ira – Page 2 – Slugger O'Toole

IRA weapons wholly beyond use: a once white lie now a blood stained black

Turgon on March 7, 2016, 8:30 pm

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The latest attempted murder by republican terrorists involved an attempt to kill a prison officer with a booby trap car bomb. This tactic was one of the IRA’s favourites throughout the Troubles (and occasionally adopted by others). Thankfully the victim survived and all decent people wish him well: though as so often one wonders how well he will recover both physically and mentally. Clearly the responsibility for this latest crime is borne solely by those involved in it. However, as …

Why suffer allegations of involvement with the nutting squad? Because you’re worth it.

Brian Walker on October 31, 2015, 11:00 am

| Readers 2014

EXPENSIVE INJUSTICE: The whole cat’s cradle of allegation and murder is getting more expensive by the day, The DDPs’ decision to reopen the entire Scappaticci file won’t make it any cheaper. See today’s Times (£) for the latest. Stand by for the inevitable public row.

Why “Equality under the law” is a prerequisite for a stable, long term and unprocessed peace…

Mick Fealty on October 21, 2015, 1:47 pm

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It’s just too good not to reprint Ed Moloney’s latest headline in its entirity: ‘They Haven’t Gone Away, You Know!’ And That’s Okay With Us, Say Brits… Aside from the dark humour involved, he usefully points back to the IMC report of September 2008. Now with regard to the pressure now mounting on Peter Robinson over a statement he made just prior to that report, this is all very pertinent. Here’s the guts of Robinson’s statement: “There is no purpose for having …

Cartoon – ‘Larv-IRA’

Brian Spencer on September 17, 2015, 12:02 am

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CARTOON: On Bobby Storey’s strange (and self serving) anthropomorphic metaphor describing the transformation of the IRA, from a caterpillar into a butterfly: “They’ve flown away, you know?”

Ahern: IRA allowed continue to prevent vacuum

David McCann on August 27, 2015, 10:20 am

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Since he left office in 2008, Bertie Ahern rarely ventures into the spotlight or gives any real in-depth comments about Northern Ireland. However, even his most ardent critics would acknowledge his role in bringing about the Good Friday and St. Andrews Agreement. Today he as spoken to Fiach Kelly in the Irish Times about the current crisis in Northern Ireland. Kelly gives his introduction; Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said it was envisaged the Provisional IRA would continue to exist …

Threatening the existence of the Assembly is a victory for terrorism

Brian Walker on August 25, 2015, 1:38 pm

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Oh God, not another fundamental breakpoint founded on the highest principles, whether they’re about welfare or the IRA! Come on, get real. This kerfuffle over “IRA structures” will pass. For all their simulated outrage over the IRA or welfare, no politician – none of the leaders anyway – want to close Stormont down. Electoral politics are also in play on both sides of the border. We should discount it. No clear advantage can be gained by any party threatening to …

Adams: ‘Those who threaten to take action against Sinn Féin in the Assembly and Executive have no basis whatsoever for this.’

David McCann on August 21, 2015, 11:58 pm

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Continuing the round of statements from party leaders, the Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has spoken about the recent developments in the McGuigan murder. Here are his comments; The killing of Kevin McGuigan was wrong and those who were involved in it are criminals who do not represent republicanism. The so-called group Action against Drugs is a criminal gang. It is a mix of criminals and former republicans who have engaged in intimidation and violence in pursuit of their criminal …

Ex IRA man Kevin McGuigan Sr shot dead in the Short Strand area…

Brian O'Neill on August 13, 2015, 10:09 am

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A suspect in the Jock Jock Davison murder was last night shot dead in the Short Strand area of Belfast. The Irish News has good coverage on the story: The former IRA killer is believed to have pulled the trigger on his one-time boss Davison, who was shot dead in the city’s Markets area in May. Once a high-ranking republican, McGuigan was jailed for the attempted murder of a soldier during the Troubles. He was kneecapped by the Provisionals more than a decade ago …

Stakeknife is in the Police Ombudsman’s frame, but has he the tools to do the job?

