Sinn Fein are not a Normal Political Party

[SoundMan]

Loyalist activity in mid ulster in particular increased late 80s early 90s,

That was due primarily to "the jackal" and "king rat" but in the north loyalist death squads were aided and abetted by the british since the very early 1970s. The british soldiers ostensibly were put on the street to prevent the pogroms getting completely out of control but pretty soon after instead of being a "neutral" to keep the peace, they very much took sides. And they aided and abetted loyalists and loyalism.
By August 1971 the die had already been cast and the British were very much on the side of loyalists. Internment was carried out against republicans and nationalists, not against the Loyalist death squads.

 

[Dogwide]

They don’t have jobs soundly. They are on the dole, cheating tax payers like me. And they blindly stand behind FFG tax cheats who cheat tax payers as well. Impossible for leopards to change their spots, so long as their pockets are kept lined by me.

Lol, calm down fella! You must have some job to pay for all the wasters here!

 

[Hank Scorpio]

I must admit this Menacey fella is a good laugh, we're apparently Brexiteers, Mcdowell is apparently depressed because old Stakeknife didn't get kneecapped , lol,

This fella has logged in here thinking it's some over 70s yellow vest Facebook page I'd say.

 

[Matlock]

Hahahahaha really? Really? Then why did he verbally abuse John Gormley and accost a worker on a ladder on a Dublin street because of election posters so??? Because he's not in it for himself is it?? He should look to his own public order offenses before mouthing off to stay relevant.

It was an argument about poster placement, which is important in terms of getting elected, which is the point of standing for election.

Only an idiot would equate that with someone being out for themselves...

 

[Roxetten]

It makes for interesting reading alright.


Michael McDowell: Sinn Féin move on non-jury courts not all it seems.
Subscriber only

The party will never countenance trial of any Provisional member by any non-jury court.



https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/m...eems-1.4717435

In the murky world of the dirty war known as “the Troubles” there is no murkier character than the participant known as Stakeknife.

A leading member of the IRA in Belfast, he joined the Provisionals at their inception and wormed his way up through the organisation, playing a leading role in the IRA’s civil administration unit (the body charged with keeping order in IRA-controlled areas by punishment beatings, knee-capping mutilations and murder) and later becoming a key figure in the IRA’s internal security unit, where he interrogated and tortured suspected informers and touts, handing them over for execution and dumping on lonely roads as a warning to “rats”.

He was, however, a king rat himself. At some stage in his career, he had been “turned” by British intelligence and so he became a reporter to the IRA army council and to MI5 at the same time. In a shockingly grotesque way, he ferreted out lower-ranking British spies in the IRA, tortured them, found out all they were willing to confess to him, and then gave an edited version of the information to the IRA and a fuller account to the British.

The remarkable aspect of all this is that Stakeknife, when first exposed as long ago as the 1990s, was never targeted by the IRA
By this means, the members of the army council of the IRA (whose members had to authorise the use of the death penalty) were led to believe that they were effectively rooting out spies when in fact they were being prevented from doing so. The British, for their part, had 20:20 vision of the inner workings of the IRA and of the personal involvement of the senior leadership in many of its operations. They knew exactly what the IRA’s counterintelligence knew. Very convenient.

Stakeknife has previously been named as 73-year-old west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci. He denies that he was Stakeknife, or that he was a British spy.

Operation Kenova
Stakeknife’s activities are currently the subject of an ongoing inquiry called Operation Kenova.

Kenova investigators recently failed in their bid to stay civil proceedings by relatives of Stakeknife’s victims until their criminal investigation was complete. They argued that premature publication of evidence and information on Stakeknife might prejudice their work.

The remarkable aspect of all this is that Stakeknife, when first exposed as long ago as the 1990s, was never targeted by the IRA, and has escaped all the usual obloquy one might expect from Sinn Féin ever since.

Why this is so is a little mysterious. Some believe that the extent of British penetration of the IRA, including that of Stakeknife, was so great and deep that the Provisional movement cannot bear to admit it publicly. The armed struggle needs to be glorified – not sullied.

Others believe that Stakeknife has entrusted so much dirt on the Provo leaders in safekeeping to a reliable third party as an “insurance policy” that he is, in effect untouchable and must be regarded as beyond any public criticism.

Operation Kenova is proceeding at a glacial pace but unless it is derailed completely it constitutes a ticking political time-bomb for many in Sinn Féin’s Belfast hierarchy who rubbed shoulders with Stakeknife for so long.

Non-jury courts
It is as well to bear this in mind when we consider Sinn Féin ard-comhairle’s motion for adoption by the recent ardfheis abandoning the party’s long-term opposition to the use of non-jury courts.

