44 Comments

• seamus60 | Oct 24, 2012, 06:40 PM EDT

  Dano. More pressing issues at the moment for those going hungry and falling into mortage arrears. Not many shinners falling into either catagory in the North or South. SF had the option of calling a cross party vote on welfare reform which would have stopped it. They didn`t and thought the people would remain ignorant to their game. Backfired leaving Alex Maskey sitting on the Nolan show like a rabbit caught in the headlights. The plunker even clapped when a member of the audiance said the people of the North had been let down by all the politicians. He must have forgot he`s now one.

• DanOLoingsigh | Oct 23, 2012, 08:34 PM EDT

  The fact is that there are more pressing issues at the moment...try tuning on to any RTE debate...the bank debt is all-consuming at present...welcome to the real world...

• seamus60 | Oct 23, 2012, 04:26 PM EDT

  Greendays. Any fool can make a speech and sound great. Had the audiance been able to ask him questions on anything relevant, Gerry the fool may have answered. Something he avoids at all costs. So much so that his entorage has a number of well rehersed remedies for such occassions though. It used to be the rough and ready form of Gerry fan club hecklers. The ones who looked like not very good ex boxers.In recent times they have become more technical using cordless microphones with a very very weak pick up ,allowing those in the first front couple of rows ( bussed in for the occassion with the right questions) to be heard. On a few occassions when the audiance either refused to be fobbed off or moved forward so as to be heard, the venues fire alarm would come to the rescue. More recently he has simply refused invitations to various locations throughout Ireland. Says a lot for the man who is never stuck for something to say.

• Greendays | Oct 22, 2012, 06:13 PM EDT

  Long time Gerry, last time I had the pleasure of hearing the great man speak was at Emory University. Keep up the struggle; and that's a nice tan, looks like your ready for a vacation in Long Island. Peace and shamrocks, L. Reardon

• IrishmanOz | Oct 21, 2012, 03:23 PM EDT

  Enda Kenny is a coward. He has failed to take on (and lock up) the 40 or so 'untouchables' that have ruined the Irish economy. Main reason being that the senior civil servants and politicians are all in it up to their necks. Stroke politics is alive and well in Ireland and the grass roots FF'ers have returned to Fianna Fáil because they see Fine Gael as an ineffective Fianna Fáil Lite. Ireland must regain her Sovereignty by any means possible and the only way that this being achieved is by leaving the Euro, devaluing and realigning with Sterling within the Commonwealth. As Harold Wilson said "The pound in your pocket has not lost its value" It's still a pound! A common currency on both sides of the border and rejoining the Commonwealth of Nations would be a good start and offer some hope to the 300,000 debt enslaved families that wake up in Ireland every day wondering how they will ever make ends meet. If you want to talk about Civil War then these Debt Slaves are the real flesh and blood standing army that may yet be the cause of such a war in Ireland. It certainly won't be about a six county border.

• seanomelb | Oct 20, 2012, 07:10 PM EDT

  Gordon I do not accept your premise that a civil war would ensue if a poll took place. Even the "Belfast Telegraph" is open to the idea and as you know it is not a bastion of Irish nationalism. Making statements like "Betting" on the actions of people of whom you know nothing about is simplistic and adds nothing to the debate.

• Gordan Duggan | Oct 20, 2012, 01:42 PM EDT

  It always amazes us in the Irish Republic when people living abroad advocate a United Ireland now. There would have to be a constitutional referendum in the Republicaand another referendum in Northern Ireland. In the majority opinion there would also be a CIVIL WAR and none of us want another one. My question to people like Sean in Melbourne is would you come home then, I bet you would stay far away from the chaos. It all very well to state these opinion when you don't live here, the rest of do. Civil wars cause devastation to countries and Irish people know this very well. Most Irish people are not warlike and the thought of same fills them with horror.

• seamus60 | Oct 19, 2012, 08:16 PM EDT

  redhand32. Copperfastened the union can hardly be confused with copperfastening the unification. Do you still believe the rubbish that was fed to republicans in order to get them on board the Gerry is our hero train. The one that has turned out to be a gravy train for Gerry and a few others in this new land of equals where some are a lot more equal than the rest. LOL

• seamus60 | Oct 19, 2012, 08:05 PM EDT

  Ancavkar. Who believes most Americans advocate a UI at any cost ?. You should get to know the facts better before slinging such accusations. I know good Americans , the ones who got their hands dirty and risked all, only to be stood down by the back door at the hands of Donaldson, who afterall was following orders from people like Adams and Mc Guinness. As you have opened the subject though. I think its a disgrace that so many Americans of infleunce don`t find the need to shy away from some one who has admitted to sheltering some one he knows to be a peadophile.

