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| Political activist and former volunteer for the Provisional IRA Dolours Price (Photo: Pacemaker) |
Long ago and far away there seems little doubt that Gerry Adams was a senior figure in the IRA in West Belfast.
How could he not be? His neighborhood was under siege from the British Army and every able-bodied man back in the days when the Troubles were at their height was involved.
What is interesting about recent attempts to get Adams to admit the past is how the context is never given.
Decades of complete Unionist misrule led to a tinder-box situation after civil rights marchers were batoned and beaten off the streets in 1968 and 1969.
It all inevitably exploded and then all hell broke loose when the British Army was called in to defend the indefensible status quo we had Bloody Sunday and a fully fledged IRA campaign. That was the Northern Ireland that Gerry Adams grew up in
Dolours Price, now Gerry Adams chief accuser was caught up in it too, coming from a strong Republican family.
In March 1973 she was arrested on board a plane going to Ireland just as a 300 pound bomb detonated at the Old Bailey courts and one person was killed and many injured Her sister Marian was arrested alongside her.
Her time in prison did not go well. She and her sister went on a hunger strike and were force- fed for 200 days an horrific experience which has caused much of the mental trauma she experiences today.
Almost 40 years on, Dolours Price the former wife of actor Stephen Rea, is sadly still suffering the effects.
“She had a history of psychiatric problems and substance abuse,” said journalist Ed Moloney.
“She has been diagnosed with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], had been hospitalized repeatedly, and....(is) taking strong psychotropic drugs.
Indeed, on the day she spoke to [The Irish News] she was on day leave from St Patrick’s psychiatric hospital in Dublin.” Moloney said referring to the controversial interview she gave to that newspaper where she first alleged Adams sent informers to their death.
She is unrepentant about her past and makes no bones that she wants to destroy Adams and the process if she can.
The Irish Sunday Times quoted her this weekend saying she defended her acts while in the IRA and actually enjoyed them. “It was an exciting time, there was no real order or structure to everyday life, the war had taken away all normal routine ... I should be ashamed to admit there was fun in it in those days,” she said.
The same Sunday Times article notes that in 2001, Price was found guilty in a Dublin court of stealing prescriptions. “She seems to have an alcohol problem but is taking steps to address it,” said Judge Thomas Fitzpatrick .
Five years later Price was disallowed access to Maghaberry prison, where she was visiting a dissident republican prisoner “She was verbally abusive and threatening and was in no condition to be allowed into the visiting area,” said a senior Prison Service source.
She has also received three convictions for theft in recent years and has attempted suicide.
Little wonder Adams does not feel it is politic to pursue her accusations against him in court.
Last weekend he stated: “I am not of a mind to trail Dolours Price through the courts . . . she is unwell.”
Those who are putting her up to the statements she is making, given that she is a seriously ill woman have a lot to answer for it seems to me.
She should be allowed time and space to try and recuperate from her many problems It is sad to see her used as a “Get Gerry Adams” vehicle by sections of the media.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.seamus60 | Oct 16, 2012, 06:29 AM EDT
Dano. The point being made is that had the brits stood up to unionists, the ones fearing change. Sunningdale of 73 may have saved thousands of lives. To praise those who had opposed it as great peace makers for accepting it 30 years later is hardly an achievement that should allow any of them be elevated into great statesmen travelling the world in order to heal all conflict.
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 15, 2012, 07:42 PM EDT
Sorry, Seamus...was referring to the current Assembly....
seamus60 | Oct 15, 2012, 08:50 AM EDT
Dano, You said earlier the parties who eventually formed the N.I administration. Who on the Nationalist side were in that admin other than the SDLP. The party who were representing the vast majority of Nationalists.
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 15, 2012, 03:48 AM EDT
Seamus - Nationalist hardliners the SDLP? not quite how I remember it...Sunningdale was their idea...so no surprise they backed it...there were pro and anti on either side...
seamus60 | Oct 14, 2012, 04:01 PM EDT
Dano, The Nationalist hardliners were the SDLP and they were all for it. The unionist parties were the ones against it and should have been stood up to. Because they weren`t most likely cost thousands of lives and all the other mayhem that accompanyed it.
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 14, 2012, 07:14 AM EDT
Seamus - Hardliners on either side...the parties who eventually formed the NI admin...
seamus60 | Oct 12, 2012, 11:50 AM EDT
Dano, Neither side ?
