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by Niall O'Dowd

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comment on article 55 Comments
Posted on Saturday, September 04, 2010 at 11:54 PM


Tony Blair should be hailed, not attacked in Ireland


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You would think the Irish would be daily taking to the street to vent their anger at political leaders there, given all that has gone wrong.

Strangely, there is hardly a peep.

However, when it came to Tony Blair's visit to Dublin to launch his book, the protestati showed up in large numbers to make their mark.

Among them according to The Guardian newspaper were supporters of dissident IRA groups and Iraq war protestors.

They won world headlines throwing eggs and shoes and insults at Blair but in the process mocked a man who has done so much for Ireland.

The fact that there is peace in Northern Ireland would never have happened without Tony Blair.

Like no other British Prime Minster since Gladstone he made peace in Ireland a top priority and stood by his peace partners through thick and thin.

There are scores, maybe hundreds walking around alive today in Northern Ireland because of the work of Tony Blair and a handful of others.

His reward it seems is to be attacked in Dublin, especially by elements of the dissidents who would much rather the killings were continued as they chase their Utopian dream of driving Protestants and British out of Northern Ireland.

In his book Blair writes about how he overcame his prejudices and became a partner for peace with Sinn Fein and fast friends with Sinn Fein leaders Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams.

He also issued an eloquent apology for the Famine.

That was an amazing accomplishment for a British leader, one that marks him down in the history books for ever.

His reward yesterday was a back of the hand from many of the same people who want no peace in Ireland.

They do not speak for the Irish I am certain, and they disgrace our name with their antics.

Tony Blair should be made very welcome wherever green is worn.



