Martin McGuinness – Page 9 – Slugger O'Toole

Hogan hits the panic button: #aras11

John Ó Néill on October 2, 2011, 11:51 pm

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While the Dunphy show had the Mitchell v McGuinness face-off, the real fun was elsewhere, including today’s Sunday Independent which had a direct attack on Sinn Féin’s candidate by Fine Gael’s Phil Hogan (amongst others). It is hard to believe (looking at this morning’s paper) that the campaign is still a long way out from election day. Hogan, a Carlow-Kilkenny TD, is the party’s blunt director of elections and general fixer (and erstwhile Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government). While the paper contained a number of articles, Hogan’s intervention in the presidential …

#Aras11: McGuinness versus Mitchell on Newstalk

Mick Fealty on October 2, 2011, 9:26 pm

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This debate on the Dunphy Show this morning is well worth listening to for two reasons. One, given Mr Dunphy has said he will be voting for Martin McGuinness, we can be fairly sure the Derry man was given a fair crack of the whip. And two, it’s the first time on this campaign I’ve heard Gay Mitchell (a Queens graduate) put through his paces. Those of you who have already heard it will no doubt have your views immediately …

Martin McGuinness: “the past is a very, very dark place for everybody.”

Pete Baker on September 29, 2011, 6:17 pm

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In response to a challenge to appear in front of the Smithwick Tribunal, Sinn Féin’s candidate in the Irish Presidential election, Martin McGuinness, MP, MLA, has said that he has “no problem at all attending the tribunal”. But he added that he has “no direct knowledge of the circumstances surrounding” the murder of Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan. Earlier today, Martin McGuinness said he could not recall the incident Peter Murtagh wrote about in today’s Irish Times, threatened Frank Hegarty’s family with recounting his …

If McGuinness is right then an awful lot of people are lying about the past…

Mick Fealty on September 29, 2011, 1:45 pm

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Brian Feeney makes a strong point in yesterday’s Irish News in which he contrasts the ‘good’ IRA (the one that spawned the mainstream political parties of the Republic), and the ‘bad’, the one operated solely by their political rivals, Sinn Fein. If there is a difference in the treatment given each, then it is surely dependent on more than just an inchoate animus within the southern media towards us rough neck Nordies. Three alternative factors immediately come to mind: The ‘Free …

McGuinness: success is just about losing well?

Blank on September 28, 2011, 8:29 pm

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Martin McGuinness’ entry into the Presidential race has surely shook things up. However while some of the shriller media commentary has focused on the danger of him winning, it is past time to ask what would really constitute a victory for McGuinness and Sinn Féin. For this discussion we may need to abandon the ludicrous notion he was ever ‘in it to win it’. If you accept SF didn’t enter their star man into the contest to be beaten and …

Massaging the past for the convenience of the politics of the present…

Mick Fealty on September 28, 2011, 12:00 pm

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Mark Devenport neatly removes the problem of Martin McGuinness’ past as an IRA commander one step. Instead he looks at the record of Gusty Spence, who’s activities in the early sixties almost certainly radicalised the Catholic youth of the time, helping to lay the tinder for the mass killing of the early 1970s: I talked to the acting PUP leader Hugh Smyth on “Inside Politics” and found him keen to pay tribute to Gusty Spence’s track record as a peacemaker, …

Martin McGuinness plans to take a new broom to ‘pacific’ Aras tradition…

Mick Fealty on September 27, 2011, 12:08 pm

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Áras an Uachtaráin - residence of the Irish President, and soon to be home to Northern Irish bees

I think this is well worth noting. Too many, it seems to me are presuming things about the Irish Presidency which rely on tradition (not least the one that says Fianna Fail’s guiding hand must be on all, but one, incumbent) but are not actually written into the Constitution. Martin McGuinness takes the trouble to point out what some of his plans are, should he be lucky enough to win the race to the Aras: “There have been some suggestions …

#Aras11 Round Up: The ‘Let’s Get McGuinness’ Edition…

Mick Fealty on September 26, 2011, 9:48 am

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Áras an Uachtaráin - residence of the Irish President, and soon to be home to Northern Irish bees

First of an occasional series from now until the presidential election, a round up: – In the letters section of the Irish Times, from Brian Bourke in London: It seems to me the candidacy of Martin McGuinness is polarising the nation. On the one side we have blind optimism that he may actually stand a chance of being elected. On the other there is blind fear that he might actually stand a chance of being elected. – If this campaign …

Contradiction in McGuinness advice to informers between 1986 and 2011?

Mick Fealty on September 26, 2011, 9:17 am

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There was a wall of ‘criticism’ (simmering outrage might be a better description) in the southern papers… In the midst of it all buried within a suite of articles on the torture and killing of IRA informer Frank Hegarty there’s an interesting snippet worthy of further consideration. Upsetting detail aside there’s an apparent contradiction in Martin McGuinness’ own account of what happened: ‘I said to that member that if Frank Hegarty was guilty of being a British agent, then my …

McGuinness – “Step Back and Bite the Bullet”

Dewi on September 21, 2011, 1:55 pm

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I hesitate before posting but I think it adds something: McKittrick in the Independent (Yesterday I know…)…. Another IRA victim who has been impressed with Mr McGuinness is Mark Eakin, a Protestant whose eight- year-old sister was one of nine people killed in IRA car-bomb attacks near Londonderry in 1972. Mr Eakin has spoken several times with Mr McGuinness and said yesterday he thought the Sinn Fein leader would make a good head of state. He added: “You have to …

