Margaret Thatcher....

[brokencrossbar1]

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams commenting on the death today of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said:

"Margaret Thatcher did great hurt to the Irish and British people during her time as British Prime Minister.

Working class communities were devastated in Britain because of her policies.
Her role in international affairs was equally belligerent whether in support of the Chilean dictator Pinochet, her opposition to sanctions against apartheid South Africa; and her support for the Khmer Rouge.

Here in Ireland her espousal of old draconian militaristic policies prolonged the war and caused great suffering. She embraced censorship, collusion and the killing of citizens by covert operations, including the targeting of solicitors like Pat Finucane, alongside more open military operations and refused to recognise the rights of citizens to vote for parties of their choice.

Her failed efforts to criminalise the republican struggle and the political prisoners is part of her legacy.

It should be noted that in complete contradiction of her public posturing, she authorised a back channel of communications with the Sinn Féin leadership but failed to act on the logic of this.

Unfortunately she was faced with weak Irish governments who failed to oppose her securocrat agenda or to enlist international support in defence of citizens in the north.

Margaret Thatcher will be especially remembered for her shameful role during the epic hunger strikes of 1980 and 81.

Her Irish policy failed miserably.

[seafoid]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/24/miners-strike-photo-don-mcphee

and hillsborough
and the hunger strikers
and monetarism and the worship of greed
and now it is all in bits, Thatcherism

Actually a great point seafoid. It's good she lived long enough to see everything she believed in exposed for the rubbish it was.

England is in a really bad way 30 years on. They put all their eggs in the City basket and the City tore the arse out of it.
France has the TGV. England has 20 something train companies using the same lines they had in the 70s. Very little industry left. They didn't need it.  The north of England fell way behind. And the tories can't fix it. 

[seafoid]

@Ken Livingstone -
She created today's housing crisis. She created the banking crisis. And she created the benefits crisis. It was her government that started putting people on incapacity benefit rather than register them as unemployed because the Britain she inherited was broadly full employment. She decided when she wrote off our manufacturing industry that she could live with two or three million unemployed, and the benefits bill, the legacy of that, we are struggling with today. In actual fact, every real problem we face today is the legacy of the fact that she was fundamentally wrong.

I think she was also indirectly responsible for Throne winning 3 all Irelands

[armaghniac]

Probably the only British leader to visit Cross', although she did not avail of the opportunity for a walkabout.

[deiseach]

@Ken Livingstone -
She created today's housing crisis. She created the banking crisis. And she created the benefits crisis. It was her government that started putting people on incapacity benefit rather than register them as unemployed because the Britain she inherited was broadly full employment. She decided when she wrote off our manufacturing industry that she could live with two or three million unemployed, and the benefits bill, the legacy of that, we are struggling with today. In actual fact, every real problem we face today is the legacy of the fact that she was fundamentally wrong.

I think she was also indirectly responsible for Throne winning 3 all Irelands

Wow, Ken knows his football!

[GalwayBayBoy]

Somebody on the RTE website with a sense of humour.

[Bord na Mona man]

Do many people really care about her at this stage?
She has been irrelevant for over 20 years now.

That bitch did more than most to keep the Troubles in the North going, she was a war mongering, power hungry, milk-snatching whore.  It was on her instructions that certain things happened in the North and they leave very deep scars in many peoples' memories.  Rot in hell you evil bitch!

I don't dispute that she left a severe legacy behind her, but what is the point in getting revved up about it now?
She "died" in a sense when she left politics. Whatever damage was already done.
A significant cohort of people went along with her policies by continually voting her back in. It wasn't a dictatorship.

Whatever about the North of Ireland, I'm not sure why the squeezing of the Northern English working class, or the closure of coal mines in towns we're unlikely to ever set foot near seems to madden Irish people in the context of Thatcher. Is there really such an affinity between the two isles that I've missed?

Say Bertie Ahern dies in 20 years time, how many English will be raging about 'ghost estates' in Leitrim and Anglo bankers?

[trileacman]

I'm uncomfortable with all this talk of drinking to her death or celebrating today. Any small joy I can think of deriving from the passing of a tyrant is immediately banished by the memory of those people she had killed, the ones she had tortured and the prolonging of needless suffering in all four corners of the globe.

