Damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. If he was condoning dissidence today people would be outraged and demanding that he get over the past and move on. When he condemns it people say that he has a cheek for doing so.

Collins ,dev ,,and many others were tge same ,,, yes ppl have short

Well like him or not he’s done more for Ireland than most , I am not a SF befor the red thumbs start but he spent 8 weeks in the US last year pushing for dollars to be pumped in this country . So I don’t care of his past he has Ireland on top of his mind so that comes first

He must be short of cheap diesel

“Today I want to send a message directly to them, I am offering them an opportunity to meet and talk, come and tell us what you hope to gain by deluding yourselves and the gullible that your actions will succeed in what is certainly a pathetic and futile attempt to turn back the clock,” he said.

It’s a little ironic to hear him speaking in this tone, as this is what people wanted him, Adams and the rest of them to do back in the ’60′s and ’70′s. We’ve always had the Republic, he and the rest of them were bombing, maiming many when it suited him, to fight for an “all Ireland”. Amazing what old age does to someone, one good thing about old age is that it brings some sense to one’s mind. He and others are only doing what we wanted (ordinary hard working citizens) him to do years ago. Nothing has changed in the lie of the land, It’s still 26 counties and 6 counties.

For godssake mcguinness and
Co didn’t decide to just go out and start bombing people for the craic, some people make it sound so flippant, but it was never an easy choice. Yes they could have went the peaceful route, fighting for their human rights, but they didnt. It was a war and eveyone lived in fear. A world of pain later, they have worked tirelessly towards peace. You say people wanted the IRA to do what mcguinness is now asking dissidents to do, back in the day… ( I might add that the north never received the support it should have from the republic who knows, maybe some of it could have been avoided)
And then they actually did move on!

But we are the ones who actually can’t move on when we make partitionist statements about us and them and the 26 counties and the 6 counties. we judge them so cynically from the comfort of the Republic. We had no idea then, we barely have an idea now, we are desensitised to the causes that led to the bloodshed and hurt in the first place, and let’s face it, most of us clearly don’t want to know, from our condemning attitudes.

Thankfully not everyone thinks like you Patrick……

Ffs Provisional Sinn Féin/Provisional IRA’s terrorism was not war. It was criminality.

Ahh isn’t that the great thing about politics ….

-People have short memories
And
-revisionism is rarely questioned

MMcG is a thug and a terrorist, as are many others in SF.
To characterise him as a ‘leader’has most application to his military background, where he was involved in the execution of many PIRA ‘operations’

You can still be shot through the back of the knees in Derry if you don’t agree with what the masked men tell you to do.

Memories

@Martin O Regan

I am one that was a teenager in the ’60′s ’70′s. I know all about it. Even after all those years of IRA/Sin Fein, UDA, UVF, UDA etc. etc. fighting trying to get one up on each other and killing, maiming innocent people in the middle of it, things are still the same. There are the 26 counties and the 6 counties. No different. Just 1,000′s unfortunately dead, murdered on all sides. The only good that has come out of it is that children can play on their street, people can go shopping without the fear of the store in front of them being blown up. That, is good. Anybody could have and did tell the IRA/Sin Fein, UDA etc. that bombing and killing people was not going to get what they wanted.

Talking is best, even if it takes another 100 years it’s better than blowing a child to bits where their parents are peeling parts of their child/s body off a wall. Obviously, I hope, Adams, McGuinness and the rest realise that now. The ‘disdidents’ which are I would assume young men just like Adams and McGuinness was, are copying them and doing what both of them were doing to others for years.

Martin McGuinness’s speech is like one a Cumann NaGaedhaeler would give in the 1920s after coming to power or a Fianna Failer would give in the 1930s after coming to power.

We need to put the genie of physical force politics in Ireland back in its bottle, in my opinion. We won’t be doing that by commemorating the 1916 uprising/attempted coup. Until that genie is put back in its bottle, there will always be dissidents who will believe that violence is a legitimate means to a political end and they will always have support.

Correction: Mr.McGuinness ran as an independent in the 2011 presidential elections.