• barneyjo | Oct 19, 2012, 05:17 PM EDT

  @redhand32 - what is the real value of the TD for Louth calling for a referendum in ROI, when the real question has to be answered in NI? The GFA says that any change to the present constitutional arrangements are dependent on a majority in NI supporting any such change. Even if there are green papers on reunification published in Dublin, that will count for nought without a similar process in Belfast. And Gerry Adams HAS had his hearing on this, as it is now a matter of Record in Dial Eireann. So, move on and do politics based on pursuasion as opposed to grandstanding which will achieve little and has a limited shelf life in the minds of the Irish electorate!!

• redhand32 | Oct 19, 2012, 11:51 AM EDT

  No matter what upper or lower classes in the 6 counties, Irish-American percentages, or whomever thinks whatever position is correct, the bottom line is that the Good Friday Agreement copperfastened a process to Irish unification accepted by the parties, including Republicans who remain an undefeated army, but placed arms beyond use in the interests of the political struggle. Gerry Adams is both timely and correct in his call to a referendum in this context. He represents the position of Irish Republicans (except the RSF and their armed wing psychos) and should be heard and responded to accordingly. It is that simple. ub

• ancavker | Oct 19, 2012, 09:21 AM EDT

  seamus: Most Irish-Americans, do not as you wrongly belive advocate a united Ireland at all costs. You should get to know them before you make typical broad generalizations. In fact our main concern is that there is peace now. Hopefully a united Ireland will come about peacefully at some point.

• IrelandNorth | Oct 19, 2012, 08:43 AM EDT

  Public opinion polls do not express public opinions, but the opinions their ruling classes want their publics to have - ie predictive! The flaw of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and Government of Ireland Act, 1920 was to see an Ireland with double vision, 19% of which was 100% in the United Kingdom and 81% of which was 100% outside of it. The population of the Island of Ireland then as now was/is approx 6 million (100%), 1 million (c20%) of which are United Kingdomers. As such, would this not predicate that the island of Ireland should be c20% associated with the UK and c80% dissociated. Which I expect would approximate something akin to associate membership of the Commonwealth of Nations. At the end of the day, you can't eat a British union jack - or an Irish tricolour. (Though a red flag might well prove flavoursome in an age of political apostacy).

• barneyjo | Oct 19, 2012, 07:04 AM EDT

  @seanomelb - yeah but, no but, yeah but, Adams's personal poll showed a drop of 9 percentage points when the average for the others was 3-3.5 percentage points. Admittedly its only one poll, but the percentages would seem to indicate that it is the current leadership that is now starting to hold the party itself back. And this is consistent with earlier polls. The electorate may eventually buy what Sinn Fein has to offer, but it wont be with Gerry Adams doing the selling. So, no, I am not dreaming. Sinn Fein were ahead of Fianna Fail in earlier polls, but no longer. Which is kind of remarkable when you consider the damage which that party inflicted on the country!!

• Searlit | Oct 18, 2012, 07:18 PM EDT

  Yes, I know seamus60. I always hope for change for the better, anyway. Why give up hope?

• seamus60 | Oct 18, 2012, 07:05 PM EDT

  Seano. Polls might as well change on the basis of "who had what for breakfast" theres so little going on from anyone in politics that will benefit the most needy in society.

• seanomelb | Oct 18, 2012, 06:37 PM EDT

  barneyjo the latest Irish Times poll give Sinn Fein 20% of the vote Fianna Fail 21% Fein Gael 34% and the labour party 12% Enda is the most popular leader followed by Gerry. Get some facts and stop dreaming.

• seamus60 | Oct 18, 2012, 05:05 PM EDT

  The whole country is being strangled economically and Gerry lets on, he wants a poll and referendom that would cost millions whilst people are going hungry. Wouldn`t be so bad only every one knows how bad the result would be for SF. Any thing these days to have his impression of being a republican maintained. Those statements go over well in the USA where the 2 words "united Ireland" always raise the blood pressure. Never mentions the Socialist Democratic Republic anymore though. The word socialist never went down well in the USA. Remember Bernadett Devlin. Come to think of it, they don`t mention the same word here anymore in their litrature.

• RedBranch | Oct 18, 2012, 02:10 PM EDT

  seamus is right on in his analysis. Please do a poll tomorrow, next year or on Easter Monday 2016 the result will be a resounding 'no'. Quick translation of 'living together as equals' for our American readers: = Socialism!

