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Herman Van Rompuy Virginia Mayo/AP/Press Association Images

EU Commission could be given powers to impose austerity - report

The president of the European Council has proposed a radical shake-up of the eurozone ahead of the upcoming summit.

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION could be given powers to impose austerity measures that usurp governments of bailed out nations such as Ireland under proposals being put forward by the European Council president, it has emerged.

The Guardian reports that the proposals are being put forward in a document by president Herman Van Rompuy who will chair the crucial EU summit in Brussels this Thursday and Friday as leaders look to thrash out a deal that will convince markets of the single currency’s future.

The paper reports that under the proposals in the document bailed-out countries could be stripped of voting rights in the EU if there is non-compliance with EU directives although this proposal appears to have been dropped.

The document also proposes “more intrusive” control of national budgetary policies by the EU which could enforce fiscal discipline on a supra-national level. The draft document also discuses the potential for the harmonisation of pension reforms, social security systems, labour market policy, and financial regulation across the eurozone.

It also argues in favour of eurobonds, or the pooling of eurozone debt, which is seen as one way of solving the crisis. However, this is something that the German government is against.

Earlier, German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble argued that the threat of a downgrade of the eurozone’s credit rating by Standard & Poor’s was the “best possible incentive” for European leaders to agree measures later this week.

For more information, see Guardian.co.uk >

Germany welcomes S&P moves to downgrade eurozone >

Merkozy: Europe needs a ‘tougher’ treaty >

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37 Comments
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    Mute Bigus Diccus
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:01 PM

    Get rid of the dye, introduce a rebate or swipe card system for farmers. Et voila.

    246
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    Mute Brendan Hughes
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:39 PM

    Thats one way but some householders use diesel for central heating too so that would need similer attention or those type of boilers phased out or converted a big opperation but a more benificial result.

    20
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    Mute gerry o donell
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 4:19 PM

    better still get rid of the dye and have the balls to stand up to the farmers and make them pay the same as the rest of us

    113
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    Mute Real Shinnerbot
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 4:40 PM

    The arrest of ex-PIRA members for committing crimes would be political policing and an attack on the Peace Process.

    55
    Tim
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    Mute Tim
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:50 PM

    Gerry
    And let the price of food go up accordingly

    38
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    Mute Genius
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:53 PM

    @Bigus Diccus
    You cant be making sense with ideas like that.

    19
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    Mute Jamie McCormack
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 11:16 PM

    You have to target your market.

    6
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    Mute rory conway
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 12:53 PM

    Filling stations found guilty of such a practice should be closed permanently and sold or destroyed.
    They’re in in it for money , greed. Hundreds of motorists are duped and Revenue cheated. Close them.

    243
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    Mute Joe Sullivan
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:27 PM

    What if your wife and kids ate threatened if you dont sell it rory?

    43
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    Mute Thierry Ratt
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 6:13 PM

    Revenue are driven by greed

    42
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    Mute An Ciarraioch
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 8:14 PM

    I look forward to the Garda and PSNI being given the resources to stamp out completely this problem of Fuel & Cigarette Laundering / smuggling etc.

    A start would be to take them off assisting Irish Water, as Security for Denis O’Briens Meter installation Company?

    Then they could be seen to carry out REAL Police work !

    35
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    Mute Pepper Brooks
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:45 PM

    Ciarraioch/Eddie Barrett. You were probably closely associated yourself with PIRA members – Martin ferris is after all a good mate of your’s in Tralee – an IRA gun smuggler.

    14
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    Mute Mick Early
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    Feb 24th 2015, 3:53 PM

    Pepper, stop playing with yourself and stick to the point!

    2
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    Mute Karl O Neill
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:21 PM

    Why have all this diesel colouring at all??? Give farmers a discount card allowing cheaper regular diesel at the pump…. Am I missing something here??? Get rid of the whole problem in one fell cut.

    123
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    Mute Emily Elephant
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:43 PM

    A discount card scheme for a fungible commodity, in favour of one class of society and administered by the Irish government. What could possibly go wrong?

    72
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    Mute Big Yellow Crane
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 6:39 PM

    Fungible is a great word. Can you actually funge a fungible commodity?

