Mary Lou McDonald on Today with Sean O’Rourke this morning.
Those who heard it will not soon forget it.
Mary Lou McDonald appeared on RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Sean O’Rourke this morning to discuss Sinn Fein’s think-in starting in County Meath today.
Or so she thought.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, but even some members of Broadsheet’s bias weary Transcription Department, responsible for typing thousands of hours of Irish radio and not known for any strong SF sympathies, dropped their shorthand pencils in disgust.
‘sheet head transcriber ‘Hot Ben’ (100wpm) remarked:
“I have transcribed them all but this was in a different league. Yes, worse than Duffy and the Brazilian cop. I’m doing myself out of a job but the words alone do not do it justice…”
Gulp
Grab a tay.
Seán O’Rourke: ” Now, the Party think-in, for what many people regard as the real opposition party in the 32nd Dáil, Sinn Féin, takes place today and tomorrow. Lots to chew over for a party that had, in all fairness, a disappointing election outcome earlier this year, though they might dispute that, given that they gained a lot of seats, but relative to their expectations, they might have expected a lot more.
That was then followed by a Brexit vote that prompted calls for a united Ireland border poll, plus cross-border intrigue in the NAMA/Project Eagle Affair, and more questions about the party leader, is it time for Gerry Adams, after thirty-three years as President, to think about moving on to fresh pastures? Mary Lou McDonald, vice-president of Sinn Féin, good morning to you…”
Mary Lou McDonald: “Good morning, Seán.”
O’Rourke: “I suppose, story of the day, we better start with NAMA, again, it’s an issue where you have two very respected organs of the State just differing completely on whether the taxpayer should have lost out on up to €200 million on that Northern portfolio.”
McDonald: “As well Seán, what the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report does is bring to almost to a crescendo all the noise that there has been around Project Eagle and NAMA now, for a very, very long time. I’d have to take issue with you when you refer to NAMA as a respected organ of the State…”
O’Rourke: .”..well, led by a very respected individual in Frank Daly…
Mary Lou: “…albeit because of the conflicts and the controversies and the processes surrounding the sale of this property portfolio, which bear in mind at the time was the single largest transaction undertaken by NAMA, and all the circumstances around it, not least the valuation issue, and so on that the C&AG has reiterated, place a very, very serious question mark over NAMA, place a serious question mark over Frank Daly, and his judgement and his actions, or his inactions, and raise the most serious questions for Minister Michael Noonan.”
O’Rourke: “Well, what would the questions for Michael Noonan be?”
McDonald: “The fundamental question is this: when it was brought to his attention that the initial bid had been corrupted, that there was to be fixers’ fees, that a portion of those fixers’ fees were to go to someone that had been appointed by the Dublin government to the Northern committee. When all of that was called to his attention, he should have called a halt, he should have called a stop and Richard…”
O’Rourke: “But again, what does “calling a halt” mean, because again, the Pimco thing was stood down, that was the original arrangement.”
McDonald: “Pimco, NAMA says they were told to get out of town, Pimco says they withdrew, in any event they were off the pitch, but it didn’t resolve the problem that the process had been corrupted, entirely corrupted. That an individual that had been appointed by the government in Dublin, not by anybody in the North, who sat on a committee which was not a talking shop, it had four NAMA board members, Frank Daly himself chaired this committee, it had the head of asset management and recovery on it, that that individual had been implicated in an arrangement with a bidder that was about to succeed…”
O’Rourke: “…yes, and he declared that, they stood down, Pimco, he proposed…
McDonald: “He, he… sorry,”
O’Rourke: “He did not declare it, Pimco brought this to the attention of NAMA, because Pimco were obliged to, because of anti-corruption legislation and regulations in the United States, that’s how all of this came to light.”
O’Rourke: “Yes, but Cushnahan had declared his involvement in an advisory role with some of NAMA’s debtors.”
McDonald: “He did, and doesn’t that beg the question, and just take a common-sense view of this, you are on a committee that is there to give strategic advice to the NAMA board in respect to a very, very large, very valuable property portfolio, an individual recommended in the North, but appointed by the government in Dublin, states that they have an active relationship with seven debtors making up more than 50% of that board…”
O’Rourke: “Why?”
McDonald: “…why was he on the committee?”
O’Rourke: “ Why, equally, in view of what you say, did the C&AG say, under the heading of “management of conflicts of interest”, make no findings against the actions of individuals or third-parties?”
McDonald: “Because it is not the role or the function of the C&AG to do that, the C&AG is very clear about what they can and cannot do. Make no mistake about it, this is not a story that happened in the murky, tribal underworld of Northern Ireland, this story comes right back to the doorstep of Dublin, right back to the doorstep of government, NAMA is a creature of Fianna Fáil initially, and of subsequent governments, NAMA is accountable to the Minister of Finance here…
O’Rourke: “Yeah, but…”
McDonald: .”..and most crucially, it is the taxpayers in this jurisdiction that pick up the tab.”
