[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nssPjn8aixY&start=808]
Following the lead of the taoiseach’s tactic of deflecting Sinn Féin questions with mentions of Jean McConville.
Tánaiste Joan Burton raised the discovery of the body of Brendan Megraw in response to Mary Lou McDonald’s question regarding the IMMA/John McNulty debacle.
“In the day that’s in it, when we have the body of a young man finally being found for his distraught family, the action of the Taoiseach of this country taking responsibility in relation to something where he has acknowledged there was definite wrong, is in marked contrast to the absence of your own leader in relation to a very young man who has spent a very long time in a lonely grave.”
Classy.
Tánaiste hits out over Megraw when challenged on McNulty (Marie O’Halloran, Irish Times)
This was a appalling insensitive deflection of someone scrambling around to find any political capital.
totally dreadful. how low
Woeful, cheap and nasty. As was her comment.
Timing of the find.
Anyone?
This is getting (even more) silly. Alan Kelly (Lab) feels he has no responsibility for this, that it’s a government issue. The arts minister thinks it’s a Fine Gael issue, despite the fact she appointed this guy. The Tainiste now appears its got something to do with a body buried in a bog 40-odd years ago.
Basically everyone else is responsible for this except for those who we pay to take responsibility for this mess. Useless.
+1
She has a point all the same.
Yep, Sinn Fein are complicit in the abduction and murder of people all over this island. They cannot take the moral high ground on ANY issue.
The reason there’s such a thing as ‘ad hominem’ fallacy is because just because someone is a terrible person doesn’t mean they’re wrong, a convicted serial killer may point out your fly is down leaving a toilet, that they are a convicted murder doesn’t mean your fly isn’t any less open. Anyone who pays any attention to the news is well aware of the history of Sinn Féin and it’s kind of insulting to see such a pathetic gambit being used here.
Which is not to this kind of questioning should be off the table for Sinn Féin, but there’s a time and place for it and using the charge of terrorism, as a distraction weakens it too, people aren’t as stupid as politicians think they are (at least I hope not).
It’s not as if Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael haven’t dodgy histories themselves, both as terrorist/fascist organisations in the past and more recently in what they were complicit in the state, complicity in covering up sex abuse, treatment of women, horrific health scandals it wasn’t that long ago FF politicians were supplying guns to the IRA. The IRA killed less than 700, for what they perceived (rightly or wrongly) as a legitimate political struggle, they found 800 babies in that Sewer in Tuam, just as dead. Anyone acting on behalf of the Irish state should have a long hard think before taking the moral high ground. Even this year the government and their friends in the media had to be dragged by social media into taking the issue of Garda corruption seriously. And as for Labour, it’s a party that now stands for nothing, gleefully destroyed by cynical eye-on-the-pension careerists, to see Burton, pulling a cheap trick like this shows how little they care, it’s the tactic of a lazy bully, who knows they’re in the wrong, but also knows the situation is loaded in their favour, so they don’t really have to try.
*which is not to SAY
Brilliant comment. Well said.
+1
Just a small correction – This wasnt so much an “ad hominum” argument/fallacy as it was a “Strawman” argument/fallacy.
Not to get too focused on it, but it’s not a strawman, it’s a non sequitur, with an ad hominem implied ;)
you do go on some. fair play though in fairness
She has minus points for being such a brass-necked cow.
No, she doesn’t.
What she’s doing is akin to saying ‘nuclear bombs are bad’… She needs to answer the questions and stop deflecting, and Kenny too.
She doesn’t have a point.
you are as bad as her
How can you take any of these people seriously when they come out with this kind of BS when (not) answering questions in the Dail. It’s beyond farce.
It’s a fair point in isolation. But using the death of a young person for political gain is about as low as you can go
Zing.
As abysmal and unbelievable as Fine Gael’s handling of the board appointment/seanad affair has been, it’s nothing compared to the mindless and galling denial of Adams and co. of much more serious and disgusting wrong-doings.
Insensitive? I think it’s a very well-deserved calling-out.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
only gonna get my rocks off
well said
‘the action of the Taoiseach of this country taking responsibility in relation to something where he has acknowledged there was definite wrong,’
I love how they’ve been using this as a blunt instrument to hammer the issue to oblivion without acknowledging why it was wrong and what it says about them. There was some sort of mistake made somewhere, all right, not cronyism, corruption, abuse of power, the degrading of various institutions or the disbursement of political sinecures; all just a silly misunderstanding that he takes full responsibility for NOW MOVE ON.
I don’t think those apologists for murderers can claim any high ground for a while yet…
look at the birdys
look at the birdys
etc
Jesus, even Enda Kenny has given up that stupid hollow tactic.
I think we might be the only country in the world with a parliament so utterly useless, disrespected, neglected and castrated we make Westminster look like a shining fupping beacon of democracy.
We need a page one rewrite of the constitution and a second republic, this one just ain’t fixable.
+1937
+1798
+2016 Revolt
Nah. Let’s do nothing about it. It’s so much easier.
She was absolutely right to highlight SF’s utter hypocrisy – both in the fact that they have appointed many of their own to North/South bodies (which Joan also pointed out) and that Mary Lou and Gerry have never said they believe the 2,000 plus murdered and disappeared by the IRA was not morally or politically justifiable and was, in fact, just plain wrong. Excuses for SF/IRA are despicable (not classy).
What’s that got to do with the discussion at hand, Nulty, and what has that to do with fixing it, nothing. It’s school yard childishness.
It’s pathetic deflection and you’ve swallowed it hook line and sinker.
Was labor involved in the peace process? Was Joan? I find it hard to believe they would have been successful if they were casually throwing around remarks like that…
What would she say to Obama if he was here on a visit?
This is despicable and childish. Why must Fine Gael and Labour continue these shameful tactics.
Because this is their only tactic. They don’t do accountability, they do deflection.
Fianna Fail TD asks a question you don’t like? Start droning on about the bailout.
Sinn Fein TD doing the same? Then start droning on about the North.
If SF genuinely believe in social justice then they must stop sidestepping other people’s pain. It does not justify cheap deflection from those who should know better but where possible; let loved ones bury or cremate and say goodbye.
The Old IRA that begat FF & FG only engaged in massively brave against-the-odds daring shoot-outs while hugely outnumbered by fascist Royal Irish Constabulary & Dublin Metropolitan Police stormtroopers.They never disappeared anybody, never shot anyone in cold blood, never shot informers, never committed armed robberies, never robbed banks, never shot informers, and never shot or intimidated collaborators.
Not like the IRA of Adams et al., who had to be dragged into the peace process which was initiated by Unionists and sustained by their generosity in the face of SF negativity.
Joans’s just calling it as it is
in her head.
Vinnie Browne savaging of dumb sf woman on his show was brilliant
Ah ffs Joan
Is that all ya have?
Is it any wonder