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Posted by Sparklet on Sep 18, 2010, 01:41 PM EDT
Hectorfromwherever - Blair might be a war criminal, but lets not forget the nation that took him there. I cant stand Blair as it happens, but I object to your puerile racism even more.
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Posted by mcginleynj on Sep 09, 2010, 01:19 PM EDT
I agree he should be appreciated! He did a wonderful job under tough conditions.
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Posted by CarolineRyan on Sep 09, 2010, 10:03 AM EDT
I have to agree that while far from perfect - his support for the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, case in point - Tony Blair did Ireland a great service via his hard work during the peace process. Appointing Mo Mowlam as N. Ireland Secretary of State was itself sheer genius, even if he didn't realize it at the time. The North owes him much of its present stability, shaky though that can be at times. And the South owes him at least its respect. - Caroline Oceana Ryan, author AN OLD CASTLE STANDING ON A FORD: One Yank's Life in an Almost Peaceful Belfast (Eloquent Books)
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Posted by hectorfromTG4 on Sep 09, 2010, 01:56 AM EDT
O Dowd you're a west brit scumbag!
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Posted by hectorfromTG4 on Sep 09, 2010, 01:50 AM EDT
Blair is a war criminal,but all you west brits do is kiss his limey arse!.
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Posted by maloney on Sep 08, 2010, 09:56 PM EDT
Heil obama Heil akmadinijad
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Posted by ironbed on Sep 08, 2010, 02:51 PM EDT
While Tony Blair did bang a few heads together, probably with Bill Clinton peeping over his shoulder, we must also remember that Blair was only one of the hundreds of former British Prime Minsters who did absolutley nothing for Ireland except to worsen the lot of the Irish. Yes applaud Blair but let's keep our historical relationship with Britain in perspective and let's keep it real.
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Posted by BrendanPKeane on Sep 08, 2010, 01:23 PM EDT
And these wonderful British government "apologies" for the famine and Bloody Sunday deserve little more than a nod. They need not be hailed, especially coming after decades and decades of denials.
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Posted by BrendanPKeane on Sep 08, 2010, 01:21 PM EDT
A common tactic to defame anti-war protestors is to lump them in with a reprehensible group such as the continuity IRA or communists. Protesting a man that sold an empire-building war on proven lies is good citizenship. To be told we should "hail" Blair is just shocking. Heil Blair.
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Posted by CaptainTom on Sep 07, 2010, 08:42 PM EDT
I agree that when it comes to the peace that has finally come to the North, Tony Blair should be given a great deal of the credit.
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Posted by IrishTierney on Sep 07, 2010, 06:22 PM EDT
All these protestors managed to do is give the good people of Ireland a black eye around the world. They should be ashamed of themselves. Hooligans is all they are.
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Posted by Keynyata on Sep 07, 2010, 04:07 PM EDT
Tony Blair never used the word "sorry" or "apologise" regarding the Famine,Niall. Read that sppech again and you will see there are no words other than 'understanding' which could be taken up (wrongly) as an apology.I love peace and harmony with my british neighbours - wonderful people - but the peast we can do is to get the statements of the likes of Blair verbatim. And he is not going to try to promote his lies in London at all now.He is afraid of the truth and of his own people.His filthy chickens of bombs and bluster have come home to haunt him.Perhaps there is some justice,after all.
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Posted by mayoman on Sep 07, 2010, 08:22 AM EDT
I agree with you Niall; Blair should be acknowledged for his contributions in bringing peace to Northern Ireland. However, his support of, and participation in Bush's illegal and imperialistic invasion of Iraq was reprehensible, and should be vigorously condemned. There maybe scores of people walking the streets of Belfast today that may not be doing so had Mr. Blair not intervened on the side of sanity and peace. But how many scores of people do not now walk the streets Baghdad and of Basra because of the Anglo-American invasion? A great many ordinary Iraqis gave up the ghost as a result of Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair's misguided and lethal actions. We must not forget that.
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Posted by Ajreaper on Sep 06, 2010, 10:57 PM EDT
I find it amazing how many people wish to live in the past- a past they are not and were not eber a part of. I know Blair was not alive when Ireland was divided nor were any of you, I would guess, and most certainly if there was to be peace in NI then the British leadership would have to play a role in helping to bring that about. Many of you would rather "be right" then have peace. Isn't peace enough? Need every English leader of the 20th century grovel and beg at your feet for the crimes of those long dead? Give it a rest and live in the present.
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Posted by hancock on Sep 06, 2010, 10:33 PM EDT
Europe is a dive.
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Posted by IRISHKNIGHT110 on Sep 06, 2010, 09:33 PM EDT
I believe it too. there would not be the peace in Northern Ireland that there is now. if it weren't for Tony Blair. give the man some credit. it sure is better than it was.
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Posted by michaelidaho on Sep 06, 2010, 06:08 PM EDT
It is really kind of interesting, and a bit scary, reading all these anti-Blair comments. I used to somewhat agree when many Irish, like their European counterparts, would argue that Americans know very little about politics and history. However, after reading the overwhelming majority of these comments it is pretty clear that there are many Irish completely deluded by extreme, liberal, Islamophilic positions. They make Sarah Palin look like a genius on the opposite end of the political spectrum. Oh yeah, by the way wasn't Tony Blair the prime minister largely responsible for overseeing the peace process that largely ended thirty years of sectarianism and bloodshed in Northern Ireland.
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Posted by Kilsally on Sep 06, 2010, 10:21 AM EDT
`Thank a British Prime Minster for helping bring some sort of peace to Northern Ireland that was created by the british in the first place.So maybe he took the time to reflect on how to fix the problem and found out it was him and his kind that were the problem all along.Supporting injustice, since the government of Ireland act of 1920 and dividing my country against the will of the vast majority of people` As usual you leave out the people that count, the population of Northern Ireland in order to facilitate your argument just as the Northern Irish Police formed from Northern Ireland born citizens as `occupying British forces`. David Trimble offered a border poll in 1998 which was flatly rejected by Nationalists.........
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Posted by tomgallagher on Sep 06, 2010, 09:12 AM EDT
Great article Niall and the naysayers can go to h_ll.
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Posted by Niall O'Dowd on Sep 06, 2010, 07:37 AM EDT
Alex you are wrong about the Guardian report and IRA dissidents. Here is the relevant paragraph. Also I thanked Tony Blair for apologizing for the famine, not David Cameron for Bloody Sunday From the Guardian report--Four men were arrested and charged with public order offences for their part in the protest this morning outside Eason's bookshop on O'Connell Street in Dublin, Ireland, which involved anti-war demonstrators and the Continuity IRA-aligned Republican Sinn Féin, who oppose the Northern Ireland peace process.
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Posted by DennisQ on Sep 06, 2010, 01:53 AM EDT
AlexBreathnach, I completely agree. Tony Blair should be in prison, not signing autographs in a Dublin bookstore. Some of the Nazi criminals who were hanged after Nuremburg were less guilty than Tony Blair, who was one of the prime conspirators who cooked up the phony war.