O’Rourke: “One of the things we heard from Richard Curran, was his view, his sense, that NAMA saw Northern Ireland as somewhat of a hornet’s nest to do with politics, also a small area in which to do business, the construction industry, the legal profession, all a very small world, and perhaps against a backdrop of being told to do their business quickly, as a chance to get a reasonable deal, very quickly. Now, that may not be the case, but if it is the case, surely they were vindicated by the actions of your party members in that Committee in Northern Ireland…”
McDonald: “Listen. You could say for the whole island of Ireland, that it is a small community, that the business establishment, that the movers and shakers are small in number, that the professional experts that support and give advice are small in number, so I don’t think that argument holds any water.”
(talk over each other)
O’Rourke: “You had to say goodbye, you had to throw a guy under a bus, in Mr. McKay, chair of that finance committee, who it turned out, was coaching a witness before it, in a way that was designed to shaft the then-First Minister of Northern Ireland. What could be more of a hornet’s nest than that?”
McDonald: “Firstly, Daithí MacCaithigh was not thrown under a bus…”
O’Rourke: “…well, he’s out of the [Northern Ireland] Assembly.”
McDonald: “Daithí admitted that what he did was a catastrophic error of judgement, it was wrong, and he did the correct thing and resigned. That should not have happened under any set of circumstances, it’s most unfortunate that he did, but Daithí took the rap for that…”
O’Rourke: “…the man he was coaching said knowledge of this in Sinn Féin went to the top.”
McDonald: “The man who says that is entirely wrong. Entirely wrong, and let’s…”
O’Rourke: “And let’s just come across something that the Irish News had reported, it was one of these contacts between McKay and the blogger, Bryson, was brought in. “A wee suggestion for your closing paragraph, when talking about Robinson, refer to him as Person A, so say all you have to say about him referring to him as Person A. Then in your final line, say ‘Person A is Peter Robinson MLA’. Means that the committee cannot interrupt, and means you don’t have to say Robbo’s name until the last second.””
McDonald: “Yes, that communication and that level of instruction should never have happened…”
O’Rourke: “…doesn’t it prove, doesn’t it prove, that if NAMA’s stated reason for selling it all in one fell swoop was the hornet’s nest theory, as put forward by Richard Curran, that they were absolutely on the money?”
McDonald: “Absolutely not, absolutely not, let’s not be naive, now, or silly, are you trying to suggest to me that there haven’t been other instances in this fine, upstanding jurisdiction, where people, chairs of committees, have been talking to people in circumstances that were inappropriate? I’m not defending, neither does Daithí MacCaithaigh, his actions and to extrapolate from that that NAMA therefore acted correctly is frankly off the wall…”
O’Rourke: “It was most certainly not! It proves, it proves certainly that Northern Ireland was a different place for doing business. I know it’s part of a small, all-island, and I know you have a particular view, but it was a matter of the quicker they got out of Dodge, the better for the portfolio?”
McDonald: “It’s not just that I have a different view, if you look at a succession of scandals that have beset this state, and have cost its taxpayer very, very greatly, one of the things about the Public Account Committee and the banking inquiry is, time and time again, the very same characters, the very same legal firms, the very same accountancy firms, auditing firms, feature strongly, so the networks right across that country are small, we shouldn’t suffer from delusions of scale. We live on a very small island.”
O’Rourke: “No, no, what I’m saying is, in all of this stuff, Sinn Féin is just the same as the rest of men and women.”
McDonald: “We are of course, we are made up of just ordinary men and women like any other political party…”
O’Rourke) “…and you’re perfectly capable of conniving and setting out to shaft people, and that was a classic example.”
McDonald: “What we are not, is a political party that is driven and craven by power at any cost, and we are not driven by self-interest self-aggrandisement, and personal & political corruption.”
O’Rourke:: “And who are you talking about there in that particular context, are you talking about Michael Noonan, are you talking about Enda Kenny, who are you referring to when you make that kind of sweeping statement? Power at any cost?”
McDonald: “Go back, go back and look at any of the various tribunals or the inquiry if you have any of the patience, or the heart, to do all of that…”
(talk over each other)
McDonald: “…then tell me that we haven’t had a political culture in this State that is deeply corrupted, deeply compromised, and I think for people looking on now, whether it’s the issues around Apple, the issues around NAMA…”
O’Rourke: “Yeah, but we don’t have time to get into…”
McDonald: “Yeah.”
