Stoops support SPADS, Sinn Fein sad and mad.

[lawnseed]

This woman Travers is getting on my nerves.Of course she suffered a terrible tragedy,that you wouldn't wish on anyone,but unlike many victims and their families,she had the satisfaction of seeing at least one person involved in the murder of her sister jailed.What more does she want or indeed has a right to expect?

She seems to have unfettered access to the media and Stormont Committees too.

+1
she can breeze from nolan to talkback and then on to jao meebollix in one day with ease. never heard the reaveys do it

[glens abu]

This woman Travers is getting on my nerves.Of course she suffered a terrible tragedy,that you wouldn't wish on anyone,but unlike many victims and their families,she had the satisfaction of seeing at least one person involved in the murder of her sister jailed.What more does she want or indeed has a right to expect?

She seems to have unfettered access to the media and Stormont Committees too.

+1
she can breeze from nolan to talkback and then on to jao meebollix in one day with ease. never heard the reaveys do it

When she has run her course like the McCartney sisters she will be dumped by them all,and the Reaveys would not be attacking SF.Nolan and the rest don't give two fecks about her pain.

[T Fearon]

Can't be easy dealing with a loss under needless circumstances and let's not forget she's dealing with a serious illness herself.it's the shower that's exploiting her grief for political gain that are worthy of contempt

[glens abu]

Can't be easy dealing with a loss under needless circumstances and let's not forget she's dealing with a serious illness herself.it's the shower that's exploiting her grief for political gain that are worthy of contempt

+1

[lawnseed]

This woman Travers is getting on my nerves.Of course she suffered a terrible tragedy,that you wouldn't wish on anyone,but unlike many victims and their families,she had the satisfaction of seeing at least one person involved in the murder of her sister jailed.What more does she want or indeed has a right to expect?

She seems to have unfettered access to the media and Stormont Committees too.

+1
she can breeze from nolan to talkback and then on to jao meebollix in one day with ease. never heard the reaveys do it

When she has run her course like the McCartney sisters she will be dumped by them all,and the Reaveys would not be attacking SF.Nolan and the rest don't give two fecks about her pain.

glens i know the reaveys would not be attacking sinn fein. i merely used them as an example of a family who have also suffered a loss and who were slagged off under parliamentary privilege by our former first minister WRONGLY and yet they have not chosen to chase the culprit through the media for eternity. even though he couldn't be arsed to apologise

[Eamonnca1]

Remember the "de-baathification" policy in Iraq? Anybody that was deemed a part of Saddam's regime (even lowly civil servants) were turfed out of work and thrown into poverty. Wasn't exactly a roaring success.  Was a great way to build up the insurgency though.

The north is full of people with shady histories and it's going to be like that for a generation. If we exclude them from political office or politics completely then what are they going to do?  They're still going to want to effect change, and if you leave violence as the only option open to them then you needn't start crying when the ranks of the so-called dissidents start to swell.  This business of personalizing politics is very dangerous. 

[stibhan]

It's another creeping revisionism of the Good Friday Agreement.

I have a lot of sympathy for Ann Travers but anyone who has looked at her twitter account would be able to see the kind of reactionary, contradictory human being that she is. I don't blame her for it - rather I blame those who killed her sister in a senseless act of violence - but when it comes to her being given a voice which she uses to vilify other victims like the Finucane family, I draw the line. As has been said above she is being utilised for political aims, an ironic and awfully sad twist given that her sister's death was justified by the perpetrators as a political act.

However, this is the uneasy peace that a majority of people on this island voted for, and this is the platform from which we have to move forward. Few at the time were prepared to consider the logical and illogical consequences of that document, and while it was agreed on the basis that no more victims would be created, the end result was that many of the more traumatised victims like Ann were completely ignored. Sadly, that's what happened, but it shouldn't be used as an excuse to rip up the basis upon which our present peace is built.

[T Fearon]

But surely the point is that someone was convicted in relation to the Travers murder. Not many victims' relatives have had that much satisfaction even.

I honestly do not see anything else that can be done to help her. I feel sorry for her needless loss,but an awful  lot of people suffered a lot more and had no closure in terms of convictions etc.

The irony is that if Mary Mc Ardle hadn't been caught and convicted, she would probably still be a SPAD and no one would have been any the wiser.

[deiseach]

It's another creeping revisionism of the Good Friday Agreement.

I have a lot of sympathy for Ann Travers but anyone who has looked at her twitter account would be able to see the kind of reactionary, contradictory human being that she is. I don't blame her for it - rather I blame those who killed her sister in a senseless act of violence - but when it comes to her being given a voice which she uses to vilify other victims like the Finucane family, I draw the line. As has been said above she is being utilised for political aims, an ironic and awfully sad twist given that her sister's death was justified by the perpetrators as a political act.

