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A MOTION OF no confidence tabled against the Wicklow county manager was defeated today at a Wicklow County Council meeting.
Sinn Féin Councillor John Brady tabled the motion against Eddie Sheehy, in the wake of a fine handed down to the council over the deaths of two firefighters, stating that he presided over an organisation that had no regard for the health of safety of its employees, adding that his position was not longer tenable.
€355,000 fine
The county council was handed a fine of €355,000 last month, in connection with the death of the two men in 2007.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Brady said that motion was defeated, with 14 votes against the motion, 7 votes in favour, one abstention and two absentees.
Those voting in favour of the motion were Sinn Féin’s John Snell, Independents Thomas Cullen and Tom Fortune and Labour Party members Barry Nevin and Nicky Kelly. Fine Gael’s Irene Winters was the only one to break ranks and vote in favour of the motion.
“Fair play to Irene. I know she came under considerable pressure to vote down this motion. There has been considerable canvassing from senior council officials who have been calling councillors and made a concerted effort to rally support for the manager,” said Brady.
Security men
He added that Wicklow County Council hired four men from a private security firm to attend the meeting today.
“Never in my four and half years on this council have I ever seen private security staff be drafted in to a council meeting. There was not a massive public attendance expected at the meeting. It was done to foster a sense of intimidation in my opinion,” he said.
This is not the first council to question the performance of the county manager. At last week’s Wicklow Town Council meeting, a motion calling for the “immediate sacking” of Eddie Sheehy was tabled by Councillor Pat Kavangh. It was also defeated.
Speaking at that meeting last week, Cllr Irene Winters, who voted in favour of today’s motion said: “Never in my nine years on this council have the council officials been so interested in my opinion on a motion”.
Disciplinary action
Let’s talk about how the Sinn fein official website still sells IRA merchandise.
@Fr.Todd Unctious: Ah now don’t single out SF. The Taoiseach himself often honours the IRA too. He actually has a framed photo of IRA Volunteer Michael Collins in his office, and he talks about him regularly. http://leovaradkar.ie/2016/08/varadkar-addresses-collins-griffith-commemoration/
@Tír Eoghain Gael: Ya I’m talking about the terrorist group. You know the cowards that bombed omagh? Ya those lads.
@Fr.Todd Unctious: Ps. If the Provos were a terroist group, surely the Old IRA were a terrorist group too then?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: I’m pretty sure you knew that’s who I was talking about. The fact you have reverted to name calling straight away is quite funny actually.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: just be quiet. Do us all a favour lad.
@Fr.Todd Unctious: Well you thought the Omagh bombing was carried out the the Provos ffs!!
@Fabio Dillon: Why? And let people wrongly claim the Omagh bombing was carried out by the Provos? Or os it the fact that Im poiting out the sheer hypocricy of condemning the provos but euolgising the Old IRA which upsets you? If the Provos were terrorists, then why weren’t the Old IRA terrorists too?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: Completely different group of Good Wee Republicans alright….hmmmm
@Tír Eoghain Gael: think you’re a bit confused there. Talk to you later, have a great day and try go see a counsellor for all our sakes.
@MK76: Sarcasm by way of implying that two diametrically opposed organisations were in fact the same organisation? Is that seriously the level you want the discussion to be held at? Jesus wept.
@Fr.Todd Unctious: Lol So you claimed that the Provos carried out the Omagh bombing and then tell me that I’m the one confused? Any wonder you’re scurrying off before you make any more braindead claims.
@Fr.Todd Unctious: or how about the free state army who murdered children and blew up the “irregulars” in ballybritt during the civil war alright then was it?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: he must have got mixed up but here are some of the bombs that the provo IRA ( the Sinn Fein one’s) planted killing women men and children over the years.
Bloody Friday – the Provisional IRA detonated 22 bombs in Belfast. Nine people were killed while 130 were injured.
Le mon restaurant bombing – 12 civilians were killed and 30 injured by a Provo IRA bomb in Belfast.
