So the terrorist is dead
 

And I truly hope he died an excruciating death.

McGuinness Rot in Pi$$

Re: So the terrorist is dead
 

we'll probably never know if he really did fire the first shots on Bloody Sunday.

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Didn't particularly like the guy or any of SF for that matter, but was he that hated in the UK?

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Well he killed Mountbatten and 18 other Brit soldiers in a single day. (he was the provo leader that day).

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Meh. Too much was made of his handshake and meeting with Prince Charles a couple of years ago.

Kind of summed up my opinion of his or Sinn Fein's general importance and relevance in the 'Peace Process' as it stands today.

Re: So the terrorist is dead
 

Re: So the terrorist is dead
 

Two decades after the process he is probably not terribly important, but if he had a hand in the original agreement it was certainly an important act at the time.
No excuse for his previous actions though.

Re: So the terrorist is dead
 

Yeah absolutely, nor do I think anything really admonishes what nastiness anyone did during such a shit period.

I think the generation gap that will come will be the biggest step forward. The removal of people being directly involved and making the conflict another step away will always help.

Re: So the terrorist is dead
 

He also shook the hand of Queen Elizabeth and had a private meeting with her, as to the terrorism part there were severe problems with both sides, but as the soldiers were doing it 'in the name of the law' they got away with most things. I think arguing about who was the worst is a bit like kettle/pot, no doubt he did some terrorist things, but so did some of the British soldiers.

Re: So the terrorist is dead
 

The BBC are making him out to be some kind of martyr...

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...and this is the problem with the whole sorry period. The minute anyone talks about it, even when being balanced, the fingers get itchy and have to be pointed.

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Well there's a surprise, he was and will always remain, a murderer, should have been locked up for life and certainly never allowed near political representation.

Re: So the terrorist is dead
 

So, you have proof that he, himself, killed someone? He was the leader of the Provos, yes, they did terrible things, yes, but then again so did the British Army and their commanders, so in the same way they are all murderers. I'm not condoning what he, or any other IRA people did, but then again I can't condone what some members of the British armed forces did. Nelson Mandela was also the leader of a terrorist group in South Africa, but he is lauded for getting back into politics and helping to turn his country round into a multiracial country.

Re: So the terrorist is dead
 

LOL!

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And Adolf didn't turn the gas taps on.

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Churchill did not press the bomb release mechanism over Dresden or Hamburg.

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As head of the Commonwealth she has undoubtedly met more than her fair share of terrorists and despots. :rolleyes:

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I ofcourse dont know much about the Troubles but Lord Tebbit's interview and his quiet strength stood out for me for some reason. I had never heard of the guy before today btw.

WATCH: Norman Tebbit Calls Martin McGuinness ‘a Coward’ | Heavy.com

Re: So the terrorist is dead
 

You'd not heard of Norman Tebbit before today? :confused:

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Bad joke...

What do you call a bloke with a hotel on his head?

Norman Tebbit

Re: So the terrorist is dead
 

Indeed.

The IRA got a free pardon for their crimes. Their victims' families got a life sentence of losing loved ones. 30 years on and soldiers are still being hounded for what happened while the IRA terrorists are not only scot free (pardon the pun), but have been and still are Ministers!

That is seriously wrong.

Re: So the terrorist is dead
 

Winning pub quiz team's name tonight: "McGuinness Extra Cold".

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I thought he always was pretty cold. :(

Re: So the terrorist is dead
 

Martin McGuinness arrives at the Pearly Gates.
St Peter: What are you doing here? Theres no room in here for you...
MM: I don't want to come in. I'm giving you lot a 5 minute warning to get out

Re: So the terrorist is dead
 

Obviously you are fairly passionate about the situation in the North, do you think him being involved in the peace process saved lives?

Not that saving one justifies taking other earlier, but it seems in his case had he not come from that background nobody would have listened during the negotiations.

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He and his cohort adams should never have been free to enter any peace process, they should have been jailed for life for their crimes.

As for the good friday agreement, blair, as usual sold the British out, allows all ira terrorists to go free and ensured British troops could be prosecuted 40+ years later.

And don't even think that those two aren't aware of who are still carrying out terrorist attacks (the real ira etc.), they still have blood on their hands, even the day before he died he could have given up those current murderers, but he didn't.

Just goes to show terrorism wins in the end.

(No capitals on purpose, they don't deserve it).

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The pictures of Paisley and McGuinness grinning and gurning together as the leaders of NI still turn my stomach as the bigots and bullies ended up being the primary beneficiaries of the chaos they created. But in the end, it was probably a price worth paying for the settlement in NI. I'm certainly glad that the violence of the British* troubles has been largely stayed. It was a challenge being the neighbour of the last violently unstable post-war European country and those violent UK citizens certainly made life difficult for the rest of us while they were fighting each other in such a gruesome and cruel manner in that benighted corner of the UK.

Of course there is one person who deserves much of the blame for why it was that the McGuinnesses and Paisleys inherited the prize rather than the far more worthy Humes and Trimbles and Mallons. Margaret Thatcher's ridiculously strident response to the IRA hunger strikes in 1981 basically created Sinn Fein as a political force. In the early '80s sentiment had been building in the nationalist community against the IRA campaign and the ever canny SF/IRA leadership recognised this. The hunger strikes were a way to try and re-establish sympathy with the nationalist community. Thatcher's utterly ham-handed macho response (against the advice she received even from relatively hardline advisers) ensured that nationalist opinion was quickly galvanised against the British government. Successfully running the hunger strikers in by-elections was basically a demonstration that McGuinness and Adams could use about the power of politics for the movement. The ban on participating in the "illegitimate" political process was a huge article of faith for the republican movement and had already led to a bitter split in the early '70s - hence "Provisional" and "Official" SF/IRA (OSF morphed into a more mainstream left wing party over the years, completely shed its origins and was ultimately absorbed - or reverse took over - the very non-republican Irish Labour party). Following the elections of the hunger strikers, McGuinness and Adams managed to get the election ban overturned at the next SF ard fheis (conference) and SF as a political force was born. They rode the anti-government sentiment in the nationalist community as a result of the hunger strikes to essentially displace the SDLP, possibly the most admirable major political party we have ever had in the British Isles.

There's a very strong argument that had Thatcher not inflamed the hunger strikes then John Hume and Seamus Mallon could have secured a ceasefire and we'd never have had to endure another 15 years of violence and McGuinness and Adams in power.

* "Northern Ireland is as British as Finchley" - M.Thatcher

Re: So the terrorist is dead
 

So Thatcher was to blame?

SMH.

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Acting extreme generates extremists. You don't have to look too far around in the ME to see examples of that.

It's a factor in any dispute, I would have thought (never mind NI)