However, this is the uneasy peace that a majority of people on this island voted for, and this is the platform from which we have to move forward. Few at the time were prepared to consider the logical and illogical consequences of that document, and while it was agreed on the basis that no more victims would be created, the end result was that many of the more traumatised victims like Ann were completely ignored. Sadly, that's what happened, but it shouldn't be used as an excuse to rip up the basis upon which our present peace is built.

Good post. While I think we can all agree that it's dispiriting to see the way she is being used by Jim Allister, the problem is - how do you stop her? She's angry, and it's not for people who either don't know what it's like, or those who in some way contributed to the reason for her anger, to tell her to pull herself together.

[Wildweasel74]

I think the point in general is should someone with a criminal record for a serious crime be fit  to hold a post for a govt Representative. In any other country in the free world, tax evasion, an affair attracting media attention, mishandling and not knowing to do your job would lead to dismissal / resignations. We live in a small minded country were mps call openly downgrade gay people (and not be fired as would be the case in the rest of the uk) can be involved in underhand land grab schemes and still not get sacked, can believe the world was created 6000yrs and still keep a straight face. Force their bigoted believes on other people, believe they are more british than the english, until it doesnt suit them like flying the flag or gay marriage. just cause some political parties are unjust does than mean Sinn Fein can do the same putting people with shady backgrounds in key positions, naming playparks that cause controversy. just cause one side is a political jellyfish thats rakes of bitterness with a  sting in their tail does not mean nationalist parties should join them in this war of attrition ( i believe we better than this)that is politics in northern ireland without doing any actual work that is to the benefit of its people

[T Fearon]

There are some elected MLAs and some who stood but weren't elected,who did far worse than Mary Mc Ardle.It boils down to what Trimble once said,Just because someone has a past doesn't mean they can't have a future.Surely all convicts upon completion of their sentence deserve to be rehabilitated and therefore should not be debarred from employment as a SPAD

[Wildweasel74]

when with that in mind, why are u asked about a criminal record when applying for a jobs, if the same criteria is not to be applied to the same people supposedly running the country, to coin a phrase  hierarchy of victims but a hierarchy of employment terms? why should a wrong that joe bloggs done in everyday life exclude him from a job but not the elite? Another point is what qualification she had to do the job and it wasn't  a job for the lads policy?

[glens abu]

There's an inner thing in every man,
Do you know this thing my friend?
It has withstood the blows of a million years,
And will do so to the end.
It was born when time did not exist,
And it grew up out of life,
It cut down evil's strangling vines,
Like a slashing searing knife.
It lit fires when fires were not,
And burnt the mind of man,
Tempering leadened hearts to steel,
From the time that time began.
It wept by the waters of Babylon,
And when all men were a loss,
It screeched in writhing agony,
And it hung bleeding from the Cross.
It died in Rome by lion and sword,
And in defiant cruel array,
When the deathly word was 'Spartacus'
Along the Appian Way.
It marched with Wat the Tyler's poor,
And frightened lord and king,
And it was emblazoned in their deathly stare,
As e'er a living thing.
It smiled in holy innocence,
Before conquistadors of old,
So meek and tame and unaware,
Of the deathly power of gold.
It burst forth through pitiful Paris streets,
And stormed the old Bastille,
And marched upon the serpent's head,
And crushed it 'neath its heel.
It died in blood on Buffalo Plains,
And starved by moons of rain,
Its heart was buried in Wounded Knee,
But it will come to rise again.
It screamed aloud by Kerry lakes,
As it was knelt upon the ground,
And it died in great defiance,
As they coldly shot it down.
It is found in every light of hope,
It knows no bounds nor space
It has risen in red and black and white,
It is there in every race.
It lies in the hearts of heroes dead,
It screams in tyrants' eyes,
It has reached the peak of mountains high,
It comes searing 'cross the skies.
It lights the dark of this prison cell,
It thunders forth its might,
It is 'the undauntable thought', my friend,
That thought that says 'I'm right!'

[ranch]

naming playparks that cause controversy

Ignoring the fact that those from that area support the naming of the park after Raymond McCreesh.

[dillinger]

naming playparks that cause controversy

Ignoring the fact that those from that area support the naming of the park after Raymond McCreesh.

Did someone go around the doors asking peoples opinions about the name?

If some IRA/ Community leaders came to my door and said do you mind if we name the park after R. McCreesh? Would i or most others say, yes i do?

Don't really think so.