Hotblack Desiato wrote: » Varadkar was more comfy than I'd have liked with kiddie rape apologist Frankie, but, BUT Leo did give a very diplomatic yet critical speech which in no uncertain terms put it up to him to institute justice within his church. He will not, of course, but it needed to be said.
FrancieBrady wrote: » Higgins recognised the good Castro did which is no different to the what Varadkar did when he stood shoulder to shoulder with the leader of the RC Church. Complete hypocrisy there tbh blanch.
blanch152 wrote: » The thing is, we don't look back and condone it. Higgins looked back and praised the much worse exploitation of his people by Castro. De Valera did a lot of damage to this country, but he was no Castro in his imprisonment and execution of political opponents.
blanch152 wrote: » Castro impoverished his people for his ideology. More similar to the former leader of West Belfast than anyone we should look up to. Interesting that you defend totalitarian regimes because they do some good.
Sam Russell wrote: » Look at our own country since the crash. founding of the State. Would anyone praise the Industrial Schools, the Magdalene Laundries, the Mother and Baby homes which sold babies having trafficked them to the USA without the consent or knowledge of the natural mothers. Also, the extraordinary deference given to the Catholic Church whose outrageous behaviour towards the sexual assaults carried out by Catholic priests and religious brothers on defenceless children and where they allowed such vile behaviour to continue by moving the criminals to another source of prey. I could go on. Much of this behaviour was not only condoned by official Ireland but aided and funded by it. Craw thumping was an art form.
FrancieBrady wrote: » When did he go to see him as President of Ireland. By the way, Higgins recognised the good things Castro did but accepted that they had come at a social cost. A fair summary of Castro and indeed a good number of other leaders too.
FrancieBrady wrote: » Like any other world leader he did good things and he did bad and people suffered. Sometimes for what the leader thought was for the greater good. Look at our own country since the crash.
expectationlost wrote: » "which brought its critics" is a quite indirect. His behavior had critics but is Higgins one of them?
FrancieBrady wrote: » Not understanding your point.
Thammer wrote: » Castro
expectationlost wrote: » ^not great this^ https://www.president.ie/en/media-library/news-releases/statement-by-president-michael-d.-higgins-on-the-death-of-fidel-castro
Hotblack Desiato wrote: » Chavez is the other one. .
The economic and social reforms introduced were at the price of a restriction of civil society, which brought its critics.
expectationlost wrote: » which commie pals
Edgware wrote: » And let Michael D give us the rundown on his trips to his Commie pals
FrancieBrady wrote: » True - he self admitted and his campaign went down the toilet. We still need to know how deep his involvement in FF was and is.
pixelburp wrote: » The nature of the question was shady and real amateur-hour stuff from RTÉ, but the reality is Gallagher handled the question like a man either out of his depth, or with something to hide. He ballsed it up completely, having effectively coasted in the polls on being the slightly bland, non party-affiliated candidate with a bit of celebrity to add some percentage points. He outed himself, albeit via aforementioned bad journalism. Sean Gallagher only has Sean Gallagher to blame, for being found out as a FF proxy candidate / bagman. Between that and his apparent business model of getting government grants for GAA clubs leads me to believe he'd just be the President of Strokes were he to be elected.
mrbrianj wrote: » That's the strange thing. At the time ( and still) FF were toxic, but a lot of people had voted for them before - it was a plausible excuse to admit being involved before, but explain being as sickened as everybody else and so on, and on, and on. His problem was that lying about being non FF was a NO NO to the voters. When he started mentioning cheques and envelopes it had just moved into pantomime.
Thammer wrote: » Higgins will want as little debate as possible and stick to photo ops Let the dragons beat each to death with their nonsense The communist/Castro angle will probably come into play
marieholmfan wrote: » Former head of Ogra and drives around collecting 'donations' - is that a connection?
realdanbreen wrote: » You might like to think people are bored or have forgotten but thankfully the majority of decent people in this country have not.