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 12, 2012, 08:03 AM EDT
ancavker…The fact is neither side was ready to do a deal…a necessary precondition to any agreement…governments have to take account of civil resistance...not sure what else they could have done?
seamus60 | Oct 12, 2012, 07:30 AM EDT
Dano. You in the same post lumped the Birmingham six and those killed into the one of who was more deserving of rememberance.
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 12, 2012, 05:45 AM EDT
Seamus - It's logic, not twisted, to assert that if any event had not happened, things would not have developed as they did...
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 12, 2012, 05:33 AM EDT
Seamus – republican victimhood is not the same as republican victims…
seamus60 | Oct 11, 2012, 08:59 PM EDT
Dano. In the hierarchy of republican victimhood ring a bell ?
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 11, 2012, 06:46 PM EDT
Seamus - Maybe you can help by saying where I referred to the Birmingham 6 as victims of republican violence?
seanomelb | Oct 11, 2012, 05:18 PM EDT
Dano and his twisted logic re the Birmingham six at last we now know you for the Brit apologist that you are.
seamus60 | Oct 11, 2012, 12:57 PM EDT
Dano. In an earlier post you referred to the Birmingham six as victims of republican violence. That can only mean that had the IRA not placed the bombs no one would have been arrested in the first place. Thats your logic, not mine. As your logic is so twisted on this incident can we assume you also meant that had the IRA not be fighting, no one would have had a reason to bomb Dublin /Monaghan, thus expanding the war ?
seamus60 | Oct 11, 2012, 12:48 PM EDT
ancavker. Nail on the head.
ancavker | Oct 11, 2012, 10:20 AM EDT
Dan: PIRA did not take to the streets in massive numbers and bring the province to a standstill. Had Sunningdale been implemented a reasoanable argument could be made that the PIRA would have melted away, or at least not enjoyed the support of so many Catholics/Nationalists that it did back then. The ultimate responsibility lay with Britain; they failed miserably.
seamus60 | Oct 11, 2012, 08:48 AM EDT
Dano. Of course it was a good idea. In any war hitting the enemy at home is always a good idea.
seamus60 | Oct 11, 2012, 08:45 AM EDT
Dano. You`re right SF and the PRM branded the SDLP as all sorts Brits, Traitors, sell outs etc etc. Yet they now themselves partake in Sunningdale and call those who are of their previous opinion Traitors to the island of Ireland. They now wear the SDLP`s cloths and practice their policies, with the addition of aiding Gerrymandering and remain quiet on other serious issues such as Internment.
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 10, 2012, 08:08 PM EDT
ancavker - PIRA was just as anti-Sunningdale, let's not forget that.
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 10, 2012, 08:05 PM EDT
Seamus – No I never said that…The point is that it’s the same twisted logic used to widen the conflict…‘ordinary men and women who couldn`t have cared less’ had to be made to ‘pay attention’…in fact the same logic behind 9/11…so I ask again…still think it was a good idea?
seanomelb | Oct 10, 2012, 06:06 PM EDT
I cannot redbranch I do not have a pilots license and I was navy. BTW I agree with your last post.
RedBranch | Oct 10, 2012, 03:35 PM EDT
Thanks for that Seamus. Ancavker, Mallon correctly called the 1998 Belfast Agreement as 'Sunningdale for slow learners'and I don't believe he was speaking specifically about unionists.
ancavker | Oct 10, 2012, 10:20 AM EDT
Red Branch: We had Sunningdale, the British refused to back it in the face of Unionist opposition. Had they stood up to th Frankenstein monster they created, it can be reasonably argued that much of the bloodshed and destruction that followed for the next 25 years may have been avoided.
seamus60 | Oct 10, 2012, 09:42 AM EDT
Redbranch. Had you asked me that 5 or 6 years ago i would have said yes. But in view of many things coming to light since, I wouldn`t be prepared to place a bet. Even with her being an informer and executed as one, the womans body should have been returned for christian burial as with all the others. That has always been my position.
RedBranch | Oct 10, 2012, 09:02 AM EDT
Seamus was Jean McConville a British spy?