O’Rourke: “…a lot of whataboutery that would involve a lot of people losing their lives, a lot of bloodshed on this island, and people involved in your own party.”
McDonald: “I don’t think… it’s a worthy discussion that I’m more than happy to have, I have to say I don’t see its connection with NAMA, I don’t see its connection with the failures of government in this particular instance, and the need now, very smartly, for the PAC to do our work, which we will do, for a commission of inquiry to be established, and the government needn’t imagine that they can dodge that particular bullet in reality at this stage of the game.”
O’Rourke: “What kind of terms of reference do you want to give this commission of inquiry?”
McDonald: “As powerful as possible in terms of compelability, not just of witnesses but of papers, of documents, we do have to have an eye on things like confidentiality that have beset other efforts, we’re very sensible about this of course and we need to take and we need to have access to good legal advice, to get the terms of reference right. It is complicated by the fact that we have two jurisdictions on the island, there’s no point pretending otherwise. I would say that the Finance Minister in the North has written to Michael Noonan and made it clear that his department will collaborate fully with any Commission established here.
So, perhaps if there’s goodwill and if there’s a genuine appetite, on the part of Dublin particularly, and right across the country to get at the truth, I do think it can be done, it does have to be legally proofed and tested, but when the meeting happens today with the Taoiseach, we will be leaving him in no doubt that he doesn’t have a get-out clause now. He’s blocked this, he’s turned his face away from it when I’ve read the C&AG’s report I sort of smiled to myself and said perhaps now we understand why there’s been such a strong resistance to establishing a Commission…”
O’Rourke: “In the event of them taking a u-turn on that, it wouldn’t be the first time a u-turn was ever performed by a politician, it’s like the ones you performed yourselves, you’re accusing Fianna Fáil of performing a u-turn in calling for the abolition of water charges, but again, it took the Paul Murphy by-election win in Dublin South West to get Sinn Féin to concentrate on where it stood regards water charges.”
McDonald: “Well, I’m not, and don’t get me wrong, I wish we had won that by-election, fair play to Paul, he carried the day, but in fact our track record on water charges goes way back before any of that and in fact reaches into the North, where Conor Murphy was in ministerial office and in fact, we put a stop to a very strong Tory attempt to impose water charges in the North.”
O’Rourke: “…prior to that by-election loss, you were telling the Week in Politics that you were going to pay your water charges because you’d a good income, but it’s something you changed your mind on, Gerry Adams was going to pay them on his holiday home.”
McDonald: “I did, and let me tell you, I’m the kind of person that believes that you pay your way, and I pay my taxes, you know the way people say ‘people don’t like paying taxes’, I believe in paying my fair share. And in the case of the water charges, I accepted all along, and accept the reality, is, it’s double taxation. The reality is we took a position for their absolute abolition from the get-go, but in certain circumstances where the charge was being made, and given that I have an income, I don’t, I’m not rich, but I represent the people that struggle, many of them a lot harder than me, my instinct is to pay.
I changed my mind, and I’ll tell you why, nothing to do with a by-election, the constituency I represent is mixed to an extent, we would certainly not be the rich belt of Dublin, and I was struck again and again in particular older people that would rely on me, and rely on us to represent their interests, and to a woman and to a man, not only could not meet these charges but were absolutely petrified at the fact they weren’t in the position to meet them. It wasn’t “won’t pay”, it was “can’t pay”, and what was going to happen to them. So my decision was an absolute act of solidarity with those individuals and our position…”
O’Rourke: “Yes, well…”
McDonald: “…Seán, has been for abolition, for funding of water services and infrastructure through general taxation. That is the correct position. And Fianna Fáil must be dizzy at this stage, the number of u-turns that they’ve taken. It is, however, welcome, that they’ve come around, belatedly, to the common-sense, obvious position, and we’ll be bringing forward a motion to the Dáil to seek the abolition of those charges.”
O’Rourke: “Okay, now. I mentioned Gerry Adams, your party leader. Thirty-three years, coming up on that in a week’s time. How long more should he continue?”
McDonald: “Gerry is the leader of the party, because he is the party’s choice to be the leader. Often on the airwaves, when you hear people rehearsing this minor obsession, you’d be forgiven for thinking he somehow imposed himself on a resistant membership, that’s not the case. Every year, we elect our leadership at the Ard Fheis, Gerry is the preferred and absolutely supported leader of the party. That’s the size of it. Yes he is, he’s in that position a long time, but I think rather than criticising…”
O’Rourke: “…oh, it is, his resilience is extraordinary, surpassed by very few people, Robert Mugabe, or other undesirables, maybe, not suggesting they should necessarily be compared, I’m just wondering is there any bit of succession planning happening in Sinn Féin.”