Sinn Féin ideology still teaches that any killing or any other operation or activity carried out by the IRA with the approval of the army council was not, and is not, a crime.

Why? Simply because they believe that all the governmental powers of the Irish Republic proclaimed in 1916 were vested in the IRA’s army council as late as December, 8th 1938, by some surviving members of the Second Dáil opposed to the 1921 Treaty. All such activities were, on that account, completely legitimate.

A strange theory, perhaps given that the Second Dáil’s term had long expired in 1938. Nonetheless, no current Sinn Féin politician disavows that theory – or its corollary that the IRA never committed any crime. That also explains how Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness could plead with Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair for IRA criminal immunity during the decade following the Belfast Agreement but Sinn Féin now condemns any immunity for others.

There is no chance that Sinn Féin will ever countenance the trial of any member of the broader Provisional movement by any non-jury court. It’s intended for others.

A good read. Thanks for posting.

 

[Stacky]

Sound_y why is Mary Lou McDonald presenting a medal to the Cuban Ambassador?

It even has Bobby Sands on it.



I thought it was just some lefty kid making a speech praising Cuba at the Ard Fheis?

Do they wast to turn us into some very damp repressive failed State with no freedoms or rights?

 

[Dogwide]

Another interesting piece by MD here, is Sf really that controlling on all decisions and actions?




McDowell


Sinn Féin is an undemocratic movement masquerading as a conventional political party
I categorise myself as and aspire to be a liberal Irish republican. By that I mean that my politics are based on liberal democracy in a state which is governed by the free will of a majority and which accords protection to the rights and liberties of all of its citizens equally.

The term “republican” denotes for me a state which is the servant of all its citizen and the master of none of them – a state that is not in thrall to any privileged elite or self-selecting minority. The word “republic” is hi-jacked by many regimes which are the opposite of republican. as in the case of Kim Jong Un’s DPRK.

In an Irish context, I favour and am loyal to the concept of Irish independence and I believe that independence has been immeasurably better for Ireland than remaining part of the United Kingdom; I also believe that Ireland should reject any proposal to become part of a sovereign European super-state. I believe that a partnership Europe such as we have is good for Ireland.

On Irish unity, I favour that too. I recognise, however, that the two parts of Ireland can and should only be united when a majority in each part is comfortable with that outcome and with the terms on which it can be achieved.

What, then, do I make of modern Sinn Féin? Do I think it is a republican movement? Do I think it is a democratic movement? Do I think it is more likely to bring about Irish unity than other parties?

The short answer is No.

Let me elaborate. I think Sinn Féin is still an undemocratic, marxist movement masquerading as a conventional political party. Most of its members are probably unaware of its true nature.

Let me pose two questions.

Why did Sinn Féin recently spend a large sum sending a delegation to the inauguration of the undemocratic marxist, Nicolas Maduro, as president of Venezuela?

How precisely was Michelle O’Neill chosen to succeed Martin McGuinness as leader of Sinn Féin in the North?

In the case of Maduro, the Provisional movement have long backed communist movements in that region. They sold their weapons technology to the Farc communists in neighbouring Colombia in exchange for millions of narco-dollars. They had, despite denials, a permanent representative in Castro’s Cuba. The common thread was a belief that they were and are a revolutionary movement with a marxist orientation. Readers of An Phoblacht over the years will remember the constant stream of supportive articles for marxist revolutionary groups internationally.

It should come as absolutely no surprise that the party sent a delegation to Caracas to celebrate the subversion of democracy in what used to be one to Latin America’s most liberal states.

This may not lie easily with the polished, bourgeois professional image which the Party seeks to create using Mary Lou McDonald and, until recently, the urbane Peadar Tóibín.

But the truth is that Sinn Féin is rigidly controlled by a small clique of Provo veterans who are puppet-masters in what appears to be a normal democratic party.

It was they who chose Michelle O’Neill. It is they who secured the unopposed election of Mary Lou as the party’s Uachtarán. It is their network of commissars who impose order and discipline on the party’s members. It is they who decide on strategy. It is they who will decide if and when the party resumes participation in the NI executive.

The peculiarly high rate of resignation by elected members of the Oireachtas and county councils, many citing bullying, is but the tip of the iceberg of rigid control from the boys in Belfast. It has been going on for years. Even the veteran republican MP, Francie Molloy, was instantly suspended for publicly disagreeing with the boys in Belfast on the party’s stance on local government reform in the North.