RedBranch | Oct 10, 2012, 09:00 AM EDT
Gosh sean, I had no idea you served in the Irish Army's racial equivalant of the Tuskegee Airmen. The rest of my statement stands. Come on home where you belong....
seamus60 | Oct 10, 2012, 07:47 AM EDT
Dano, are you implying Dublin/Monaghan was the first time Loyalist/british paramillitaries carried out actions against people in the 26 ? Your argument has as little meat on it as the one claiming the Birmingham six were victims of Republicanism.
seanomelb | Oct 09, 2012, 07:07 PM EDT
You have no idea of my colour! how arrogantly presumptuous of you Redbranch
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 09, 2012, 06:52 PM EDT
Republicans took the war to UK Mainland...loyalists then took it to Dublin & Monaghan...still think it was a good idea?
RedBranch | Oct 09, 2012, 02:55 PM EDT
Missing the point! sean you are a white man in a black man's country in the middle of Asia pontificating about a country on the other side of the globe. Come on home...
seanomelb | Oct 08, 2012, 06:58 PM EDT
Missing the point as usual RedBranch
seamus60 | Oct 08, 2012, 01:11 PM EDT
Redbranch. I would have, had they not sold out the 6.
RedBranch | Oct 08, 2012, 10:15 AM EDT
seamus BAC = Dublin. Do you recognize the Irish State?
RedBranch | Oct 08, 2012, 10:13 AM EDT
Er, ah sean. I always thought taking the war anywhere was about taking the British OUT! OUT! OUT! Whats all this about negotiating table. History shows the Brits ready to negotiate from 1972.
seanomelb | Oct 07, 2012, 09:15 PM EDT
Taking the war to mainland Britain shortened the troubles b hastening the British to the negotiating table. It,s only the bigots of neverland dragged out proceedings.
seamus60 | Oct 07, 2012, 06:26 PM EDT
Dano, If saying the birmingham six were victims of Republicanism makes you feel better, go for it. I did`nt know Republicans had prisons at their disposal.
seamus60 | Oct 07, 2012, 06:17 PM EDT
Dano, Who said anyone is more worthy ? Barneyjo. I think we are all entitled to wear it,but your choice the Omagh bombing a very good example of why. Just how long has backroom collusion been going on. Don`t worry about the other either cause I don`t think very many of those taking part in all these parades were at the Boyne either
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 07, 2012, 04:57 PM EDT
Seamus - 'Not rallying to the victims of Birmingham’ you can say that again…in the hierarchy of republican victimhood the Birmingham 6, who eventually walked free, are more worthy than the unremembered ones, who didn’t…
barneyjo | Oct 07, 2012, 12:59 PM EDT
@seamus60 - the relatives families and survivors of the Omagh would most certainly disagree with your analysis. Don the mantle of "victimhood" if you will, but do not insist that all Irish Nationalists wear it. I'm an Irish Nationalist. I live in "the six" I dont consider myself defeated in any way (I wasnt present at the Boyne myself d'you see :)!!)
seamus60 | Oct 07, 2012, 12:10 PM EDT
Dano. The problem with ghosts from the past is something that will not dissappear shortly. We have to contend with over 3000 of them every year in the guise of victorious parades. You can hardly blame any of us either for not rallying to the plight of those people killed in Birmingham. We have already established no one had or has a monopaly on pain. However the very reason the war was ever taken to the streets of england was that the ordinary man and woman who couldn`t have cared less how many Irish men and woman were as unfortunate, would pay attention. No matter what the events in Birmingham, arresting ,torturing and imprisoning more inocent Irish people done none of the following victims any favours.
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 07, 2012, 09:21 AM EDT
Bogside...Bobby Sands articulated the rationale of physical force republicanism, in all its irrefutable pungency…but this is not a sacred text…without mutual respect for all of the visions of the future, we all become hostages to the ghosts of the past…
Bogside1234 | Oct 06, 2012, 11:14 PM EDT
Dano, We can all sit here and talk about Birmingham, LaMon, Bloody Friday, Bloody Sunday, Plastic bullets, the H Blocks you name it. What it all boils down to is the partition of Ireland. From the time of the treaty there have always been those who oppose british rule and their claim to any part of Ireland. That holds true from 1798 until today with those who continue to believe in physical force republicanism, it will always exist until such times as Ireland is one sovereign nation. At the end of the day the plantation of Ulster and partition of Ireland by successive british governments sowed the seeds for the war in the north and all the terrible events that have happened and were carried out by all sides. It is why Delours Price is the way she is today, maybe it’s the reason that soldier in england killed himself and his kids in the car. War is a terrible thing for everyone involved no one is exempt. I think Bobby Sands summed 800 years of conflict up with one paragraph on the second day of his hunger strike. “Foremost in my tortured mind is the thought that there can never be peace in Ireland until the foreign, oppressive British presence is removed, leaving all the Irish people as a unit to control their own affairs and determine their own destinies as a sovereign people, free in mind and body, separate and distinct physically, culturally and economically”.