    21
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    Mute phuketirish
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:39 PM

    What I don’t understand is why do farmers get cheaper fuel at all…..why not tradesmen, transport companies etc …are these industries not just as important to the irish economy?…please enlighten me if I am missing something…

    120
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    Mute Pat Mustard
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 2:15 PM

    This is Ireland, the farmers are always taken care of first and foremost. They form the bedrock of FG & FF support so will always be looked on favourably.

    109
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    Mute Tertullian
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:03 PM

    To suggest that the Provos are not involved is laughable. A blind eye has been turned to the activities of Provo criminals in the border area for fear that they might start killing people again if their money-making exploits were to be curtailed. It’s seen as the lesser of two evils.

    110
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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:43 PM

    Good man Tertullian. You’ll have no problem sharing your evidence with us?

    115
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    Mute Ciarán Masterson
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 3:28 PM

    @Tertullian

    I have no time for Sinn Féin but I don’t want the allegations of appeasement to be true. The number of IRA sympathisers was a minority to start with and has decreased since the Good Friday Agreement. The Republic’s renunciation of its constitutional claim to Northern Ireland and the European Arrest Warrant mean that police on both sides of the border are even better equipped to fight terrorism than they were during the Troubles.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-31590393

    “The committee said it noted concerns about budgetary constraints faced by agencies in both jurisdictions.

    The Revenue Commissioners in the Republic of Ireland told the committee that its overall expenditure had been reduced by more than a fifth since 2008, and it had 13% fewer staff.

    The committee called for gaps in enforcement to be filled by targeted investment and increased funding, such as the UK government’s investment in HM Revenue and Customs that led to an increase in tax receipts.”

    16
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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 4:42 PM

    Any chance of some evidence? No? Didn’t think so. Just slander.

    70
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    Mute M Bowe
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:40 PM

    No one so blind as those who refuse to see..

    29
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    Mute Tertullian
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 6:01 PM

    @TírEoghainGael Let me give you just one instance – Gerry Adams’ pal Slab Murphy. Enough said.

    27
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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 6:08 PM

    He’s not a member of Sinn Féin. Some suggest he’s no longer even a supporter, but who can say that for sure except him. He is not a member though.

    Try again.

    45
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    Mute Tertullian
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 7:10 PM

    @TírEoghainGael Not a member of the party maybe but “a proud Republican” nonetheless. It’s his ilk that are involved in criminality. Provos/Shinners in all but name.

    20
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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 7:34 PM

    So if you are a Republican, you are automatically an IRA Volunteer, is that it? And still remain in the IRA ten years after it ceased to exist?

    I know facts aren’t something you want to have to deal with here, but none the less, in the interests of avoiding more of your grandstanding and your “sure we all know…” style waffle, we’ll stick to the facts anyway. And the facts are that you have alledged that the IRA are involved in fuel smuggling. This despite the fact that this claim has been publically discredited by a named senior Garda. Furthermore, the Garda also noted the fact that the organisation you hold responsible does not even exist. Now if you wish to be taken seriously, perhaps you can offer some sort of evidence to refute the ecpertise of the Gardaí and to support your claims. Surely that can’t be too difficult considering how sure you seem to be.

    34
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    Mute Bill Madden
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 7:55 PM

    @ Tim Eoin. … so the IRA is gone, so who was Jerry speaking about whether he said to much cheering ” they haven’t gone away you know” also if Republicans are not involved in the rackets in South Armagh, who is?

    A few local villians,??

    14
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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:15 PM

    He said that remark at a rally in August 1995 (almost twenty years ago). The IRA stood down in July 2005 (almost ten years ago).

    In case that’s not dumbed down enough for you, he said “they havent gone away” ten years before they went away.

    16
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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:22 PM

    As for who is involved in smuggling, well, I assume some individuals who want to smuggle fuel. The fact that it’s occuring doesn’t constitute proof over who you think is doing it. You don’t know who is doing it any more than I do. The facts however, as verified by a senior Garda, are that there is no evidence whatsoever that the IRA are involved, and, as also stated by the Garda, that the IRA no longer even exist (and haven’t done so in almost ten years). Those facts might not be what you’d like to believe, but they remain facts none the less until you or anybody else can prove otherwise.

    11
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    Mute Charles McDonald
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:45 PM

    I’m a republican but I’m a world away from your poisonous ilk

    7
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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 11:00 PM

    A world away? Good. Stay there.

    Actually no, keep going.

