Sinn Fein? They have gone away, you know.

[EC Unique]

Teflon Don.

[Bingo]

Should we invade to free our jailed TD?

[Main Street]

Just pick a spot on the wall Gerry, and say nothing.

[orangeman]

PSNI tweeted at 8.30 that 65 year old man arrested in connection with jean McConville investigation.

Is that standard for an arranged appointment

Some one tweeting or singing like a bird ?

Or is that the same thing ?.

[Rois]

Gerry Kelly wasn't expecting the arrest - he said for him, he was questioned under caution but not arrested. He reckons it's cause Gerry's so popular...

[orangeman]

The biggest lot of pantomime bollix.

The peelers couldn't give a flying shite about Jean McConville and this is simply lip service. Not one thing will come from it.

Correct. Pure farce. Except that for the Mc Convilles it isn't.

[EC Unique]

I actually think this will encourage even more people to come out and vote Sinn Fein in the upcoming elections.

[AZOffaly]

I don't know about that. Not in the South anyway. Sinn Fein have been trying their best to move on from the murky past, with new, young, attractive candidates, and talking about things like social justice, propping up banks, stealth taxes etc. All stuff that's likely to resonate with voters in the south, as long as they aren't confronted with reminders that in the past Sinn Fein were associated with serious violence, North and South.

This arrest/interview couldn't come at a worse time i'd have thought, because Sinn Fein were poised to eat Labour's lunch for them in these local elections. In fact if I were a politically minded Machiavellian person, I might even look to see if a certain party leader, maybe under serious pressure at home and desperate not to lose badly to Sinn Fein this month, had called in an auld favour from our new best mates across the Irish Sea. In the interests of democracy of course.

[AQMP]

As an aisde, if SF are right or truly believe there is a political element to this arrest, then does that have implications for their role in the Policing Boards in the North??

[AZOffaly]

And right on cue the indo pitch in to remind people that this should impact on their voting coming up.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/sf-election-hopes-hit-as-adams-arrested-over-motherof10s-murder-30234525.html

[Nally Stand]

As an aisde, if SF are right or truly believe there is a political element to this arrest...

Of course it's political.

http://www.judecollins.com/2014/05/five-pieces-food-thought-last-night/

"1. As they munch their breakfast toast this morning, Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre must be feeling good. Having selected people who they knew detested Gerry Adams for what was considered selling out, they put on tape their accusations that Gerry Adams was responsible for the death of Jean McConville. Now, thanks to those tapes, Gerry Adams (at the time of writing) is in an Antrim prison cell.

2. Politicians from the DUP, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour must be smiling so hard this morning, they'll have difficulty munching their All-Bran. The DUP have vowed to 'Smash Sinn Féin!' for decades (remember Ian and his big hammer?); now the Sinn Féin leader is in prison over a crime committed 42 years ago. Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour will also be wondering if God isn't on their side after all. Sinn Féin was running neck-and-neck with them in the opinion polls (no, of course  not Labour, Virginia), so this news from the north must seem like manna from heaven.

3. Why was Gerry Adams arrested last night and not some six weeks ago, when he told the PSNI he was available for questioning? Jimmy Jones back in 1960 had the answer in his hit song"'Good Timing" – remember? Ticka-ticka-ticka timing. Just as the Anglo-Irish Agreement was aimed to stop Sinn Féin's progress and as Big Ian's hammer was designed to do the same thing, the timing of this very public arrest was aimed to stem the Sinn Féin surge at the polling booths in three weeks' time.

4. Dissident republicans this morning are putting down their cup of tea, the better to turn cartwheels around their kitchen. They always said that the Sinn Féin strategy merely propped up British rule here. And now the man who fashioned that strategy, who led republicanism from a seemingly intractable circle of violence to peaceful politics, now sits  in a cell, put there by those who maintain the peace. After they've finished cart-wheeling, the dissidents  may not open their windows and yell into the street "We always told you so!" But they'll be sorely tempted.

5. However, a note of caution: there is something called the law of unintended consequence.  For example, when David Cameron,  Ed Milliband or Nick Clegg spoke up, linking themselves with the Better Together campaign and urging Scottish voters to stay with the Union or suffer unknown economic hardship, the result was not that Scottish voters shied away from the Yes camp. Instead, such was their detestation of bullying London politicians, the Yes campaign has grown impressively ever since.  Likewise with the arrest of Gerry Adams. Leaving aside the impossibility of his getting a fair trial if the case ever came to court, his arrest is more likely to galvanise than depress Sinn Féin campaigners north and south. To quote the DUP's cheerful Arlene Foster: "Be careful what you wish for – you may get it". Last night's arrest of Gerry Adams may well  come back and bite Sinn Féin's opponents in the electoral bum."

[muppet]

I don't know about that. Not in the South anyway. Sinn Fein have been trying their best to move on from the murky past, with new, young, attractive candidates, and talking about things like social justice, propping up banks, stealth taxes etc. All stuff that's likely to resonate with voters in the south, as long as they aren't confronted with reminders that in the past Sinn Fein were associated with serious violence, North and South.

This arrest/interview couldn't come at a worse time i'd have thought, because Sinn Fein were poised to eat Labour's lunch for them in these local elections. In fact if I were a politically minded Machiavellian person, I might even look to see if a certain party leader, maybe under serious pressure at home and desperate not to lose badly to Sinn Fein this month, had called in an auld favour from our new best mates across the Irish Sea. In the interests of democracy of course.

In the last 15 years big announcements that had any bearing on the Peace Process always felt tightly choreographed. While it meant the public were always way behind the real action, it also allowed scope to deal with serious issues as they arose.

This arrest has the same sort of feel to it imho. Adams announced recently that he was available and he went in voluntarily. This takes some of the heat out of the situation. I would suspect the path is already mapped out, if recent history is anything to go by.

[AZOffaly]

Yeah but the timing of it smacks of some sort of pressure. There's no good I can see for Sinn Fein out of this publicity, unless Adams is going to be cleared within days of any involvement. Hard to see that happening. I'd imagine it will drag on for several weeks or months before any conclusion is drawn.

It has all the hallmarks of a stroke pulled to me. If Adams hadn't voluntarily presented himself, I'd not have been surprised to see him in handcuffs.

[muppet]

Yeah but the timing of it smacks of some sort of pressure. There's no good I can see for Sinn Fein out of this publicity, unless Adams is going to be cleared within days of any involvement. Hard to see that happening. I'd imagine it will drag on for several weeks or months before any conclusion is drawn.

It has all the hallmarks of a stroke pulled to me. If Adams hadn't voluntarily presented himself, I'd not have been surprised to see him in handcuffs.

It would be a dangerous stroke, right up there with the self-serving disastrous wranglings of Viktor Yanukovych, Viktor Yushchenko & Yulia Tymoshenko in Ukraine.

[orangeman]

Almost everything since the Good Friday agreement ( some might argue even before that date )  in Northern Ireland has had some form of choreography surrounding it.

This is no different IMO.