McDowell playing dangerous game with peace process.

by observer Fri Mar 12, 2004 13:57

What makes you think that SF want to enter coalition?

As for the left alternative, there is a practical alliance within Leinster House but there is no ideological basis to it and the Greens have clearly opted for a future electoral/coalition arrangment with FG and Labour. Of the independnets, Higgins has his own party which is in competetion with SF, Gregory has probably no more interest in it than the man on the moon, so that leaves McGrath and Healy. Would they not be better simply joining SF?

by Jim Monaghan Thu Mar 11, 2004 14:37

"The past violence of the IRA is used as as a means to exclude them from power and exercising their democratic mandate when they can be seen to be delivering peace every day for almost 9 years and counting! "


Why does Sinn Fein want to enter so-called power with right wing parties. So that they can be seen by the rich as a safe pair of hands like Rory Quinn when he was Minister of finance.
Bairbre De Brun was blamed for closing down a hospital as a minister in a right wing government she would have no choice. Sinn Feins rise was thwarted in that area becuase of that.

If Sinn Fein wants to reman true to it's proclaimed socialist beleifs it should say that the only alliance it will enter is an alliance of the left on a socialist program. That it does not wnat to administer a capitalist state. That it wnats to change the rules that mean that cuts are automatic.
Under Capitalism it is not a question of no cuts but of where they are to be made.
Sinn Fein should answer Seamus Healys call for a left alliance. Get together with the left independents, put real pressure on the Greens and the Labour Party and pull them away from Fine Gael.
Leaving themselves open to an offer from Bertie is to go the way of Clann Na Phoblachta who also choose"realistic "politics in the end.
Sinn Fein lead Republican front with Seamus Healy would galvanise a large constituency and open the way forward.
If there is a hung Dail let the Capitalist parties sort it out. It is their mess. Socialits do not want to administer Capitalism they want to change the rules.

by kokomero Wed Mar 10, 2004 19:03

Observer seems to have blinkers and/or selective vision when it comes to violence.

The past violence of the IRA is used as as a means to exclude them from power and exercising their democratic mandate when they can be seen to be delivering peace every day for almost 9 years and counting!

This contrasts with Bush with his poodles Blair, Bertie and McDowell who prosecute an obscene and illegal war against the Iraqi people. Blair and his political forebears who targeted republicans and nationalists north and south of the border using right-wing (loyalist) death squads, and cover up their involvment to this day (bloody Sunday, Dublin/Monaghan, Aidan McAnespie etc. etc.).

This is the sort of double-standard that nauseates me and you have a nerve coming on all holier than thou!

Democracy my arse!

Wake up to the corruption of FF/PD/FG/Labour before its too late!

by kokomero Wed Mar 10, 2004 18:52

Spanish right in Hitler smear row
By Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck in Madrid

10 March 2004

Spain's Conservatives abandoned a pledge to avoid mud-slinging in their electoral campaign this week, with one leading conservative politician comparing Spain's Socialist candidate Jose Luis Zapatero to Adolf Hitler. "Let's not forget that Hitler also won an election and then did what he did," Jose Manuel Molina told party members in Toledo yesterday.

Mr Zapatero demanded Mr Molina's resignation and said a conservative party would stop at nothing to win votes. But Mr Molina denied he had made any comparison. The Popular Party offered no official apology. Its prime ministerial candidate Mariano Rajoy made no mention of the incident.

Mr Molina, the conservatives' highest representative in Castilla la Mancha, made his remark after his party urged candidates in an internal party memo to refer to the Nazi election victory of 1933 in an attempt to persuade voters to go to the polls next Sunday. Opinion surveys suggest that one in four voters may not show up. The memo, among daily so-called "key points" issued by conservative HQ to candidates to guarantee snappy soundbites and adherence to the party line, read: "Thomas Mann once asked himself how the nation of Kant, Goethe and Beethoven could have voted as it did. He concluded that the Germans stayed home on the day of the elections. We Spaniards cannot afford to stay home on the 14th."

One conservative party official, not speaking on behalf of his party, said it had resorted to an "unfortunate" comparison.

The conservatives claim not voting for them will usher in a coalition of socialists, communists, nationalists and separatists who will be soft on terrorism, ruin a buoyant Spanish economy and destroy the constitution. The party's offensive came as polls suggested that it might lose the absolute majority won in 2000 by Jose Maria Aznar.

by Watcher Wed Mar 10, 2004 18:26

He gets things wrong. Its the British who would have no problems manning the Gas Chamber and Ovens. It wouldnt matter to them who they were shoving in. Along with Hitler it is the British who have a record of slaughtering millions and carrying out genocide across the Planet. Ever hear of the British Empire?

by A.Nordie Wed Mar 10, 2004 18:15

Yeah, violence is pretty obscene, but thats what happens when people and whole countries are treated like dirt.
How do you think the Southern State came about? There's a myth that the violence of 1921 was somehow nicer and more romantic that what happened up here but the only clear difference's are that the IRA of those days coundn't successfully make massive bombs and the South didn't have to contend with the Loyalist factor, which brought the whole thing up here into a completely different ball-game.