    12
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    Mute Jamie McCormack
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 11:32 PM

    Charles is a republican George Dubya style.

    9
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    Mute Jamie McCormack
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 11:36 PM

    In fairness Gael it’s not up to Adams to say the IRA have stepped down. He brought the bulk of the movement with him, but he himself knows they haven’t gone away. I know that, you know that. It’s just at a different moment.

    7
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    Mute Mick Early
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    Feb 24th 2015, 4:03 PM

    any evidence of a real friendship between Gerry and Slab? no did not think so either

    3
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    Mute Mick Early
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    Feb 24th 2015, 4:05 PM

    ask yourself, when did Adams say that??

    3
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    Mute Ten Major
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    Feb 24th 2015, 10:36 PM

    Jill Padden. ….Gerry Adams said this on the 13th of August 1995. Come in to the 21st century, the water is lovely and warm. BTW Churchill said, we will fight them on the beaches etc but the war is over except for bitter angry old men who can’t move on.

    2
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    Mute Shane Denham
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 12:56 PM

    Mr gilltooly will b on soon saying d police r wrong . Gerry is fronting it all he s even selling smokes inda dail

    107
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    Mute Cathal O'Neill
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 12:54 PM

    Cigarettes and fuel are a great combination. One wayward spark will solve both problems.

    91
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    Mute Real Shinnerbot
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 12:58 PM

    Fuel smuggling is a legitimate source of revenue for the Struggle.

    90
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    Mute Proinsias Ó Foghlú
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:49 PM

    When SF get into power in the Republic they will come down hard on this, they will call in their buddy Slab and have a word about this! They will politely request him to stop the practice in the Republic but give him Carte Blanche in the UK, otherwise their economic fairytale will peter out after the first sentence!

    50
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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 4:29 PM

    “current sf members”?

    Who? Evidence?

    72
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    Mute Charles McDonald
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 4:39 PM

    I’m not a journo or cop so ask them??

    I’m just saying what the dog in the street knows.

    Sf is involved in crime and other times turns a very blind eye to it as there were former terrorist comrades.

    You should be happy for one a government organisation like the guards separates sf and ira as one organisation.

    35
    Reg
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    Mute Reg
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 4:39 PM

    Wonder what Slab is up to these days. Did the Sunday Times ever get a penny out of him? Does Gerry still think he’s a great fella?

    38
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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 4:41 PM

    Please name the current SF members involved. Go on, pretty please!!

    78
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    Mute Real Shinnerbot
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 4:43 PM

    Comrade Eoghain, please refute the allegations directed at Comrade Slab.

    29
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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:02 PM

    Charles, you’re not a journalist or a a cop? And that somehow gives you a licence to make absolutely any claim you like without having to burden yourself with backing it up with any evidence whatsoever? And to expect to be taken seriously?

    68
    Reg
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    Mute Reg
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:04 PM

    This is what Gerry said after a stash of cash, fuel laudering gear, tens of thousands of fags were found at Slab’s gaff:

    “I want to deal with what is an effort to portray Tom Murphy as a criminal, as a bandit, as a gang boss, as someone who is exploiting the republican struggle for his own ends, as a multimillionaire. There is no evidence to support any of that.”

    You couldn’t make it up!!

    42
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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:06 PM

    TEG, the vast majority of people (including the Gardaí) know that the Provos are GONE. How can an organisation that is no more be involved in the fuel rackets?

    56
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    Mute Powerabbey
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:09 PM

    What cloud do you live in? No one takes your denials seriously.

    22
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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:11 PM

    @ProudIrishRepublican

    How? Because despite what a named, senior Gardaí says in the above photographed letter; the Sunday Indo has the word of an “unnamed garda source”. And we all know the Sunday Indo would never lie and has no particular agenda whatsoever. Oh, and Charles McDonald says it’s true and says that he isn’t a cop or a journalist and as such, has no evidence to contradict Frank Walsh (who IS a cop). So it MUST be true.

    52
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    Mute M Bowe
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:44 PM

    Sinn Fein did ask the top cop.. read the statement. NO EVIDENCE or INTELLIGENCE…. but sure Jim lying Cusack knows better…..

    43
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    Mute An Ciarraioch
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 7:37 PM

    Proinsias- Did Arthur Spring brief you and get you to say that ?
    He looks to be in some huge trouble about getting reelected – Labour to get annihilated in Kerry I suspect ?