seanomelb | Oct 06, 2012, 06:49 PM EDT
When you've got nothing to say Dano it's better........
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 06, 2012, 05:37 PM EDT
Sunningdale was definitely a missed opportunity…Both loyalists and P. O’Neill rejected it…Later that year 21 Birmingham men and women went out for a drink and never came home…only the Birmingham 6 are ever mentioned, sadly the other 21 lie unremembered and unremarked…too many slow learners on both sides…
bunkerhill | Oct 06, 2012, 12:23 PM EDT
Thank you Irish Central for once again refusing to print my comment and sending me a message to forward it somewhere else. Are you people looking for positions as butlers or maids in the royal palace? Censorship is now fully in place on this site.
buslane | Oct 06, 2012, 11:52 AM EDT
Unfortunately the article by Niall O'Dowd is an example of British hating republican propaganda which ignores the whole truth and is exactly the sort of one sided diatribe which provokes hatred and division. He never lived in Northern Ireland and this bigoted nonsense does not help anyone.
seamus60 | Oct 06, 2012, 07:08 AM EDT
Dano. Just to add. No one has the monoply on pain. Every single life lost in the troubles has the same heartbreak behind it. I don`t know anyone who would ever glamourise any war, more so when they have seen the consequences in their own locality. Can`t speak for those who sit in the comfort of their hidden decision making rooms and merely push a button with severe consequences to all.None of this gets us away from the fact that because the decision of a few at the time of Sunningdale 2000 coffins came into play. We now have Sunningdale.
seamus60 | Oct 06, 2012, 06:56 AM EDT
Dano. No one can blame anyone on the Nationalist side for resorting to the use of violence. Self defence was called for and a Godsend to people like those under siege in the Shortstrand and others areas. This was the opening for anyone with the agenda you mention below. But lets not forget either the Brits went down the road of cracking an egg with a sledge hammer. Try living in any community watching them dish out (what they have done best all round the world) on your neighbours. Do you believe most people who ever decided to join the PIRA done so because of history books they read. They didn`t have to, they just looked out their front window. They have always come at the problem with a loaded dice, the same dice that drew people into the war. The same loaded dice that prevails to this very day.
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 05, 2012, 04:56 PM EDT
The groups who opted for the ‘armed struggle’ solution did so by choice…they chose to put their lives ‘on the line’…and they did so with some very definite aims and agenda…they’re not the only ones whose lives are blighted by their campaigns and the reaction it provoked…I feel a deal more sympathy for the ‘non-combatants’ who just happened to get in the way – nobody marches or campaigns for that unfortunate and unremembered body of souls…that doesn’t make me a Blueshirt…but I agree that mudslinging doesn't move the process forward
seamus60 | Oct 05, 2012, 05:28 AM EDT
Bogside. Practically impossable to deal with the issues at hand within the article as is the case with most of Nialls. He has the comfort of publishing without explaining what or why. Like our politicians he does`nt do question and answer sessions and if he did I`m sure like the politicians questions would have to be pre agreed. I have been bringing up the issue of Marians Internment at every opportunity on this site for the sole purpose of keeping it alive. There are now so many who would rather not hear about the injustices that remain. Mudslinging is a by product of people not being able to debate what is going on around them in real time. But then again how could anyone justify what has and is happening to both the Price sisters.