Recent evidence before the “cash for ash” inquiry revealed that Sinn Féin ministers in the Northern Executive had been completely subject to order and control from their official “advisors” who in turn received direction from un-named senior party figures in the backroom hierarchy in Belfast.

The same pattern is to be found in the Oireachtas. Sinn Féin members of the Dáil and Seanad do not have conventional parliamentary party meetings to decide on policy matters or voting intentions in those Houses. Their “line” is not decided by their spokesmen or by anything like a frontbench meeting of elected members. It is handed to them by unelected party apparatchiks who receive it from the mysterious centre. The same applies to the party’s councillors.

Even speeches are pre-written and supplied to the parliamentarians for delivery. There is little or no discretion left to any of them on an individual basis. Other parties are tightly whipped but their members can sometimes indicate in their contributions that they are unhappy with the party line. Never so with Sinn Féin. Public dissent or even the hint of it is utterly forbidden and is ruthlessly dealt with as disloyalty.

In true marxist style, the entire party is subject to what Lenin described as “democratic centralism”.

Sinn Féin members of the Oireachtas do not choose their advisors, interns or secretaries. The party commissars make those decisions. By this means all vestiges of political privacy and autonomy are absent.

We are still somewhat in the dark as to whether the party confiscates its public representatives’ earnings and allowances over certain average industrial wage thresholds to apply them to party purposes under the guise of a voluntary contribution to the support of the party.

Public representatives are routinely informed of their intended de-selection by paid party officials.

By the way, the infamous Workers Party had nearly all of these attributes until it imploded in the aftermath of the end of Soviet communism

Why does all or any of this matter?

It matters if a party that is under external, invisible control seeks to be part of our government. It matters if that party hides its true ideology under a PR veneer. It matter if a party seeks to usurp and pervert the true meaning and values of the republic. It matters if the cause of Irish unity is commandeered by a party which puts commemoration of its “war dead” ahead of reconciliation of Orange and Green.

It matters if the Good Friday Agreement is put in cold storage on the dubious basis of language policy or Arlene Foster’s suitability for office.

Most Sinn Féin members, elected and un-elected, are outside the loop of decision-making. Their Árd-Fheiseanna are just as controlled as the rest of the party’s activities. Very few of them have experienced being members of a party that allowed dissent, free and open discussion, or personal political autonomy. They know no better. They are dupes.

But I do not believe for one minute that Mary Lou or Michelle is in charge of the party rather than the old gang in the backroom of the Felons’ Club on the Andersonstown Road.

If the party does not make sufficient progress at the polls, either or both of them will receive a tap on the shoulder from the Felons’ Club – not from the ordinary members.

That leads me to the interesting question of the FF/SDLP merger proposal. It must lessen the chance of an FF/SF coalition in the South. The eradication of the SDLP in the North is an urgent Provo aim. The much weakened SDLP stands in the way of an SF First Minister elected. No wonder the old Provos fear such an alliance.

Sinn Féin is not a democratic or republican party. It remains a carefully constructed façade for a small, manipulative and undemocratic clique with very different values.

Dissent and individual political judgment in political parties are the canaries in the coalmine. If you don’t hear an odd chirp, beware.

 

[Hank Scorpio]

Another interesting piece by MD here, is Sf really that controlling on all decisions and actions?




McDowell


Sinn Féin is an undemocratic movement masquerading as a conventional political party
I categorise myself as and aspire to be a liberal Irish republican. By that I mean that my politics are based on liberal democracy in a state which is governed by the free will of a majority and which accords protection to the rights and liberties of all of its citizens equally.

The term “republican” denotes for me a state which is the servant of all its citizen and the master of none of them – a state that is not in thrall to any privileged elite or self-selecting minority. The word “republic” is hi-jacked by many regimes which are the opposite of republican. as in the case of Kim Jong Un’s DPRK.

In an Irish context, I favour and am loyal to the concept of Irish independence and I believe that independence has been immeasurably better for Ireland than remaining part of the United Kingdom; I also believe that Ireland should reject any proposal to become part of a sovereign European super-state. I believe that a partnership Europe such as we have is good for Ireland.

On Irish unity, I favour that too. I recognise, however, that the two parts of Ireland can and should only be united when a majority in each part is comfortable with that outcome and with the terms on which it can be achieved.

What, then, do I make of modern Sinn Féin? Do I think it is a republican movement? Do I think it is a democratic movement? Do I think it is more likely to bring about Irish unity than other parties?

The short answer is No.

Let me elaborate. I think Sinn Féin is still an undemocratic, marxist movement masquerading as a conventional political party. Most of its members are probably unaware of its true nature.

