns them to drink, drugs, or getting the latest consumer-ware’s.

   Republicanism was never about votes to me, it was about looking after our neighbours, I Think it was called Comhar na Comharsan one time in the late 20’s or 30’s - not looking after oneself.

   Posted by  on Mar 23, 2008 @ 04:12 AM

3. Well said, Lurig.

   But the people of West Belfast have a real problem with Gerry Adams. A psychologist might suggest that the killers of Bap McGreevy, etc., etc., are not so much acting on their own initiative, but simply expressing an unconscious desire to be the next Gerry Adams.

   The macho-culture in republican circles has been around for years. John Hume used to say in the mid 1980s that West Belfast was the most dangerous place to canvass, for example, because you could be attacked by republicans. The beast was roaming even then. Lawlessness comes with a lawless leader.

   Why I believe Gerry Adams is the Antichrist (and Ian Paisley the false prophet)!

   First of all, I believe that Gerry Adams is the Antichrist because of the coincidence that his name comes out at 666 on my numeric alphabet (see website http://johnoconnell.org/number_of_the_beast_calculat.htm), a numeric alphabet that I discovered during my years at St Columb’s College in Derry and further investigated during my years at University College Galway. If his name didn’t come at 666, using some reasonable means, then I would not believe that he is the Antichrist. He would simply be to me just another delinquent who leads a very large conspiracy to undermine Ireland.

   Second of all, due to another pertinent coincidence his name contains “Adam”, the name of the first man, and from a theological point of view, this adds much to the basis of him being the Antichrist. Adam coincidentally means ‘man’ in Hebrew, and the number of the beast is specifically described as “man’s number” (Rev 13:18).

   These are extraordinary coincidences and not to dismissed by any means by any intelligent observer of matters theological.

   The apostle Paul wrote: “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor 15:22). Adam therefore symbolises death, and thus the question must be asked, is there significance to the ‘Adam’ in Gerry Adams’ name? Does Gerry Adams, the effective leader of the IRA’s republican movement, symbolise death?

   The descriptions of the beasts in the Book of Revelation are interesting.

   ‘The inhabitants worshipped the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed,’ (Rev 13:12). Coincidentally, Gerry Adams was shot and wounded in 1984, but recovered. Afterwards, he became Sinn Fein president and one of the foremost politicians in Northern Ireland. The use of violence for him is a matter of tactics. That is a matter of fact and record. Gerry Adams has not stepped away from violence. He believes in his own words that “there is a time for peace and a time for war”, mocking the Prince of Peace and equating Christ with the Antichrist, good with evil.

   The first beast, who is said to be the Antichrist, is prophesied to have “seven heads” (Rev 13:1), which is coincidentally the number of heads on the IRA army council, including Gerry Adams’ allegedly.

   “Who can make war against him?” (Rev 13:7). The IRA has been described as ‘the most sophisticated terrorist organisation in the history of mankind’. Their structure makes it impossible for a conventional army to defeat them.

   Gerry Adams fulfilled another prophecy during the run-up to the 2007 Assembly election campaign in the North of Ireland. This involved him requesting the use of Clonard Monastery (Roman Catholic) church in West Belfast for a political meeting discussing his party’s policy. He still believed that armed struggle was a legitimate means of resolving differences.

   When Gerry Adams took to the altar of Clonard monastery while his beliefs were in conflict with Christ’s teaching, he was proclaiming himself to be wiser than God and better than Jesus Christ. He was in logic proclaiming himself to be God. 

   “[The man of lawlessness or the Antichrist] will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” (2 Thes 2:3-4)

   When you think of all the violent activity, brutality and attacks on old people in West Belfast, you must think “man of lawlessness” as the beast or Antichrist is decribed. 

   Fror further information, see http://www.johnoconnell.org/

   Posted by John O'Connell on Mar 23, 2008 @ 07:49 AM

4. Reference is often made to the Costa del Provo,the Provos’ mansions in Donegal. But here is my question: does Gerry and Collette etc live in a big house in Belfast or is he still slumming it in the Murph? What about Martin McGuinness and the others? Are they living in swish Malone Rd/Rathgar type areas? Are their negihhbours big shots (barristers, judges, op cops etc) or just Catholic non entitities? I am not talking about their holiday homes but of their main residences? Do they employ maids and the like? Are they living, if not the high life, at least a very comfortable upper class aristocracy type life?

   Posted by  on Mar 23, 2008 @ 10:02 AM

5. John,

   Assuming your claims about a sales surge in your book are true (how many copies have been sold?), there is a very easy way for you to get your message out - publish the contents of your book on your website.

   Your contributions here read like little more than a spam effort to try to encourage people to buy it, and that includes this rather pathetic “The book Sinn Fein tried to silence!” efforts. I think that what’s pretty clear is that making money out of selling the book is more important to you than putting your message out to the widest possible audience. I hope God approves. I don’t ever remember hearing about Jesus asking for money so that people could hear what he had to say.

   Posted by  on Mar 23, 2008 @ 11:29 AM

6. Comrade Stalin

   Agreed, in fact I remember Jesus being a little miffed at a certain money changing centre once upon a time which led to some nice men pinning him to a large cross.  Oh dear.

