Is it just me or have SF vanished?

Bowie wrote: »

I've been to 3 such funerals.
Also, so what?

3 funerals, which goes to a cemetery with all the trappings and orations, and then instead of burying the body there, it is put back into a hearse to be transported to a crematorium?

This is not normal practice. People who are cremated have the service there, not in a graveyard.

Bowie wrote: »

No idea. The coffin goes behind a curtain and everyone leaves.

So, it goes to a crematorium, not a cemetery with no crematorium, which happened in this case.

So, the question remains, the Storey funeral was quite odd and staged for the cameras.

maccored wrote: »

- the 'Brits were fighting the Brits' theory.

So you don't accept that leading members of the Belfast Brigade were agents working for MI5 and Special Branch?

Donaldson, Scap, Roy the Rat, Ruby Davidson who touted on the Gibraltar Three and was given another big Shinner send off (he was turned for raping young fellas which was more common it seems among Belfast Provos than an 18th century war ship) and many many more.

Some of currently respectable Shinner apologists were touts who were quietly retired from the military side but still sing the party mantra.

And that is without getting into the common or garden corruption that has seen leading Belfast provies become wealthy men without ever working a day in their lives. They own hotels, bars,security business, property here and overseas.

Where did the Northern Bank money go, as former hunger striker Dolours Price asked? And so on.

christy c wrote: »

While I don't like your use of the IRA, it'll be funny watching the hand waving commence from the die hards.

'Handwaving from die hards'?

Michael and Leo have set the template here...this is grand. He served the penalty, owned up...SF should promote him to Minister for State to even things up.

christy c wrote: »

Isn't SF's thing supposed to be that they represent change? Or are you happy with Micheal and Leo's take on it?

My issue (and I posted about it) with Cowen was not the offence per se (everyone makes mistakes) my issue was with the secrecy and why it was coming out now. As a Minister I think he also has to answer the other questions arising.

FrancieBrady wrote: »

My issue (and I posted about it) with Cowen was not the offence per se (everyone makes mistakes) my issue was with the secrecy and why it was coming out now. As a Minister I think he also has to answer the other questions arising.

A Sinn Fein apologist with with issues about secrecy. Thanks. That will give me a chuckle all day. The official Sinn Fein line on Scapattici is still “nothing to see here”.

markodaly wrote: »

Is it normal that funerals go to a graveyard, even though the body is not to be buried there?

Bowie wrote: »

No idea. The coffin goes behind a curtain and everyone leaves.

Bowie wrote: »

You seem very sure.
All 3 were at a chapel or a room in a cemetery after the church service elsewhere.

You seem a little confused, Bowie. Surprising since one thing we Irish consider ourselves experts on is funerals.

Crematoriums are sometimes located in graveyards eg Mount Jerome and Glasnevin in Dublin. In some cases the main funeral service takes place in a church or chapel elsewhere and a short final service is conducted in the crematorium before, as you put it, the coffin goes behind a curtain. Since you don't seem to know what happens then, the answer is that the body is burned.

In other cases, particularly for non-religious funerals, the entire service is conducted in the crematorium.

The issue with Strorey funeral is that thousands of people went from the church to Milltown cemetery when the crematorium was in fact several miles in a different direction. Turning funerals into political circuses is a well established SF/IRA custom, but doing so in the middle of a pandemic is particularly crass.

SafeSurfer wrote: »

A Sinn Fein apologist with with issues about secrecy. Thanks. That will give me a chuckle all day. The official Sinn Fein line on Scapattici is still “nothing to see here”.

What has an organisation that has been wound up after a conflict/war that is over for over 20 years got to do with current politics?
You wouldn't be trying to deflect away from current events would you?

FrancieBrady wrote: »

And if they brought out another crowd for the interring of the ashes ( I assume they are going in the Republican plot) the usual crew would be out complaining.

Death and funerals have always been used for orations by political party's. Aren't they still using the grave of WOlfe Tone for political oration.

The major issue with this particular funeral is the timing. The extravaganza part could have been been done this time next year.

rdwight wrote: »

The major issue with this particular funeral is the timing. The extravaganza part could have been been done this time next year.

The McArdle Brothers made a film once called 'It's Handy When People Don't Die'.

So also could any of the funerals that breached regulations been postponed.

Again, SF made mistakes here, they have acknowledged the hurt those mistakes made.

Asking them to apologise for having or attending a funeral is about as low as the anti-shinner crowd have stooped. Who here would apologise for attending a funeral?

FrancieBrady wrote: »

What has an organisation that has been wound up after a conflict/war that is over for over 20 years got to do with current politics?
You wouldn't be trying to deflect away from current events would you?

So who were all those people in the pretendy uniforms marching about at the hero Bobby Story's funeral?

Was he in the Scouts?

Truthvader wrote: »

So who were all those people in the pretendy uniforms marching about at the hero Bobby Story's funeral?

Was he in the Scouts?

Members of SF I presume...who do you think they were?

A white shirt and tie is a 'uniform' now?

FrancieBrady wrote: »

The McArdle Brothers made a film once called 'It's Handy When People Don't Die'.

So also could any of the funerals that breached regulations been postponed.

Again, SF made mistakes here, they have acknowledged the hurt those mistakes made.

Asking them to apologise for having or attending a funeral is about as low as the anti-shinner crowd have stooped. Who here would apologise for attending a funeral?

If I was a political leader I would advise a family to concentrate on normal parts of the funeral (church service, crematorium service) and leave the political extravaganza until a safer time. It's called leadership.

Anyway, Francie, have the last word on this if you wish, I can't believe I've spent 1 or 2 hours discussing this in the last couple of days. Life's too short.

Mortelaro wrote: »

Sf's Buckleys offence was a tad worse though
3 year driving ban and 3 times over the limit, also on a provisional licence
Its very obvious now why SF didn't push the Cowen thing the other day

I presume an offence whilst holding office would be a resigning matter
Its a pity we can't have squeaky clean mp's but I suppose no country has
The right people rarely run for office, they're too busy getting paid properly/enjoying security of tenure for their skills elsewhere

Mort thinks a SF transgression is worse than any other similar transgression.