    19
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    Mute Proinsias Ó Foghlú
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 8:21 PM

    An Ciarrioch you do realise I’m taking the piss, SF will not get into power in the Republic in the near future at any rate. Any way I doubt if Slab takes any notice of Jarry or Mary Lou, those bandits will keep making money from fuel laundering, fags, drugs, bank robberies and animal rustling as long as they can.

    14
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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 9:05 PM

    Sorry to break it to you Charlie boy, but you seem to be extremely delusional!! If any of what you say was true, then the authorities would take action. As it is, your allegations have no weight. They are constantly used and have zero merit. I recommend you see a doctor and he prescribes something for your paranoia!

    15
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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:25 PM

    Murphy is not a Sinn Féin member, and some claim he no longer even supports Sinn Féin. So again, what Sinn Féin members are involved?

    And who did Gerry Adams murder? Evidence?

    @thejournal
    Is it really acceptable for a poster to accuse someone by name, of murder?

    10
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    Mute Charles McDonald
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:26 PM

    Haha and your pseudonym carries weight? ?

    Hehe the guards do tackle it with the revenue and psni. Maybe you did not see the raids on the news. What your not understanding *don’t worry shinnerbots have issues with comprehension* is the guards are saying the provisional IRA is not involved as it’s disbanded. Now if you understand it’s disbanded as they lost their war we can move onto next step.

    After losing their war and giving up their guns the members decided we used criminality to fun the cause we still know how to do it let’s keep at it give sf 10% off the top. They will put pressure on policing boards and government will tell guards stick to seizing it on this side but not catching them producing on the other side in the interests of keeping sf sweet and GFA alive and well.

    Now if there is anything about the above you don’t understand well like I said that’s normal for a shinnerbot.

    Must be so great to be a shinnerbot. Life is so so simple.

    5
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    Mute Charles McDonald
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:27 PM

    Some claim?? Who claims? ? You????

    Haha

    4
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    Mute Charles McDonald
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:28 PM

    Who was accused of murder by name Shinnerbot?

    4
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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:55 PM

    I admit to having a chuckle at your claim that it must be simple to be a “shinnerbot” (yawn). It’s beyond irony coming from you who engages in making fanciful claims which directly contradict the Gardaí and you feel no obligation to (or just simply can’t) produce a scrap of evidence to back up your claims. You can’t get much simpler than that.

    As for who you accused of being a murderer, well you may now be a coward by claiming your not making it clear who you are referring to but I’ll leave the admin of the site to judge that.

    8
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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 11:11 PM

    P.s. Re. Slab, Many, many people claim so. But that’s neither here nor there. You said current Sinn Féin members are involved in smuggling. The only name you have provided when challenged on this is of of someone who is not a member of Sinn Féin. So, yet again, I find myself back at square one, pleading with you to back up your lazy allegations. What current Sinn Féin members are involved in smuggling?

    7
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    Mute Charles McDonald
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    Feb 24th 2015, 12:59 AM

    No you misread again what the gardai said. Please read above and let one beaincell spark off the other and maybe just maybe a shinnerbot can evolve thought.

    One does not hold breath. Once again ask Thomas slab Murphy. Prove that he is not

    After all the leader of the ira denies ever being in the ira :)

    Prove he is not.

    Will gladly take a list of members as a start.

    3
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    Mute Charles McDonald
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    Feb 24th 2015, 1:02 AM

    Just wait also for the full details of the Boston tapes to come out :)

    Anyway my last comment on the topic with these job announcements sf are screwed. Fg tatics hold back till on war footing then bring out jobs and I bet a few tax cuts for the middle. It will push sf back they are still smaller then fg before this news.

    Oh well.

    3
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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 24th 2015, 6:15 AM

    It seems Charles knows what the Boston tapes contain before anybody else!!! Either that or he’s talking bullshit!! Your cloak has slipped Charles, it’s so obvious you’re a loyalist troll. You have provided no evidence here, you have just made yourself look like a very silly “Billy”!!! Time to get over yourself and your bitterness.