If I take a drink today to mark her death it won't be to celebrate her death but to remember the countless, truly countless number of good men and innocent women and children whom she killed or ruined.

Argentinians, Chileans, South Africans, people of the North, the miners; it's a figure that could run into millions.

My only hope is that people will see her legacy as it is and those who write her flowing eulogies are ignored in the history books. May the world look back and see those days for what they really were.

[theticklemister]

Margaret Thatcher

Born: Grantham 13/10/1925

Died: London 08/04/2013

Sadly missed Brighton 12/10/1984

[theticklemister]

Listen and enjoy lads.........................

I'll dance on your grave Maggie Thatcher.....................

Good man Joe McCullagh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bJbeeKBPCU

Got the news today when doing a bit of studying in the library, believe it or not I was listening to an oul Billy Bragg number on my ipod called 'Thatcherites' about the minors strikes when Real Food Real People sent me a message with the news.

[deiseach]

I don't dispute that she left a severe legacy behind her, but what is the point in getting revved up about it now?
She "died" in a sense when she left politics. Whatever damage was already done.
A significant cohort of people went along with her policies by continually voting her back in. It wasn't a dictatorship.

Whatever about the North of Ireland, I'm not sure why the squeezing of the Northern English working class, or the closure of coal mines in towns we're unlikely to ever set foot near seems to madden Irish people in the context of Thatcher. Is there really such an affinity between the two isles that I've missed?

Say Bertie Ahern dies in 20 years time, how many English will be raging about 'ghost estates' in Leitrim and Anglo bankers?

A completely false equivalence. Margaret Thatcher was a significant figure in world politics whose slash-and-burn policies had a legacy that endure to this day, and her significance was magnified when it came to Ireland where successive governments followed her particular policy prescription to the letter. And yes, we follow British politics much more than the British follow Irish politics. I don't see anything wrong with that, even if the North were not an issue. I'm sure the Belgians give close attention to events in France while the French only pay passing interest to what happens in Belgium. Personally speaking, if I'm wrong for feeling a particular sense of hostility towards her for the manner in which she slandered the people of Liverpool every which way she could, then I'd rather not be right.

[heganboy]

I did have a chuckle at the Guardian,

Margaret Thatcher's state funeral to be privatized

[seafoid]

I don't dispute that she left a severe legacy behind her, but what is the point in getting revved up about it now?
She "died" in a sense when she left politics. Whatever damage was already done.
A significant cohort of people went along with her policies by continually voting her back in. It wasn't a dictatorship.

Whatever about the North of Ireland, I'm not sure why the squeezing of the Northern English working class, or the closure of coal mines in towns we're unlikely to ever set foot near seems to madden Irish people in the context of Thatcher. Is there really such an affinity between the two isles that I've missed?

Say Bertie Ahern dies in 20 years time, how many English will be raging about 'ghost estates' in Leitrim and Anglo bankers?

A completely false equivalence. Margaret Thatcher was a significant figure in world politics whose slash-and-burn policies had a legacy that endure to this day, and her significance was magnified when it came to Ireland where successive governments followed her particular policy prescription to the letter. And yes, we follow British politics much more than the British follow Irish politics. I don't see anything wrong with that, even if the North were not an issue. I'm sure the Belgians give close attention to events in France while the French only pay passing interest to what happens in Belgium. Personally speaking, if I'm wrong for feeling a particular sense of hostility towards her for the manner in which she slandered the people of Liverpool every which way she could, then I'd rather not be right.

I remember listening to our Belfast correspondent Poilin ni Chiarain when I was growing up in the 80s and the amount of pure evil she was behind up North was sizeable. The nordies are our muintir and it was hard going just listening to it never mind living through it. And there was all the overseas stuff.   If it wasn't the hunger strikes it was the Falklands, the breaking of the unions, Nicaragua side by side with Ronnie , lobbying to keep Mandela in jail, the Hillsborough cover up etc . She was malevolent.    She didn't believe in compromise. And the poison she sowed is in full bloom now with most of the banks FUBR. England's dancing days are done .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tFBo1QunlA

[ardal]

Just a few points.