McDonald: “Well, look at our teams, North and South, you made reference to our last Dáil election, look at the team we now have in the Dáil. Not that I’m throwing roses at us, but I regard our team in the Dáil as very vibrant, talented and committed. There is an abundance of talent, and that’s reflected in the North, it’s reflected in our membership base, we have no shortage of young people coming through…”
O’Rourke: “At the same time, at the same time, an increase in the number of seats, 24, up from 14, but shouldn’t you have got more, especially considering the bad odour that Fianna Fáil are still in, just one Dáil term after they were catastrophically reduced to 20 seats in 2011, and also, the way things have gone for the government in the last five years. Sinn Féin was never going to get a better opportunity and will never get a better opportunity…”
McDonald: “I disagree with you, the political scene is still replete with opportunity for us. Would I have preferred 24 to be 34? You bet I would.”
O’Rourke: “So, why wasn’t it? By common consent, and sometimes common consent is a dangerous basis on which to make any kind of argument, Gerry Adams did not have a good election. He’s just unsure of himself on economic questions, and I suppose there’s that distrust as to whether he can be believed by the electorate.”
McDonald: “Listen, just on the numbers issue, first, just so you know, internally, in the party, we never had any notion that we were going to sweep the boards and come back with thirty or forty seats. Sometimes the polling date is suggested, and that’s possible. When the campaign kicks in, in our case sometimes you face some fairly robust media criticism and hostility from certain quarters, not far from all, things can change. Caoimhín O’Caoláin, he’s still a serving member of the Dáil, an elder lemon, I hope he doesn’t take offence to that, if he’s listening, but bear in mind. Caoimhín was there on his own, then we were five, then we were four, and we have incrementally built. For us, and for me, that’s more important, we have to have something that is durable, we have to have a vehicle that is genuinely a voice for working people…”
O’Rourke (interrupting): “Yes, but here’s the point – why would somebody lead, he’s longer the leader of Sinn Féin than Pat Hickey is in the Olympic Council of Ireland! Surely there’s a question of people losing their touch when they’re in a job for so long.”
McDonald: “Well, I don’t think Gerry has lost his touch…”
O’Rourke: “You don’t (inaudible) signs of that in the election, do you not?”
McDonald: “His political record is there for all to see, and perhaps this differentiates him from other party leaders. Perhaps it’s that we’ve set about a course of social and economic justice and prosperity, it’s also about peace, and it’s also about Irish unity. So, Gerry’s commitments to seeing those objectives become a reality…”
O’Rourke (feigning exasperation): “But how long more are you going to…”
McDonald: “Hold on. It’s about more than a career calculation, this is who Gerry is.”
O’Rourke: “But how long more is this burden going to have to be carried by him?”
McDonald: “I think he has made clear that he is going to continue for as long as the party wish him to lead, and as long as he is in a position to lead. I’ll tell you this much Seán, Sinn Féin will decide who leads Sinn Féin. That’s a matter for us as members.”
O’Rourke: “Well, I’m not aware of any other parties that allow outsiders to decide…”
McDonald: “No, but there can be a tendency, very foolishly in my opinion, for parties to take fright, to take a wobble, to imagine it’s good politics, or that it’s wise to respond to a media agenda.”
O’Rourke: “There may be reasons why he has to go on, and he may look forward to a time when he doesn’t have to go on. He’s needed, he’s the guy the keeps the whole show together, North and South, which means that neither you nor Pearse Doherty are in the position to take up that mantle.”
McDonald: “You think that, do you?”
O’Rourke: “I’m just putting it to you as a question.”
McDonald: “Gerry is undoubtedly the glue that has held this party together, he has led magnificently…”
O’Rourke: “That having been said, when will the torch be passed to a new generation?”
McDonald: “When the time is right.”
O’Rourke: “When will that be?”
McDonald: “When the time is right.”
O’Rourke: “When will that be?”
McDonald (annoyed): “When the time is right. That’s when it will be.”
O’Rourke (mockingly): “Is the time not right now?”
McDonald: “No.”
O’Rourke: “Why isn’t it?”
McDonald: “Seán, we had our Ard Fheis, Gerry was returned as the leader, he enjoys our full support as leader. And when the time is right, don’t worry, don’t lose any sleep…”
O’Rourke: “Why is the time not right?”
McDonald: “…I fear you tossing and turning at night about this, Seán, with worries, we will know, Gerry will know when the time is right, you’ll be the first to know, Seán, I’m sure.”
O’Rourke: “I hope you’ll keep that promise.”
Pic Via Today with Sean O’Rourke
I heard it, what a laugh. Mary Lou was well able for Sean O’Rourke, she’s one tough cookie! At one point, she was forced to repeat her reply about three times: ‘When the time is right’ in response to ‘When will Gerry go?’ O’Rourke was shameless.
