Gerry Adams
Micheál Martin “there is a grave danger that policing in the North will be compromised because of this activity”
Tweet I’ve alluded to this in a post earlier in the week, but the Oireachtas record gives Deputy Gerry Adams a voice not captured on the Dail video. The exchange between himself and the leader of Fianna Fail is very instructive, not least as we face into another summer of discontent… The relevant section begins [...] more »
Gerry Adams (and Sammy Wilson) putting on a Poor Mouth over £4 Billion of ‘elusive’ cuts?
Tweet “At a public meeting discussing disruption as a result of the G8, an official from the British Foreign & Commonwealth claimed that the summit would bring in up to £700 million into the local economy. “This is a figure that has been plucked from thin air, for no other reason but to deal with [...] more »
Ferguson’s departure: Rivals must work to burst “the incumbency bubble” of the EPL
Tweet I always had it in mind to write something about three exceptionally long term and successful leaders in three very different fields. Now Alex Ferguson has gone, here’s the gist in short blog order… - Gerry Adams, who came to lead his political party from the fringes of constitutional politics in Northern Ireland to [...] more »
Adams’s extended RTE interview on political murder turns the southern clock right back for Sinn Fein…
Tweet On Twitter last night the jury was split over Gerry Adams’ performance in a Prime Time interview with Miriam O’Callaghan. It wasn’t an elegant affair by any means. But then again, nor was the subject. No matter how well he handled it, it was always going to go badly with potential future voters and [...] more »
“the British Government, and the British State, no longer claim jurisdiction over this part of the island”
Tweet So claimed Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey, MLA, in his recent appearance on UTV Live. Here’s the quote again. The fundamental difference between before the Good Friday Agreement and after the Good Friday Agreement is that the British Government, and the British State, no longer claim jurisdiction over this part of the island. That’s very very [...] more »
Gerry Adams says loyalists have much in common with republican neighbours and calls for dialogue
Tweet Gerry Adams closed the Sinn Fein ard fheis with his presidential speech. It was live on RTE (and the sinnfein.ie website) and will be repeated on BBC Two NI on Sunday at 6pm. The full text is available; below are some excerpts. On a border poll … There would be no peace process and [...] more »
“But we’re still part of the UK…”
Tweet The DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson, MP, and Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey, MLA, appeared separately on UTV Live this evening to give their thoughts on the 15th anniversary of the 1998 Agreement. Apparently Alex Maskey hadn’t arrived at the studio in time for the first segment… Whether by accident, or design, it was left to presenter Seamus [...] more »
Gerry Adams ‘self hacking’ his way through the Irish Twittersphere?
Tweet So Alan was on the View last night talking Tweets. In fact talking Gerry’s Tweets. I have to confess I’ve no particularly original thoughts to share on the matter, other than to say that if my memory serves correctly this is Gerry’s second out on the big Twitter fun ride. It’s got him numbers, [...] more »
If Adams is a prisoner of his own past, can he provide a future for Sinn Fein?
Tweet Matt Cooper has a good piece on Gerry Adams, that contingent apology for the murder of Garda McCabe, the longer term problem of political credibility: …it was notable how the man who maintained that he was never a member of the IRA, let alone one of its most important leaders, could take it upon [...] more »
Adams apology worse than no apology at all…
Tweet Aside from the obvious tragedy involved, it’s interesting to witness the contrast between how north and south treat the killing of a policeman on active duty, and the importance of national colours. Every official building in Dublin had the tricolour flying at half mast. By all accounts, the atmosphere in the Dail was pretty [...] more »
Not for the first time Gerry Adams’ memory’s fails him in interesting and creative ways…
Tweet I’ve interviewed a fair few politicians in my time, but never Gerry Adams. I asked for him a couple of times, but then took the hint that he wasn’t keen and stopped asking. His was the last of the southern leader’s interviews with Fran McNulty on This Week at 1pm today. He’s a tough [...] more »
Sinn Fein’s ‘creative accountancy’ over funding the gap for a United Ireland
Tweet So, briefly, Newton Emerson gives us confirmation of what you probably already knew from listening to Gerry Adams talking to Tara Mills in last week’s big interview on Sinn Fein’s #BorderPoll. That is that the party’s figures simply do not add up. In yesterday’s Irish News he noted: It is true that DFP’s last [...] more »
Border Poll: On the one road, maybe the wrong road, on the road to god knows where?