Birmingham pub bombings – 21 civilians were killed by IRA bombs l
In 1978 alone the IRA detonated over 50 bombs in towns across Ireland with Belfast, Derry, Armagh, Castlederg, Cookstown and Enniskillen were hardest hit.
Harrods bombing – in London.
Bomb in Sligo killing a local boy and a british Lord and his son
11 civilians were killed and 63 injured by a Provisional IRA bomb in Enniskillen.
@Greg Kelly: Indeed. And you are absolutely correct in the above list. My fundamental point remains the same, though. If you are happy to condemn the Provos as “terrorist murderers”, then it is just a laughable level of hypocrisy to suggest that the Old IRA were not also “terrorist murderers”, given that they killed a higher proportion of civilians relative to combatants than the Provos and saying as they disappeared over 200 (mostly innocent) people over around 3-4 years, compared to the 14 disappeared by the Provos in 40 years. Personally, I refute such hypocritical nonsense. I regard both the Old & Provisional IRA’s campaigns as having been entirely legitimate and justifiable, which, in both cases, involved actions which were totally despicable & unjustifiable. The grim reality is that every justifiable armed campaign in history, by any group, will contain certain unjustifiable acts. It is worth remembering that the level of oppression & suppression which gave rise to the Provos in 1969 were infinitely worse than the conditions which gave rise to the Old IRA. So if you regard the Old IRA campaign as having been an inevitable and justifiable consequence of it’s time, then it is grossly, grossly hypocritical so argue the opposite in the case of the PIRA.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: good points and yes most people (myself included) understand why an organisation came about to protect their people from an occupying force colluding with loyalist paramilitaries. The issue many people have is the civilian losses and criminality that the provos got involved in and once they started to attack nationalists and the republic’s gardai and institutions was what turned most Irish people off them.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: I personally don’t have time for the old IRA either
@Greg Kelly: Greg, what you describe at the end there were also present in the case of the Old IRA, which again raises the topic of hypocritical attitudes. Regarding ‘civilian losses’, as I say, the Old IRA killed a higher proportion of civilians relative to combatants than the Provos did, so how can so many who condemn the Provos on such a principle then in all good conscience eulogise the Old IRA? And as for “attacks on the republicans gardaí and institutions”, where do I begin? PIRA Volunteers were forbidden from carrying out such attacks and so it is no coincidence that they were an extraordinarily rare occurance over the duration of the 36 year long campaign. That does no justify those attacks, but to use such infrequent/rare instances as an excuse to condemn the PIRA is a totally bogus, straw man argument. And by way of parallels once again with Collins era – didn’t Collins himself send large quantities of arms and resources to the IRA in the north in the early months of 1922?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: If there is a Jesus, I’m pretty sure he would have been weeping like the rest of us at the sub-human behavior of the Good Wee Republicans, but sure you’d to anything to re-write history to serve the motivations of the future.
@MK76: Can you really accuse anyone of rewriting history when you yourself came to the defense of a poster who claimed that the PIRA carried out the Omagh bomb ffs
Go away, the grown ups are talking.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: omagh bombing was carried out by the real IRA which split from the provisional IRA in 1997 seems they are linked and all were once in the same terrorist innocent civilian killing group! Continue cheer leading and defending them all you like. Most people can see what they are.
@Paddy: They “split” (by which I mean a minuscule number of people left the PIRA and formed the RIRA) and the two groups were henceforth diametrically and bitterly opposed organisations – so on what planet is it accurate to claim that the PIRA carried out the Omagh Bombing, you complete, utter, absolute halfwit. Jesus wept.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: They were former Provos
@Tír Eoghain Gael: The PIRA carried out equally heinous attrocities in their day
@John East: The were probably former lots of things. They were RIRA bonbed Omagh. The cynical attempts to claim otherwise is an injustice to the victims story and shows just how low some of you dispicible creatures are prepared to stoop.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: where did I say that?