Let me pose two questions.

Why did Sinn Féin recently spend a large sum sending a delegation to the inauguration of the undemocratic marxist, Nicolas Maduro, as president of Venezuela?

How precisely was Michelle O’Neill chosen to succeed Martin McGuinness as leader of Sinn Féin in the North?

In the case of Maduro, the Provisional movement have long backed communist movements in that region. They sold their weapons technology to the Farc communists in neighbouring Colombia in exchange for millions of narco-dollars. They had, despite denials, a permanent representative in Castro’s Cuba. The common thread was a belief that they were and are a revolutionary movement with a marxist orientation. Readers of An Phoblacht over the years will remember the constant stream of supportive articles for marxist revolutionary groups internationally.

It should come as absolutely no surprise that the party sent a delegation to Caracas to celebrate the subversion of democracy in what used to be one to Latin America’s most liberal states.

This may not lie easily with the polished, bourgeois professional image which the Party seeks to create using Mary Lou McDonald and, until recently, the urbane Peadar Tóibín.

But the truth is that Sinn Féin is rigidly controlled by a small clique of Provo veterans who are puppet-masters in what appears to be a normal democratic party.

It was they who chose Michelle O’Neill. It is they who secured the unopposed election of Mary Lou as the party’s Uachtarán. It is their network of commissars who impose order and discipline on the party’s members. It is they who decide on strategy. It is they who will decide if and when the party resumes participation in the NI executive.

The peculiarly high rate of resignation by elected members of the Oireachtas and county councils, many citing bullying, is but the tip of the iceberg of rigid control from the boys in Belfast. It has been going on for years. Even the veteran republican MP, Francie Molloy, was instantly suspended for publicly disagreeing with the boys in Belfast on the party’s stance on local government reform in the North.

Recent evidence before the “cash for ash” inquiry revealed that Sinn Féin ministers in the Northern Executive had been completely subject to order and control from their official “advisors” who in turn received direction from un-named senior party figures in the backroom hierarchy in Belfast.

The same pattern is to be found in the Oireachtas. Sinn Féin members of the Dáil and Seanad do not have conventional parliamentary party meetings to decide on policy matters or voting intentions in those Houses. Their “line” is not decided by their spokesmen or by anything like a frontbench meeting of elected members. It is handed to them by unelected party apparatchiks who receive it from the mysterious centre. The same applies to the party’s councillors.

Even speeches are pre-written and supplied to the parliamentarians for delivery. There is little or no discretion left to any of them on an individual basis. Other parties are tightly whipped but their members can sometimes indicate in their contributions that they are unhappy with the party line. Never so with Sinn Féin. Public dissent or even the hint of it is utterly forbidden and is ruthlessly dealt with as disloyalty.

In true marxist style, the entire party is subject to what Lenin described as “democratic centralism”.

Sinn Féin members of the Oireachtas do not choose their advisors, interns or secretaries. The party commissars make those decisions. By this means all vestiges of political privacy and autonomy are absent.

We are still somewhat in the dark as to whether the party confiscates its public representatives’ earnings and allowances over certain average industrial wage thresholds to apply them to party purposes under the guise of a voluntary contribution to the support of the party.

Public representatives are routinely informed of their intended de-selection by paid party officials.

By the way, the infamous Workers Party had nearly all of these attributes until it imploded in the aftermath of the end of Soviet communism

Why does all or any of this matter?

It matters if a party that is under external, invisible control seeks to be part of our government. It matters if that party hides its true ideology under a PR veneer. It matter if a party seeks to usurp and pervert the true meaning and values of the republic. It matters if the cause of Irish unity is commandeered by a party which puts commemoration of its “war dead” ahead of reconciliation of Orange and Green.

It matters if the Good Friday Agreement is put in cold storage on the dubious basis of language policy or Arlene Foster’s suitability for office.

Most Sinn Féin members, elected and un-elected, are outside the loop of decision-making. Their Árd-Fheiseanna are just as controlled as the rest of the party’s activities. Very few of them have experienced being members of a party that allowed dissent, free and open discussion, or personal political autonomy. They know no better. They are dupes.

But I do not believe for one minute that Mary Lou or Michelle is in charge of the party rather than the old gang in the backroom of the Felons’ Club on the Andersonstown Road.

If the party does not make sufficient progress at the polls, either or both of them will receive a tap on the shoulder from the Felons’ Club – not from the ordinary members.

That leads me to the interesting question of the FF/SDLP merger proposal. It must lessen the chance of an FF/SF coalition in the South. The eradication of the SDLP in the North is an urgent Provo aim. The much weakened SDLP stands in the way of an SF First Minister elected. No wonder the old Provos fear such an alliance.