She’s a bluffer. Very lightweight with an inability to answer a simple question. She’s no different to most politicians in that sense. However her brand of nationalist socialism is hard to take from a privately educated, ex Fianna Failure that lives in a mansion.
Added to that her utter contempt for victims of her organisation’s terrorist atrocities
thanks for that Sean.
‘T’ is beside ‘Y’ on a keyboard. Very easy to make a nistake
+20
I read yosser’s post three times putting a t wherever there was a y before I got that.
BOOM. No flies on me.
I was trying to figure out what a yerrorisy was. Thought it was something new lingo I was not party to.
Another echo chamber here obviously. Everyone agreeing with each other is so much more enlightening! Laughable.
You are truly a wit for the ages. Oscar Wilde has nothing on You.
LOL Brilliant Paddy!
Now what simple ? would that be Yus, and yes she had contempt in her voice for the victims of austerity here. O’ Rourke had bigotry and bias written all over him, like most of our media. Always a one sided version about the North of our country.
Of course the real question is when is Kenny (and Noonan) going?
When can i go?
The fact that Ms. McDonald was “well able for it” is immaterial. This is the absolute dregs from the National broadcaster in a continuing attempt to influence and subvert any sort of political discourse in this country. Shame on them.
The fact that you’re not interested in how well she handled this ambush does not make it immaterial.
SF have practice with ambushes
Wouldn’t be a fan of her party, but she could articulate any other Irish politician under the table.
Am I the only one that thinks that the interview wasn’t too biased? Journalists usually go for the ‘straight-talking’, abrasive persona when interviewing politicians.
Generally, she did pretty well but both of them were doing a bit of pub-talking.
The Gerry Adams thing is clearly a massive problem for SF, however. They have a leader who was strongly involved in IRA violence (whether an active member of the IRA or not), he has been in-situ for donkeys years, he seems to have reacted pretty clumsily to child abuse in his family and in the IRA, he is off the pace politically, he is clueless about economics. They also (sadly) will struggle to find a new leader who does not weaken them in either North or South.
So as long as that situation continues, she (and other SF politicians) will be pressured on the topic.
Did he not ask when is she going?
Ah now, Sean…. ya twit, that’d have been funny, as opposed to just being a male genital…
RTE news in general and particularly this tosser are just an extension of the government.
I’m not a Mary fan, but that interview was horribly biased, but no surprise considering a blueshirt was interviewing her.
He’s a sillybilly. I listen to Pat Kenny now rather than him, and that’s saying a lot.
Sillybilly?! Ok. Heh.
…definitely a boo-boo pants.
…conflating Gerry Adams with Robert Mugabe and Pat Hickey in nearly the same sentence takes Sean O’Rourke to top of the shinner bashing league table…
…hey Admin…please just delete any of my comments that you don’t approve of…don’t edit…you’re no Fionnan
They do do that here don’t they?
I’m convinced that a 6 year old edits the comments
I happen to very personally know of someone funny who was going to start writing funny stuff for this site, very soon funnily enough, but the totally unnecessary yet constant ‘in moderation’ for the last month or more, the one-line responses to four e-mails, the closeted insult attributed to a different contributor….
He decided to stand up straight and go somewhere else.
And then he said;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hEHgPEhG3Q
While Pat Hickey may have been involved in some shady deals, I’m fairly certain that he hasn’t actually killed anyone.
I note you’re only fairly certain, I’d say a lot of people share that opinion.
But have a couple talk about their experience having an abortion on your radio show and you’ll get reprimanded for not providing “balance”. Everything’s fine.
the shinners they do ask for it. mary lou was in my class in college. i only caught half of the interview.
She’s from an FF family, isn’t she? Or have I got that wrong?
You only caught half of college also by the sound of it…
:-)
The bicycle shed half
1st and 2nd year in TCD must have been the worst four years of your life, so.
She’s happy to share a banner with people who up to a few years ago were murdering others. She can whistle for any sympathy from me.
Right. It’s not about her though is it? It’s about the fact our national broadcaster is happy to display extreme political bias. Keep up.
+20
Yeah, as I said, if she hangs around with murderers, if you recruit young people into politics with the whiff of semtex and blood, I don’t have any sympathy for Mary or her political party.
In many ways, she and her generation are the worst. I am sure she’s never kneecapped anyone but for her to expect us to take her seriously when shes in bed with murderous thugs, it baffles me.
when Gerry goes and she takes over, she’ll be an extremely capable leader. they’ll lose all those iffy legacy problems and in 10 years time they’ll be the party of choice for most under 25s north and south. sinn fein have amazing potential in being able to represent constituents in 3 jurisdictions and mary lou can see it, I reckon. she’s certainly no fool..
