Mary Lou McDonald's interviews today

Thought she did very well there on RTE with an interviewer determined to stay in the past.

I came in to say the opposite. I thought she said nothing new and just trotted out the same old lines that satisfy the party faithful. No explanation on how to fund anything except by borrowing and with no limits set.

I'm fairly certainly plenty of catholics who were being murdered by the British armed forces felt it was a war too.

"She then got extremely touchy when asked about their refusal to call southern Ireland the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland by its official name, Northern Ireland saying that people should not get heated about some minor side show - if its such a minor sideshow why can't sf state that there are 2 parts to the island - Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland."

This IS a serious issue. Are you sure that this is the case? It would imply that SF TDs elected in our Republic do not recognise the state? Surely not, please elaborate.

She done really well today. Some media outlets and journalists only seem interested in the past and are intent on trying to keep SF out of power.

The same journalists also only see 1 side to the troubles. Granted what the IRA done at times was horrific but what the unionists imposed on the Nationalists was state sponsored. Irish indo and rte wont acknowledge that though.

Shes right. There is no comparison to gangland crime and the struggles up north.

Gangland crime is only in the ha'penny place compared to bombing women and children the way that the IRA did, or disappearing young mothers, killing Gardai, blowing up innocent people, and leaving bombs in pubs, blowing up old men marching etc.

I mean, is there a gangland crime even comparable to what the PIRA did to Jean McConville or blowing up a young boy in a boat?

I have relatives killed by the British army here in Ireland. i narrowly escaped the Dublin bombings, organised by the British army, by less than five minutes. Lots of us have to live with the consequences of the terrorism of the British army in Ireland.

I assume, by your logic, that members of the political parties that supported the British army, i.e. the Conservative and Labour parties, should be banned from office too?

In any event, i thought the whole purpose of the GFA was to allow people to lay down their arms and pursue their aims by political means. Or is it only certain political aims that can be advanced now?

are the Unionists running for elections in this country ?

We'll have to keep an eye and ear on this. Can Francie here elaborate? Surely this can't be true?

I use all the names of the partitioned bit in a kind of rotation. The North, Northern Ireland, NI, the 6 counties etc. But never 'Ulster,' as it isn't Ulster.

Party who reject partition refuse to partition the island in terminology shocker. 🙄

Conveinient.

They were sitting through the first 50 years of the state when the FF FG parties were celebrating them.

Don't start being coy. You'll be telling us next that Nazi's can now begin celebrating their dead because everyone affected is dead.

Fact is, people used killing and 'terrorism' on all sides on this island many times. Selectively picking some of them to celebrate while denying others is hypocrisy and grubby political grandstanding.

There you go, Godwin's law, well you are a fool to use it, because it is coming straight back at you.

Actually, MLMD has told us that there is no comparison between deaths in a "conflict" and gangland violence, so she is the one saying that the Nazi Holocaust isn't as bad as one criminal lowlife fighting with another criminal lowlife.

MLMD has told us that deaths in a conflict are not as serious as gangland crime. Now, unless she is portraying her conflict as somewhat more glorified than other conflicts, not only is she saying that gangland crime is worse than the Holocaust, she is also saying that the gangland crime in Ireland is worse than Putin invading Ukraine.

She really didn't think through her horrific justification of the sins of the PIRA.

The political conflict between Russia and Ukraine has lasted for 31 years since Ukraine became independent, so as MLMD says, "the things that happened in the course of a very long political conflict.....there is no comparison between that and the kind of challenge, and it is an ongoing challenge, to our society between this and the so-called gangland crime epidemic poses."

So pretty much conclusive what I said. She sees criminal lowlifes fighting with other criminal lowlifes as worse than Russia invading Ukraine.

They are different challenges blanch.

Simple point.

I'm not defending her, I'm calling out your misquote.

Where did she say 'it was not as serious'? Or that the Hutch Kinahin feud was 'more serious' than Russia invading Ukraine?

Jesus, utterly ridiclous spinning.

Here is what she said quoted.

All wars/conflict have their terrible atrocities and wrongs. Would you liken the protagonists in those wars/conflicts to 'gangland crimminals'?

Maybe she thinks that you need to be a really bad psychopathic criminal to join SF. The common or garden gangland criminal just simply won't cut it, when you can get people willing to watch while they bomb a kid in a boat to death, or who think nothing of abusing the welcome of a safe house by raping the young boys living there.

Who are you trying to fool with this nonsense?

She said there was no comparison implying that those involved in gangland crime are not welcome in SF, but those who are happy to beat every bone in Paul Quinn's body are welcome, and that whatever psychopath sat and watched while he blew a kid up in a boat is also welcome.

If you are trying to pretend she said something else, it is a pretty sad state of affairs.

What about Aidan Mcenespies family who was shot dead by the British state? Or the victims of the bloody sunday massacre by the British state? We could go on forever.

It doesn't sit well with some but there was a cause in the North whereas gangland crime is purely about profit and gouging. The North was a struggle to achieve civil rights for nationalists and to remove british rule due to the conditions and apartheid inflicted on Catholics.

Of course innocent civilians shouldn't have been targeted and that is atrocious and unfortunate. it was a war in the North though. Like the struggle down south in the early 20th century.