Sinn Féin is not a democratic or republican party. It remains a carefully constructed façade for a small, manipulative and undemocratic clique with very different values.

Dissent and individual political judgment in political parties are the canaries in the coalmine. If you don’t hear an odd chirp, beware.

Frightening stuff. Thanks for posting.



People want these lunatics running the country.

 

[SoundMan]

People had that lunatic running the country. McDowell doesn’t want elites

Errah yeah

 

[Roxetten]

Stephen Collins: The assumption Sinn Féin will lead next government is flawed​

Subscriber only

Party looks likely to win most seats, but government formation is rarely that simple.​

strong message emanating from the Sinn Féin ardfheis last weekend was the confident belief that the party is on course to take over the reins of power after the next election. What is even more striking is that the inevitability of this development has been accepted by many commentators and even by some TDs in the Government parties.

On current trends there seems little doubt that Sinn Féin will be the biggest party in the next Dáil but it is a bit early to predict the result of an election that is probably three years away. One of the big lessons of recent political history in this country is that things can change dramatically during an election campaign.

In the run-up to February 2020, all the speculation centred on whether Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil would lead the next government. In the event the sudden Sinn Féin surge changed everything. At this stage it is impossible to know what the atmosphere will be like the next time the country goes to the polls.

The most recent Ipsos MRBI Irish Times opinion poll showed Sinn Féin at 32 per cent support, well out in front of the other major parties and a full 10 points ahead of its nearest rival, Fine Gael. If the outcome of the next election is anything like that Sinn Féin will undoubtedly be the largest party but it does not automatically mean the party will be in government.

Translating those poll findings into likely Dáil seats is revealing. An analysis of the figures, incorporating a seat bonus for the parties similar to that obtained at the last election, gives the following outcome: Sinn Féin, 49 seats; Fine Gael, 37; Fianna Fáil, 33; the Green Party, 12; Labour, 5; and others, 24.

Inside Politics · Sinn Fein: a party preparing for government
If the result of the next election is anything like this it means that Sinn Féin will have to get the support of at least 31 other TDs in order to lead the next government. By contrast Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil will only need to find 10 other members of the Dáil to put them back in for another term.

Anti-Sinn Féin​

If the Green Party manages to hold on to 12 seats, that outcome will certainly be feasible but there are other options as well. Currently the Regional Independents have nine TDs and they are solidly in the anti-Sinn Féin camp as evidenced by their support for Simon Coveney in the recent no-confidence motion.

The Government won that vote by the comfortable margin of 92 votes to 59 in spite of the fact that Labour, the Social Democrats and other left-wing groupings backed the Sinn Féin motion. While Sinn Féin will certainly be in a stronger position in the next Dáil, that vote of confidence was an indication that getting their hands on the levers of power will not be easy.

Of course, the picture will be very different if Fianna Fáil opts for a coalition with Sinn Féin next time around. On the figures cited above, the two parties would have more than 80 seats and be in a position to form a government. While some Fianna Fáil TDs appear open to that option it would represent a decisive change of direction for the party and would certainly be resisted by the present leadership.

Another factor that has to be taken into account is that a Sinn Féin surge is likely to see the party taking seats from Trotskyist parties, and probably Labour and the Social Democrats as well, so it may have few potential allies if Fianna Fáil holds its nerve and sticks to the centre ground.

Running mates​

Another interesting factor will be the electoral strategy Sinn Féin adopts to win the maximum number of seats. Last time out it ran too few candidates to capitalise on its support, so the next time the pressure will be to impose running mates on many of the sitting TDs. That will have interesting consequences if the party’s vote falls short of its ambitions.


There is a widespread but mistaken assumption that the biggest party in the Dáil should automatically lead the government but this has never been the case in Irish politics. There have been a number of occasions when the biggest party was kept out of power by a combination of other parties.

The most notable case was way back in 1948 when Fianna Fáil, led by Eamon de Valera, had more than twice the number of seats obtained by Fine Gael yet the smaller party ended up leading a coalition composed of a number of parties and Independents. In 1973 Fianna Fáil won a whopping 46.2 per cent of the national vote but lost power to Fine Gael and Labour, and in the 1980s, Charles Haughey twice lost power despite winning over 45 per cent of the vote.

At this stage it is impossible to predict how far Sinn Féin’s current momentum will take it but, even on a good day, it is likely to be well short of a majority. It will only get into power if other parties are willing to facilitate it in taking control of the State for the first time.

Soundy Bocht