by lol Wed Mar 10, 2004 17:49

what you think

by Observer Wed Mar 10, 2004 17:19

Am I the only person in the country who is nauseated each time a shinner speaks of justice, democracy, peace process etc? Ferris, Adams, McGuinness et al were intimately involved in planning, resourcing and executing crimes against humanity for years. Now of course thet are wedded to the "peace process "! However if that doesn't work they will have no problem returning to terror. Of course it will be someone else'e fault. Ferris and Gerry Kelly give the impression that they would have no problem manning the ovens in Belsen if Brits were were on the receiving end. SF as a party is totally behoven to PIRA . I say to SF/IRA get off our backs, we've had enough of you and fuck off!

by kokomero Wed Mar 10, 2004 14:23

otherwise why would the parties who brought us institutional sleaze and kickbacks would not stoop to this level.

It's interesting how Bertie the buffoon couldn't care less whether we ever get to the bottom of FF corruption at a cost of €100's of millions, and uses the tribunals as cover at the same time!

Quite a contrast to their shameful behaviour in condemning SF on the basis of hearsay! If their allegations are true don't you think the cops would be all over them?

This is yet another smokescreen for the FF and PDs to hide behind. The facists and nazis have always been masters of black propaganda and disinformation!

They (FF + PDs) are still under the control of O'Reilly, Smurfitt and Co. as the scandalous Eircom buyout by Valentia shows.

Let's punish these sleaze-ridden parties at the polls.

Vote SF or any party but FF/PD/FG/Labour!

by By Any Means Necessary Wed Mar 10, 2004 13:26

McDowell the racist and neo fascist is way out of order comparing a socialist party like Sinn Fein to the Nazis. He is pandering to the anti-Sinn Fein alliance which has some very odd members in it from neo-fascists in the PD's like McDowell to socialists with loyalist leanings.

There is no comparision, and a shallow historical look at the two movements will show this. McDowell though is not interested in historical truth, just in causing a scare and thus making an issue.

Considering it was the Republican movement which oppossed the Blueshirts in the 1930's,.

In my opinion Sinn Fein is the only guarantee that fascism will not re-introduce itself in Ireland again.

Fascism and Nazism are introduced into the political process to restrict and defeat worker's organisation. The establishment and its political allies are the ones who have fascistic tendencies and Sinn Fein is the party of the working class as the next elections will prove.

by Tiocfaidh Armani Wed Mar 10, 2004 10:28

There is a mandate from the people on the ground that these scum who feel the brunt of these "punishment beatings".

I do not support the Provos, but it cannot be denied, the people want them to carry out these attacks, because they are fed up being at the wrong end of these scumbags behaviour.

by A.Nordie Tue Mar 09, 2004 22:21

It just shows what he considers the national interest - attacking true republicans for the benefit of the British serving establishment. Thankfully most people aren't as cretinous as yer wee nincompoop fella from a couple of posts back and the South's electorate will see through the bullshit and make some big changes.

by a guy called satab Tue Mar 09, 2004 21:46

Mc Doughal had some cheek talking about his true republican roots and comparing Sinn Fein to the nazis. His uncle , Eoin McNeil ,was the free state officer that organized the extra judicial murders by firing squad of republicans Liam Mellowes and Rory O'Connor and two of their comrades . No trial for them ,just dragged out of Mountjoy prison cells and shot . McNeill delivered the coups de gras personally .
Recently published documents from Berlin detail the praise lavished on this blue shirt uncle of our minister of Justice by the Nazi military attache to Ireland..Mc Neill ,he thought ,was just the sort of man the third reich could do business with !

by A.Nordie Tue Mar 09, 2004 21:14

Son, what are you talking about? Yeah, sure the Provos do beat certain people senseless and so forth, but, and living in the North here( Armagh City) I should know its not people who get in Sinn Fein's way as you put it, but the joy-riders and peados and granny bashers on the receiving end of the bats and bullets. I think they're doing a good job of it too, because in the absence of any kind of acceptable police force here (the PSNI leave the hoods alone as long as they inform on republicans), they're the only thing thats keeping our community from becoming an absolute play-ground for all the youing hoods of the day. And as for the Bobby Tohiil incident, wise up, he's far fom innocent. Its a tough old world, but thats just the way it is.

Your comments show you to be just another ignorant peasant.

by JON Tue Mar 09, 2004 17:30

Its always a 'dangerous game' to speak out against facist behaviour. The shinners have a group of well armed 'enforcers' to 'deal' with anyone who gets in their way. The media have gone softly softly in their approach to SF since the ceasefires but now the tide is beginning to turn and the shinners dont like being treated like any other party. We dont want you're northern fascism and sectarianism down here. We might be goverened by a shower of gombeen bastards but it beats being goverened by goons and thugs.

by RED BHOY Tue Mar 09, 2004 14:28

Was the whole Bobby Tohill thing not just a big-misunderstanding regarding a couple of lads in a pub??

by Glasshouse observer Tue Mar 09, 2004 14:19

Bobby Tohill - It won't go away.

by Tiocfaidh Armani Tue Mar 09, 2004 14:15

Its great to see that a swing to constitutional refomism has paid off for P$F.