Slugger O'Toole

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Latest comments from Skintown Lad (see all)

Skintown Lad has commented 63 times (0 in the last month).

1. Comment on “The taxi driver got out [of the car] and shouted ‘It’s a bomb, it’s a bomb!’”
   on 12 April 2010 at 10:22 pm

   Where are the usual apologists like Ardoyne Republican? At this point I would have expected them to trot out the tired ‘as long as there is a British presence in Ireland…’. Maybe they’re not keen on the proxy bombs.

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2. Comment on A scare? Its serious
   on 22 March 2010 at 10:36 pm

   “I never claimed they provided objective justification, merely that it was accepted by the people they were trying to convince.”

   Like yours, my comment about justification was also from the point of view of the voters SF-IRA were trying to convince. The fact that SF’s vote rose when the IRA (sort of) gave up violence indicates that those new voters had diasgreed with the use of violence; an ethical barrier to them voting for SF had been removed. I don’t think that ethical barrier would have existed in the mind of those new voters had they still (by the 90s) really felt themselves to be oppressed by the British. Even less so now.

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3. Comment on A scare? Its serious
   on 22 March 2010 at 8:18 pm

   Fitzjames, I’m glad you went on to clarify in your post above that the examples you gave of British ‘oppression’ happened a long time ago, before some of the present protagonists were even born, and that they do not provide justification now.

   I have my doubts about this:

   “The SF-IRA analysis that the British were the oppressors has to some extent been endorsed at recent elections.
   Rightly or wrongly they “won” that argument…..at least among those that they were trying to convince.”

   SF-IRA success in elections began only when they called a halt to their own form of oppression. That is an endorsement of the analysis that SF-IRA’s form of oppression was wrong, since it was evidently a turn-off to many of the voters they have now wooed since 1994. That itself is an acknowledgement from the electorate that the British were not the only oppressor in the piece, and the GFA was further acknowledgement that by that stage British oppression was largely historical. Therefore, my point still stands, ask the electorate, who (now) is the oppressor? The dissidents who ignore the will of the people, or the British who are bending over backwards to be invisible and have as little impact on ordinary people’s lives as possible?

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4. Comment on A scare? Its serious
   on 22 March 2010 at 3:43 pm

   As Fitzjames says above, the fact that a group is dangerous does not mean you have to take their views seriously.

   But then that’s what republicanism has traditionally been about isn’t? Trying to rule by fear and oppression, all the while claiming the Brits are the oppressors. Well ask those affected by this incident, the ordinary commuters etc, who do they feel is most oppressing them? The Brits or the ‘dissidents’?

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5. Comment on Six nations final Weekend
   on 19 March 2010 at 3:44 pm

   Every article I read on the ‘new tackle law intrepretation’ fails to explain what the new intrepretation actually is! Can anyone help?

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6. Comment on NI football national anthem
   on 18 March 2010 at 5:09 pm

   MonkDeWallyDeHonk – there is a thread on this very subject on the NI supporters site that you mention. You might be surprised to learn that most supporters are in favour of changing the anthem to something more specific to NI. Sectarianism really is very much frowned upon at NI matches. It’s been stamped out to the extent that I haven’t heard any in the games I’ve been to (4 in the last 3 years). There may of course be some sectarian supporters but it is not the ‘corporate’ culture anymore.

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7. Comment on Out of the Bog into the Meadows
   on 18 March 2010 at 4:34 pm

   Typical petty MOPEry from you, Mark McGregor. If you can’t present a balanced and fair view on this, why should anyone believe you next time you winge about the police? You’re showing yourself to be about nothing but manufactured grievance and spin.

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8. Comment on FRU the Looking Glass
   on 11 March 2010 at 5:16 pm

   I see Ardoyne Republican has the copy & paste working flat out on this thread. “For as long as there is British rule in Ireland..blah blah blah”. The Dissidents live their lives by one simplistic cliche; it hardly appears worth trying to reason with them.

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9. Comment on 1641- genocide or insurance scam? We’re about to find out at last
   on 9 March 2010 at 8:50 pm

   Are we really arguing over the moralities of something that happened 400 years ago? Come on! It has feck-all to do with today.

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10. Comment on Shaun Woodward: “the idea of pardons being given is complete nonsense”
    on 8 March 2010 at 8:17 pm

    Her father was a Protestant, Trixie. You know, one of those Irishmen who Paddy wants to forcibly remove to England.

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