Tweet The best bit from last night’s The View was undoubtedly Stephen Walker’s report on a future border poll. He usefully revisits the last one in 1973, which was about as bogus as they come. Just over 6000 people voted for taking Northern Ireland of the UK back then, because most nationalists boycotted it. The [...] more »
Decoupling religion from political identity a necessary pre-requisite for any unification project
Tweet It’s always hard to get whether Gerry’s referring to the chicken or the egg when he talks about a united Ireland. In any case, his party has been campaigning for a referendum they almost certainly don’t want (at this stage), and which, thankfully, the Secretary of State will almost certainly not grant. Happy days. [...] more »
Gerry Adams’ ‘health tourism’ raises more questions than it answers…
Tweet So Gerry Adams is getting to that stage of life where health becomes an issue. Early sixties can be a tough time for men, and in the last few months, he’s had two minor procedures. What makes both news is that neither of them were conducted in the Republic, and they raise more questions [...] more »
Taoiseach is ‘diluting the impact of the alleged charges against Adams by cynical and lazy repetition’
Tweet Eilis O’Hanlon is not so much coming to the rescue of Gerry Adams, as upbrading the Taoiseach for using the abduction and murder of a Belfast housewife to punctuate his own inability to answer fairly straightforward questions from the Opposition: In the right context, the charges against Gerry Adams carry considerable weight. Last week, [...] more »
Gerry Adams ‘stung’ in the Dail by Taoiseach over his past…
Tweet Okay, leaders Questions did not go to plan today. The subject under discussion was Welfare Reform. The Taoiseach had just taken a bit of roasting at the hands of Micheal Martin (over a planned 20% cut in the respite care grant). Then it was Gerry’s turn with the Taoiseach (who was probably already in [...] more »
In praise of ….Gerry Adams and Fainne…
Tweet Right, hold on to your Frosties, because I’m going in to bat for a Mr G Adams, and his casual but regular use of the Irish language. Gerry may not have the best Irish ever to have emerged from the ‘Jailtacht’, but he does use as much as he has as well as he [...] more »
-
Books
-
…if University education were universally available and availed of, the country would collapse in one generation
Tweet The words of Brian O’Nolan, variously Brian Ó Nualláin, Myles na gCopaleen, Myles na Gopaleen and, of course, Flann O’Brien. That O’Nolan was referencing his own dissolute student days at UCD only mildly distracts from the prophetic undertone of his words: I paid no attention whatsoever to books or study and regarded lectures as [...] read our review »
-
At the current rate of progress, gender equality of MLAs at Stormont will only take another 65 years
Tweet Bronagh Hinds’ chapter of Everyday Life After the Irish Conflict: The Impact of Devolution and Cross-Border Cooperation [reviewed yesterday] examines women’s political participation points to limited progress in addressing the gender balance of political institutions. The proportion of councillors who are female rose to 24 per cent in 2011 from 14 per cent in [...] read our review »
-
Learning from 1798?: Northern Ireland’s Upcoming Decade of Commemorations
Tweet Last year, the Lilliput Press released a new extended edition of Tom Dunne’s Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize winning book, Rebellions: Memoir, Memory and 1798. First published in 2004, Dunne’s book provoked considerable controversy with its critique of the ‘commemorationist’ history that Dunne believed dominated the 1998 commemorations of the 1798 Rebellion. The book blasted the [...] read our review »
-