A "shared future" ? Sinn Fein Lord mayor refuses to present award to Army cadet

[Evil Genius]

What is it with the British and putting young kids into uniform? I'd be more critical of that than someone sticking to their principles, which is a rare occurrence for the Shinners these days

"Sticking to his principles", was he?

As someone noted on another site:

"Did it at any stage dawn on this moron that he was presenting the 'Duke of Edinburgh Award'?

If he was taking it up the arse from British Imperialism then he may as well have been double penetrated."

(Well it made me laugh out loud, anyway... )

[Evil Genius]

Aye, sure he should present an award to a member of an army that has terrorised this place for years. Dont give a f**k what age they were, they are still part of a force who have no right to be getting awards presented to them by an Irishman. Although I am no fan of Sinn Fein, well done to him

If you're "no fan of Sinn Fein", might it be because you prefer the sort of Republicanism which thinks this 14 year old Cadet to be a "legitimate target", by any chance?



On Wednesday evening February 22, 14-year-old Stephen Menary turned up early at his Territorial Army Cadets group in West London. He was so keen to get there that, as usual, he was almost the first to arrive.
'I walked towards one of the fences when I noticed a torch on the ground,' he says. 'I assumed someone had dropped it, so I picked it up and walked back with it towards the barracks.'
In fact, what Stephen had picked up was a bomb, disguised as a torch. It had been left close to a tree, waiting to kill or maim anyone who, like Stephen, innocently picked it up.
'When I got to the barracks, I turned it on to see if it would work. Instead I heard this weird sound that made my ears ring.
'I screamed. Suddenly there were a lot of people around me. One put pressure on my left arm, which I later realised was to stop it bleeding. I'd been standing up, but I remember saying: "I'm tired now, so I'm going to lie down and go to sleep." A sergeant major kept talking to me - I suspect to try to keep me awake.
'Within minutes, the Army paramedics arrived. My arm was throbbing and my face and stomach started hurting. Although I couldn't see anything, I didn't feel frightened. I could recognise voices and somehow pictured the scene - although not of course my injuries.'
Stephen suffered severe wounds to his chest and stomach, lost a hand, virtually all his sight and much of his hearing; but he and his family know he is lucky to be alive.
No group has claimed responsibility for this despicable and cowardly act, but security sources believe the Real IRA were responsible.
Despite the fact that he has had eight major operations, including painful skin grafts on his stomach, Stephen, now 15, refuses to feel sorry for himself, or to allow anyone to be over-protective.
When I arrived at his West London council house, he almost jumped down the stairs, two at a time, to say 'Hello'. I wanted to shout 'Please be careful', but managed to stop myself in time. He wouldn't have been pleased.
'My attitude,' he says, displaying a maturity well beyond his years, 'is that when something bad happens to you, you can either feel down for ages - and then pull yourself up and get on with it. Or just get on with it, which is what I believe. I refuse to feel bitter.'
His mother Carol, 40, looks at her son proudly. 'I'm not surprised how brave and strong he's been,' she says. 'Our problem has been getting Stephen to realise his limitations. We often have to rein him back.'
Stephen had taken a day off from Linden Lodge School for the visually impaired in Wimbledon, South London, for an appointment at Moorfields Eye Hospital. He told me he has an important decision to make.
'My left eye is getting worse,' he says. 'I can only make out outlines of objects in black and white, and I've recently been registered blind. I now have to choose whether or not to have another corneal graft. It could improve my sight, but it may also detach the retina - which will mean I will go completely blind.'
Tragically, Stephen had his right eye removed due to a cancerous growth when he was four months old. But his mother is convinced that it was having only one eye that saved his life.
'Because he can only focus with his left eye, he held the bomb to the left of his body rather than centrally. So although he was seriously injured, the blast didn't tear into his vital organs.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-83118/Blind-courage-bomb-victim-Stephen.html#ixzz1fDOtGToz

[Maguire01]

I hadn't posted on the thread up until this morning because it is a daft thread about a daft story.

Or, you hadn't posted until someone threw in a distracting reference to the GAA so you could join in whilst avoiding the matter at hand?

So, was he right to present the awards? If so, was he right to refuse to present the award to this one child?