Do you not understand? This is Marketing. The business of extracting Money from publicans and shopkeepers and drug dealers only works when these people are afraid of you. After the funeral of this thug his so called business colleagues might have been run off when they go to collect the regular payments. So the military display is a public statement to tell their victims that they are still very much in business.
This is a traditional and longstanding tradition among our Republican heroes in addition to guns and bomb making on hire. The old Nation Once Again brigade have to keep it going and this is easy or soft money. You only have to look at the bellies of these soldiers to know their not exactly campaign fit.
I do believe the Gardai should have used sniper at the funeral as these thugs were a major risk to life in a suburban community.
The people I feel really sorry for are the neighbours who have to live beside these animals.

They should have been arrested. End of story.

It’d make you wonder about political connections and all that.

If u take off their balaclava’s, they start to burn up! Some kind of vampire thing….

Good point

It’s called having a different opinion.

Tim, we live in a democracy and as such everyone, including you, is entitled to their own opinion. In a democracy we are free to air that opinion openly without fear of violent recrimination.
The IRA however did not respect the opinions of those they killed, whether they were nationalists or unionists.

Does any army care about the opinions of those they murder ?

Brian, the IRA were never given a democratic mandate by the nationalists of NI to fight on their behalf. As such they are not an army.

Democratic mandate means feck all when you are dead

You’re dead right eoin wallace, why don’t the government invite these dissidents into a meeting to agree a new non-violent way forward. Find out exactly what they want, why they left the provos, why sinnfein is not acceptable to them or the government (agreement here already). Remember when the British Government wouldn’t talk to terrorists or crimnals, learning from the past eludes most of us especially politicians and crimnals, they both ignore their failures and repeat them. THE GARDAI SHOULD BE SUPPORTED ESPECIALLY BECAUSE THEY ARE USUALLY UNARMED which in my opinion makes them more courageous than the rest of society.

Glad to hear that Captain Sensible is on the case, and this is the last time this will ever happen.

I agree ciaran. The correct thing to do would have been to have teams of surveillance units accompanied armed units watch and monitor those wearing the paramilitary uniforms and those with guns. Continue to monitor and wait for those involved to leave and engage them (by force if needs be) in a suitable location where the risk to innocent civilians is minimal.

Mark I couldn’t agree with you more. We’re the Garda unwilling or unable to act at this blatant breach of the law. If a licensed firearms holder acted in this fashion, you would be dam sure to be arrested and charged!

Garda vs Gun. Gun wins every time!

So, ye wanted the guards to go into an Illegal Army who are carrying guns and disarm them? Are these the same public servants whose salary ye want cut?…. Gardai would have been killed last Sat if they intervened!

Isn’t that what the ERU are for?
They’re fast enough to take firearms off of licenced holders that they even suspect of breaking the law…

Stopping the paramilitaries with their guns could have led to violence at the funeral or it would have at least massively increased tensions.

Guards are damned if they do, damned if they don’t.

So the ERU are a waste of taxpayers money then, is that what you’re saying?
Or are you saying that if the gang’s big enough, the Gardai won’t oppose them in public?
/disgusted

@mark the guards handled it well.the eru didnt move in as it could have created a bloodbath & a lot of violence.imagine if that scenario had of taken place at a funeral.the worlds media would have had a fieldday & it would be in every newspaper around the world.use your head.

Good man David , so, if they are too violent and dangerous we leave them off . Quite literally you are allowing make up their own rules . You know sometimes in life you have do to do the right thing to show backbone and to give credance the concept that you elected officals and the state have some moral authority to govern ,but predictably its yet another example of sectoral interests ( this time criminal dressed up as activists ) running rough shod over the cowardly governement

This is just another of those situations where the armchair policing experts sit up and lecture the police on how they should do their job. This was not an easily predictable or controllable incident. A group of masked, potential terrorists decided to use the protection of the funeral and of the civilian crowd to assert themselves in a very dangerous and provocative way. Perhaps the best approach wasn’t to have the ERU move in at the graveside, disrupt the funeral, disarm and arrest the masked men standing amongst the family and hundreds of other civilians. It’s been said that the crowd closed in around the scene to prevent the guards from getting near. Just maybe, the best judges of how to deal with it are the guards and not the lay readers of news stories.

Mark, if the ERU tapped a few of them, you would be the first to call them Gestapo. Grow up. It’s only 3 pages and one if renewing the licence.

I’m looking at mine right here Dario.
It’s nine pages. The prepopulated renewal is eight.
It still requires you to have good reason to have a firearm.
And two character references.
And mandatory membership of a club and range.
And mandatory secure storage.
And mandatory access to my medical records granted to the AGS along with it being my responsibility to notify them if I had any medical conditions that might be of relevance (and it’s illegal if I don’t, and I’m not a qualified doctor, so you go do the math as to how fair that is).
And a photo required which doesn’t go on the licence, but just into the AGS records so I can be identified.
And all the address and storage details – which wouldn’t be so bad if we hadn’t a long history of these forms being lost, turning up in dumps or whereever.