   Still at the same time I don’t think it’s quite right to make fun of and encourage someone so obviously mentally ill.  The pollitically incorrect expression about competing in the special olympics comes to mind.

   On topic, over the last few months I’ve noticed more than a few people dare to mention that West Belfast isn’t the utopia it should be?  Who is to blame?  The Parents?  PSNI, Sinn Fein, Ian Paisley Junior?  The Easter Bunny?

   Look at the area in question, is West Belfast and in perticular the Falls so special?  Or is it in reality just like every other working class area with levels of deprevation and unemployment that are just plain scary.

   Hoods have always existed, it’s just that in the past their efforts where channeled into venting at the other side via the convenient placement of interface areas.  Back in the good old days this would have been encouraged now the same hoodies exist but there is no interface riots for them

   Answer me honestly if 10 meat wagons went patrolling round the Falls Road regularially to combat crime and they even made a few arrests how soon untill Sinn Fein spun it that they where being victimised by the police and the hoods in their nice tracksuits where just misunderstood youth?  The PSNI can’t win either way.

   Posted by  on Mar 23, 2008 @ 11:48 AM

7. Comrade Stalin

   “Assuming your claims about a sales surge in your book are true (how many copies have been sold?), there is a very easy way for you to get your message out - publish the contents of your book on your website.”

   The relevant section of the book is on the website - http://johnoconnell.org/ and click on Revelation then “What will herald end of Adams and Paisley ?”

   That’s what there getting annoyed about in the main. Remember I am writing directly into the heartlands of Republicanism in Derry. This is true and facts like Martin McGuinness’ father is a daily communicant come to mind.

   It really doesn’t matter to me that anyone will buy the book. It is not an issue. Obviously I would like it to do well in Derry as it already has to a certain extent. But the point is that I would like the sales to be to interested people, not republicans trying to censor it.

   Jesus also made a living out of teaching and preaching and he took money off a poor old woman at least once by his own admission.

   Posted by John O'Connell on Mar 23, 2008 @ 12:16 PM

8. john, its they’re, not there...simple mistake from a simpleton, i suppose

   Posted by  on Mar 23, 2008 @ 12:37 PM

9. Comrad Stalin

   This is what they seem to be worried about. I publish in full and you can say that I never charged you:-

   Qn. What will herald end of Adams and Paisley ?

   Answer. In reply, John O’Connell said, “I think that the prophecies point to an unpleasant good-bye gift from Adams and Paisley. That may mean some violence. This comes from the verse, “he [i.e. the Antichrist] once was, now is not, and yet will come” (Rev 17:8).  The Antichrist who “once was, now is not” is a reference to the fact that Adams was acting once as the Antichrist (i.e. during the Troubles) and “now” is no longer acting in that way. “Yet will come” indicates that before the prophecies will end, he will return to being the Antichrist. This was always going to happen as no-one insisted on Adams repenting of his past. But the question is, when will the prophecies end?”

   John’s answer to that question was detailed. “Interpreting the next verses gives a timescale for the fulfilment of the prophecies. “The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. They are also seven kings,” (Rev 17:9). The seven hills symbolise Rome, built on seven hills, so the author of Revelation is attacking the Roman Empire. The comparable empire in our context and era is the British Empire and the city comparable to Rome is London. So the seven kings come from London.

   “Those kings are described as “Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come” (Rev 17:10). Coincidentally during the Troubles, the Troubles being the key timeframe, five London PMs have fallen: Wilson, Heath, Callaghan, Thatcher, and Major. “One is,” or the sixth PM, must refer to Tony Blair under whom much of the changes to the North took place. The other who has not yet come is remarked: “…but when he does come he must remain for a little while” (Rev 17:10). I think that this must refer to Gordon Brown who won’t be PM for long by this account.

   “The fact that Blair is referred to as “one is” demonstrates that the major prophecies occur under his rule while he “is”, and also while the Antichrist “is not” (see above), which happens at the same time, i.e. at present. But the whole sequence of verses, ante-ceded with the proviso, “This calls for a mind with wisdom,” (Rev 17: 9), making them the most mysterious verses in the Book of Revelation, also signals that the whole framework will have outworked itself by the time of the seventh king, “who has not yet come, but when he does come he must remain for a little while”.

   So when Gordon Brown, the seventh king elect, stops being PM, which won’t be long according to the prophecies, Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams will be disgraced and in turmoil, or “thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur” (Rev 19:20). The intriguing question is what happens under Gordon Brown that leads to this outcome.”

   Do you feel enlightened?

   Posted by John O'Connell on Mar 23, 2008 @ 01:24 PM

10. John, didn’t you post the exact same diatribe a few pages back on the same thread?

    At first your egomania seemed amusing now it’s just boring.

    Spot on analysis Lurig

    Posted by  on Mar 23, 2008 @ 03:34 PM

11. John,

    I’m not enlightened by your spam, and I hope Mick deletes it. I have already read it once, you do not need to post it again.

    It really doesn’t matter to me that anyone will buy the book. It is not an issue.