Bogside1234 | Oct 04, 2012, 10:12 PM EDT
Well this deteriorated in a hurry to mudslinging. Listen we could sit here all day and thump our chests and say who are true republicans and who are not. You’re loosing the main focus, which is the article itself. I don’t care what group you support, I care that a woman who was deeply scarred by what happened to her because of her involvement in the republican movement. Her name is now being dragged through the mud. I am sick and tired of anyone who takes a stance against SF being branded or tagged or labeled. When I was a wee boy they had a song called Bring Them Home and it was about the Price sisters, times have changed. Now all these years later one sister has mental issues that Niall has no problem using that to serve propaganda purposes, she may have issues but does that mean she has a bad memory or anyone else who made the same claims for that matter? Meanwhile the other sister is in a hospital bed and is deemed by human rights doctors as being not well enough to stand trial. One’s plight is being ignored and the other’s is used to justify a politicians lies. I am no more for a continued war than anyone else, god knows I have been to enough funerals, but if I fought for the removal of the brits and to bring down Stormont as they did and suffered for, then yes I would be still trying to bring down Stormont and she has every right maybe more so than the rest of us to say what she believes.
seamus60 | Oct 04, 2012, 08:30 PM EDT
Can`t believe this, me branded a dissident, sandwiched in between a blue shirt and a shinner who have ooh so much in common.
seanomelb | Oct 04, 2012, 07:41 PM EDT
What groups Dano?? put your money where your mouth is. They saved the nationalists in the N.E. from another 90yrs. of unionist bullying which you condone by your language.
seamus60 | Oct 04, 2012, 07:31 PM EDT
Dano. You`re calling a lot of people names there. But then again most people in Ireland spoke like that of individuals who put their life on the line to get them the freedom you now endorse.
seamus60 | Oct 04, 2012, 05:32 PM EDT
Who ? Redbranch
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 04, 2012, 03:48 PM EDT
Seano - The term 'self-appointed republican zealots' describes various groupings who worked against the real interests of the Irish people, decided that they alone knew what was best for evryone else, and dragged the good name of IRELAND into the gutter...
RedBranch | Oct 04, 2012, 03:09 PM EDT
Seamus do you recognize the BAC govt?
RedBranch | Oct 04, 2012, 02:57 PM EDT
The most significant sentence of this well crafted article is the opening one. Bar the 'little doubt' proviso it concurs with Ms. Price's version of events and is at variance with Mr.Adams' consistently maintained denials of IRA membership. Now Mr.Adams apparently refuses to pursue Ms.Price through the liable court due to her well documented issues, but Niall O'Dowd sound of mind, body and with publishing empire behind him; well that might be a different proposition altogether...
seamus60 | Oct 04, 2012, 12:01 PM EDT
Seano, why would i spend my time attacking blue shirts who are only doing what blue shirts have always done. Its more important to convince people who are trapped in the Adams mindset, they indeed have been sold a very dodgy product where it appears only the administrators reap the benefit. As for ex pow`s, yes the ones with the CRIMINAL records now being used to keep them in check and on the runs, please ask Gerry Mc Geogh how he feels on that subject. Any one calling themselves a republican is duty bound as just that, to fight these same injustices as SF done when they were with the people.Because they now share power in a BRITISH puppet gov, either means they are completely toothless or completely ruthless. Take your pick and I`ll take mine.
seamus60 | Oct 04, 2012, 11:47 AM EDT
Kilsally. You should heed Bogsides advice. Marians non existant licence was revoked, so then appeared the DISSAPEARANCE of a royal pardon. How do you loose one of them ? a judge in Derry then dismissed mickey mouse charges ( that would have kept no one else in prison, proven by the bailing of her 3 co accused) The judge even referred her case back to a so called independant paroll board who had refused her freedom earlier for them to review how they had ever reached their decision. Within minutes of this judge dismissing the charges she was re arrested on the orders of a BRITISH secretary of state. Sounds like Internment to me and most right thinking people and must surely feel like Internment to Marian.
Bogside1234 | Oct 04, 2012, 08:58 AM EDT
Kilsally. That prison is an English prison on the island of Ireland it is funded by English government. You really think that Stormont is an independent government? Stormont is funded by London and London can block any law they pass. Marion Price was released in 1980 on a royal pardon not under the good Friday agreement and not under license. This document has yet to be disclosed by the british as they have claimed to have lost it. She was imprisoned by the secretary of state for Northern Ireland (a member of the ruling british government) not the justice minister. She had bail granted twice and both times the secretary of state intervened and had her release blocked. So I hate to burst your bubble and I could get into much more detail on this post but check your facts before your post.