Bowler hats, West Brits and the advantage of keeping your past in another country

Mick Fealty on September 21, 2011, 1:34 pm

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Okay, I apologise for yet another post on the McGuinness candidacy (there’s loads of stuff out there). I am trying to do something more useful with my time, honestly. But this from Miriam Lord, is just too good to miss: That David Norris guy is different. He has been known to wear a bowler hat on Bloomsday and sounds like a West Brit. He deserves to be fully interrogated about his past – which he was recently, with disastrous consequences …

#Aras11: “McGuinness may prove a very compliant ninth President of the Irish Republic”

Mick Fealty on September 20, 2011, 3:27 pm

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Sinn Fein’s audacious move to the south in putting Martin McGuinness’s name into the Presidential ring has several aspects. One, the simplest, it has livened up an election which was looking like the dullest political event on the island since, erm, perhaps the last Assembly election. On the face of it that’s a distinct advantage. It gets Mr McGuinness more face time than any Sinn Fein TD could ever wish for. Defacto, it also means that for now, the story …

Martin McGuinness: “I wasn’t a member of the IRA when that happened…”

Pete Baker on September 19, 2011, 6:51 pm

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Sinn Féin’s candidate in the Irish Presidential election, Martin McGuinness, MP, MLA, told RTÉ’s This Week programme yesterday that “If people want to examine my record, let them examine my record. I stand on my record.” But not before McGuinness declined the invitation by Colm O’Mongain for full disclosure of his role in the Provisional IRA, and quoting Tony Blair, [but not Jonathan Powell? – Ed] and citing meetings with US Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama, and, of course, Nelson Mandela. …

Will the McGuinness candidacy be an audacious use of Sinn Fein’s kitchen sink?

Mick Fealty on September 19, 2011, 9:38 am

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Áras an Uachtaráin - residence of the Irish President, and soon to be home to Northern Irish bees

So who says the cutest hoors in Ireland are all from Dublin? We have one or two of our own in Belfast [And Carrigart? – Ed]. On Friday, Eamonn Mallie asked on Twitter why Martin McGuinness’ nascent bid to run for Irish President hadn’t got a mention on the Late Late Show made no mention of the only story in Belfast town. Instead Tubridy and Co were focused on the Norris confession that he’s thinking about re-entry, in the context …

Adams Proposes McGuinness to be Sinn Féin Candidate for Áras

Pete Baker on September 16, 2011, 5:23 pm

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Which would seem to guarantee that the current Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, MP, MLA, will be the party’s candidate in the Irish Presidential election. I have to say that I didn’t believe the rumours, but RTÉ are quoting the Sinn Féin president, and Louth TD, Gerry Adams “This is a time of great challenge for all the people of Ireland. We need positive but authentic leadership. It will be a great honour for me to propose …

David Latimer’s speech: if an opportunity; one he missed completely

Turgon on September 10, 2011, 7:23 pm

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Following on from Mark’s blog with Rev. David Latimer’s speech to the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis, I thought an analysis of the speech from a unionist perspective was maybe worthwhile. I have already suggested some possible motives for why Latimer said what he said. However, leaving aside the poor delivery, the preening, the media chasing and anything which might though accurate be described as man playing: why was it nonsense and incorrect? The first reason is simple whataboutery. Whataboutery is …

Some observations from the opening night of the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 10, 2011, 12:52 am

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Rev David Latimer addresses the Ard Fheis 2011

Metal barriers surround the Belfast’s Waterfront Hall this afternoon. A police landrover sits discreetly across the road. Yellow bibbed security teams thoroughly examine the bags of everyone arriving. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are in the main hall rehearsing their conference speeches using the teleprompter. Earlier in the day, twenty five or so elected representatives and rising stars rehearsed their two minute speeches that will delivered during the “live” section on Saturday when BBC and RTE are broadcasting live from …

Rev. David Latimer at the Ard Fheis

Blank on September 9, 2011, 8:39 pm

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For those that missed it you can see Martin McGuiness introduce his friend David Latimer to the Ard Fheis and then his speech from 15mins on: Video streaming by Ustream Mick Adds: Blank

David Ford: “as minister my decision has to be bound by the best professional advice I can be given.”

Pete Baker on August 4, 2011, 11:23 am

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Having met with various interested parties, and despite the advice from Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, the Northern Ireland Justice Minister, David Ford, has rejected calls to free former Provisional IRA member Brendan Lillis on compassionate grounds. From the BBC report Mr Ford said he had taken “an active interest” in the case and had sought additional independent medical advice. However, he said while it was within his power to free Mr Lillis, he had been advised that there were not sufficient grounds for …

McGuinness: “I trust that David Ford will take the right decision…”

Pete Baker on August 2, 2011, 7:27 pm

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Having interfered in an ongoing police investigation last week, this week the Northern Ireland deputy First Minister Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, MP, MLA, doubles up by giving the NI Justice Minster, David Ford, some legal advice. From the BBC report “There can be no doubt that Brendan Lillis is seriously ill and does not represent a threat to anyone,” Mr McGuinness said. “The decision of the British Secretary of State Owen Paterson to revoke the licence of Brendan Lillis is …