CBS interview with Gerry Adams accuser sought by Northern Ireland police

@seanomelb - For Sinn Fein to take power or share in it, the party has to win enough seats for either of these scenarios to happen. To win seats, they have to get votes. You will have seen the numbers quoted elsewhere. I would dispute that the current share of the vote Nationwide enjoyed by the party is sufficient to propel them into office either by an outright majority, or as part of a coalition. And in evidence to support that, I would point to the last Assembly election within Northern Ireland. The poor turnout means that a very significant rump of Northern Nationalists prefer not to vote for either Sinn Fein or the SDLP and they abstain. The result is that we get the government we deserve (not!!) In ROI party will try to get elected with populist policies, but their political opponents will rightly point to their participation in an administration in NI which is implementing deep cuts in public spending that is having a profound effect on the lives of many within their own natural constituency up to this point. The cutting of health and social services, the closure of hospitals and the cancellation or deferment of major infrastructure job generating projects in NI will not in my view endear Sinn Fein to voters in ROI at the next election. The "poacher turned gamekeeper" in the North will have to have some very creditable answers for the electorate, and especially for that section which has supported Sinn Fein up to this point!!

Toireas also wore a belt for a skirt on Irish tv and claimed later she didn't know the camera could see her knickers!

@Gordon Duggan - Sure wasnt it Toiréasa Ferris, daughter of Martin Ferris who actually posed the question as to what role the Sinn Fein party could have in a post conflict Ireland, and I seem to recall she got her knuckles well and truly wrapped for doing so by the leadership!!

Well said Audrey Bolton and Seamus60! Exactly what I have been trying to point out all this time. Sinn Fein have no understanding of most IRISH people's thinking nor have they any understanding of real economics. BARNEYJO YOU ARE SO RIGHT, Telling the ECB/EU to f###k off would not be a good idea at present besides they don't have the power. Mary Lou comes from a MIDDLE CLASS FAMILY AND WENT TO AN EXPENSIVE SCHOOL so she is in no position to lecture the rest of us. She's after Adams' job of course. We need to get through this as a nation. It will some time of course. Maybe the Shinners want a poorer Ireland so they can decimate us and take Power "with the ballot box in one hand and the Armalite in the other". We may be in trouble now but we would be in worse trouble if they took over. Don't think we Irish would put up with that sort of thing. Ordinary people would start a Resistance group like they did in other countires under the Facists and Nazis.

@audreybolton - Respectfully, I think you may have been a little harsh on Ciaran1433. I see a lot of traits similar to those of Allan07, a poster from the "other side of the wall" so to speak. Same mantra, and unwavering acceptance of the party line. Nothing new there. I would rather they did the math and figure it out for themselves, BY THINKING FOR THEMSELVES (in many cases perhaps for the first time in their lives) I must also be candid when I say that it would be foolish to discount the possibility of a Sinn Fein presence in Government in Ireland at some stage. Two things have to change though, before that will happen. 1)The development of more "centrist" policies that will not scare the bejesus out of the middle ground and make them run back to FG or FF. 2)Perhaps, more importantly the replacement of the Adams/McGuinness Leadership with leaders who can convince voters that they are about "Real Politic" and not populist policies just to get elected. Admittedly thats gotten them a fair way, particularly up North, but I would be of the view that the party aint far from peaking in its present guise. Like I said in my earlier post, a significan rump of Nationalist voters in NI prefer not to vote when faced with the poor choice of the ailing SDLP or the one trick pony that Sinn Feinn is at present. In NI they are implementing savage cutbacks in government spending, closing hospitals in the west, cant deliver on promised infrsstructre projects, because they are hamstrung by their partners in government in the shape of the DUP and others who will do their best to stop them achieving anything positive.

As a former serving member of the Irish military I support Sinn Fein and its policies. The establishment (as usual) is conducting a fear and smear campaign aided and abetted by the mainstream right wing Irish press.They fear a resurgent Sinn Fein and will do or say anything to discredit Adams and his colleagues. The price sisters have more to fear from the established press or the PSNI/RUC than from anywhere else. Waxing on and on about Adams and his economic credentials lacks any credibility considering the establishment parties F@@ked Ireland with economic advisers and their banker mates and forced the working people into almost servitude to pay the banks audreybolton then claims Adams has no economic savvy. Maybe you should rethink your own economic savvy audreybolton.