Kilsally | Oct 04, 2012, 05:54 AM EDT
Bogside1234 - sorry to burst your bubble but Marion price is in a Northern Irish prison which is run by Northern Irish Justice Minister David ford of the cross community Alliance Party - England doesn`t come into it - justice, police and prisons are devolved issues. Nor was she interned - she was found guilty and convicted and then released early under the Good Friday Agreement on a good behaviour licence as all Loyalist and Republican paramilitaries were - several on both sides have had their licences revoked for bad behaviour and returned to prison to serve the remiander of their sentences.
seanomelb | Oct 04, 2012, 02:19 AM EDT
No Seamus!! I never said Sinn Fein were perfect but they are elected representatives and may have crossed a bridge to far on the GFA,but the likes of the west Brits below deserve no kudos for their point of view. Maybe you should condemn them for their anti Irish bias. I acknowledge that Sands,the Price sisters and others (including my own father) may not like the status quo,at the end of the day those imprisoned at the time of the GFA and those on the run accepted the terms of the GFA.Maybe they did so under sufferance but buyers remorse is no excuse.
seamus60 | Oct 03, 2012, 08:42 PM EDT
Hate to burst your bubble Seano, but are you really saying that Internment of Irish Republicans and more of the old outdated Gerrymandering once again being practiced against Nationalists in North Belfast ( by SF ) is some sort of equality. Brendan and Bobby must be rolling in their graves at the thought of a regime that has got more repressive since certain people took position in a brit controlled gov. A brit gov that both gave their all to remove at the barrel of a gun regardless of the danger to themselves. Unlike others who would only and still do lead from above.
seanomelb | Oct 03, 2012, 08:15 PM EDT
BTW Dano who are the "self appointed republican zealots" a gutter anti Irish remark as ever I've heard.
seanomelb | Oct 03, 2012, 08:11 PM EDT
Everyman has his failures(including Adams.)Adams,Sands,the price sisters gave their all and others gave their lives to free the nationalist population of occupied Ulster from a repressive regime and give them equality and for gutter crawlers like Dano and his west Brit grovelers to insult the memory of the gains they (and only they)made to lift the quality of life of nationalists.
Jacob | Oct 03, 2012, 07:17 PM EDT
"every able-bodied man was involved" in IRA criminality? You're living in a ****ing dream world.
seamus60 | Oct 03, 2012, 07:01 PM EDT
A SF Derry city councillor ( that would now be Londonderry to you SF supporters ) has not been lacking on advising former combatants and ex-POW`s to apply for Disability living allowance due to post trumatic stress disorder as a result of their past. She actually implies that there has been additional funding set aside for the purpose. As her party have blatently ignored the welfare of the majority from above to date, have they had a sudden jolt of reality that finally forces their back track to something that should have been way up their list of priorities, or possibly a calculated move to render many participants as non reliable should any truth commission ever see the light of day. After all if Mc Guiness was able to pick and choose who from a republican background either attended and gave evidence or neither to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, he will have no problem getting whom ever he likes wrote off as nutters. With more brit money being paid out to individuals as proof. Adams is more interested in suppression than depression but under certain conditions, people like Niall are giving unfair credance to the later delivering the former.
leahkinsella | Oct 03, 2012, 06:20 PM EDT
I am disappointed in you Neil O'Dowd. Don't you have a relative who is a Minister in the Irish Government? Do you think Fergus O'Dowd does not know what Gerry Adams was involved in because the rest of us do. Adams and Martin McGuinness told Ahern the then Irish Prime Minister they would not meet Michael McDowell the former Justice Minister at a meeting at the time of the Good Friday Agreement until Ahern and McDowell insisted on it. McDowell knew too much about both these men. There are more important and interesting people in Irish politics like Roisin Shortall, Shane Ross, Richard Boyd Barrett, Joe Higgins etc. who are trying to make a difference in Irish life yet we never hear about them in this newspaper which is a shame for Irish Americans like my relatives the Connollys who live in New York. They complain about IC to us and can't understand why you have become Adams' mouthpiece. They come to Ireland at least twice a year, read the Irish newspapers and know what is going on.
anglo-norman | Oct 03, 2012, 05:46 PM EDT
What the hell is O'Dowd playing at? surely he can't be that naieve? Regardless of one's preferences & bias the law must be obeyed.
aloistmartin | Oct 03, 2012, 05:24 PM EDT
The Utter Disgust, of the Irish Bourgeois ! That Edna Kenny`s gets Bolder and Bolder, the further Ireland drifts towards EU, Right Wing, Subordination ! Is this the Idea behind the Good Friday and Saint Andrews agreements ! Saint Patrick rouse yourself from the Grave, and drive these snakes from your most Holy Island !
