Conflict

The Guardian quotes liberally from Ed Moloney’s analysis on Morning Ireland the other day. He relfects the thoughts of many, when he suggested that, “the hard core of activists are 10 years older than when the [ceasefire] process started. The will to fight has eroded. Politically the situation is very different.” “.However she also notes that its ongoing existence is dragging its political credentials through the mud: In Northern Ireland’s landscape of over 100 criminal gangs – many linked to …

Read more…

WAS Robert McCartney’s life worth less than £26 million? If you think the right to life is worth something more, you may wish to attend a vigil in his memory tomorrow evening.McCartney’s sister told the Belfast Telegraph: Revealing the family circle has been left devastated by the killing of the 33-year-old father of two, Paula told the Belfast Telegraph: “We are gutted by what has happened. “We, as a family, want to dispel the rumours his death was part of …

Read more…

THE Independent Monitoring Commission has handed over its preliminary report on recent paramilitary/criminal activity – including the Northern Bank raid – to the British and Irish Governments today. No detail on the content. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

I just picked this snippet of a five year old article from Newsweek, from the Google ads on the side. It begins with a report from the Felons Club. Then, the impression was that the IRA will never decommission their weapons? In the time that’s passed, despite three unquantified decommissioning events, there is still huge resistence to the state’s (whether Irish or British) monopoly of force within Sinn Fein and the IRA. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He …

Read more…

Suzanne Breen reports that the two governments will not want to be the agency that excludes Sinn Fein from any future arrangements. Instead it will be up to the party’s local rivals to exert political pressure at the up and coming elections in May.At the moment however, this appears to be unlikely: Sinn Féin is unlikely to lose votes in May’s Westminster elections. Indeed, it’s poised to take at least one seat (Newry and Armagh) off the SDLP, and possibly …

Read more…

It’s not ALL bad news. The Irish News (subs needed) gives us a breath of fresh air with this story – Camogie team train at home of Linfield.Full Story: THE unlikely event of a 2010 All-Ireland final being held at Windsor Park was suggested yesterday as it emerged that it has already hosted a camogie training session. For years the home of Linfield football club was seen by many Catholics as an arena of sectarianism, which hosted an infamous derby …

Read more…

Brian Feeney believes the IMC is doomed. He notes at the outset that, “the Taoiseach has indicated the irrelevance of the commission by repeating inside and outside the Dail that he doesn’t believe the it should impose sanctions on Sinn Féin”.Instead, he believes the next big question is where we go next. He suggests that nationalists should argue for: For nationalists the only prospect of advancement of their aims is to beef up all-Ireland bodies, increase all-Ireland cooperation, get speaking …

Read more…

Interesting discussion of last night’s IRA statement on Morning Ireland this morning. Tommie Gorman implied that the IRA’s withdrawal of its offer was something of a political non sequitur, in that there had been no political table since all other players had long since resiled from any deal with them. Update: Martin McGuinness is asked if this is just another twist in the IRA and Sinn Fein’s negotiation tactics (sound file)?One section towards the end of the (in IRA terms) …

Read more…

We were fairly sure that this issue was going to be a bit of a slow burner. The two police chiefs told the Taoiseach today: a number of operations that took place during 2004 – not just the Northern Bank robbery – were the work of the IRA, had sanction from the Army Council and would have been known to the political leadership of the IRA”.Indeed the Irish Independent plausibly claims that the raid took up to two years in …

Read more…

Fintan O’Toole considers (subs needed) Gerry Adams’ remarks on what he claimed to be the Apartheid like conditions suffered by Northern Irish Catholics before 1969.He begins by laying out the premise: This could be dismissed as waffle, but it is deadly serious. It has a point. The denial of basic political and social rights to the majority of the South African population was so complete that it forced the African National Congress into an armed struggle. What Gerry Adams wants …

Read more…

Barney Rowan believes that although there is trouble within the IRA it is not on the scale reported at the weekend. He spoke to one insider: “I would have heard. “I’ve heard nothing. (Are there) internal problems? Yes. Splits? No. People leaving? Yes. Anger? Yes.” Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK …

Read more…

Malachi O’Doherty argues that the people we can least afford to listen to after the apparent failure of the peace process are those individuals that pursuaded the bulk of the population that the Belfast Agreement would bring the IRA in from the cold. Indeed he believes that key players, like John Hume and Albert Reynolds have too much invested in the past, to be trusted to rise above their own narrow political interests.The ball he believes is with the SDLP. …

Read more…

Niall O’Dowd believes that Ahern’s attack on Sinn Fein is problematic for the party, especially in Irish America: The reason Sinn Féin is worried is clear. Bertie Ahern is the only figure who comes near in stature to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams among Irish American leaders, so when he speaks in such critical terms it has a major impact on the dynamic. Ahern’s dedicated work over the years on the peace process and his ‘get along manner’ have ensured …

Read more…

THE Sindo reports that the IRA may not have been as close to going away as many commentators had suggested before the talks collapsed. Jim Cusack suggests that a ‘limited return to war’ is on the cards, in order to prevent the IRA from splitting. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

While the debate raged yesterday over President McAleese’s remarks, the only individual brought to trial in regard to the Omagh bombing, Colm Murphy, was released on bail after the Court of Criminal Appeal ruled that his conviction was unsafe and ordered a re-trial. As RTE reports, he will receive costs for the original trial and legal aid for the re-trial, scheduled for April 5. Pete Baker

LOOKS like there were some fun and games down at Belfast’s Laganside courthouse today. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

Mary McAleese has gotten herself into a lot of hot water over her remarks on Morning Ireland yesterday, in which she compared Nazi in doctrination against Jews to Protestant attitudes to Catholics in Nothern Ireland. The remarks have caused a furore amongst Ulster Protestants. Ian Paisley Junior remarked: “So much for bridge-building Mary”. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular …

Read more…

At lunch time in the Seanad, the Justice Minister Michael McDowell laid heavily into Sinn Fein, making direct comparisons between the killings at Teebane with the ‘separations’ in the death camp at Auschwitz. In effect he gets at the sectarian nature of the operation, and the political direction behind it. The report will become live at the Oireachtas site in about an hour and a half. Update: The minister obviously had his massacre’s mixed. Teebane was the result of an …

Read more…

Two of this week’s Telegraph columnists posed questions of Bertie Ahern this week. Steven King last night asked if he would defend democracy or adopt the usual tactic of carry on regardless. Earlier Malachi O’Doherty pointed out that the two versions of the truth could not be true, and that either the Taoiseach or the President of Sinn Fein was lying over the involvement of the IRA in the bank heist. In the end that was not the ground the …

Read more…

In what looks like a concerted effort between all the major government players, Gerry Kelly’s meeting in Washington was downgraded from Mitchell Reiss to a senior official in his department. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty