Navigation

Adams: Conditions not right to call ArdFheis…

on 13 December 2006 , 10:12 pm 17 | 4 views

Ferghal McKinney on UTV News (first item):

Hugh Orde: “I don’t want nice conversations…”

Gerry Adams: “I am not in a position to call a meeting. Others are playing politics…” He needs a two thirds majority \on the Ard Chomhairle to call a party wide Ard Fheis.

March election? As the game of political chicken continues. It’s looking increasingly shakey!!

Adds: More detail from Reuters…

  • Sinn Fein internal policing witch-hunt update!
    North Belfast MLA Kathy Stanton has been told she will not be standing in the March Assembly election.
    Kathy was named recently in a Sunday Tribune article as someone who opposed the Shinners signing up to policing.
    The purge continues, it would seem.
    A few years ago her uncle, former SF MLA John Kelly, was forced out of the party.
    This reconfirms that if you are not prepared to sing from the same hymn sheet as Gerry on policing then there is no place for you in the party.

  • It seems the real prize will go the party who say
    “NO” last!!

    To paraphrase David Trimble, Big Ian should say,

    “We’ve said no and jumped, its over to you Gerry, to jump, and say no”

    Both sides want to say “No” it is the timing and susequent blame game that is being negociated.
    A case of damage limitation is the most likely outcome.

  • CS Parnell

    Look Out,

    Kathy Stanton should consider herself lucky. Adams ordered the killing of one of my relatives because of something he said (and no, he wasn’t a tout) – it’s all in “The Secret History of the IRA”

    And there are thousands just like me all over the North.

    Truth is, Hain should tell them they’ve a week to sort it or its all off. As another poster has remarked elsewhere this evening, SF’s strategy is about making them central to the politics of the island. A bit of drama here does just that – so Hain should call their bluff.

  • realist

    John Leathem also got the boot, tho not over policing.

  • realist2

    apologies already a realist on this board. Didn’t realise lol

  • parcifal

    CSParnell, its getting farcical I agree.
    SF moan about the DUP living in the past, and bad policing is by and large a thing of the past.~
    Time to jump in the deep end. He’ll be respected for that.

  • parcifal

    my housemaster, when out on early morning house runs, would say to any stragglers:
    “c’mon take your finger out laddie”..
    a northerner, k.mulligan, great bloke.
    That’s what he’d say to Gerry Adams.

  • Peter Hain has decided that the election in March will be the means by which the ‘St Andrews Agreement’ will be verified. He chose this over the option of a referendum. This is daft in itself, but it is a crucial part of the process. Can he drop that election? What is left of St Andrews if he does? Will he not have to declare the whole process over then?
    Of course, if the election goes ahead and SF ocntinues to procrastinate, you can imagine the state of anxiety that would build up in the DUP. But could Paisley pull the plug on an election? What if he said he didn’t want it but Hain proceeded anyway? Paisley would have to revert to a very hardline position to hold his party together, and then it would be impossible to run de Hondt after it.
    Could it be that what is unfolding here is the dignity of Peter Hain? Could it be that the man really is just the biggest tube that was ever sent to govern here?
    How long does anyone think it would take to unravel this mess and get the process going again? By Autumn ’07? Hain would have gone by then, to be the new John Prescott – perhaps – and to enjoy a bit of croquet and the fantasy that he had at least made a decent stab at sorting this out.
    Of course, SF could bail him out now with an ard fheis. They could bail out Paisley too, and the process. Or maybe they like having everyone else at their mercy and will indulge the feeling as long as they can.

  • Henry94

    Alternatively Malachi, the DUP could give an indication that they could contemplate the transfer of policing to the Assembly within our lifetimes.

    That would make policing an easier sell for Adams. Of course he would get a majority now but he needs a massive majority. Because if the dissidents fail to make hay on this issue they are done for.

    That is the key political calculation for Adams not whether or not Bob McCartney will create a new party in his own image.

  • Brendan, Belfast

    The drama suits SF fine, keeps them at the centre of every story and it also helps Adams & Co to tell the rest of us all about the huge pressure they are under on policing. I wonder. malachi is right; the election – under the watch of anyone with a shred of politcal dignity – would be a gonner by now. But Hain will stick at it, until he has bribed enough of the maiin unions to make him DPM. quite a life he has carved out for himself.

  • curious

    Jeese,

    Realist, why did John Laethem get the boot? He seemed invaluable to the good people of the lower falls, tireless worker, committed and dynamic, although hardly a free thinker or someone who would likely challenge the SF leadership after all this time.

    Curious

  • Ulick

    Malachi, the DUP can help themselves and us all by committing to share power (including P&J) in the Assembly with those durty Fenians.

  • realist2

    curious you are right John is not a free thinker, it wasn’t over policing as I said. Other than that he blotted his copy book. Nuff said…

  • ingram

    Curious.

    John as a liking for ladies underwear LOL apparently Sinn Fein are not into cross dressing or borrowing them .

    A nice man otherwise. LOL

    Ingram

  • Quaysider

    Ulick – your posting makes no sense. The whole reason for recent developments is that Paisley HAS agreed to share power. The deadlock over devolved policing and justice is a seperate issue and trying to link it back to accusations of refusing to share power is just childish.

  • ciaran damery

    Adams et al do not represent Irish Republicanism. Rather, they are a disgraceful bunch of quislings.

    The current mainstream Army has no teeth, yet they threaten and shoot those Irish people who have not forsaken our right to take on the enemy. Most come from Belfast, many have never been exposed to armed insurrection and some are on a par with Unionist terrorists, in that they couldn’t tell the difference between an RPG and a pipe bomb.

    I never thought it would happen. We have battle hardened republicans, many of whom served ‘big time’ who quit when we had the game one.

    We will have to take Orangism on. We have to punish Britain. The war will resume..the sooner we are ready the better.

    Tiocfaidh ar la.

  • ciaran damery

    Meanwhile, the presence of a tout, a judas, an informer on this site is a joke. Ingram is a former member of FRU. His crowd slaughtered Irish people, he has yet to answer for it. He claims to be a nationalist, of the sdlp type thank christ. The thing is a mass murderer. We saw donaldson, moreland, mcConville, collins et al die for their role as agents of the enemy. Meanwhile, O’Callaghan resides in London whilst McGartland is in Scotland, shittin’ bricks. But Ingram? Why should he remain incognito? Rest assured, he’s for nutting. Can’t fail.