Or, you know, just show up in a public place with an unlicenced – in fact unlicencable – firearm and discharge it in public while in paramilitary outfits. And then get a ticket off AGS announcing that you’d broken the agreement they had with the people running the funeral.

I’ve a proposed agreement for the next time – follow the law or get arrested and put in jail like any of the rest of us would be.

What would you suggest they do? And I’ll give u a clue to make it easy for ya, what do the PSNI do in similar circumstances? Remembering the experience they have dealing with this type or funeral.

@ mark downs. I wonder who you hang around with if arm chair policing is a pastime . It not up to us to decide how to approach the issue operationally but as citizens we have the right to expect the government to treat citizens equally and not allow known criminals discharge live rounds on broad daylight . That is their duty plain and simple .

and do you think these lads would happily hand over these weapons to gardai? of course not, at the very best it would have led to a mass brawl at the worst a shoot out which could possibly lead to fatalities. You are deluded if you are comparing leaflets to firearms

So call in the ERU and shoot them instead of trying to arrest them for discharging illegally held firearms in a public place.

Or do we only do that for cases like Abbeylara?

Are you having a laugh? So armed bully-boys are to be ignored and left to go about their merry way in the interests of avoiding confrontation!

To the Journal:
There is an idiot using the name ‘Tim Jackson’ posting here who is worthy of being kicked off this site. I’m sure when you go to the bother of reporting on news events such as above in a serious and worthy manner it is as equally a pain in the ass to yourselves to encounter such stupidity as it is for us commenting.

Keep on topic John Murphy for once.

no you identify those involved, you gather evidence and you prosecute them on a court of law. people on here seem to have been watching too much liam neeson, that’s not the real world! the guards cannot win, they rush into a confrontation starting s riot and their idiots, they stand back and contain the incident and they are wrong again. give them a chance

Yeah right paidi! So one of these unarmed Guards (which Garda management in their wisdom sent to ‘contain’ this situation) strolls up to a balaclava wearing thug and asks him to take it off so he can identify him; or maybe, just maybe, self same thug has parked his family car at the gates of the cemetery. Ah now come on…

It’s not a question of whether they would have “happily handed over” their weapons.

Heaven forbid that armed robbers should rob a bank!

Maybe the Gardai should take their lead from the PSNI who have been dealing with these type of funerals for years. Would you agree?

Haha true, it always seems unfitting when this carry on happens in the republics capital! And to be honest I’d say not one of them have ever encountered a Brit soldier unless they were doing a spot of shopping in sainburys after crossing the border! Leave the norths tradition in the north! Next they’ll be painting the murals on the ends of houses!!! Clowns.

When all else fails, make a joke about the north. Mature.

Having men that were in the same organisation as you march alongside your coffin is a northern tradition? It didn’t happen in the 26 counties in the early 20th century?

WHAT? i was making no joke about the north, my clown reference was to the Dubs! Where have you been the past 40years??? Gun salutes was the norm up north i live 2mins away form the border.

I find this comment offensive and would like to ask that “Mumble Mumble” be banned too, for attempting to muzzle free speech – a clear assault on basic democratic values. Also, I find Tim’s comments easy to ignore most of the time.

Make a what? An “inception”?

It’s pseudo shock at the ongoing collapse of the Irish Republic.

@Ben..some moron would have loosed of a shot…Garda did what they had to do…Wait and see..Softly softly catcheee monkey

Yes they did a fantastic job, but if a fairly big fella came up to me pointing a rifle at my face dressed in black shouting put your F€@King water pistol down…I’d appropriately soil myself, remember they haven’t been doing this all there lives! Try living near the border bud! Or in west Belfast or Derry…fight fire with fire, if it had of been organised right and in large numbers it would have worked, by the way no place for a ordinary An Gardai Siochana either!

Ben mc loughlin for Garda Commissioner Vote Number 1

Ah only kidding

I agree with you Ben fight fire with fire but not when tow risk to innocent civilians is too great. It would be far too easy for one of them Muppets to let off a stray shot and have a civilian killed. The RIRA would have a field day with the publicity saying the Gardai had stormed a funeral and killed an innocent mourner

Great tattoos mate.

When you say “perfect opportunity” do you mean the substantial risk to innocent bystanders and funeral goers was acceptable and any “collateral damage” would be acceptable to you?