In fairness they weren’t the only ones murdering or has everyone forgotten about the opposing lot?
I don’t think anyone in FF or FG currently was a member of either party when they were murdering people, whereas some members of SF most certainly were. In fact, SF still think it appropriate to have convicted, unrepentant child-murderers campaigning on their behalf.
So, your analogy falls down a little bit.
Leave ir ouh
Ah here – FF & FG have clean hands because they weren’t 19yrs old in ’69 with their local MP leading the mob burning their street (literally, as in the MP was in the mob, with the police). And FF/FG act like their Grandas were Roy of the Rovers rather than killers: what happened on the Falls happened earlier in West Cork, disappearances, people killed in bank robberies, and also heroism, i.e, all of it.
FG can fairly say that their ancestors (in the main) engaged in violence only when the UK govt refused to accept an overwhelming election result.
They then accepted the treaty & went into govt.
Again, any of the FG/FF involved in fascism/terrorism are a long time dead, whereas SF used a convicted child-murderer to canvass for one of their candidates in 2014.
The child that this man murdered was an Irish child, if that makes any difference to you.
But are the opposing lot seeking to sit in the Dail? Are they claiming to represent the history and values our country was founded on? I think not.
Today is the official 25th anniversary of asking that question about whether or not Gerry was in the I.R.A……
The great danger of Sinn Fein is that they have now mobilised and engaged a working class constituency that the rest of the parties had conveniently written off as irrelevant.
*non – working class
You might be, the rest of us work.
I am always very surprised that a journalist has yet to ask Adams why he didn’t join the IRA. I would love to hear him snivel and sniff his way out of that answer.
He didn’t have to. Republican Royalty.
Why on earth would he admit to something against the law?
Mick Collins or Dan Breen wouldn’t have done that.
Then consider the wealthy Unionists who would throw money at civil cases against him if he came out & said that.
It’s not like he has ever attempted to distance himself from the IRA, so what’s the problem?
It’s not him who is being dishonest – it’s his critics, whoshould demonstrate their honesty by calling for republicans to have the same freedom/immunity as British state killers.
If you want truth, then enable it. Maybe you don’t want truth, but defeat of those you dislike.
Martin McGuinness & many other have.
Why would he? Because the current approach feeds into the narrative that he is not honest & that he never has been, that he speaks from both sides of his mouth.
McGuinness was tried and convicted of membership in the 70’s and only admitted it in the course of the Bloody Sunday inquiry. Adams has been asked the question the OP proffered before and handled it well. But don’t let the facts get in the way of good waffle.
sounds juicy as fupp. can’t wait for the Transcript.
RTÉ and their ambush interviews.
Embarrassing.
…but ambushing in a very selective way.
Ambushing
The new Airbrushing
100wpm? What’s the going rate? To me that’s impressive, but is it above the industry standard?
It’s a very good typing speed, plenty of typists would have less than that and be fine.
I thought 60 was good.
Corrupt little kip.
RTE may be biased but they killed people ….. so….I think I’ll stick with RTE, also knowing full well their agenda / bias.
So did the British Army and their pet projects the UDA and UVF. But Sean would never question any representatives of that faction with the tone of voice he used on Marylou.
Whataboutery……having said that the British Army aren’t members of Dail Eireann…if they were I would have similar misgivings…..
While I’m at it when you see Sinn Fein think proxy bombs….what kind of psychopath could be any part of that?…
Dublin and Monaghan bombings? The IRA campaign didn’t emerge out of a vacuum. It emerged because very basic civil rights were being denied to nationalists and republicans. Discrimination was widespread. If you had lived under that type of regime you’d think very, very differently.
John Hume lived under that type of regime, and thousands of others too….and he never blew anyone’s head off, or tied someones hands to the steering wheel of a car packed with explosives….
Psychopaths, murdering psychopaths.
John Hume, as he’s said many times, used the fact of IRA violence to say to Westminster, if you don’t deal with me, you can deal with the IRA. The British State was using widespread internment, shootings (Bloody Sunday, Ballymurphy, etc) to destroy nationalists and republicans looking for the basic principle of one person, one vote. I’d love to hear you criticize state violence and state sanctioned discrimination as much as you criticize those such as the IRA. You’re willfully blind.
Leave ir ouh
+1
are there members of the British Army or the UDA or UVF elected to Dail Eireann?
Think on !
I don’t support SF or anything, but FF / FG were up to all sorts of nasty poo during the civil war. For some reason no one is ever bothered about that. The troubles are fresher on people’s minds I suppose.
