Where did they 'celebrate killing a young girl'? Jesus the sensationalist hyperbole about this stuff!!
How do you allow people to commemorate their dead in a post conflict/war scenario?
Everybody who has been involved in conflict/war does this, commemorates/celebrates their dead.
We should know the answers to this - we in the south have been celebrating/commemorating people who killed and terrorised for a century.
Even if you accept the person or persons operating that Twitter account are warped and unhinged it really does show a stunning lack of political nouce not understanding that there is nothing more repellant to ordinary voters than paying homage to a man who burned a woman alive in her family's clothes shop.
This is a party that is being asked to be taken seriously. It's mind boggling.
I know this is 'whatabout' but it illuminates the problem here:
What do you think of parties or a state that honours a man who indiscriminately bombed England and killed a 14 year old boy?
The Thomas Clarke Bridge:
Is anyone really surprised?
I mean look at that Tweet - "a political prisoner". Someone who burned a woman alive in her family's clothes shop is not a political prisoner by any stretch of the imagination. He was a truly evil person.
Michelle O'Neill's tweet is as tasteless as they get. "He died for Irish Freedom". What a disgusting thing to say, and is as far from the truth as possible.
That won't be responded too, bad few weeks for FFG. They are trying everything to get people talking about the Shinners
Forget all that and answer this basic question
From a mere public relations perspective do you think it's sensible to be putting out tweets like that?
Yes, the really sad thing about this is the amount of upset about a yet another victim is in direct proportion to the amount of trouble FG or FF is in currently.
Ineffably sad and hypocritical.
It is a really good example of how republicans still see the world from a them-ums perspective. No understanding how the use of the phrase "Catholic Belfast" is and of itself a sectarian view of the world, and a factor for division, not reconciliation. I am sure the denials will be loud and long and aggressive, but when the mask slips, as in that case, the ugliness is there for all to see.
Dont ye goys always want to be reminding people of sinn feins past.....they choose to remember/commerate it and yous dont want it either?
Surely a 23 year old dying on hunger strike is a example of how fcuked up it all was....chap should be 63 likely with grandkids now,had the.troubles not enveloped the north
The bible even references it,blessed are those,who hunger for justice
Given what he did, he should be still rotting in jail.
Helpful to whom? I would think most people who vote for or support SF have reconciled that history is full of this kind of thing and if you commemorate or celebrate your history you are commemorating some heinious acts. There in lies the problem with 'ethical remembrance' presented by the 'Tom Clarke' issue above.
I would like us to find a way for people to remembered with respect and ethically.
These selective outcries, (that funnily enough, are always more intense when FG or FF need a distraction) do illuminate the hypocrisies though.
I would prefer and think it 'sensible' that they didn't happen at all, on any side. It is something I hope can be resolved in a UI scenario. Respectful and ethical remembrance..
Well of course you wouldn't. After all, you are a supporter of dissident Republicans.
Ah the usual Monday morning whataboutery.... tell us, are FF or FG putting out tweets celebrating a man who in living memory burned a woman to death? I doubt it.
It's the usual SF approach. It is fine to put out Tweets celebrating a man who murders innocent people, yet in the same breath, they want the victims of the British Security forces hoisted high to be used as a political football.
One rule for us, another rule for everyone else.
Good God you people are unreal, you think he is the victim now?
When will we rename the Thomas Clarke bridge?
When we do, FFG can call out SF on this type of stuff, until then there both celebrating killers
The idea is to grow your voter base not throw red meat to those who already support you that is poison to voters you need to attract.
I'm not looking at it from an anti SF perspective. This is politics 101. If you stay in your silo you get nowhere.
That applies to all parties.
It's perfectly obvious SF has a public relations issue.
Exactly what freedom?
The PIRA were very clear in their goals in the 1970s and 1980's. To kill and murder for a United Ireland and to hell with the consequences and people who got in the way. That is what MON thinks Irish 'freedom' is.
Again, did the murder of that innocent woman help nationalists one bit? Of course not but the people who drink the Republican Koolaid are brainwashed to think, yes, that death 'helped' someone on the falls road. Such logic is evil.
'Living memory' is the ethical metric now is it?
So celebration of the Nazi's will be very soon ok...that what you are proposing Mark.
No shame here using 'whatabout' BTW. You can't have a discussion of this without looking at how everyone else behaves around these issues.
Or are we at the one rule for us and another for the dastardly republicans/shinners stage?
I'd agree, none of our political parties get the PR stuff right. But then PR designed to gain votes is usually bullshit and would be soon called out too.
I think this illuminates the fact once again that SF are not a normal political party. They are very much a post conflict/war political party and need to tread a delicate line. Keeping it's traditional support while growing it's base.
Some people will understand that they are NOT celebrating the death of a young woman no more than the Irish State is celebrating the death of a 14 year old boy when they name a bridge. Others won't get that. A trade off if you will. They really aren't after the votes of the moral high grounders or hypocrites on these matters IMO.
Well, at least we get the admission that Sinn Fein are not a normal party.
Sinn Fein's refusal to disown its terrorist past is the biggest threat to democracy in the State.
Whataboutery Francie, just plain out Whatbaoutery.....
SF, just not a normal party. If you have to invoke the Nazis as cover then you know you are on a hiding to nothing.
Very very very interesting.... I seem to recall you had about 6 months' worth of material when the RIC commemorations were talked about a few years ago, when it was made plain by loads of historians and people involved that the commemoration was not a celebration of the Black and Tans..... now you have changed your tune again.
Its funny, you seem to change your tune more often than a flute band on the 12th.
No 'admission' mark.
I have always said that they are not a normal party.
And why did I know you wouldn't go near the question raised.
Polls and electoral results would suggest otherwise. Medium to long term trajectory of legacy parties like FF/FG is down and likely to stay down. Medium to long term trajectory for SF is up and will likely stay up.
Just because you want something to be true doesn't make it so. Nobody is ignorant to SF's past - the electorate care less than you seem to think.
People may drop their monocles into their earl grey in certain corners at SF, but the reality is they are now firmly embedded in the ABC1 voter segment and will stay there.
All the focus-groupped 'not a normal party' stuff doesn't make a blind bit of difference. FG need to ask for a refund from their PR / Political consultancy firm on that one (and you know damn well that's where that line came from).
A 'state' commemoration of the RIC was not appropriate was my argument mark.
Entirely consistent with an ethical approach to commemoration. I never stood in the way of or condemned the yearly commemorations of the RIC that have been going on for decades. People have to be allowed remember their dead...the core of my argument.
The one caveat with this though is that SF has not been in power yet in the south, so the public have yet to see what a bunch of cowboys they truly are. A few years in power and I can see SF being back to their usual 10% support when their newfound voters find out that there is no pot of gold at the end of that SF rainbow.
It's easy to blame the government for all your ills and support SF, but when SF get into power, they won't know what hit them, as their expectations cannot be met by an electorate hungry for action.
Nonsense. Pure and utter nonsense.
You are halfway to the south pole with the way you are spinning Francie.
In your opinion.
In my opinion, before SF get into power alot of shredding and phones getting destroyed will be happening within the dail
Ah yes, the populist Trumpian talk about a takeover of power. Such talk only exists only between some SF supporters.
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