@John East: “The PIRA carried out equally heinous atrocities in their day”
Of course they carried out heinous actions. So did every armed group in just about every conflict you care to name. Including the Old IRA. Do you condemn the Old IRA? Furthermore, in your attempts to rewrite history (like claiming the PIRA carried out the Omagh Bombing), you are now claiming the Provos carried out “equally” heinous atrocities than Omagh. The IRA never killed 31 people in one bombing. In fact, the only attack of the entire troubles which took more lives than the Omagh Bombing was the Dublin/Monaghan bomb, which was carried out by loyalists directed by the British state. Prior to the Omagh bombing, the worst bombing of the troubles was the McGurks Bar bombing in which 15 people died, and this was also carried out by loyalists under the direction of the state.
@Fr.Todd Unctious: Say what?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: That the PIRA carried out the bombing?
@Fr.Todd Unctious: Re-read your first two posts to this thread. The first where you referred to the IRA merchandise on sale on the SF website (which I think we can both agree is PIRA), and the second, where you said that the IRA you were referring to in that initial post were “the cowards who bombed Omagh”. (Oh, then there was your third post – where you confirmed you were talking about the PIRA).
It’s one thing to erroneously claim the PIRA bombed Omagh, but to then deny having done so when the written evidence is there for everyone to read if they just scroll up for a second or two, is just taking the ridiculous to new heights.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: not going to waste any more time engaging with someone who misinterprets pretty much everything that is said in the comments section just to stir up an argument.
@Fr.Todd Unctious: Misinterpreting you? So you weren’t claiming the PIRA bombed Omagh when you said:
“Let’s talk about how the Sinn fein official website still sells IRA merchandise….Ya I’m talking about the terrorist group. You know the cowards that bombed omagh? Ya those lads.”
And then when I specifically stated that we were talking about the PIRA, your reply was
“I’m pretty sure you knew that’s who I was talking about.”
FFS cop yourself on and stop denying that you even said what you so clearly and specifically stated for everyone to read.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: I know it’s a bad choice of word when comes to anything SF or IRA but, triggered!
@Fr.Todd Unctious: whats wrong with that? Republicans have a right to their history
@Paddy: So someone tried to absolve the ‘Real IRA’ of all blame for the deaths of 31 people in the Omagh Boming (a bombing which they alone carried out), and you laugh off anyone who attempts to set the record straight?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: those who carried out the omagh bombing were once members of the provisional IRA 1 year before the bombing. 1 year before the bombing the those responsible called themselfs provos! The difference a year makes eh!
@Tír Eoghain Gael: it’s actually a bit like some people in the north claiming to be British but you know and I know they are Irish!
@Paddy: Paddy, those who carried out the bombing LEFT the provos. The Omagh bombing had NOTHING to do with the PIRA. Your repeated attempts to absolve the RIRA of responsibility for the deaths of 31 people for the cheapest level of political point scoring is absolutely disgusting. Kindly pi55 off.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: your defence and deflection of a group of murderers is absolutely digusting. The point is those who carried out this bombing likely carried out bombings in the name of provos. 2 sides of the one coin, killers of the innocent at the end of the day!
@Paddy: Cop yourself on. What those bombers did before the Omagh bombing is another discussion. The poster raised the specific instance of the Omagh Bomb. Your attempts to blur the lines/blatantly lie about who carried out the attack and to absolve the RIRA of full culpability for petty point scoring is utterly vile and makes a complete mockery of any claim you have to give a s*** about the 31 victims.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: another discussion?? you are away with the fairies!
@Paddy: So in a discussion about who was responsible for the Omagh bombing, you are claiming a discussion about who carried out completely different bombing is the same thing? And you accuse me of being away for the fairies for calling out someone who lied and claimed the PIRA carried out the Omagh Bomb? If you had a relative or neighbour killed in the bomb, like I did, would you appreciate anonymous mouthpieces online trying to absolve the RIRA of the responsibility? You’re a vile little rat.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: what did I lie about?
