Parties – Page 78 – Slugger O'Toole

On the public utility of deceit and rejection of Republicanism’s millenarian ambition…

Mick Fealty on April 6, 2010, 8:18 pm

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Richard English has a cracking review of the Voices from the Grave in the Irish Times last week… Just here he gets to the crux of why the posthumous blows from an old dead comrade will in eyes of many in wider society simply bounce off the public persona of Gerry Adams, despite the Sinn Fein leader’s continued public dissembling about the reality of his own past… ‘There is little doubt that, despite his denials, Adams had a significant career …

Strangford report: DUP’s residual infrastructure may make the difference…

Mick Fealty on April 6, 2010, 6:41 pm

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We won’t be going in for constituency profiles, since the ones Sammy Morse provided two years ago are as comprehensive a tool as any we can provide. So from time to time we’ll be dipping into the most competitive/interesting races, and occasion dropping in to sample local opinion for ourselves. Today we start with what is on paper could be one of the more competitive races in Strangford. Much of that is based on the departure of its former MP …

Strangford report: DUP’s residual infrastructure may make the difference…

Mick Fealty on April 6, 2010, 5:41 pm

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We won’t be going in for constituency profiles, since the ones Sammy Morse provided two years ago are as comprehensive a tool as any we can provide. So from time to time we’ll be dipping into the most competitive/interesting races, and occasion dropping in to sample local opinion for ourselves. Today we start with what is on paper could be one of the more competitive races in Strangford. Much of that is based on the departure of its former MP …

Predicting the nationalist contest

Chris Donnelly on April 6, 2010, 5:07 am

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With the Westminster election campaign due to be officially launched later today, I thought I’d steal in with a post predicting what I believe will be the key outcomes of the intra-nationalist contest. Sinn Fein will safely coast to victory in four of its five seats, with Fermanagh South Tyrone providing the only real challenge- and expect the pressure within nationalism to mount if, as expected, unionism fields single candidates in Fermanagh South Tyrone and/ or South Belfast. The focus …

“campaign against me is not really about me at all…”

Pete Baker on April 6, 2010, 4:50 am

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What’s evident from Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams’ speech at the weekend – along with his attempt to equate criticism of his personal toxic denials of involvement in the Provisional IRA with a campaign of “black propaganda, the lies and smears and disinformation and the efforts to criminalise our struggle” – is his effort to assuage self-declared members of the Provisional IRA. From Adams’ speech This is bigger than me. This is about us as a republican community, especially in …

Chris Grayling adopts the Adrian Watson policy position…

Mick Fealty on April 5, 2010, 3:16 pm

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It seems the British press are roasting Chris Grayling for his suggestion to an audience at a Centre for Policy Studies meeting that people running private guest houses should be allowed to exercise their own conscience over who they accept and don’t accept as guests… AKA, the Adrian Watson position, the Ulster Unionist candidate who was apparently ousted by the Tory central office, because he espoused precisely the self same policy position. The position of candidate for South Antrim (probably …

“and for a time remained faithful to the IRA leadership and Sinn Fein.”

Pete Baker on April 5, 2010, 5:33 am

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If the Sunday Times article is accurate, why has the Northern Ireland Secretary of State not revoked Bernard McGinn’s early release licence? Fear of a legal challenge? Although some of the original convictions were successfully appealed on the basis that he was not properly cautioned, a twenty year sentence imposed in 1999 remains – despite only 16 months having been served. From the Sunday Times report Bernard McGinn, 52, a master bomber and gunman from Co Monaghan, is among a …

“We do not want foreigners in here.”

Pete Baker on April 4, 2010, 2:07 am

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The Irish Times’ Miriam Lord spotted this outburst by Fianna Fáil TD for Cork East, Edward ‘Ned’ O’Keeffe, during the Dáil debate on the banking system on Tuesday – the same day that the Irish Financial Regulator, Chief Exexcutive Matthew Elderfield, took High Court action against Quinn Insurance. From the Dáil record Deputy Edward O’Keeffe: Why should AIB be told to sell its assets in the next 30 days? It should be given space to sell its assets and they …

An “up to date assessment” of Gerry Adams

Pete Baker on April 3, 2010, 4:43 am

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The BBC reports that Sinn Fein has said its leader Gerry Adams has been told that an attack against him is “a strong possibility”. Which can’t be comfortable for the Sinn Féin president, given the pressure he evidently feels himself to be under… But, unlike any ordinary citizen, this news was apparently conveyed not by the PSNI [pdf file], but by the Northern Ireland Security Minister Paul Goggins… Not that any of those latterly mentioned are going to discuss the …

Campaign to start Tuesday and still no UU candidate for South Antrim…

Mick Fealty on April 2, 2010, 10:02 pm

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Here’s one that’s been doing the rounds for a while… Reg Empey to stand in South Antrim? But if it is Noel MacAdam in the Telegraph quotes a member of the local association, Reg’s slowness to move is helping fill the space with negative speculation: “He would be seen and criticised as someone who didn’t want to run, being parachuted in at some sort of trouble-shooter and whatever the reasons for not standing in east Belfast still apply,” Note, this …

“The group has a history of falling foul of the regulatory authorities…”

Pete Baker on April 2, 2010, 10:00 pm

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In October 2008, after the Irish Financial Regulator imposed record fines [€3.25million] on Quinn Insurance Ltd, and on Seán Quinn personally [€200,000], Seán Quinn resigned as chairman and as a director of that company, but not from the Quinn Group. The key issue, at the time, was a loan of €288million, extended from the insurance company to another related company, which was used to part finance the Quinn family’s purchase of shares in Anglo Irish Bank. It later emerged that …

“What kind of eejits do [these] people take us for?”