    7
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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 24th 2015, 8:21 AM

    The Boston Tapes? Haha! Showing yourself up they’re Charles. You mean the project dreamt up by an Ulster Unionist Party advisor and organised and run exclusively by two dissident republicans with a grudge against Gerry Adams which involved interviews exclusively with people with a grudge against gerry adams, and provided them with an opportunity to record allegations against him under the assurance that they couldn’t be made public until they died, thereby making them free from the burden of having to prove their allegations? The same project that the psni used for four days in their questioning of Adams before releasing him without charge? The same project widely termed in the media as “the discredited Boston College Project”? The same project that the history professors of Boston College have moved to distance themselves from?

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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 24th 2015, 8:23 AM

    https://bostoncollegesubpoena.wordpress.com/category/gerry-adams/
    ‘The tapes were recorded as part of the now discredited Boston College Belfast Project in which conflict protagonists gave interviews on the understanding that they would not be made public until after their deaths.’

    6
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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 24th 2015, 8:23 AM

    http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/may/08/gerryadams-boston
    ‘Boston College historians: anti-peace process tapes nothing to do with us’

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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 24th 2015, 8:24 AM

    http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/may/13/queensuniversitybelfast-northernireland
    ‘Time for Lord Bew to come clean on the Boston College tapes fiasco’

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    Mute Mick Early
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    Feb 24th 2015, 4:07 PM

    quit playing with yourself lad, you’ll go blind!

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    Mute Gary Egan
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:05 PM

    I highly doubt a Blueshirt government would relax on Republican activity, after all they are more less Tories in disguise.

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    Mute Mick Early
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    Feb 24th 2015, 3:56 PM

    and a very poor disguise at that!

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    Mute Gordon Kennedy
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:29 PM

    The Sunday Independent printing lies about republicans? Well I never….

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    Mute Barça Alona
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:29 PM

    Ironic isn´t it that a paper which relies so much on “unanamed Garda sources” refuses to pay heed to verified Garda sources – and from the very top!

    Maybe it´s because to do so would blow so many of their puff of smoke stories away and clearly expose the pure political bias behind them?

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    Mute Mick Early
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    Feb 24th 2015, 3:55 PM

    very true! But unfortunately we have to expect that from the O’Brien empire!

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 4:42 PM

    The Sindo publishing a story that the guards say is not true, that must be like saying ‘this statement is false’ to their readership.

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    Mute mrgillhouley
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:14 PM

    normal days work for SF/IRA

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    Mute Vannin
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 2:01 PM

    And yet according to the article, apparently not…… unless you can prove different.

    However, if the gards are found to be covering things up, or are incompetent as you are suggesting by your comment then by extention it would actually be Enda’s doing as it’s his government that controls them.

    I’m sure he’ll be displeased at your views. :D

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    Mute gerry o donell
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 4:27 PM

    it amazes me all the experts who have an indept knowledge on the subject. most of whom wouldn’t know where the border is. couldn’t tell a provo from a push bike and believe that the ira only came into existence in the 1970′s and that irish people living in the six counties should have been happy with what they had an been loyal wee subjects. pretty much what the government of the free state wanted from irish people south of the border.

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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 6:01 PM

    SF/IRA? Lol! Good one, so original. Can I steal that Gillhouley? Oops, better not say “steal” or the Endabots will accuse me of the northern bank job!!!

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    Mute Eamonn Óg Ó Gallachóir
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:08 PM

    Charlie and the Boys who do you believe someone who fight’s for Israel or those who fought for Ireland and the the Garda the Psni the IMC the Uk police needless to say the borders existence is the real crime Charlie will never fight to change and until he and his part does they should stay away from all 1916 commemorations for the Men and Women who fought for a 32 county Nation

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    Mute Eoin Mulhern
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:50 PM

    Lies from the sunday independent as usually, sure the pira are gone (they could be referring to dissents instead) and sure why read a paper that is very bias anyway in the first place.

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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 6:12 PM

    The independent has become a joke. If the front page said “Sky is blue” I’d want a second opinion!

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    Mute Michael Mcshane
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:42 PM

    I hear they’re gonna stop smuggling diesel and start smuggling water instead, apparently with the introduction of water meters it has created a profitable market for cheap unregulated H2O…….hosepipes across the border, they’ll be flooding the market with cheap spring water !!!! :D

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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 6:10 PM

    Only a matter of time before Willie Frazer accuses them of this!!

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    Mute Tap Solny
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:00 PM

    Some day you might get a chance to elect some of these gang members to Dáil Éireann. The members might not recognise the Dáil but they can pretend to do so just like their compatriots.

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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 4:39 PM

    I’ve just one thing to say to you Pat, Zzz zzz zzz zzzzzzzzzzz.

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    Mute Alan Ryan
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 12:55 PM

    Fuel and cigarettes, someone’s going to get hurt.

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    Mute up down
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:24 PM

    Gardaí hold no intelligence……. couldn’t resist!

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    Mute Aging Lothario
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:03 PM

    I’m afraid the Gardai haven’t a clue if they have no evidence of Provo involvement in the laundering of fuel along the border. Every man and his dog knows that the Provos are the only show in town when it comes to fuel laundering, and it’s an absolute disgrace that more is not been done to lock up those people who are destroying the environment, not to mention taking away millions in fuel duty from the Revenue. The hypocrisy of Sinn Fein when it comes to fuel laundering is also lamentable, but what would you expect from a party who suffer from collective amnesia when it comes to anything controversial, and who have a leader who still to this day denies he was ever in the IRA. As somebody has pointed out, time to end this farce of dying diesel, and just give a rebate to those entitled to use it.

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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:16 PM

    “Every man and his dog knows that….”

    Doesn’t really stand up to much scrutiny does it? Have you any actual evidence to support your argument and to refute the assertions made by the Gardaí in the above letter?

    Also, Adams was questioned for four days last year on his supposed IRA membership. He was released without charge after they could produce absolutely no evidence whatsoever. Perhaps you jsut forgot to come forward with the evidence you have?

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    pjm
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    Mute pjm
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:23 PM

    Surely this would be the biggest election coup that FG could ask for if Republicans were arrested en masse and charged seeing as you are so confident they are controlling fuel laundering. Or better still start ringing the Gardai with your info, if you are so confident, and your efforts will damage SF electorally. Surely all right minded citizens would report crimes if they of any, whats holding you back?

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    Mute Aging Lothario
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:27 PM

    Will since you’re so knowledgeable about these things Tir Eoghain Gael, why don’t you enlighten us,a and tell us who is responsible for all of the fuel laundering in South Armagh, and along the border, even you couldn’t blame this one on the Loyalists. As regards the bearded one not been in the IRA, Adams was released from internment and was part of an IRA delegation which met with the British, he was part of an IRA-led escape attempt from Long Kesh and has been widely credited with being a leading figure in the IRA. At the end of the day, you are truly deluded if you believe that Adams was not in the IRA.

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    Mute Aging Lothario
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:30 PM

    PJM I’m sure even you know that the oath of omerta stops the majority of people from going to the authorities about the activities of Republicans.

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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:48 PM

    “Will since you’re so knowledgeable about these things Tir Eoghain Gael, why don’t you enlighten us,a and tell us who is responsible for all of the fuel laundering in South Armagh, and along the border, even you couldn’t blame this one on the Loyalists”

    I’ve no idea who is involved. No more of an idea than you do. The difference is, I’m not spouting crap claiming to know and claiming something to be true which is in direct contradiction to the Gardai’s assertions. Al I could say for sure is that they are probably just individuals trying to make handy money illegally. Are you implying that because it’s not loyalists, then it can only be the Provos? Does every crime in Armagh fall into one of the two categories? Or is it just handy to claim that because it’s in South Armagh, sure it must be the provos? Despite the fact that they ceased to exist ten years ago, and despite the assertion of a senior Garda that there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest it’s the provos? Sure why believe a named, senior garda, over the word of an “unnamed Garda source” as quoted in the Sunday Indo, eh?

    “As regards the bearded one not been in the IRA, Adams was released from internment and was part of an IRA delegation which met with the British, he was part of an IRA-led escape attempt from Long Kesh and has been widely credited with being a leading figure in the IRA. At the end of the day, you are truly deluded if you believe that Adams was not in the IRA.”

    He may have been a member, he may not have been. I’m as just as inclined to believe either (after all, would it not suit the IRA to have a public face to act on it’s behalf in talks who couldn’t be directly linked to holding any direct membership? Could be untrue. All we know for certain is that for several decades, he has never been presented with any evidence enough to convict him of what you are accusing him off. As such, he is to be presumed innocent, by the law of the land.