• seamus60 | Oct 18, 2012, 01:28 PM EDT

  Just how naieve can some people be, talking about birth rates etc. Catholics in the North have always been defined as wanting unification. Upper class Catholics are every bit as likely to want to remain part of the UK as their class on the Protestant side. The poor Catholics on the Falls would always have wanted unification in the hope of being treated as equals. How many of them have changed their opinion after a spell of who they were pinning their hopes on treating them as they always have been, now that they share power.

• seamus60 | Oct 18, 2012, 12:57 PM EDT

  Searlit, its further away now than when that photo was taken. Won`t matter anyway as it won`t be anywhere near the united Ireland Adams and Mc Guinness have always talked about, the one all the volunteers died for. Internment , Gerrymandering and the likes were only things the great brit oppressor done. The times they have a changed. Just more ruling by fooling.

• Searlit | Oct 18, 2012, 12:49 PM EDT

  It seems the day is not far off, now, when Ireland will be united. Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if it were to happen during the Gathering of the diaspora? I still have my Irish Independent newspaper that I bought at the airport before flying back home. It was September 26, 2005. The front page headline was "IRA lay down arms" with a large picture of Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams, all smiles. I was filled with hope and still am.

• seamus60 | Oct 18, 2012, 10:44 AM EDT

  Gerry wants a border poll as much as he wants a truth commission, both would bring him on in a very bad light. But hey theres nothing like the odd wee statement to continue the pretence of being a republican in a republican party. His party had the opportunity to block new austerity measures on the people of the North only last week. Yet they didn`t.

• barneyjo | Oct 18, 2012, 03:11 AM EDT

  @pilibox4 - No just an interested observer reading polls that are carried out by various sources, and published in the media, same as everybody else. In this case the Irish Independent and the Irish Times, among others!! A case of "a plague on all their houses"

• barneyjo | Oct 18, 2012, 03:09 AM EDT

  @pilibox4 - No just an interested observer reading polls that are carried out by various sources, and published in the media, same as everybody else. In this case the Irish Independent and the Irish Times, among others!!

• pilib04 | Oct 17, 2012, 10:44 PM EDT

  barneyjo, do you just post this stuff right from your brain or do you have a source for your statistics?

• pilib04 | Oct 17, 2012, 10:43 PM EDT

  If Scotland is going to vote, certainly there is no problem with Ireland doing the same.

• barneyjo | Oct 17, 2012, 08:52 PM EDT

  Latest opinion polls in ROI show a major fall off in the approval ratings for all political parties and their leaders. Sinn Fein and Gerry Adams have taken the biggest hit; his personal approval rating is down by nine percentage points compared with an average 3-3.5% for other party leaders. Where now??

• yorkville | Oct 17, 2012, 06:10 PM EDT

  That would be amazing.

• seanomelb | Oct 17, 2012, 06:07 PM EDT

  Adams is correct a united Ireland is fiscally the best way forward. The doubling up on politicians in the north the waste of community finances(police etc. A strong case could be put to all the Irish that a united Ireland is financially the best way forward. The present problem of religious bigotry is fading and a new trust will emerge.Go for it Gerry!!

• Fitzyboy | Oct 17, 2012, 06:05 PM EDT

  Gearoid4, well said. The Unionists have to be brought into the fold. The irony for SF in a United Ireland is the Ulster Unionist parties would most likely unite and speak with one voice in the Dail, pushing SF to the bottom of the pecking order in terms of the number of supporters and political seats. SF does quite well in the North with Political hand outs and that would not be the case in a United Ireland.

• Gearoid4 | Oct 17, 2012, 04:01 PM EDT

  Adams has hit the economic nail on the head when he stated that partition, which bisected a genuine country in cutting off the head from the body, has failed dismally. We've had 90 years of it on the Island and the economies of both jurisdictions are on life support and the duplication of economic, health, and educational government and public bodies across the Island are unsustainable in terms of cost , economy of scale and ineffectiveness. The logic of that analysis is of course held hostage by different ethnic loyalties which undergirds the divisions in the north. There is no side-stepping that reality and it has to be faced by any nationalist who aspires to the reunification of his/her country. The hand of friendship must be extended to unionists in a continuous basis to show that no threats exist to their way of life or religious freedom from their nationalist neighbours. But a potential upcoming constitutional upheaval in 2014 across the Irish sea in the country to the north of England, may yet prove to have dramatic repercussions for Ireland.