Brian Walker on June 2, 2015, 11:39 am

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One of the casualties of the failure to implement the Stormont House Agreement is I presume, the extra £150 million due to have been allocated over five years for dealing with the past. Although I know of no details of how the funding was to be shared out, some of it would have been apportioned to the Police Ombudsman, an office whose reputation has been revived by the redoubtable Dr Michael Maguire. He issued a warning last year of the consequences of budget …

Cartoon – A shared future (of talking to inanimate objects)

Brian Spencer on May 20, 2015, 7:44 pm

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On Tuesday May 19 2015 Prince Charles met and shook hands with Gerry Adams in Galway, composing a vista unimaginable until recently. The Colonel-in-Chief of the parachute regiment meets with Uachtaráin Sinn Féin, arch-monarchist and arch-republican. Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/

Roy Mason, the last to believe in outright IRA defeat

Brian Walker on April 21, 2015, 10:33 am

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Roy Mason who has died aged 91 was Northern Ireland Secretary of State from 1976 to the end of the Labour government in 1979. He was “short in stature and long in self confidence “ as David McKittrick rightly described him. He even designed his own peculiarly vented and lapelled tight fitting light khaki suits. When I last met him a few years ago at the launch of a Northern Ireland stamp, he was eloquent about his collection. He retained heavy police security at …

Cardinal Dolan compares Islamic State to the IRA

Brian O'Neill on March 5, 2015, 10:20 am

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The Newsletter is reporting the comments of Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York. The Cardinal said: “Remember 30, 35, 40 years ago with the IRA in Ireland? The IRA claimed to be Catholic, ok? And they were baptised; they had a Catholic identity. What they were doing was a perversion of everything the church stood for.” Watch the interview below and let us know your views in the comments. Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by …

Raymond McCreesh play park, democracy and judicial activism

Turgon on February 15, 2015, 8:28 pm

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The Newry play park named after IRA hunger striker (and leading suspect in the Kingsmills murders) Raymond McCreesh has kept its name. Unionists on Newry council called a vote on changing the name. One SDLP councillor abstained on the vote whilst the others were not present: something denounced by victims’ campaigner Kenny Donaldson. This despite the SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell opposing the local SDLP’s previous failure to back a name change. Unionists have vowed to continue the fight when the …

Of Speakers, yoghurt, murdering pensioners and hypocrisy

Turgon on January 17, 2015, 4:23 pm

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This week saw Mitchell McLaughlin elected as Speaker of the Assembly. The News Letter pointed to his previous comments refusing to accept that the murder of Jean McConville was a crime. Leaving aside McLaughlin personally there is a certain symbolism in a Sinn Fein speaker being elected just a week before the 34th anniversary of the murder of the old Stormont speaker Sir Norman Stronge. Sir Norman was born in 1894 and fought at the Somme. His election as speaker …

Charlie: Remembering the Haughey era

David McCann on December 7, 2014, 5:15 pm

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Two reasons I bring this up now, the first is the annoucement of the Charlie drama which will be hitting RTE on 4th January 2015. and second, today is the 35th anniversary of the election of Charles Haughey as Fianna Fail leader. For any of you not familiar with Irish history, Haughey beat his long time rival George Colley with 44 votes-38. His win a huge shock to the senior figures in the party, all but two of the cabinet …

The trolling of Ann Travers

The Firemen on November 30, 2014, 3:12 pm

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The first in a three part series exploring so-called ‘trolling’ and abuse on social media At the beginning of November 2014 it was widely reported that victims campaigner Ann Travers had closed down her Facebook and Twitter accounts following a barrage of online abuse. It’s worth reminding people of the fact that Ann’s sister, Mary, was murdered by the IRA in Belfast in 1984. The target of the ambush was their father, Tom, a resident magistrate. He survived. In 2011 …

Maíria Cahill – A statement

The Firemen on October 26, 2014, 11:30 pm

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The following statement has been given to many news sources including Slugger and we reproduce it here without any commentary. It is very strange to see myself being described as a dissident republican, when I would not even consider myself a republican anymore. The Irish Mail On Sunday story correctly states that I was, involved with a group going by the name “Republican Network for Unity”. The story however, was inaccurate and slanted. I was indeed the National Secretary of …

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

Mick Fealty on October 25, 2014, 9:59 am

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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 …

Madden and Finucane on the ending of the #Cahill court case…

The Firemen on October 22, 2014, 8:51 pm

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Madden and Finucane Solicitors, acting on behalf of Padraic Wilson, Seamus Finucane, Briege Wright and Maura McCrory have issued a letter stating their opposition to Mairia Cahill‘s version of events: It states that those accused have been subject to a lengthy police investigation and that Cahill has been “afforded every resource the state could offer”. The letter states that Padraic Wilson had previously been a member of the IRA had been dismissed by a court previously and claims that Mairia Cahill, “would …

#CahillScandal: Are we validating rape as normal pyschosexual behaviour?

Mick Fealty on October 16, 2014, 9:46 am

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Ed Moloney correctly notes that what Mairia Cahill outlined on Tuesday night’s Spotlight was (and remains) a scandal. If you doubt it, ask yourself why up to 13 individuals tried and failed at the High Court to have their names removed from the programme? The picture painted by Cahill is of Sinn Fein corporately acting on the orders of the IRA: that much fabled and little talked about Movement to cover up multiple rape. Moloney also suggests the possibility that the PSNI colluded with former Provisionals …