Martin McGuinness to be named as Sinn Féins candidate for the Presidential Election?

He gets our votes too

steddyeddy wrote: »

I agree they should have targetted the loyalist mobs, the orange order and the government of northern ireland so because there was very few innocent people in power in the north at the time.

I would never have believed that anyone living in Dublin would have seen it that way. Perhaps, I have been too ready to believe that all natives of Eire are enemies of Northern Ireland Catholics.

RandomName2 wrote: »

Don't know whether he was doing for fun, for personal gain, or for the sake of ideology. It's kind of irrelevant, isn't it?

In the context, sectarian violence was developing in quite an unpleasant manner whereby civilians on both sides were being bombed, generally in retaliation for some former atrocity. Martin was engaged in the same sort of military endeavours as Bloody Friday, presumably in revenge for Bloody Sunday.

Whats all this both sides nonsense that people are throwing about? My uncle was one of the organisers of the civil rights marchs, link below

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/proni/1968/proni_HA-32-2-27_1968-08-28.pdf

Do you know that south africa used discrimination in the north of ireland to justify their policies in south africa? Do you know that the international commision of jurists condemend the north on human rights issues? When my uncle started marching he was called ect and that was used to justify violence against him and catholics simply because they wanted equal rights. Friends of his were burned out of their streets and houses, one of his friends had her breats cut of for being catholic. Both sides? I never heard such garbage in my life.

crucamim wrote: »

I would never have believed that anyone living in Dublin would have seen it that way. Perhaps, I have been too ready to believe that all natives of Eire are enemies of Northern Ireland Catholics.

Ps Im well aware that some people are ignorant of what and is going on well not me.

And off we go again

Brirish soldiers were involved in gerrymandering. They did many disgraceful and terrible things but that's a new one on me!

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Seriously ? :eek:

Yes. I dislike long-distance Christains, long-distance pacifists, long-distance liberals and long-distance patriots.

crucamim wrote: »

My apologies. I should have guessed that you were of Northern Catholic orgin. I hope that the Staters have not been nasty to you.

I used to go on holiday to Eire - to Galway, West Kerry, Wicklow, West Cork. But I had to stop going many years ago. I have not been in Kerry since 1982. I became fed up listening to "be nice to Protestants" sermons from silly Southerners who seemed to take it for granted that we had a duty to lie down and let the Protestants walk over us in the interests of Eire's tourist trade.

They havent got a clue mate and more pity to them their the ignorant that think the atrocities of the shankill butchers were a one of.

K-9 wrote: »

Brirish soldiers were involved in gerrymandering. They did many disgraceful and terrible things but that's a new one on me!

How, when and where were British soldiers involved in gerrymandering?

paky wrote: »

i fail to see what the argument is here. martin mcguinness did what any other right thinking individual would of done if their community was underthreat by an apartheid state.
mcguinness is a hero because of hios past actions. they may not of been democratic but were legitimate due to the fact that it was a state of war

Yeah, murdering Protestant workmen, bombing memorial services, and blasting British High streets were all heroic efforts on the part of the glorious IRA.

realies wrote: »

Anyone who is OK with orchestrating the murder of innocent Irishmen is not a "republican".Liam byrne

Would that not rule out the founding figures of fianna fail and fianna gael as republicans,Yet they be well up there in the year 2016 commemorating men who in there fight for Irish freedom innocent civilians did get murdered.

I'm pretty certain that the men you speak of didn't target innocent civilians.

steddyeddy wrote: »

All this Marty is just someone planting bombs for the fun of it idea really isnt in context with what was going on at the time. There was massive discimination in the north at the time and violence was always going to happen.

The fact that violence was unavoidable doesn't make it justifiable. I'm not really comfortable with attempting to place the murder and attempted murder of innocent civilians into a political context.

blahfckingblah wrote: »

do you think the IRA of old wouldnt have used the tactics of the PIRA had they access to them? Because i would be doubtful

Pure speculation. They didn't use such tactics, so there's no point in engaging in "what ifs".

Mr Vengeance wrote: »

Whilst a lot of wrongs were done by all sides in the north during the troubles, what Martin McGuinness has done since to bring peace to the six counties far outweighs any wrongs he was responsible for, in my view at least.

He was in a position to bring peace because he was so involved in wreacking the violence. He was able to turn his back on violence purely because he had embraced it up to that point. I'm glad he finally saw the light, and came to the conclusion that murder and maiming of civilians and non-combatants is never right, but celebrating him for this is going too far in my opinion.

Also, how many murders would he have had to be personally responsible for before the wrongs of his past began to outweigh the good?

Whilst he probably made some bad decisions during the 1970's, you've got to remember that this was a pretty crazy time up there, with many people acting out of desperation and frustration at the way the British were treating the Catholic populace. Whilst I will never agree with the killing or endangerment of the lives of civilians, you've got to look at McGuinness's actions in the context they were taken in.

Of course you have to look at the context, but even within that, I can't see the justification for murdering civilians.

Martin can count on my vote anyway

This is what i don't understand. It's as if there's a disconnect between people's perception of McGuinness the terrorist, and McGuinness the politician- as if they are two seperate entities. How can you disagree with the murder or endangerment of civilians, and then vote for someone who psent at least part of his time involved in both types of activity?

crucamim wrote: »

How, when and where were British soldiers involved in gerrymandering?

That's what I was wondering!

The British soldiers in Northern Ireland were innocent. They did not gerrymander or discriminate against Catholics.

Can you clarify that.

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

You arent a fan of protestants are you?

That is something of an under-statement.