Eh no. Come on Vinny! Are you telling me that in the time it takes for a burial that the Gardaí (our protectors) can’t set up a load of checkpoints on the roads surrounding the graveyard. Stop every car leaving, search them and seize a few bloody spud guns? Call in support from the ERU and the god damn army if you have to in order to get these guns off our streets. It’s time for Ireland to wake up and get angry!

Eh Declan the shots were fired in his back garden not the graveyard. You’ll say that’s is not important but it highlights that you are on here dictating police procedure and you don’t even know where the shots were fired.

Then I would assume the guns were broken down and removed from the house with the coffin (not by the action boys in fancy dress) but other people at the funeral. Now I would like you to honestly think about what would have happened had the police intervened and started searching everyone at that time?

Scrap croke park 1. Maybe internment has been proven to be counter productive by British and Irish governments. ( a bit like croke park agreement so far.)

Good man Tommy that’s on of the most hilarious thing I’ve ever heard I’m surprised no one has said it already. Classic comedy

Mossad :-/

If the journal are prepared to let the likes of Tim Jackson spout vile obscenities, then I think the rest of us who engage in proper dignified debates, should boycott the site.

Rodrigo, You can’t let them win.

Hi Rodrigo, just to be clear: all users have to follow the comments policy for the site and any comments which break the guidelines are removed. We’ve removed a number of comments from this thread already.

If you ever spot any comment which you think should come down, the fastest way to get the attention of someone on the staff is by pressing the ‘Report this comment’ button which you can see above the thumbs on every comment. It only takes a second but it immediately alerts us to the fact that a comment may need to be removed. We can’t be everywhere at once on the site (unfortunately – would make things a lot easier if we could) and there’s more than 1,500 comments across the site every day, so we can’t always remove comments before other users see them.

Thanks Christine.
I commented in a similar vein up the page. The problem here, well as I see it, is that certain comments are designed to take the piss rather than infringe specifics of the comments policy. We all here may inadvertently post wrong information, overshoot the runway in using bad language, or put your employers in danger of legal action and have comments removed that are non the less genuine in intent. ‘Tim Jackson’ is however, neither offensive in the literal sense or presenting a threat to your employers regarding legal liability. He is just a pain in the arse that has nothing useful to say, is treating genuine comments with contempt and is in a word ‘trolling’.

Kerron, very few comments here are west-brit or anti-republican. Personal views on republicanism or loyalism is irrelivant to majority of the comments here about crime or criminals associating themselves with republicanism. Criminals use republicanism as a front to justify their crimes. They actually do nothing to premote the idea of a free state or united ireland or anything else that a true republican believes in.

Men in masks with guns don’t have a monopoly on republicism. You can support the idea of a united Ireland without quasi armies populated by criminals. An overwhelming majority of people backed the peace process. About time these people respect democracy, a cornerstone of a true Republic.

Or maybe just the educated & intelligent people Kerron.

West Brit?? Isn’t that Wales??

He didn’t. He’s a drug dealer. Who does that serve?

Absolutely they have a right to bury their dead in peace, the other people who live there have a right not to have gun fired outside of their homes by tiny little bully boys.

Last I checked, having a funeral wasn’t listed in the Firearms act as a derogation against carrying an illegal firearm and discharging it in public.

there was nothing dignified about that spectacle.

nothing dignified about that type of carry on. criminals and terrorists.

Wheres the dignity in a fat man in fancy dress playing toy soldiers firing a gun over a corpse?!

Agree Archibald.

I wouldn’t care about the opinion of these hidden cowards voting everyone down. They would be the last to mouth off to their faces!

says the faceless tim Jackson

@Tim.

You’re a fairly mighty keyboard warrior yourself.

And it seems from a lot of your posts, that the longer you support Sinn Fein, the more radical you get. Well, the more radical your posts get.

And you say the Mormon right wingers have been brain washed.

And Tim,

I would gladly mouth of to them, had they not chosen to cowardly hide their faces behind scarves and glasses, in a pseudo military style. As you do behind your faceless avatar.

I must congratulate you on your Trolling though, however repetitive it may be, at least it’s consistent.

Actually Stephen, it seems Sinn Fein have spoken out against this too:

http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/24385

So it looks like Tim is out on a limb here.

I have to go and wash now, I’ve been on the Sinn Fein website.

@ Damocles.

Thanks for that. I wasn’t aware that Sinn Fein had condemned the actions.

Perhaps Tim has migrated to a Sinn Fein splinter group? As this was a “Real” I.R.A. funeral?

I feel bad that they are already leading a life of utter misguidedness.

Tim the never ending SF promoter. This is my face..

There bomb victims weren’t exactly afforded much dignity- bits of bodies scattered hundreds of yards apart.

Agree.

What?

A chemtrail nut,they don’t exist,have a look at the Fr Ted episode,Dreams Vs Reality,you might learn something