Margaret Thatcher was a great British politically leader for her time. I don't necessarily mean this as a compliment from the "man on the street" point of few.

In her reign she needed to pull Britain out of the slump and control the unions. She destroyed unionism in Britain and through her belligerent attitude dragged Britain back into being a political world power. The Hunger strike, the Miners strike, las Malvinas war( the Falklands), I'll press the big red button first, The Iron Lady persona etc.

She was my first introduction to politics; who can remember " Maggie Thatcher milk snatcher"?

Unfortunately I am only human, and there shall not be a tear of sorrow wept in my house today. Personally she personifies all that is evil in this world and I shall celebrate her death but also hope that the rest of us learn from her monstrous errors.

I'll leave the rest to Elvis C:

Songwriters: COSTELLO, ELVIS
I saw a newspaper picture from the political campaign
A woman was kissing a child, who was obviously in pain
She spills with compassion, as that young childs
Face in her hands she grips
Can you imagine all that greed and avarice
Coming down on that childs lips

Well I hope I don't die too soon
I pray the lord my soul to save
Oh I'll be a good boy, Im trying so hard to behave
Because there's one thing I know, I'd like to live
Long enough to savour
That's when they finally put you in the ground
Ill stand on your grave and tr**p the dirt down

When england was the whore of the world
Margeret was her madam
And the future looked as bright and as clear as
The black tarmacadam
Well I hope that she sleeps well at night, isnt
Haunted by every tiny detail
Cos when she held that lovely face in her hands
All she thought of was betrayal

And now the cynical ones say that it all ends the same in the long run
Try telling that to the desperate father who just squeezed the life from his only son
And how it's only voices in your head and dreams you never dreamt
Try telling him the subtle difference between justice and contempt
Try telling me she isn't angry with this pitiful discontent
When they flaunt it in your face as you line up for punishment
And then expect you to say thank you straighten up, look proud and pleased
Because youve only got the symptoms, you haven't got the whole disease
Just like a schoolboy, whose heads like a tin-can
Filled up with dreams then poured down the drain
Try telling that to the boys on both sides, being blown to bits or beaten and maimed
Who takes all the glory and none of the shame

Well I hope you live long now, I pray the lord your soul to keep
I think I'll be going before we fold our arms and start to weep
I never thought for a moment that human life could be so cheap
Cos when they finally put you in the ground
They'll stand there laughing and tr**p the dirt down

[orangeman]

Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson has paid tribute to the former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher who has died at the age of 87.

Lady Thatcher was Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990. She was the first woman to hold the role.

Mr Robinson said he had learned of her death "with great sadness".

He described her as a "transformative and powerful prime minister".

"She was undoubtedly one of the greatest political figures of post-war Britain and she changed the face of our United Kingdom forever," he said.

"As our first female prime minister, she made history and as 'The Iron Lady' she was at the frontline of winning The Cold War as well as ensuring the freedom of the Falklands Islands.

"Whilst we disagreed over the Anglo-Irish Agreement, Mrs Thatcher was committed to the union and later described the Anglo-Irish Agreement as one of her greatest regrets."

Mr Robinson said the passing of Baroness Thatcher "draws to an end a remarkable life devoted to the service of the United Kingdom".

'Colossus'

"She was one of a kind: tough, possessed of a supreme intellect and driven by conviction," he added.

"The entire country is indebted to her for all that she achieved.

"I know that her accomplishments will not soon be forgotten by a grateful nation."

The SDLP MP Mark Durkan said Baroness Thatcher had made a "controversial impact" on political life and "divided opinion".

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said she had caused "great hurt to the Irish and British people" during her time as Prime Minister.

"Working class communities were devastated in Britain because of her policies," he said.

However, Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt said Baroness Thatcher was "a colossus of conviction politics".

"Whilst we in the Ulster Unionist Party would not have agreed with her on everything, particularly the Anglo-Irish Agreement, Northern Ireland has reason to be eternally grateful for her stance against terrorism, not least during the hunger-strikes when Northern Ireland was on the edge of something catastrophic," he added.