Ciasran1433: I have been setting foot in the 6 counties since the 1960s. I don't read Ruth Dudley Edwards. I am a Dubliner born and bred. I'm quite capable (like most thinking Irish People) of discerning which newspapers I can trust or not. I have visited many countries both in my job as a peacemaker (the Irish Army) and seen what real war is like and the suffering it brings. I also travel for pleasure. Oh Sinn Fein are "the 2nd most popular party in Ireland" are they, 220,000 votes are nothing in the Republic where over 3 million people are entitled to vote. If Gerry Adams is so popular in the Republic, why is he not in the Irish Government. It is because the majority don't trust him! Nothing is inevitable. The border does exist as far as most Irish people are concerned and if there was a referendum tomorrow, you would soon have to face the inevitable truth.the Republic does not want to hook up with Northern Ireland and become a Marxist state but people like you can of course continue to dream while the rest of us are moving on. Adams, McGuinness and the rest of you don't really understand our democracy they just pay lip service to it. Adams does not understand the economics among other things. McGuinness tried and failed to become President (Higgins got over a million votes the most votes in Irish Presidential history). Take some time to face those facts will you and wake up.

Barneyjo. The antics of SF in the North will hardly inspire southern voters either. Just today read that Martin and Peter are being taken to court in relation to ignoring freedom of information requests. Shows their contempt for transparency and accountability. 2 of the main things promised pre-election. Martin has recently lamblasted the Fair employment agency demanding to know where they got their mandate. Done the same with Northern Ireland Housing Executive when they admitted there was indeed political interferance that resulted in hundreds of Catholic families not getting promised housing.Typical politicians.

@ciaran1433 - if Sinn Fein want to be in power on both sides of the border like you say, then they have to get my vote; and not only my vote, but 10s of thousands of others like me. Who am I, who are we? We're the generation who grew up and were raised in a time of blood and conflict, and not only that, but bad Government. In effect we are disenfranchised Nationalists who are not buying the politics (so called) of any parties, including (but not especially) Sinn Fein. 220,000 votes in an election you say? Ok, so who exactly did all the rest vote for? Why has Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, and Labour consistently said that Sinn Fein are at present "untouchables" as coalition partners. And even if Sinn Fein do manage to increase their representation in Dail Eireann next time round, you think that they will have an overall majority? Not, so. Show me any poll that even points to that. If you want to point to a particular event which will keep Sinn Fein out of Government for at least two more elections in my opinion, it would be the day that the party's financial guru Mary Lou McDonald espoused that her Party's approach to negotiations with the EU and ECB would be to tell them to F**k off, rather than negotiate the bail out that is keeping Ireland afloat at present. Oh, and in "the six" the turnout in the last election was just over 52% I believe; so 48% didnt bother voting. And they werent all Unionists either :)

Audrey. Meeting people like that was water off a duck to Mc Guinness. Although he was very very mellow to them in his reply compared to Derry people who have atempted the same tactics. Ciaran. That imaginary line you are talking about is now called the border by Mc Guinness.What has Gerry done for anyone to endorse his performance. Can he even get the vat rate right now.

Price stated that if you are an informer you deserve to die, if she did indeed say these things about Adams then doesn't that make her an informer who deserves to die ...Just an observation..

audreybolton you're a fine west Brit who likely never set foot in the 6 counties but believes all of rubbish you've read from "journalists" such as Ruth Dudley Edwards and her likes in the Dublin media. I think you should take some time to reflect on a few facts. Sinn Féin are the 2nd most popular political party in Ireland obtaining about 180,000 votes in the 2011 6 county election and about 220,000 votes in the previous 26 county election. Since then the Sinn Féin vote has surged upwards and very soon they'll be the most popular political party in Ireland. Gerry Adams is consistently the most popular political party leader in the 26 counties with approximately 40% of voters in the 26 counties being very satisfied with his performance. I think its time for you to move on and realise that a Sinn Féin government on both sides of the imaginary border led by Gerry Adams in the south is inevitable.

Yes, Seamus60, McGuinness was recived by several children of Army and Garda whose fathers where shot by the IRA, never became President of Ireland and Pilib04 what makes you think Adams is the most popular of all Irish public officials when he is the most despised (13,000 votes only) and Sinn Fein "victory" is not inevitabe so no "tiofaidh ar la". The IRA shoot jounalists in the back btw. And would everyone leave us in the Republic of your constantly harping going backwards in history, we're trying to move on.

The IRA's justification for torturing and murdering Jean McConville is that she was an "informer" but there was no reason why she would have come by any information to inform with. She was tortured and murdered for having been born into a Protestant family and giving first aid to an injured soldier. According to the confidential US Government material published by Wikileaks, IRA/Sinn Fein justified their actions on the basis that they were entitled to state powers and therefore normal rules did not apply. Ask yourself what kind of state claims unlimited powers to itself with no accountability. Ask yourself what kind of Government the IRA would have set up if they had won.

Could care less if Mr. Adams was IRA or KGB or CIA or AFL-CIO for that matter. Ireland was at war with a foreign regime on her soil, & Irish people took up the fight. As in some wars, an eventual peace process is accepted. Former warriors from both sides now face each other daily. Which way to look?? Keep looking backwards & hostilities will surely arise again, as backwards is where the war lies. Any chance of the good citizens of all the 32 decideing to look forward?