@Paddy: When you repeatedly try to blur the lines of culpability as you are doing, then you are lying.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: says an anonymous mouth piece, you called me a liar a halfwit and a rat tells me all I need to know about you. You defend the provos and condemn the real IRA, like I said earlier they are just two sides of the same coin! Murderers!
@Paddy: Do you defend the Old IRA and the Volunteers of 1916?
SF operate on the selfserving convenient rule that any history over 3 months old is irrelevant and should not be used to evaluate them.
Judge them only on the imaginary future they dream of, not their present or past deeds nor those of their associates or inner sanctum.
@alphanautica: way too early to try and even decipher that mumbo jumbo you’re trying to communicate . Finish your coco pops and go back to bed for an hour
@alphanautica: That sounds about right. And of course you can’t criticise them or you’re a bitter, peace hater. They’re not that different from FF or FG either in that they’re equally arrogant and self serving.
It was a terrible war that inflicted terrible pain on all sides.
No one victim is or was more important than any other.
The conflicts dead are missed equally by all their families whether it is Mr Stacks son , an IRA volunteers son, an RUC reservists husband or a UVF’s man’s brother.
None of these deaths should be used for political gain to do so is an insult to people like myself who lived through it.
@liam mc laughlin: genuine question, how did you live through it?
@Paul Fahey: Born in Derry City in 1973 left in 98
Another nasty piece of work returns to SF.
@Gus Sheridan: Would you say Mairia is a nasty piece of work too?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: SF is starting to look more like the SF under Adams, making comments like she did is simply nasty though you probably think otherwise.
@Gus Sheridan: Of course it was a nasty comment. It was a nasty comment about a nasty woman. Have I said otherwise?
Senator embarrassed by the mask slipping.
@Clifford Brennan: Sinn Fein – Ireland’s marxist feminist alternative.
This is what they could do to your country too…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5nNnI4BLbE
Mary Lou talks rubbish and sincere talk doesn’t appear to translate to sincere actions. What do they say about leopards………SF is toxic!
@Brian Treacy: Whatever you may think of Mary Lou she is one hell of a speaker who given a chance to shift away from some of the hardened SF reps and supporters that seem to be glued to her she could lead a Government certainly not now.
@Scottyal: Yes she speaks alot!
A vote for SF/IRA is a vote for this type of “lady”. Once the mask slips you get to see the real deal. The type who put bread on their head. Just read the comments by SF/IRA supporters on this tread and then ask yourself if you want to have these as your representatives.
@Bull Spite: There’s no such thing as the IRA, Bull. They stood down 13 years ago. Come join us here in 2018, whenever you’re good and ready.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: The IRA dispanded in 1969. The group know as the “Provisional IRA” still exist.They are not active at the moment. There are plenty of other dissident groups who also have IRA in their names that are still active.
@CrabaRev: The PIRA (which became widely accepted and known by all sides as ‘The IRA’), stood down in the summer of 2005. Which I suspect you realise was my entire point.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: I do realise you were talking about the PIRA. Most Irish people would have referred to them as the “provisionals” or the “provos”. Just making sure you are aware that they are in no way linked to the original IRA.
Use of the expression “stood down” is interesting. You mean they stopped, in an official capacity, killing people and robbing banks.
@CrabaRev: Of course the former leader stated clearly that “they haven’t gone away you know”.
Who do you believe Gerry or the resident troll @Tír Eoghain Gael?
@CrabaRev: Well back here in the real world, most Irish people simply referred to them as ‘the IRA’.
Are you as full of contempt for the Old IRA as you are of the Provos?
@Bull Spite: “Of course the former leader stated clearly that “they haven’t gone away you know”.
Indeed, he did in fact say the IRA hadn’t gone away. What you apparently don’t realise was that he said that in August 1995. Yes, 23 years ago; and not last week, as you seem to think.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: In Ireland they were and still are mostly referred to as “the provos”, very seldom called the IRA. Most people knew the distiction.
To your second question, No I am not. There is no comparison between the two organisations.
