Comments on The Pensive Quill: Felon Setting

Marty F, not just yet! On holiday simply. Glad som...

2009-08-06T11:04:25.273+01:00

Marty F, not just yet! On holiday simply. Glad somebody noticed!!

I,ve been logging on every day and no new postings...

2009-08-04T11:35:12.601+01:00

I,ve been logging on every day and no new postings,so I reckon your away and I hope not for your tea,have a good one, Marty F

Westie, sorry about the way these comments are com...

2009-07-31T19:12:55.171+01:00

Westie, sorry about the way these comments are coming but I am on holiday and getting a response out is not always easy.

Yes, you could be absolutely right. Gerry Kelly may well not have made any allegations against Tony Catney. The cop could have made them up. Which of course must make you ask yourself even more what are you doing giving political support to a force which does this type of thing.

The piece was not penned to attack Kelly as such but to allow Tony Catney to get his version of events out. Therefor, as Mick Hall argues all Kelly has to do is deny it. There is nothing else against him on it. Although you have to concede the Martin Og Meehan allegations tend to give it more legs. What would you think of it if it is true?

As for threats against Bobby Storey appearing on walls, it seems a bit of role reversal at play. And it is all very mild compared against what the Provisional movement has dished out to republicans at odds with it. Don´t you agree?

Having said that it is totally out of order, just as the attack on his car was, as the attacks on the persons, families or properties of any Sinn Fein member.

I think the strongest criticism of late to appear in my pieces was that directed against those who attacked the home of Mitchel McLaughlin. So, I think you know what my position on all forms of intimidation is. I totally oppose it and would as readily defend a Sinn Fein members against it as I would a republican critic of the party.

As someone who has also been blamed for starting t...

2009-07-30T00:02:57.640+01:00

As someone who has also been blamed for starting the trouble in Ardoyne on 13th July.

Gerry Kelly of S/F actually told the above to the RTE Northern Editor and the Editor of the Irish News.

Sad as it may well be but it is rightly called felon-setting and is a disgrace for anyone claiming to be an Irish Republican to do so.

Thanks Mackers again for highlighting the hyprocrasy of the modern day S/F.

Larry I take on board your points. Maybe your fin...

2009-07-29T21:08:49.878+01:00

Larry

I take on board your points. Maybe your final point does outline an option for the long term strategy, even if it is a fall back position.

I don't think that is a bad position to have and it would indicate that Irish Unity is the ultimate goal of the Partyalong with it's supporters. It was never going to happen tomorrow or the next day, but it has to stay as a constant issue for anyone who claims that the ending of partition is a priority objective/aspiration in their lives.

It isn't, nor has it been in my adult life, something that the SDLP give too much air time to.

All the best.

Slán

Westie

Westie, look at the way the media are stone w...

2009-07-28T17:18:38.724+01:00

Westie,
look at the way the media are stone walling anything and anyone remotely anti GFA and the hype given to the SF leadership over the last years. If you look at the huge sea change in the SF position at every oportunity/necessity then I suggest the 'masses' and party activists are indeed hypnotised. Gullible was an unfortunate choice of word. The people can only play with the cards they are dealt, being realistic. Media saturation surely has an effect and promotes the GFA agenda. That's not a crime but it is unbalanced and OTT.
The only thing that can be said for the SF stratagy is that maintaining a psychophantic cadre and blinkered direction they have broken the back of the Orange Order at Drumcree [McKenna may disagree] also the Official Unionists have floundered somewhat. Unionism has seemingly fragmented and the Catholic/Nationalist vote has held solid.
When I criticise SF it's not as a political machine or the integrity of the younger activists, it's the move by the leadership to become at all costs the SDLP while professing to be the same Republican movement we all supported in years gone by. It's the dishonesty in their stance. Maybe a consistent vote and demographics may guide them toward where they intend to go in the long term, [ a referendum on unity?] who knows? Hopefully it will. But when they claim to be Republican I am extremely embarrassed.

Larry Just on your last point, in West Belfast, a...

2009-07-27T22:46:20.623+01:00

Larry

Just on your last point, in West Belfast, a fair number of activists would have been involved in the late eighties and early nineties. Going beyond that and you are talking bout people in their fifties or sixties possibly.

That isn't bad given that political activists are difficult to come by in any era, and for any party.

