Martin on the Starmer report: “It’s time for Gerry Adams to own up and come clean…”

And whilst the SDLP gets tangled in all kinds of mess with welfare reform, Micheal Martin keeps up his one man Republican opposition to Sinn Fein on the Starmer report (copy via reader Jag) released yesterday… The report vindicates Mairia Cahill who bravely stood up to on-going abuse and spin by Sinn Féin. Consistent claims that the court case had found all suspects not guilty have been given their proper context by this report. The unacceptable delays and weakening of …

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Gerry Adams: Guidelines or Rules? What rules?

As the Gardaí confirm that a file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions relating to the alleged sexual assault of Paudie McGahon and another male in the 1990s, further questions are being asked of Sinn Fein’s handling of the issue. Gerry Adams, and his party, accept that both Maíria Cahill and Paudie McGahon were raped. Both allege they were assaulted by senior figures in the republican movement. As Miriam Lord in today’s Irish Times reports: Broadcaster Pat Kenny …

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Running out of tricks?

By very kind permission of Niall O’Loughlin [twitter_follow username=”https://twitter.com/nialloloughlin” language=”en”] The Firementwitter.com/The_Firemen

Report reveals a long post conflict history of Loyalist and Republican abuse of children…

Off The Record NI picked up on Lawrence Liam Kennedy’s report which highlights the extent of paramilitary ‘abuse’ of children… Between 1990 and 2013: 94 children were shot by loyalist paramilitaries. 73 children were shot by republican paramilitaries. 166 children were beaten – some badly mutilated – by loyalist paramilitaries. 178 children were beaten by Republican paramilitaries. In total, more than 500 children abused by the IRA, UVF, UDA etc. As Jason Murdoch notes: There is little doubt that paramilitary …

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The Taoiseach: “I will ask them the question that the Deputy will not answer.”

There was a clear attempt at political revisionism this week, as the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, TD, sought to, as Anthony McIntyre put it, “claw back lost ground” following an “unprecedented” Leaders’ questions in the Dáil on Wednesday 22 Oct – aided and abetted by interventions from the legal representative of four of those accused, and acquitted, in the Maíria Cahill case. [added in-line link] This is the position the Sinn Fein president attempted to end the week with “I further understand that Peter …

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Sinn Fein’s contradictory stance between moral certitude of the Provisionals and its modern promises to Ireland

In 1997 Ray Burke informed RTE after his hour long session in the Dail that ‘the line is in the sand, from this day on this is D day, I move on’. Within a month he resigned as Minister for Foreign Affairs following an allegation of corruption which led to the setting up of what became the Flood Tribunal. Burke was jailed for tax fraud in 2004. By contrast the retribution of the state seems to hold little fear for Sinn Fein, in the sense …

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Cahill demands full disclosure from Mary Lou McDonald and Sinn Fein

If you missed it, it is well worth watching Mairia Cahill on Vincent Browne last night… It’s an extraordinarily well conducted interview by Browne who stays focused the whole way through. Ms Cahill seems to start pretty nervously which provoked a few (mercifully few) Twitter to talk about doubting her story. Other still questioned the timing of these revelations, still measuring this all as a deliberate political attack on an emergent Sinn Fein. On one level the answer is pretty simple. …

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