    I’m sure there’s part of the bible that says that lying is wrong. If it didn’t matter to you, then why would you invest so much effort writing and publicizing it ?

    You didn’t answer my question about how many copies you’d sold. But at least you concede to profiteering rather than trying to maximise the reach of your message by publishing it entirely for free. For your conspiracy theory about Sinn Fein to make any sense, there must be something in the book that they do not want revealed, and it can’t be what’s on your website, otherwise what would the point be in trying to restrict availability of the book ?

    I have to confess that Jesus making money out of healing people is a new one to me. Can you quote the relevant parts of the bible ?

    Posted by  on Mar 23, 2008 @ 03:37 PM

12. Comrade Stalin

    “I’m sure there’s part of the bible that says that lying is wrong. If it didn’t matter to you, then why would you invest so much effort writing and publicizing it ?”

    Why would I lie? It matters to me because I’m on a mission from God (like the Blues Brothers). Notice the present tense. They may be a little nest egg for the future, but the nine books have actually cost me money.

    Don’t be judging people by the way.

    “But at least you concede to profiteering”

    I don’t. You seem to have problems with logic in your vain attempt to convict me of being, well, normal.

    “For your conspiracy theory about Sinn Fein to make any sense, there must be something in the book that they do not want revealed, and it can’t be what’s on your website, otherwise what would the point be in trying to restrict availability of the book ?”

    Ever heard of damage limitation? The website is not well known, but the book is sending messages straight into the heartlands of Derry republicanism.

    “I have to confess that Jesus making money out of healing people is a new one to me. Can you quote the relevant parts of the bible ?”

    Jesus had to live and support disciples. (See Mk 12: 41-44). See also references to Judas as the keeper of the purse.

    Satisfied?

    Posted by John O'Connell on Mar 23, 2008 @ 04:04 PM

13. Pity pathetic showing at the easter parade on the Falls road today.  People were sparse on the ground as far as I could see.

    Posted by Ty on Mar 23, 2008 @ 04:09 PM

14. Leave it out Joseph - it’s dangerous.

    Posted by  on Mar 23, 2008 @ 04:14 PM

15. John tell me you didn’t compare yourself to the Blues Brothers, you are no Belushi man not even a Dan Aykroyd.  You’re more on a level with Mr Bean.

    Judas kept a purse, call me picky but I’d like a quote of the big JC saying “That’ll be 12 shackles” to the blind dude.  How much did he charge for the water into wine trick, and what about the fish and loaves.  Since you are in communication with him can you ask him if he’d do the catering for a party I’m hsoting next weekend.

    Posted by  on Mar 23, 2008 @ 10:23 PM

16. Maud’Dub

    <>Since you are in communication with him can you ask him if he’d do the catering for a party I’m hsoting next weekend.<>

    He will. That’ll be 12 shackles.

    Posted by John O'Connell on Mar 23, 2008 @ 10:35 PM

17. Comhar na Comharsan mentioned above- along with the proclamation of Easter 1916 and teh democratic programme of the 1st Dail- is th foundation of all RSF social policy. Just take 5 minutes and have a read of SAOL NUA on their website http://www.rsf.ie

    Posted by  on Mar 24, 2008 @ 12:02 AM

18. Did Squinter not write a similar criticism of Adams a few months ago?

    Posted by  on Mar 24, 2008 @ 03:03 AM

19. This has got to be the best thread dereailment ever.

    Posted by  on Mar 24, 2008 @ 11:29 AM

20. “But the reason is Jesuitical in that Paisley belongs to a community that is Old Testament in orientation, where prophets and false prophets abound but has no Christ.”

    Old testament in orientation???

    Posted by  on Mar 24, 2008 @ 07:12 PM

21. Mustaphw Mond

    Old testament in orientation???

    Believing in the laws of God as meaning an eye for an eye basically. The fixed desire for a nation state is important too - Israel. God giving them the promised land, somebody else’s land.

    Paisley is the “false prophet” fighting against much of the Old Testament dogma but with too shallow a knowledge of the New Testament to do much about it.

    Adams is “the Antichrist”, belonging to a New Testament community, but rejecting it’s values, and fighting against it, but with too shallow an Old Testament knowledge to do much about it.

    Adams has committed the more serious sin because he is someone who had an awareness of Christ. Paisley has little or no awareness. (From their actions, of course.)

    But see my book Love is the Answer: The SDLP, Christianity, and the Northern Ireland Conflict. Click on my name below and follow links.

    Posted by John O'Connell on Mar 24, 2008 @ 07:44 PM

22. “Believing in the laws of God...” as opposed to?

    I think you’re a little muddled on the meaning of an eye for an eye, to put it down in my own ham fisted, sloppy way.
    It means a wealthy person, can’t screw a poor person into the ground for stealing something from him.
    I’ll have to disagree with all your other points to.

    Thanks for the offer on the book, I’ll wait for the film to come out.

    Posted by  on Mar 24, 2008 @ 08:36 PM

23. Mustapha Mond

    “Believing in the laws of God...” as opposed to?

    Forgiveness.

    As for the rest of your points… some you win, some you can never win.

    Posted by John O'Connell on Mar 24, 2008 @ 10:17 PM
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