Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Who is this Gerry Adams fellow?
Hilarity all around from BBC's Mark Simpson:
Simpson muses that "the love-in between Irish America and the Sinn Fein president has hit the rocks," because Ted Kennedy won't see Adams any more (though the former US envoy to Northern Ireland Richard Haass, millionaire Bill Flynn, Kennedy's sister Jean Kennedy-Smith, and former Clinton UN envoy Nancy Soderberg still will).
What's behind the break-up? "It's clear the veteran Senator's patience with Republicans has now snapped. More than 10 years into the peace process he expected the IRA to have gone away by now. The £26 million bank robbery, a money-laundering scam in the Irish Republic and the murder of Robert McCartney - all have been blamed on the IRA in recent months."
Maybe, just maybe, it wasn't such a great idea to coddle up to Adams in the past either?
Update: Five sisters and the fiancee of Robert McCartney mentioned above, are traveling to America as part of their campaign to bring Robert's killers to justice. "We want the people in America to know that any romantic vision they have of the struggle should now be dispelled. The struggle in terms of what it was 10 years ago is now over, we are now dealing with criminal gangs who use the cloak of romanticism around the IRA to murder people on the streets and walk away from it," says Catherine McCartney.
Not so, says Gerry Adams' mate from Sinn Fein, Martin McGuinness: "The McCartneys need to be very careful... To step over that line, which is a very important line, into the world of party politics, can do a huge disservice to their campaign."
Which must sound pretty similar to the last words that Robert McCartney would have heard. McGuinness now says that his apparent threat has been taken out of context.
Also check out Mark Steyn's take on the issue.
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"In America, Gerry Adams is like Jerry Springer - you either love him or hate him.I read the rest of Simpson's report and I couldn't work out why the Americans think this Gerry Adams guy to be such a controversial figure. I guess, maybe a mention that Adams, in addition to his current incarnation as a mainstream Northern Irish politician (the head of Sinn Fein party), is also allegedly one of the leaders of one of Europe's oldest terrorist groups, now doubling as an organized crime syndicate, the Irish Republican Army.
"He's outspoken, he's controversial, he's been accused of stirring up trouble for many years and his critics say he thrives on conflict... that's Gerry/Jerry.
"Not true, say friends; the real Gerry/Jerry is a peacemaker, a man who uses unorthodox methods to try to resolve unorthodox problems."
Simpson muses that "the love-in between Irish America and the Sinn Fein president has hit the rocks," because Ted Kennedy won't see Adams any more (though the former US envoy to Northern Ireland Richard Haass, millionaire Bill Flynn, Kennedy's sister Jean Kennedy-Smith, and former Clinton UN envoy Nancy Soderberg still will).
What's behind the break-up? "It's clear the veteran Senator's patience with Republicans has now snapped. More than 10 years into the peace process he expected the IRA to have gone away by now. The £26 million bank robbery, a money-laundering scam in the Irish Republic and the murder of Robert McCartney - all have been blamed on the IRA in recent months."
Maybe, just maybe, it wasn't such a great idea to coddle up to Adams in the past either?
Update: Five sisters and the fiancee of Robert McCartney mentioned above, are traveling to America as part of their campaign to bring Robert's killers to justice. "We want the people in America to know that any romantic vision they have of the struggle should now be dispelled. The struggle in terms of what it was 10 years ago is now over, we are now dealing with criminal gangs who use the cloak of romanticism around the IRA to murder people on the streets and walk away from it," says Catherine McCartney.
Not so, says Gerry Adams' mate from Sinn Fein, Martin McGuinness: "The McCartneys need to be very careful... To step over that line, which is a very important line, into the world of party politics, can do a huge disservice to their campaign."
Which must sound pretty similar to the last words that Robert McCartney would have heard. McGuinness now says that his apparent threat has been taken out of context.
Also check out Mark Steyn's take on the issue.
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