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    Mute pjm
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:48 PM

    Have you ever heard of a telephone for your anonymous tip offs. For someone who knows so much about crimes being committed you are doing very little about them, shame on you! Do you have any confidence in the Gardai seeing as you think that Frank Walsh, the secretary to the Garda Commissioner is lying about PIRA involvement? Or are you Jim Cusack in disguise, just keep telling yourself this sh*t enough times and it must be true.

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    Mute M Bowe
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:51 PM

    Oath of omerta???? I see you have watched the recent rerun of the godfather 1,2 and 3…. DR Who is doing a rerun also. I await the Sinn Fein have daleks stories..

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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 6:08 PM

    Hey Ageing Lothario, wha don’t yee call that confidential telephone number and tell em what yee noy? Surely with all this information you have that the Provos didn’t disband and are running rackets, you really should do the right thing and present yourself and your evidence at your local PSNI or Garda station!! Even Geoffrey Donaldson thinks your talking shite.

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    Mute Aging Lothario
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 6:19 PM

    Funny you mention the Daleks M Bowe, are the Shinners not like Daleks trying to destroy all those around them, and take over the planet, or Ireland in our case. At the end of the day all of you Shinners can dress it up any way you want, but there is no denying the involvement of former IRA members in crime, organised, opportunistic or sexual. The names of former IRA bombers, killers and activists continue to crop up in dozens of police investigations, on both sides of the Border, into crimes ranging from smuggling, racketeering, extortion, murder and sexual abuse, despite the blissful ignorance of most Shinners when it comes to any of these crimes.

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    Mute Gordon Kennedy
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 6:45 PM

    Anyway, why would anybody confirm something that gets you a 5 yr sentence? Just to keep the sindo shills happy? Mcguinness was found guilty of membership so that’s why he confirms that fact..

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    Mute Lao Tzu
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 7:08 PM

    … also, Mr Kennedy, if they say there’s no evidence [not intelligence I hasten to add], then that’s probably the case, we are dealing with professional terrorists & paedophile protectors after all; intelligence is only as useful as the evidence that substantiates it.

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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 8:24 PM

    Paedophile protectors? That old chestnut! Come on lad, I’m sure you can be a bit more original than that.

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    Mute M Bowe
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 8:56 PM

    Lothario. Are you serious. Now republicans are like daleks, jayaus man whatever you druv of choice was before you aged has really fried the grey matter..
    Watch out for that tardis…
    I was considing responding to your post, but reckon on leaving the unbridled stupidity of your statements speak for themselves. .

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    Mute Lao Tzu
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:14 PM

    PIR, what do you mean, ‘That old chestnut’? GA said over the weekend that he will ‘co-operate’ with the Gardaí and give them the identities of the PIRA paedophiles he helped relocate to the Irish Republic – not that they’ll ever be caught, mind you, they’re probably in Columbia spit-shining the latest batch of AKMs & RPKs and snorting cocaine, while mumbling along and playing the air guitar to The Wolfe Tones.

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    Mute Charles McDonald
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:49 PM

    I explained above what the guards meant. The IRA as an organisation is defeated and gone. Weapons decommissioned.

    It’s the ex provos current sf members that are doing it but the provos are not as they don’t exist after the surrender

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    Mute Tír Eoghain Gael
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:57 PM

    The IRA were defeated? Not according to the British Army:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6276416.stm

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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 24th 2015, 6:18 AM

    Surrender? What surrender? 30 years undefeated!! The mighty Brit empire couldn’t defeat what they would’ve classed as a few simple Paddy’s!!

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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 6:17 PM

    That’s a nice photo of johngahan. I wonder which one he is?

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    Mute Jamie McCormack
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 11:22 PM

    It’s some photo. Guy in front, mournful. Guy behind, vengeful.

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    Mute Emma's Wooden House
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 12:50 PM

    Good to see such flexible thinking.

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    Mute Patrick Fahy
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 8:31 PM

    Is there no sanction available to the Press Ciuncil, or otherwise, to prevent this type of dangerous gutter journalism? During the northern Troubles, Jim Cusack was challenged by me in a call to RTE about a manifestly erroneous and damaging radio report he made in relation to the alleged involvement of republicans in fomenting sectarian confrontations in Ardoyne, Belfast. At the time he was with the Irish Times. He is still at it, now with the Independent

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    Mute Mick Early
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    Feb 24th 2015, 4:01 PM

    Cusak is an absolute disgrace to his profession!

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    Mute Antrim
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 6:19 PM

    Funny how they always had their faces covered. Cowards.