Nor would I begrudge anyone who was directly involved in the conflict from an army perspective feeling that they have done their bit and who choose not to sacrafice all of their time on this earth to the movement.

I know lots of fellas and girls who served time and are now happy just to be settling into family life with a partner and kids. You will see them at Easter and other local commemorations and they still vote for SF, so they are not leadership, they are not activists, but they most certainly gave a lot for their country.

I suppose a more poignant revelation, from the cohort of people that you refer to, is how many place their X or 1 against the SF candidates in their local constituencies when the ballot box is in town. For me, that is a more accurate barometer of where people in this country place their loyalty on the national issue. So far, the support for SF has held strong, time will tell how long that remains the case - and despite what people may argue, these same people are not some sort of hypnotised mass who can't make up their own minds - to suggest such indicates to me an arrogance that isn't justified.

Slán

Westie

Anthony, I mentioned in a previous post that ...

2009-07-26T12:30:37.164+01:00

Anthony,
I mentioned in a previous post that it was my contention that anyone not playing the peace process 'game' or anyone who might even slightly undermine it would soon feel as though they were being worked at/attacked from both ends. ie from [so called]Republicans and the security forces. This is by no means new. It's a disorienting experience but something that has surely been in practice for some time.
It doesn't matter whether Kelly admits to touting on people in the community to the PSNI, McGuninnes already nailed the SF flag to the mast as if anyone was ever in doubt. For goodness sake stop living in denial, these guys are actively working with the security agencies and will hang anyone who undermines their plan for Republicanism, that plan is to bury it beyond any chance of a resurection.
McGuinness and co. haven't the political integrity to rename their political machine as FF ,WP did, they believe they are the embodiment of 800 years of Irish history and will wreck Republicanism before they'll give up the reigns. Dangerous people.
SF have a new group of gullible youngsters emerging from school each year with no concept of the conflict that went on. They read the Hunger strikes history as you and I read about WW1 WW2 and the Tan War...fascinating but distant and safely so, SF can then reinvent itself as and when required. I would love to know outside the leadership of SF how many activists in the party were involved in the conflict from the 70's 80's and 90's and even more interestingly, how many people who were involved have abandoned SF?
Watch yer back, SF are about!

anthony One possible alternative to the journalis...

2009-07-25T18:34:16.206+01:00

anthony

One possible alternative to the journalist telling anything but the truth would be that the PSNI/RUC man told the journalist a mistruth, knowing that it would end up in one of the Sunday morning rags, and would cause further division between sinn Féin and the other Republican groups.

No-one, no matter what shade of Irish Republicanism they come from, would be surprised at that surely?

One final point Anthony, what;s your take on the growing amount of graffitti being daubed on walls in Nationalist areas threatening the leadership - the lastest being the one on the Glen Road aimed at Bobby Storey?

Slán

Westie

What a disheartening article, the way SF deals wit...

2009-07-25T12:18:29.034+01:00

What a disheartening article, the way SF deals with former members in the North has always been questionable, as it is not only designed to punish those who differ with the party's peace process strategy, but forewarn all those who are thinking of following in the likes of Tony Catney's footsteps to think again, and consider the consequences.

For a former republican prisoner who is out on license to be accused of being a leading member of the Real IRA, whether true or not, is nothing less than felon setting, there is absolutely no other way to look at this matter, as the consequences to the individual concerned could be catastrophic. In this case being recalled to jail or be set up for a Loyalist or UK intel sting.

Tony Catney has categorically denied he is the leader of the RIRA in Belfast and that should be good enough for any Republican. As the journalist in question has said his police source was a senior PSNI man, Mark Hamilton, who in turn said he had been provided with this information by Gerry Kelly of Sinn Fein, then the ball is in Kelly’s court to publicly deny this foul allegation.

Gerry Kelly, a man who has sacrificed the best years of his life to the Republican struggle, has no alternative but to deny the allegations about felon setting which have been made against him. After all there is no greater crime in the Republican lexicon than felon setting.

When Gerry Kelly denies he was Hamilton’s source that should be the end of the matter, although it does raise the question why, a senior PSNI man would wish to involve Gerry Kelly in such a controversy at this time?

If Kelly refuses to deal with this matter it will prove those right who claim SF have different standards of behavior for their leadership and the ordinary Joe on the street. I hope by issuing a denial Gerry Kelly will prove them wrong.