• Gearoid4 | Oct 17, 2012, 03:41 PM EDT

  Calm down ye'all. We've been hearing of a united Ireland for decades, err... centuries. As me father said, "When the apple is ripe it will fall and while the wait is on for the momentous occasion let the tree be nurtured to keep it in the best of health and protect its life from the ax and wind. Take heart Erin's sons and daughters, but know it's in your hands to cultivate trust, kinship and friendship on all parts of the isle. Blessed be the peacemakers.

• barneyjo | Oct 17, 2012, 03:37 PM EDT

  @merefalow - You mean "outbreeding" the other side?? Not going to happen. Consistent statistical evidence shows that birthrates in both the Catholic community has tapered off and is more or less consistent with that of the Protestant community. Result is stalemate. Check for yourself and do the maths!!

• kubs | Oct 17, 2012, 02:55 PM EDT

  Imagine! G.B. & Scotland leading the march toward celtic self-rule & Leinster House leaders just sitting on the sidelines picking their collective noses . Well, almost all; SF still remembers the mission of the first Dail. You must be such a gnat at their heads, Mr. Adams. You rock, man!

• merefalow | Oct 17, 2012, 02:33 PM EDT

  to soon dude,watch the birthrate,THEN,ENDGAME.

• barneyjo | Oct 17, 2012, 01:10 PM EDT

  Well sure, this can be a bargaining tool for SF to use as part of their entry into Government after the next election, given that so many souls are convinced that Gerry Adams will be a Kingmaker, innitt!!

• Gordan Duggan | Oct 17, 2012, 01:09 PM EDT

  Why does this site always report only on what Adams thinks and does not seem to report what other people in Ireland think. Is IC acting as PR for Sinn Fein? The rest of us have an opinion you know. In reply to Adams, Enda Kenny the Taoiseach said "there will be no referendum on a United Ireland until the economy is sorted out. The Irish people will not be pushed into making a hasty decision by developments in Scotland in 1914. There would have to be a referendum in the Republic and in the North on the same day. I said in Ohio I did NOT believe there would be a United Ireland in 2016 and gave my reasons for this. There is a time and a place for everything. We need to get our ecomony in order first. There are various views on what the Scottish people will do." I think he is right, there is no desire in both parts of Ireland for a referendum at present. The Republic can't afford the North and both sides there don't want to join us. Also, both sides up there will have to reconcile with each other before we would possibly accept them. Adams can mouth off all he likes but he is only trying to make himself important then he is. Sinn Fein is not that important in the Republic and contrary to numerous reports on this site is not growing that much and Adams is not the most peopular politican in Ireland, at the moment no politican is. Polls don't mean a lot here as most people don't trust them.

• citizen69 | Oct 17, 2012, 01:04 PM EDT

  There will be a referendum when there is demand or a groundswell of public opinion from the people for it. Right now there is very little demand/interest North or South yet Gerry wants the governments to spend millions in organising a border poll for little more than the sake of his own party.

• cillowen | Oct 17, 2012, 12:55 PM EDT

  The Irish like their dysfunctional state of existance oh! had they a thousand John Mitchels (protestant no less) type working with Gerry then I'd become a believer. What I see from afar is maggots eating on a dead carcass and the types of creepy crawler leaders who yearn the Queen's blessing - dreaming, knight me knight me. Eire's programmed and brightest ? going, gone in droves to serve her commonwealth and British Army, too. Who knew?

• aloistmartin | Oct 17, 2012, 12:39 PM EDT

  " A united Ireland will only happen when those of those who believe that partition is a costly, inefficient, bureaucratic duplication of services on this island, persuade those who wish to retain the union, that Irish unity will be better for them and for their children. " ... Was Adams referring to The Enda Kenny, Fine Gael, Labor, Dairy and Beer Industry, EU Subservients ?

• Murph46 | Oct 17, 2012, 12:05 PM EDT

  Good read of the situation PhlutiePhan!

• bunkerisland | Oct 17, 2012, 11:39 AM EDT

  He is asking for a Poll to be taken. Elements of socialism have existed along side capitalism for almost a century. Wake up! "Street wise urchin"? Probably a Kenyan too I suppose you contend.

• PhlutiePhan | Oct 17, 2012, 10:16 AM EDT

  Sure and begorrah, Gerry lad is a socialist of the radical variety just as surely as Obama. He wants a Marxist republic to fit into the New World Order just like his Cook County street wise urchin does. So if you con't like capitalism, who is going to do the work to generate income for the taxes to pay for the Utopian feminist run society.