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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 7:10 PM

    Considering the IRA were deemed by the RUC to be an illegal organisation, why would they show their faces leaving themselves open to arrest? That my friend would be a bit stupid, don’t you agree?

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    Mute Lao Tzu
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 7:24 PM

    Why not, PIR? If the PIRA was, in fact, a legal organisation, then why not show your face and be proud to be a republican, and try and achieve your aims legitimately? The fact is, they didn’t/don’t want to be identified because they are murdering, evil thugs, and they don’t want to be subjected to the same fate as they subjected others to.

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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 8:29 PM

    Any ex Provos I know are proud to have fought for their country. They don’t hide, they are well known in their communities and well respected, as are those who gave their lives for Irish freedom.

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    Mute Antrim
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 11:36 PM

    They were the self appointed army of Ireland but hid behind masks, I don’t know of any other army that does that.

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    Mute F.man
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    Feb 24th 2015, 6:10 AM

    Do that murderous outfit, the SAS conceal their identities, even with the support of one of the most notorious terrorist states that ever existed?

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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 24th 2015, 9:25 AM

    Community backed soldiers of Ireland. How else could PIRA have carried on a 30 year campaign?

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    Mute Big Yellow Crane
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    Feb 24th 2015, 12:56 PM

    Fear

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    Mute F.man
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    Feb 24th 2015, 9:13 PM

    You wish Big Yellow, problem is you know it’s not true. From Bombay Street to the Good Friday Agreement the resistance garnered popular support amongst those that had been under attack from the time that the Orange state was imposed (at the end of a gun).

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    Mute Big Yellow Crane
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    Feb 24th 2015, 10:10 PM

    Whatever. It was twenty years ago. Stop trying to get your vicarious jollies reliving it. A movement with popular support doesn’t need to beat democrats from the same community in their homes with hurls.

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    Mute F.man
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    Feb 24th 2015, 11:17 PM

    Democrats? I didn’t realise you were trying to be a comedian as well.

    Apart from the gerrymandering within the Orange state, it [the Orange state] was contrived against the democratic will of the Irish people. English rule in Ireland never had a mandate.

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    Mute Big Yellow Crane
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    Feb 24th 2015, 11:37 PM

    I was thinking about John Fee actually. Smashed round the head with a hurl, later died of s brain tumour. Don’t think he was part of the Orange State.

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    Mute gerry campbell
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:42 PM

    They have the 2nd hand car market destroyed. Engines ruined all over the country , cars doing the chuck chuck chuckying now.

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    Mute Proinsias Ó Foghlú
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 8:22 PM

    Chucky ar la!

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    Mute An Ciarraioch
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 11:06 PM

    Proinsias – Arthur ar Spring !!!!

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    Mute F.man
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 8:56 PM

    Are the words Continuity RIC and Intelligence not an oxymoron?

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    Mute Caoimhin O Hailpin
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    Feb 24th 2015, 12:39 AM

    Eoghan Harris suggested yday that the minister for Justice should have told the Garda Commissioner not to reply in the way she did….wow calling for politicali nterference in policing….Eoghan showing his true colours there…. abit of a sticky wicket for Eoghan me thinks

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    Mute Mick Early
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    Feb 24th 2015, 3:50 PM

    so why do you use a photo of an IRA funeral from the 1980′s?? You are starting to remind me of the Indo!

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    Mute Martin Gallagher
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    Feb 24th 2015, 11:39 AM

    ‘Toxic waste dumping from republican sources is an obvious by product of 700 hundred years of British oppression etc. etc…..’ Yeah, time to move on Mr. Adams and collect your Westminister pension.

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    Mute Ciarán Masterson
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 9:29 PM

    Why did I get so many red thumbs for the comment that I made on this page? I thought that it was balanced.

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    Mute Lao Tzu
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:25 PM

    I wouldn’t worry about it Ciarán, anyone who posts a comment on this forum that doesn’t suit the pre-programmed SF/IRA Shinnerbot narrative, is abused, intimidated, bullied – and stalked. The dominant and irrational points of view expressed in this comment section are not a reflection of how it is among the electorate, or in the real world, thankfully.

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    Mute Ciarán Masterson
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    Feb 24th 2015, 12:47 AM

    @Lao Tzu

    Thanks. I appreciate that comment.

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