That is true but slightly stretching it in context of people around today. FG as a party didn’t exist during the civil war, also the people in FF & FG did not fight in same civil war. Current members of Sinn Fein were involved in the troubles in the north. They tortured, kidnapped and murdered people., and not just members of the British Army but civilians who happened to be born into the other community.
@Rainy Day: to say nothing of people from their own ‘community’.
very true
It’s a bit ridiculous going back nearly 100 years for a bit of whataboutery when the ‘RA and their offshoots were blowing people up as recently as March this year.
the murder point in ref to SF is moot. Mary Lou wasn’t goin around killin people, nor was she advocating it. only really gerry adams has a case to answer for in regards killings etc., and even at that, it was war times, very different to ireland in 2016.
The murder point is the opposite of moot to be frank. As long as they support a man like Gerry Adams as leader they will have to answer these kinds of questions. Its not just Adams either, plenty in the party have blood on their hands…a few in Dail Eireann too…Mr Ellis for example.
High, po crazy, howayadoin?
Mary Lou may not have been going around killing, but as a member of Sinn Fein she’s giving tacit support to those who do/did.
War times? Whose war exactly? Blowing up innocent people in pubs? Grow up
Are you saying there was no war in Northern Ireland?
it’s a tired old card by this stage, when gettin beaten in debate by a Sinn Feiner, when all else fails, just go with “yea well yee killed people” .. what the fupp has that got to do with Nama, corruption today, etc.? bringing up actions of OTHER people from the fuppin 1970s, when debating about present day issues, is not a good argument, its not even an argument, it can be discussed on its own if needs be, but bringing it up in discussions like this is pointless and doesnt contribute to the debate at all, its just deflection tactics. and its all o’rourke has, because he’s firmly behind a very weak, corrupt and failing government.
“… bringing up actions of OTHER people from the fuppin 1970s”
A SF member was convicted of murder as recently as 2005.
In Dublin, not in Belfast. And the victim was someone who wanted to make stand against the drug dealers who were destroying his community, rather than some British establishment figure.
When SF no longer associate with these types of characters, I would fully agree that journalists ask them about other things.
@admin
Nobody cares
@cot …not willfully blind, as I stated above the British sate and its forces are not members of Dail Eireannn, SF are. If the British Army were to take a seat in our parliament I would have similar problems with them.
Again, you’re dodging the question. And you revisionists always do. Not a word about state violence (sanctioned by Westminster) or collusion. Just look the other way. I’ve never voted for SF, but they’re elected by the voters, so there’s not much we can do about that. It’s called one person, one vote.
Sean O’Rourke wasn’t interviewing a member of the Parachute Regiment; he was interviewing a member of SF.
Like Rainy Day said, I wouldn’t vote for some UVF lad in the same way I wouldn’t vote for someone who condones IRA violence.
Sean’s had many members of the Labour and Tory party on his program. I don’t ever remember him asking them why they supported the state sanctioned violence that ripped Northern Ireland apart. He wouldn’t dare.
” I don’t ever remember him asking them why they supported the state sanctioned violence that ripped Northern Ireland apart.” – I suppose that’s true.
– I don’t think many Tories or Labour MPs would, for example, accompany a convicted UDR murderer in the car on his release from prison; SF’s elected representatives do, however, so it is quite normal that interviewers could pursue this line of questioning.
@ Rob_G.
“I don’t think many Tories or Labour MPs would, for example, accompany a convicted UDR murderer in the car on his release from prison”
That would have been a bit difficult for them seeing as almost no members of the state forces were convicted of any of the hundreds of killings they were involved in.
To be fair though, Queen Elizabeth did decorate Col Derek Wllford for his good work on Bloody Sunday.
18 UDR members were convicted of murder. To my knowledge, none of them had an MP as an escort when leaving prison.
“Queen Elizabeth did decorate Col Derek Wllford for his good work on Bloody Sunday.” – I wouldn’t vote for her, either.
– both of these are somewhat tangential to the issue that Sinn Féin, the political party, did not see the issue with having one of their TDs accompanying a man who murdered a Garda in cold-blood on his trip home from prison.
I hope that every journalist and broadcaster continues to question SF’s elected representatives on the murderous thugs that the party associates itself with.
Grand, so the real and serious points raised by the authors of the article can just be ignored in favour of another orgy of Gerry Bashing? Great stuff.
It’s fun to bash Gerry. And he’s an easy target, in fairness.
Not that easy, tbf
I hope the juicy stuff is coming because what is there is lacking the extreme bias I was expecting.
SO’R does seem to have taken the stance of defender of NAMA which is a bit odd.
Yes, this was underwhelming. Not that it was a good interview, but it was totally unsurprising. This is the tenor of all RTE interviews of members of Sinn Fein. They always ask the same poop.
I like to imagine that the general range of comments on this don’t change regardless of whether there is some, none or all of the transcript available.