Bogside1234 | Oct 03, 2012, 04:35 PM EDT
It is nice to see some sensible comments on here. I think Niall crossed way over the line on this one. I do not think Adams is afraid to take Ms. Price to court because of lack of funds judging by his holiday home in Donegal he can well afford it, or if need be the party has ample funds to mount legal action on his behalf. If Ms. Price is to be believed, it is no wonder she has the issues that she has, no one could have endured what she has and not be affected in a serious manner. If Gerry Adams sent me as she claimed he sent her then I would have an axe to grind as well. If Niall would put the same effort and time into articles about the interment of irish people in English prisons such that of Marion Price, or the maghaberry prison protest he would be better served than a defending a man such as Adams.
Bogside1234 | Oct 03, 2012, 04:02 PM EDT
It is nice to see some sensible comments on here. I think Niall crossed way over the line on this one. I do not think Adams is afraid to take Ms. Price to court because of lack of funds judging by his holiday home in Donegal he can well afford it, or if need be the party has ample funds to mount legal action on his behalf. If Ms. Price is to be believed, it is no wonder she has the issues that she has, no one could have endured what she has and not be affected in a serious manner. If Gerry Adams sent me as she claimed he sent her then I would have an axe to grind as well. If Niall would put the same effort and time into articles about the interment of irish people in English prisons such that of Marion Price, or the maghaberry prison protest he would be better served than a defending a man such as Adams.
Guestie | Oct 03, 2012, 03:59 PM EDT
Do we all remember how the East Germas and Russians used to treat their 'dissidents' (the real thing, not the newer bands of thugs roaming the Irish countryside)? They used to call them mentally ill, put them is secure hospitals and wait for the noise to die down... Provisional Sinn Fein learned a lot from those old boys.
mastersonjp | Oct 03, 2012, 02:33 PM EDT
Was my comment anti Adams to be published
RedBranch | Oct 03, 2012, 01:55 PM EDT
The most significant sentence of this well crafted article is the opening one. Bar the 'little doubt' proviso it concurs with Ms. Price's version of events and is at variance with Mr.Adams' consistently maintained denials of IRA membership. Now Mr.Adams apparently refuses to pursue Ms.Price through the liable court due to her well documented issues, but Niall O'Dowd sound of mind, body and with publishing empire behind him; well that might be a different proposition altogether...
warrenpoint00 | Oct 03, 2012, 01:45 PM EDT
Yeah Niall you definitely have been prompted by Gerry to make these outrageous accusations about Doloures Price.It is the same old negative tactic by Sinn Fein in their bid to warn off detractors of their peace process.Thing is all true Irish republicans both in Ireland and America are well aware of Sinn Fein,s negative tactics that are becoming more of a hindrence than a help to their support base.Sinn Fein are mere torch bearers now for the SDLP , and of course we all know what their slanted view of Irish republicanism was.
Kilsally | Oct 03, 2012, 11:48 AM EDT
Hmm - article might of worked to discredit what Delores has said except several other prominent ex-Provos have said the same thing - such as Brendan `darkie` Hughes who also gave an interview to Boston college. Sean O`Callaghan also said the same thing.
RedBranch | Oct 03, 2012, 11:08 AM EDT
The most significant sentence of this well crafted article is the opening one. Bar the 'little doubt' proviso it concurs with Ms. Price's version of events and is at variance with Mr.Adams' consistently maintained denials of IRA membership. Now Mr.Adams apparently refuses to pursue Ms.Price through the liable court due to her well documented issues, but Niall O'Dowd sound of mind, body and with publishing empire behind him; well that might be a different proposition altogether...
