Sinn Fein? They have gone away, you know.

[Nally Stand]

http://relativesforjustice.com/adams-arrest-is-positioning-on-truth-end-game/

[Nally Stand]

Is Nally Stand on double time ?

Surely Muppet & AQMP (and possibly others) have been posting quite a bit more than I have in recent pages? Odd that I'm the one you single out then isn't it? Hmmm

But thanks for yet another fascinating contribution to the discussion saffron. Your depth of analysis, not to mention your meticulous arguments and counter arguments in your posts are an example to us all.

[orangeman]

The Guradian

We can be confident that Gerry Adams has not been sitting in his cell chewing on self-doubt. The president of Sinn Féin, who was arrested this week in connection with the 1972 kidnapping, murder and burial of widowed mother-of-10 Jean McConville, has been the target of opprobrium for more than 40 years and has shown himself impervious to it.

He has been imprisoned and shot, and reviled in the media – but has come through all that stoically. When charged with trying to escape from internment in 1974, he sat darning his socks and ignoring proceedings.

Adams knows that he is widely loved by those who supported the IRA through its worst days. Those who were going to desert him in horror over the past have already done so. He has already been through a redemption, if not in his own heart then certainly in the minds of Irish people. What he did before giving up the armed struggle is not considered relevant.

Adams has many times held his nerve and maintained his course when others said he was a murderer, the defender of a child abuser – that is, of his convicted brother Liam – and when journalists harangued him about bombings in which innocents died.

This is a man who doesn't do doubt. This time the party line is that his arrest was politically motivated; that with elections coming in three weeks, this is a way to tarnish Sinn Féin.

North of the border people who vote Sinn Féin are of two types. There are those who supported the IRA and believe the campaign was a good thing. They aren't going to be affected by his arrest; there is nothing for them to be disillusioned about. Then there are republican critics of Adams, who accuse him of selling out for a career. They will be quietly glad he is in difficulty now.

But the major part of the Sinn Féin support base, which is now most of the nationalist community, maintains it loyalty to the party and Gerry Adams as a reward for peacemaking. It wouldn't daunt them were it to emerge that he has blood on his hands; they like him because they know he made war and credit him with having changed.

True, most nationalists rejected the IRA during its armed campaign and voted instead for the SDLP which opposed violent revolution. But those distinctions are dissolving. Last month Clonard monastery in west Belfast held a mass for "the patriot dead", bringing together families of dead IRA bombers and killers. That's how respectable a past in the IRA has become.

Where Adams can suffer is in the Irish Republic. He shifted his political base there and took a seat in the Dublin parliament, the Dáil. For years his party has relentlessly increased its support, yet its northern and southern expressions are growing apart. One irony, if he fell, might be that Sinn Féin would be partitioned, effectively evidence that partition is organic and inevitable in Ireland.

Adams, just a few days ago, was the most popular political leader in the south. And some there will detect machinations behind the decision to arrest him.

But it is not only public opinion that matters. The prospect of political power in the south depends on coalition with at least one of the other big parties. And the leaders of Labour, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil will be squeamish about going into office with, deputising or being deputised by, a man who was a suspect in Jean McConville's horrific murder.

Therefore Adams's southern political ambitions are now dead, whatever happens next. The hard part might be getting such a resilient and impervious man to believe that.

[muppet]

The timing looks to be his. If he stayed down south until after the election he would not be 'on the run'.

What I mean is, if the peelers wanted to arrest him, they wouldn't need to 'trap' him.

Fair enough, but if he wanted to wait till after the election they would have had a whole load of court appearances, warrants & extradition procedures to go through before he could have been considered to be not co-operating.

To be fair, it would be a pretty dark cloud hanging over Sinn Fein's election campaign if the leader of their party was actively avoiding the PSNI over the death of Jean McConville. That would look much worse than the situation we currently have.

Has the PSNI publicly stated that they wanted to interview/arrest him. I honestly don't know this and can't find anything on the net.

[orangeman]

Toys could be fired out of the pram.




Sinn Fein has demanded the release of Gerry Adams after police were granted a further 48 hours to question the party's leader in connection with the 1972 murder of Belfast mother-of-ten Jean McConville.
Adams will spend a third night in a police cell after detectives investigating the murder of Jean McConville asked for more time to question him.
Sinn Fein has today warned it could end its support for law and order in Northern Ireland if Adams is charged - a key peacemaking commitment that enabled the creation of Northern Ireland's unity government seven years ago.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said his party would review its 2007 vote to recognise the legitimacy of Northern Ireland's police if Adams isn't freed without charge.
McGuinness,said Sinn Fein would 'continue to support the reformers within policing' if Adams was freed.

[ONeill]

You have to ask yourself why they've gone after Adams now. I'm not talking about the upcoming elections. That's an old tactic. Sure they could arrest a lot of politicians on both sides at any time of their choosing with a little bit of digging.

There's something else in the pipeline. The British are often a step ahead of us.

[orangeman]

You have to ask yourself why they've gone after Adams now. I'm not talking about the upcoming elections. That's an old tactic. Sure they could arrest a lot of politicians on both sides at any time of their choosing with a little bit of digging.

There's something else in the pipeline. The British are often a step ahead of us.

I still believe this all part of the big picture.

SF and Gerry in particular have to get this monkey off their backs. Nobody gives a toss about the European elections that count for very little. If Gerry gets arrested, released unconditionally this is one less skeleton in SF's cupboard and leaves the road less rocky and there can be no more brickbats thrown in Gerry's road.

I firmly believe the Brits don't have much appetite for this fight.

[ONeill]

I agree with you lads apart from one little niggle - McGuinness' conference today.

His nod to the 'dark element' in the PSNI was a changer I thought, given their commitment to the new service.

[orangeman]

I agree with you lads apart from one little niggle - McGuinness' conference today.

His nod to the 'dark element' in the PSNI was a changer I thought, given their commitment to the new service.

Again, all part of the game IMO.

Marty had to appear to be extremely pissed. Push the thing on another bit along the road.

[ONeill]

You're probably correct but that conference coupled with the need for a judge extension today is a bit much if that's the case.

[orangeman]

HS - I'm worried. We're thinking the same way.

Can I sign up for membership of that shebeen of yours ?

[orangeman]

HS - I'm worried. We're thinking the same way.

Can I sign up for membership of that shebeen of yours ?

Of course. You'd want to pay your membership soon though.

Does it get me a premier level seat in the new venture ?

[Saffrongael]

I still believe that this is a lip service exercise. Adams has presented himself to be arrested. He'll get out and be glad that he can finally put all the finger pointing to bed and he is happy that he was able to assist the peelers with their investigation. The peelers can then say that they did all they could and that there is no evidence against him.

I don't believe that anyone other than her family really cares about Jean McConville. That may seem harsh but I think it true. She's nothing but a stick to bate other.

I think that's true about all the victims, do you think Jim Allister cares about the Travers killings, lots of murders throughout the troubles on both sides are now used by political parties for their own end. Nobody really cares except the families themselves. Everyone else just moves on.

[orangeman]

No but you can put your name up on the board for snooker and enter the Christmas handicap.

No foreign sports should be allowed.

Is there a pool table at least.
Free turkeys at the bazaar ?.

[trileacman]

Allow me to turn the question on you: who do you think was behind the stormont "raid" idea?

Dunno, DUP maybe looking to derail the thing. They say Trimble at the time wanted out and the raid was his excuse.

I'd state what you're trying to say here but don't want to be "putting word's in your mouth". You putting this down to the Punt or not?