Martin McGuinness

McGuinness’s Al Jazeera interview: Terrorism, conflict and a popular peace

| Readers 94

This is a fascinating encounter between Martin McGuinness and a canny and formidable interlocutor from Al Jazeera Mehdi Hasan… To keep it simple, the programme is split into two sections, one to do with the wartime stuff, and the second part on the journey towards peace. 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 …

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How’s that story holding up for you now dFM?

| Readers 55

More from the Vixens this morning, this time concerning Martin McGuinness’s status within the IRA post the 1974 date he gave in the Presidential election of 2011: The extent to which I struggle to understand SF’s reasoning can be measured precisely in that odd decision to Martin a public leave date from the IRA. All it does is incentivise people to prove he didn’t… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the …

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Cartoon – With friends like these

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  Who needs enemies? And of course it’s been said:  “I fear the real danger for Unionism lies not in what our opponents would seek to do to us but in what we do to ourselves.”   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/

When Manley met Marty

| Readers 57

The Irish News political reporter John Manley spoke with Martin McGuinness ahead of the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis in Wexford this weekend. The interview covered his relationship with the DUP, the image of the Executive and his political future. It was overall an interesting interview as Manley compared McGuinness’ attitude to that of a ‘spurned lover’ when he spoke about his relationship with the DUP.  The interview in its entirety is worth a read but there are some bits here …

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McGuinness: in the city of Belfast the UVF, the PUP and the Orange Order are one and the same thing // Robinson responds to the “dictator” deputy First Minister

| Readers 258

The moment that draft seven of the Haass proposals went into the shredder may well have been at 10:45pm when BBC NI’s The View broadcast deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness telling Mark Carruthers: Mainstream unionist elected representatives have told me that they accept my analysis that in the city of Belfast the UVF, the PUP and the Orange Order are one and the same thing … I believe it needs to be challenged. Just as I have challenged those so-called …

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Cartoon – A Happy New Year return gift

| Readers 59

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/

Cartoon – Haass talks 2.0

| Readers 34

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/

Cartoon – away from Home, Alone 2

| Readers 60

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/

“The fact of the matter is that somebody ordered that Jean McConville be murdered…”

| Readers 120

The BBC reported that, following the broadcast of the recent BBC/RTÉ programme on The Disappeared, the Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness said The fact that some families still do not know where their murdered relatives were secretly buried by the IRA is a “wound that must not be left to fester” [But whose wound, Martin? – Ed]  And on what body…  The quote continues, “I understand that these killings happened decades ago and those involved may …

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Peter Robinson: “We must learn to communicate better…”

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Interesting comments reported by the BBC from the Northern Ireland First Minister, DUP leader Peter Robinson, speaking at a Co-Operation Ireland dinner at Queen’s University in Belfast on Thursday night.  From the BBC report Mr Robinson said that while it is easier and more comfortable for politicians and people in wider society to retreat to safe and familiar ground, that is not the ground where progress will be made. “I am entirely convinced that a shared and united society in …

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Robinson U turn shows the urgent need for mediation

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  They must have put up Chinese walls inside Stormont Castle since I was there last.  The sudden collapse of Peter Robinson’s position over the Maze peace centre strongly suggests that the joint leaders haven’t even managed to have  frank exchanges about the past, much less wrestled with how actually to deal with it. But the bigger problem stretches down the hill to streets below. DUP electoral dominance has been again exposed as offering no protection against unionist fragmentation and a stampede …

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“Adding more weapons to this volatile situation could destabilise the entire region…”

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The Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers were in a sunny Downing Street garden yesterday, welcoming that suspect package, and extolling the virtues of demonstrating “peacefully, positively, constructively” [Is that with, or without, a Thompson sub-machine gun? – Ed]  Without, probably…  ANYhoo, on the same day Sinn Féin released the text of what appears to be a different speech to that delivered in Downing Street by the Mid Ulster MP Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness – made at …

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“[Mr. Robinson, Mr. McGuinness], tear down this wall!”

| Readers 58

Caption competition I’ve kicked it off: “[Mr. Robinson, Mr. McGuinness], tear down this wall!” 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/

Seize the opportunities opened up by the Good Relations strategy. Don’t write it off

| Readers 52

Mick’s last post is probably representative of the muted reaction to the long awaited initiative. All the same I’d rather take a more positive approach and – yes!-  begin with accepting it at face value.   So I’m asking: are critics justified in  writing off  already the Cohesion Sharing and Integration statement ( not yet a strategy and not actually labelled CSI)?  Do we pin all the blame for its gaps and evasions on Peter Robinson and the DUP and Martin McGuinness and Sinn …

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“during the Derry visit, Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson were nowhere to be seen, surely mindful of their upcoming trade mission to China.”

| Readers 70

According to an Irish News report today …OFMDFM has refuted any suggestion that the Stormont leaders snubbed the Dalai Lama when he visited Derry last month. A spokesperson for OFMDFM said the ministers were unable to attend “due to prior diary commitments”. Which is fine…  After all, “diary pressures” was the same excuse Tony Blair gave in 2004 when he was accused of snubbing the Tibetan leader – although they had already met in 1999 in a “spiritual capacity”.  And it appears …

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Martin McGuinness: “a lack of cohesion between Unionist and Republican Ministers … frankly this isn’t good enough” (updated with his Saturday observations about dissidents & Orange Order)

| Readers 79

Some excerpts below from this evening’s speech by Martin McGuinness at the Castlebar ard fheis. You can listen along … though he was rudely interrupted in the live stream by adverts for Gaviscon Double Action and Harpic White and Shinner Shine at one point! listen to ‘Martin McGuinness @M_McGuinness_SF addressing 2013 Sinn Fein Ard Fheis #sfaf13’ on Audioboo Fifteen years ago this weekend the eyes of the world were firmly fixed on Ireland. Hope, Expectation, even Disbelief were in the …

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“But we’re still part of the UK…”

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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 McKee Paul Clark to ask the obvious question to Alex Maskey’s opening assertion.  Here’s what the Sinn Féin MLA claimed The fundamental difference between before the …

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Imagine … TEDx talks by Peter Robinson, Martin McGuinness and others … under the gaze of Lord Craigavon

| Readers 81

The Great Hall (the entrance hall) of Parliament Buildings up on the hill is a commanding setting for today’s TEDxStormont event. Seventeen speakers, three musical artists, the statue of Lord Craigavon basking in orange red light, and the portrait of Lord Bannside looking down on the couple of hundred delegates sitting below (with a small bottle of the devil’s buttermilk in their goody bags). The First Minster and deputy First Minister were the first two speakers this morning, fitting in …

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Absentee OFMdFM leadership thawing out in Brazil?

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Brilliant piece of’so-whatness’ from MalachiO’Doherty on an OFMdFM that seems not to understand yet that it is they who are in charge, or Matt Baggott, or anyone of a dozen favourite bogeymen… Have you been down to the beach? Copacabana? Pina Colada? That’s what you need, some chill-out time to talk over your wee differences. Like the flags. Puts the whole thing in perspective, eh? No need to be getting so rattled about it that you have to virtually boycott …

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How do Robinson and McGuinness explain their anti- EU stances to Brazilian and other would be overseas investors?

| Readers 76

The Financial Times (£)  have another report warning of possible dire consequences if the UK voted to leave the EU in a 2017 referendum,  not least for Ireland north and south. An UK exit from the EU would produce huge complications to cross border trade – you can just imagine trying to put in place bilateral arrangements,” said Steve Aitken, chief executive of the British-Irish Chamber of Commerce. “Businesses don’t recognise the national boundaries that politicians do and are extremely …

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