Mary Lou is sexy
Haha, I hope you’re the submissive type ;)
I assume Robert Mugabe will complain to the broadcasting commission, for being mentioned in the same sentence as P. Hickey.
President Robert Mugabe and president Pat Hickey… where was Seán going with this?
That it’s not healthy for any organisation or nation to have a leader in situ for a prolonged period of time.
haha
(I thought that the president of Ireland can’t be the leader of a party. Inanyways, it was a fair question I think, they are having their Árd Fheis)
Because he couldn’t mention DeValera, being a good little Fianna Failer.
I could be the most real critic of SF on this site but…
RTE is renowned for giving northerners a hard time (McAleese?) so I don’t think it is about Adams or alleged paramilitary activity. They (RTE) will fight tooth and nail because change means more than the usual parroting. The TV news reporters are lazy to the point of incompetence.
But, with the post Brexit breakup of the UK imminent even FG are talking about a united Ireland, albeit only to try and frame it as an east/rich Germany power balance. Gerry down and Mary up when it is most politically expedient to do so.
Is FG any different?
On Nama, the PIMCO deal was null and void. So that’s mostly BS. ML also suggests (being careful not to say so) the northern committee was an extention of Nama: because four Nama Board member sat on it. Ditto.
The most serious Nama issue to arise was never taken under serious consideration by Daithi’s committee. It relates to the activities of Frank Cushnahan prior to the set up of the Cerberus deal.
Some of it recorded by a northern businessman who clearly wanted to take the Irish taxpayer to the cleaners if he’d been allowed. In the event, he wasn’t. He got burned and in turn he burned Cushnahan.
The reason a leak from someone inside Nama should be taken seriously is that – contrary to what ML is trying to sell Sean and us – the advisory panel were supposed never to be made privy to the material of the deal.
Nor is there yet any evidence that that ever happened. So a leak is the only explaination for Cushnahan being able to share accurate and detailed information with said businessman, John Miskelly.
As for Daithi, I’ve little doubt Sean’s right that he was indeed thrown under a bus, and nor have the members of his constituency party who resigned shortly afterwards who clearly felt he was treated appallingly.
Much of what Mick Wallace disclosed last July has crashed and burned. The Committee hearings were premised on getting Robinson (which the presented material never justified.
That’s likely why Daithi over-reached himself (and his party) by co-opting and coaching the loyalist agitator Jamie Bryson, so that when it all came out the party had little choice but to ‘let him go’…
It’s not bias to call BS on a politician.
… who IS actually BSing…
What O’Rourke is protecting is his job, if the shinners end up in control, he and
lot more of them in Donnybrook would end up out the door and so would the
Television Licience…..its nice to see RTE rattled by the rise of the shinners, indeed
if it kept them in luxury they’d join them.
I switched off from the transcription after the Nama stuff. If doing his job is enough to lose him his job, that may be one reason SF (under GA at least) will never be a position to sack him.
We’re just got out from one censorious embedded authority, why would the Irish people be so keen to embrace another?
How come O’Rourke or RTE haven’t had Gemma O’Doherty on air
about the goings on in the Irish Media and her exposure of it.
Minimalist Nooman…
…I mean Minister Nowhere-to-be-seen, yes you, same one…
Is this not your fupping job?
Have you got a Doctor’s note?
Nobody is saying you shouldn’t have a debilitating skin condition over recent relevations, but being a member of a nation parliament is prior to your red-faced embarassment..
I can’t wait for your botched budget, you absolute brick.
I know the difference between ‘ relevations’ and ‘revelations’.
This is one of of the former, I think.
I know they mean the same in this context and within this thread.
I could be wrong.
I could be right,
Some people feel comforted with Mickey N’s manner his incredible lethargy….
…the way he speaks DOWN to you constantly I love his superiority.
…it’s like he was born as an old man and understands nothing else.
-Brilliant.
…some people fall asleep before he finishes a sentence. He DOES talk very slowly, saying nothing, EVER.. Over and over again.
Until today…
For the first time ever the man has a chance to shine, but he’s not well and has to stay in bed.
– How would you feel if it happened to you?
But hey, wouldn’t you love to be able to slap that head while you took him from behind
– I would.
Dear Broadsheet,
Please try harder.
You’ve treated me like dog-dirt on your shoe for too long.
Suddenly I adopt a new name and I’m NOT in moderation?
– Get a grip.
This ‘in moderation’ policy you apply is a joke.
My name is uɐɯ uʍop-ǝpᴉsdn, but you haven’t got the balls to ask me to stop.
I can take my Golden Lucky Bags somewhere else.
FUPP YOU.
Mind the door doesn’t hit you on the bum on the way out, now.