@CrabaRev: “very seldom called the IRA”. Go read any news story related to SF where the IRA are mentioned and see what term they use.
“To your second question, No I am not. There is no comparison between the two organisations.”
So you condemn the PIRA but not the Old IRA? Odd. Given that the Old IRA killed a higher proportion of civilians relative to combatants than the PIRA, I’d have thought you would have been at least equally disgusted by them. Consider too that the PIRA disappeared 14 people in a 36 year campaign, while the Old IRA disappeared over 200 (mostly innocent) people in around 3 years. Why then do you only condemn the PIRA?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: It’s a little funny that you say the old IRA disappeared mostly innocent people whereas the provos merely disappeared people. Were those 14 mostly guilty? By the way, i dont like the old IRA anymore than i like the Provos or SF. Maybe a pointlesss thing to say but apparently of interest to you.
@Tír Eoghain Gael:I know you do this for a living, and that you have people working with you to do your research. I have a real job. So I won’t get drawn into that nonsense.
I would not condemn the IRA of the 1920s. They fought to create an Ireland independent of the UK.
The Provos were a marxist terrorist organisation, who saw Ireland as its enemy. No comparison.
@CrabaRev: I do thia for a living and have researchers?WTF are you raving about?Seems to me the reason you don’t want to get into it is because you have been presented with a few facts that expose your sheer, utter free stater hypocrisy. Happy to condemn the PIRA as murderers but no issue with an organisation which killed a higher proportion of civilians. Bo doubt happy to condemn the PIRA for disappearing 14 people, but not so happy to condemn the Old IRA who disappeared over 200. The sheer hypocrisy is just laughable. P.S. you are obviously unaware, but the PIRA also fought for an end to British Rule. If its enemy was the 26 counties,how come the overwhelming majority of its actions were directed against the British state forces and ALMOST never against the 26 counties establishment?
You know the referendum was finished it’s back to sf stories for the journal
SF, still a party of unreconstructed thugs.
If Mary Lou is serious about getting into Government then she should first tackle this issue and other problem’s that Jerry as then leader closed his eyes and ears to By doing this SF has the potential of been in Government for the simple reason of fair Government for all. Voters will not mark their card in big numbers until these issues have been resolved
@Scottyal: She should “tackle this issue”? Here was me thinking she already did. A suspension was handed out and subsequently served.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: Yes and she is back to continue. What about the bigger picture of Jerry as leader for so many years with his hands in his pockets or have you forgotten his name already?
@Scottyal: I’m accused of having forgotten Gerry Adams’ name by someone who couldn’t even spell it? I mean, how hard is it to spell “Gerry” ffs.
@Scottyal: Jarry ?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: What does a suspension mean though? Did she actually lose anything?
@Mark Gearey: Well if you are a member of a political party, and you are suspended for a period of time, then for that period of time you lose the right to take part in any party activities, including voting rights at last weekend’s Árd Fhéis, for instance. I would imagine that would be the case for any political party when they suspend a member.
@John East: Gurry?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: That’s what i thought. It doesnt sound like a parricularly severe sanction. She had to skip a few meetings and internal votes. Not sure what else one would do but I’ve known people to say the wrong thing in work and be quite happy with their paid suspension. Sinn Fein have a cultural problem i think. A kind of an ends justify the means self rightousness wafts aeound the party and it’s supporters. Politicians need to stop thinking they’re on a special mission. You are not the chosen ones.
To mis-quote a certain gentleman — she hadn’t gone away, you know.
@Tony McCoy O’Grady: She was suspended. She went away for three months. What did you expect to happen at the end of the three months?
Not too many SF/IRA women were interned yet played a huge part in the killing of men, women children. They all have blood on their hands.
@Cranky: WTF has internment got to do with this?
In what way could that tweet have been genuine?
A lot of bitter and twisted comments on this site. People trying to justify murder. Horrendous. Not a bright future for Ireland with SF at the helm unless they address the past. Some of their members were involved in the murder of Irish civilians, police and soldiers. Is that ok?
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