Comments on The Pensive Quill: And the beat goes on!

In her article Pauline wrote 'Briefly, on the ...

2013-09-04T09:13:55.146+01:00

In her article Pauline wrote
'Briefly, on the subject of holidays has anyone received a postcard from Conall McDevitt who is currently unavailable to answer questions about the small matter of £14,000 of public money paid to a company owned by his wife? It is rumoured he was last seen searching for the Holy Stone of Clonrichert on Craggy Island.

It turns out now that it was about £30,000 she was paid, unlike Ted the money just wasn't resting in her account. Now that Conall has admitted dishonesty when completing the declaration of members interests form can we assume that he will face sme sort of action by his party and the Stormont ethics committee. Personally I would hope they shove the holy stone of conrichert when the sun doesn't shine, that would take the smile of the smug wee gits face (metaphorically speaking of course)!.

Mickey, not having a go at you mate just merely p...

2013-08-24T21:59:21.648+01:00

Mickey,

not having a go at you mate just merely pointing out you are right the security forces without the help of PSF would never consider removing any base/barrack or cop shop.
Irony can be a funny thing.

Best a luck.

In terms of the stoop lurking in me rest assured w...

2013-08-24T21:04:27.788+01:00

In terms of the stoop lurking in me rest assured when it comes to political parties my chips are well and truly stacked. However since Sinn Fein morphed into the SDLP, Sinn Fein are now more SDLP than the SDLP ever were, so Hume and Mallon could afford to sleep anywhere!!!!

I take it you find everything else I've written to be substantive and true?

Also according to you Sinn Fein removed the barracks. Sinn Fein did campaign in terms of discussion, gathering signatures and calling on residents to protest but at that point the PSNI had already been involved in a consultation process. The bottom line is that had the powers that be decided that the barracks should remain then no matter how loud Sinn Fein shouted the barracks would still be there. Sure ye's are still shouting about the Irish language act, and wasn't Gerry Adams demanding it from Edwin Poots in 2007, did Gerry leave any word on it before he scooted across the border?

On February 15th 2009, Niall O'Donnghaile (one of your muckers) said 'In practical policing terms the Barracks now serves no purpose. It is a massive drain on the financial resources of the PSNI and even the Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, accepts that this Barracks must go'. Mr O'Donnghaile also called on residents to air their views at the local DPP meeting.

Obviously it was great to see that the land was put to good use with the erection of social housing but as you see from the above paragraph the barracks was removed because it was a massive drain on PSNI funding not because Niall and your muckers got cross with the PSNI.

The issue I raised in the article above related to equality of opportunity or should I say inequality. Whilst further social build is a must it important that these properties are allocated fairly.

Sean Bres: That is the main objective in this day...

2013-08-24T16:09:50.003+01:00

Sean Bres:

That is the main objective in this day and age.

Never to make the same mistakes again. We learn from our past mistakes and act upon them.

If any Nationalists is attacked by Loyalists , if Fatal, Then retaliation three fold should be the norm, They have to be shown that this is not the 1969s/70s , etc.

I will never lie down and let anyone walk over me.

Tain BO- All is going well with myself-hope all i...

2013-08-24T14:05:35.319+01:00

Tain BO-

All is going well with myself-hope all is well with you-

One example-The Andersonstown town barracks was build over a 100 years ago-a long time before the Provos/INLA-yet the Peace Provos removed it-could swear that barracks was blew up in 83 the day before the elections-just in case any of the dears thought the Provos was going soft-And Gerry was elected the next day-anyway-they rebuild it only for it to removed in a more peaceful manner than a car-bomb-

Pauline-

" Austin Currie intervened "

lol-always knew the stoop lurked in you-Sinn Fein removed that barracks in the Short Strand whilst those two used idiots Hume and Mallon were asleep on the stairs outside the negotiations in 98-the movement is the only reason why new houses can be build in that area-talk is cheap whilst new homes are being build-

Almost 30 years of armed resistance and all for th...

2013-08-24T10:56:44.465+01:00

Almost 30 years of armed resistance and all for the removal of the British Army that was brought here in the firrst place to combat said resistance. Shows how little was achieved. We should never make the same mistake again

Michael, I welcome social housing being built. Y...

2013-08-23T21:26:17.172+01:00

Michael,

I welcome social housing being built. You seem to imply that the only reason there were houses built is because 'the police/army barracks was removed by Sinn Fein'. I could argue that Sinn Fein didn't remove the police/army barracks, that was carried out as a result of a lower threat level and part of security normalisation, however that is irrelevant in terms of what I wrote. What I would ask in response is are you saying that Sinn Fein lowered the threat level?

Figures bandied about by your party in my home town last year estimate there are approx 3000 people waiting to be housed in Derry alone, something of a concern, as was the fact that a homeless man didn't receive equality of opportunity at the hands of someone who was once a political representative of a socialist party.

Housing discrimination was wrong when Austin Currie intervened 45 years ago as it is now. As for Michelle Gildernew, it's purely academic whose family it was. What interests me is that you seem more focussed on things I didn't mention than what I did mention, is there anything in the piece I wrote you would contest? Is there anything that is not substantive & true?

Mickey, how’s it going mucker? It is always a pl...

2013-08-23T19:47:49.626+01:00

Mickey,

how’s it going mucker?
It is always a pleasure to see you cheer on the faultless party.
In a perfect world there never should have been any British garrison a little irony comes to play.
Have you forgotten why the Brits needed fortresses in the north?
The security forces then would tell you they need bases to combat the very serious PIRA/INLA campaigns.
Naturally when the British secured an almost complete surrender obviously they have no need for former bases… leveling them is much cheaper than keeping them.
If you feel the need to gloat keep in mind the British leveled the PRM and in an amusing twist find it is much cheaper keeping them.

Good post Pauline. It is so well put together. S...

2013-08-23T19:20:15.119+01:00

Good post Pauline. It is so well put together.

Sean Bres the attitude towards discrimination in housing reminded me of the time when they were burning families out of their homes in Ballymurphy and trying to blame it all on the local anti social crew. I wrote at the time that it was like a rerun of August 69. How they have become what they used to hate.

Pauline- Just out of interest are you glad that t...

2013-08-23T18:00:37.964+01:00

Pauline-

Just out of interest are you glad that there are more houses being build because the army/police barracks was removed by Sinn Fein or would you have rather the barracks would have stayed there on that site because there was no GFA-Those two decisions which St Mattews housing association made were wrong as the Sinn Fein MP Michelle Gildernew made clear in this weeks Irish News-you know it was her family at the original protest 40 odd years ago-don't tell us you missed that story in the paper-you seemed to have caught almost everything else-

What a brilliant post Pauline... had to come up fo...

2013-08-23T13:41:54.904+01:00

What a brilliant post Pauline... had to come up for air, the whole thing read like a tidal wave! So much covered and every bit of it what's been on the tip of all our tongues - fair play for putting it into words! What strikes me as particularly rotten is not so much the whole "Ruthie" episode - for that's to be expected from such bigots - but this whole nepotistic behaviour in relation to the allocation of housing. For a party that has always spoke about dealing with the root causes of conflict then this is surely one of the most hypocritical acts we've witnessed from New Sinn Fein. When we consider the context that housing and its unfair distribution was one of the key determining issues that brought people onto the streets of the six-counties in the 1960's and morphed into 'the Troubles' then its difficult to see it as anything other than sheer hypocrist