Gerry goes south of the border, down Dundalk way

Picking up on Sky and BBC that Gerry Adams will step down from the NI Assembly and, eventually, Westminster in order to run for a seat in the Irish parliament.  Mark McGregor and Michael Shilliday also pick up on this over on Slugger O'Toole.

He has indicated that he hopes to stand in the next Irish General Election (likely to be called by Brian Cowan for 2011).  He hopes to be a candidate in the Louth constituency. Arthur Morgan has been the incumbent Sinn Fein TD in Louth for the past 8 years.  However, he has publicly indicated that he will not be standing in the next Irish General Election in order to go back into business.  At least it is not to write a book.

Gerry said his Stormont replacement would be chosen within the week, and that he would remain as MP for West Belfast until the Irish general election is called.

Mr Adams said in his speech at Edentubber that his decision to stand was a "significant initiative by the Sinn Fein leadership."  he continued,

It is a measure of our determination to provide a real alternative to the consensus for cuts being pushed by the other parties.  Ireland needs political change. We need change in the Dáil. We need more voices that will stand up against the consensus for cuts – more voices that will stand up for ordinary people.  We need new politics. We need a political realignment. 

BBC Mark Simpson's analysis is telling.

As the peace process has settled down in recent years, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has often looked bored. There is no longer a new political crisis every week in Belfast. As a result, Mr Adams has a reduced workload and a much lower profile.  That may not be the main reason he has decided to run for the Irish parliament, but it may well be a factor. While his right-hand man Martin McGuinness has, as deputy first minister, become the face of Sinn Fein at Stormont, Mr Adams has had a peripheral role.  He spends a lot of time south of the border, but as an unelected politician he is effectively shouting from the sidelines.  At 62, he has decided to try to re-invent himself. If elected he would try to lead a surge in support for Sinn Fein in the south.  If he loses, it could spell the end of his long political career.

Sinn Fein currently  has five MPs four TDs in the Irish parliament.  If Gerry Adams retains the seat then it could cement his all Ireland political career, if he fails then his career will indeed be over.  Either event will make an interesting centrepiece at the the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis next year, which for the first time, will be in Northern Ireland at the Waterfront Hall.

Mind you the potential Dail General Election has also provided a surprise in Ulster-Scots circles as i have also just heard that Dr Billy McWilliams intends to stand in Donegal for the the Dail elections.  Fair Fae Ye Billy, Fair Fae Ye.

Bombs, bullets and bodies

Newry Courthouse after bomb went off

Well, once again we are hearing about things that we thought had been consigned to the history books to remind us of how man can be so inhuman to man.

From security alerts, to shooting at police stations, to bombs going off, to car booby trap bombs, to murdering army and police personnel, to punishment shootings, and now to brutally murdering a man and dumping his body at the side of the road.

Proof our 'normal society with normal politics' is not quite as it seems yet.

These people, if i can call them that, have no place in our society.  They have no mandate. They have no political goals. They are continuing to fight a lost war.  


The vast majority of the people of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland do not want these people to continue in what they are doing.

But they will not listen?  They seem addicted to inflicting pain, suffering and misery on the people of the Island of Ireland.  They refuse to accept the majority of the people of Northern Ireland do not want a united Ireland, nor do they seem to realise that the Republic of Ireland would not be able to subsume 6 more counties into the national remit.  

I accept many people in Northern Ireland have the aspiration for a united Ireland.  Unlike these murderous thugs, they also accept and respect the majority wish of the people of Northern Ireland to remain as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  We are now trying to find a way to ensure political ideologies that embrace democratic and peaceful means of governance can work together, regardless of aspirations of one type or another, to ensure a stable society at peace with itself and prosperous for everyone.

There has been far too much bloodshed. It has to stop now. 

Anyone with information has a duty to society, their family and themselves to pass on information in any way they can in order to stop these blood thirsty morons from continuing their acts of terror.