Pete Baker on April 2, 2010, 6:33 pm

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As Liam Clarke points out in the Belfast Telegraph, despite Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams’ toxic denials and occasional press conferences, Brendan Hughes’ account of Adams’ role in the Provisional IRA is corroborated by others. From the Belfast Telegraph article All IRA veterans – not to mention police and Army members who have spoken on the issue – tell a story which is totally consistent with Hughes’ account, even if it does not overlap on every detail. Pete ‘The Para’ …

“Budgets are usually fixed by January each year”

Pete Baker on April 1, 2010, 11:24 pm

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I would seem to me that the key element in this BBC report is The Executive has not yet agreed the overall NI budget for departments. Budgets are usually fixed by January each year. And if UTV Live’s Jamie Delargy was right earlier this week, and he usually is, the Executive’s failure to agree a budget centres on a stand-off between the Northern Ireland’s Finance Minister, the DUP’s Sammy Wilson, and Regional Development Minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy over the …

UCUNF Deal in FST being blocked by the DUP?

Mick Fealty on April 1, 2010, 10:30 pm

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Alex Kane argues that if Reg only picks up one seat, or none he is finished. The same is probably true for the Tory UUP pact. Which mean the bar is gradually coming down for them. Jeff Peel is picking up vibes in Fermanagh South Tyrone that a deal is already part formed in Fermanagh South Tyrone between the UUs, the Tories and the DUP, but according to Jeff that the sticking point is the DUP’ objection to the ‘independent’ …

“Sharon, I wasn’t, and don’t be smart with me.”

Pete Baker on April 1, 2010, 8:17 pm

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At a press conference yesterday on the allegations by Brendan Hughes, UTV Live’s Sharon O’Neill had a “stupid” question for Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams about his toxic denials – “Why don’t you just admit you were in the IRA, Mr Adams?” Indeed. And why would the families of the victims of Bloody Friday find the allegation of Adams’ involvement “offensive”? Video courtesy of UTV Pete Baker

The Tories in Ulster and the social policy trap..

Mick Fealty on April 1, 2010, 2:38 pm

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Our sometimes guest contributor The Watchman offers this analysis on why, when the Tory project may be righting itself just in time for the general election in Britain, it has seemed to go so badly wrong for them in Northern Ireland. He offers a number of reasons why it has all gone wrong for them, amongst them, he argues, “lethal damage could be inflicted on the whole CU alliance if candidates had to sign up to Dave’s liberal metropolitan obsessions.”The …

Nama: “Fit for purpose? The banks or Biffo’s Government?”

Mick Fealty on March 31, 2010, 1:40 pm

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More on the Nama situation later, but for now MIriam Lord caught the atmosphere in the Dail yesterday with a cracking opening to her Parliamentary sketch. Enter the principals: Then we had to endure The Head with Two Brians – not for the faint hearted. The sight of Cowen and Lenihan reassuring a nervous public that they will lead them on the path to financial salvation is not a good one. “We need an Irish banking system fit for purpose …

“There is something innately toxic about a public position that demands of all of us…”

Pete Baker on March 30, 2010, 4:21 pm

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No statement yet from Cllr Dessie Ward on his resignation from Sinn Féin. [Adds – Apparently Sinn Féin “no longer reflects where [he stands] on the political spectrum”.] Meanwhile, in the Irish Times, Fintan O’Toole makes an important point about SF president Gerry Adams’ denial. From the Irish Times article. The problem is that Adams has gone much further than simply drawing a veil over his role in the “armed struggle”. He has created the most brazen fiction in contemporary …

Sinn Féin’s sole Banbridge District councillor resigns from party

Pete Baker on March 30, 2010, 12:34 am

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The Belfast Telegraph reports that Sinn Féin’s only councillor on Banbridge District Council, Dessie Ward, has resigned from the party. There doesn’t seem to have been a statement from Cllr Ward yet, and it’s not clear if the recent news reports had anything to do with his decision, but despite the news being described in the Telegraph report as a “bolt out of the blue” he’s already listed as an Independent on the Council website. Update Although he hasn’t updated …

Jean McConville’s daughter to take a civil case against Adams…

Mick Fealty on March 29, 2010, 4:24 pm

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Gerry Moriarty reports the words of Helen McKendry in the wake of the release of Brendan Hughes’s words from the Boston College archive: “I am now going to take a civil case against Gerry Adams. We are seeking legal advice on how to move forward… I don’t want money from Adams, I want him to admit that he ordered my mother’s murder, I just want him to tell the truth”… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written …