IrelandNorth | Oct 03, 2012, 07:54 AM EDT
Body/language/not/good/in/the/Adams/Kenny/photo./Kenny/looking/very/defensive/with/a/folded/arm/in/front/of/chest/pose/while/Gerry/in/very/authoritative/and/assertive/pose./Also/Enda/needs/to/hire/a/new/image/consultant/and/cut/back/on/his/Grecian/2000/hair/dye./He's/beginning/to/look/like/a/2,000/year/old/Grecian./Embrace/you/40/shades/of/grey/Enda/just/like/Gerry./PS/You're/lawyer/Min/for/Justice/Equality/and/Defence/will/remind/you/of/a/fundamental/jurisprudential/principle/"He/who/asserts/must/prove"/People/in/the/glass/houses/of/the/Council/of/State/(which/controls/the/Irish/Army)/should/not/thrown/stones!
seamus60 | Oct 03, 2012, 07:32 AM EDT
They should always be held in contempt when applying treason as a tool for this transformation.
IrelandNorth | Oct 03, 2012, 06:38 AM EDT
Paramilitary parliamentarians who struggled against imperialisms will always be criminals, godfathers and murderers to imperialists and their franchisees - just as Roman Catholic liberation theologians in South America were de rigeur to the Vatican. And radicals in their adolescents/early adulthood who mature to politically pragmatic peace processes in their middle adulthood will always be held in contempt by idealist former associates. It's in the job description. The real question is: Why would elements of an Anglo-Irish securocracy use a 'dissident' (sic) republican against a peace process convert, short of vindictive vendettas. What Taoiseach Ó Cíonnaith and Min Mac Shatter should try to understand is that not everyone on the Island of Ireland were lucky enough to have their freedom won for them by a previous generations of 'terrorists' (sic) - by dint of historical peculiarities! Violence was the language of the unheard. To understand all is to forgive all. Wise man say: "Take the beam out of your own eye before you take the spec out others'!"
seamus60 | Oct 03, 2012, 05:07 AM EDT
Just a pity Gerry wasn`t so quick to let the world know of the mental illness his brother suffers from. Or should that be what his victim (s) ? suffer from.
Towngate | Oct 03, 2012, 03:50 AM EDT
Niall. Beating up on a female mental patient in defence of somebody like Gerry Adams has surely got to be your lowest point yet. Listen to yourself, a chara, and please take good note of Bogside 1234.
thetint | Oct 03, 2012, 03:07 AM EDT
It’s not nice to display a person’s private problem in public but Enda is happy to use her ramblings so well don Niall.
cillowen | Oct 02, 2012, 09:06 PM EDT
Gerry's success is getting the insane to venture out for the Crown and its Eire quislings.
DanOLoingsigh | Oct 02, 2012, 07:33 PM EDT
Seano - still here...but only anti your crowd of self-appointed republican zealots...I don't know what prompted the allegations...and neither do you...and neither does the author of this piece...what are his medical qualifications??
Bogside1234 | Oct 02, 2012, 07:29 PM EDT
I have read your blogs/columns for many years. I have accepted the fact that you are the SF publicity department in the US. However I feel compelled to speak on this. How is it that everyone that dares utter any condemnation of SF and the great bearded god Gerry and his side kick Martin is tagged, labeled and branded as either a drunk, dissident or now mentally disabled. You have sunk to new depths on this one with your feeble attempt at admitting what Gerry Adams has long denied with a pathetic long ago and far away. Brendan Hughes was a drunk, Price was mentally disturbed who will be next? It was not that long ago that SF and his happy band were terrorists, godfathers, murderers and criminals. You have learned well from your masters. To defend Martin and Gerry for either having left the IRA in 1974 or never have been a member by attacking this woman in this way is a new low even for you. If you lie down with dogs Niall you get fleas, I would have that rash you keep itching checked out.
seamus60 | Oct 02, 2012, 07:18 PM EDT
Yet another crap article designed to make Adams look the gentleman we know he is not. Adams is scared shxtless to take her to court as there are now many waiting on the wings to tell their story. He won`t take her to court cause she`s sick and he won`t take the paper to court cause he can`t afford to. LOL. Darky Hughs got the same contempt from Adams, who could never have laced his boots when it came to Republicanism.Then again we`ll never know as Adams never ever led from the front.
seanomelb | Oct 02, 2012, 06:59 PM EDT
Where's Dano and the rest of the anti nationalist today with their "High moral ground " anti Adams vitriol.
joepen5 | Oct 02, 2012, 05:35 PM EDT
good piece Niall