In addition to Tony Blair Niall O'Dowd also thanked David Cameron for "apologizing" for Bloody Sunday. Cameron's actual statement did not put the blame where it belonged - on the British government - but on some rogue commanders who acted without authority. Some "apology" that is!
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Posted by AlexBreathnach on Sep 05, 2010, 10:37 PM EDT
This is a shameful article."The Guardian" did not report that the protesters were supporters of dissident IRA groups and even if the anti-Blair protesters were made up entirely of IRA sympathisers it doesn't in any way diminish their argument that he is a war criminal.Blair's involvement in Northern Ireland has nothing to do with his conspiration in the criminal Invasion of Iraq which has left a million dead and was the reason for the protest."4 million Iraqis have been forced to flee their homes and the majority of children suffer from malnutrition or trauma"(Pilger,2010).This thug should be prosecuted not supported.
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Posted by ArdeeOne on Sep 05, 2010, 09:49 PM EDT
Another excellent, well-considered article by Mr. O'Dowd. Many will assail him for taking an unpopular stand, but closer inspection shows he knows what he's talking about. And for those who call Blair anti-Catholic, you are way off base. Blair converted to Catholicism to unite his family and please his Catholic wife. Blair, like O'Dowd, was actually looking for a solution to the many problems in Northern Ireland, and was not content to simply carry on the grievances of the past.
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Posted by sirpeter on Sep 05, 2010, 07:07 PM EDT
Mr O'Dowd what are you talking about? Thank a British Prime Minster for helping bring some sort of peace to Northern Ireland that was created by the british in the first place.So maybe he took the time to reflect on how to fix the problem and found out it was him and his kind that were the problem all along.Supporting injustice, since the government of Ireland act of 1920 and dividing my country against the will of the vast majority of people Funny how he's fast friends now with Gerry and Martin,were the brits not calling them terrorists and murderers not too long ago. I thank him for nothing!! as a politician,but he is welcome to spend as much time in Ireland as he wants,maybe he'll get to understand us and how we never wanted to be like him or his people in the first place,we just wanted to keep our own culture. But i guess the british army are now liberating another nation in Iraq from their culture,but of course putting britishness in a country costs money,so they will take their oil. I bet the innocent Iraqi women and children wished it was only eggs and shoes that was thrown at them. Oh! Mr Blair thanks for the apology for the famine on behalf of your dead political ancestors,British policy there only cost a million dead,but i have an 800 year list...you might want to sit down..it will take a while to apologize for that long list. I more then likely won't be alive to hear future british prime ministers apologize to the Iraqi people for the suffering they have caused them for helping first put a killer in power and then having to kill countless thousands to get him out. No!! Mr O'Dowd i don't think you see the bigger picture at all. Don't worry the Irish people will deal with our own political leaders too,but we'll use votes to deal with them.
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Posted by killowen on Sep 05, 2010, 06:52 PM EDT
Blair hailed for protecting England. The NI apartheid statelet is secure and this writer gained notoriety for being a participating contributor to such a nothing outcome. The Harp shows proudly on Mother's Royal standard as does the Thistle the Leek and their very own Rose. Ireland united will never be given the need to retain such UK symbols which one finds emblasoned on nigh everything across the breath of commonwealth. A knighting is due ye Niall.
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Posted by maryosullivan on Sep 05, 2010, 06:20 PM EDT
Tony Blair went against the wishes of 90pc of British people in supporting Bush and his illegal war As for an apology for the "Famine". Can it possibly be that you do not know there was no famine in Ireland? What Blair apologized for " standingby". He neglects to mention while they were "standingby" 72 regiments were removing all of Ireland's cattle, sheep, wheat,oats, barley etc to England. This information is readily available in the British Troop Movements, That makes it a deliberate starvation not a famine With ODowd helping Blair cover his dirty deeds I guess Blair doesn't have to worry too much about accuracy f''F
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Posted by newcanaan on Sep 05, 2010, 03:56 PM EDT
portia777 your a pope hating biggot
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Posted by maloney on Sep 05, 2010, 02:27 PM EDT
O'Dowd... great article, youe do get it right sometimes. Thank you
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Posted by JamesMurphy on Sep 05, 2010, 02:22 PM EDT
Blair has become one of life's polarizing personalities. As Britain's longest-serving Labor prime minister, he was hailed by Britons when he entered office and urged by them to leave it as soon as possible after he willingly accepted the role of Bush's poodle prior to the latter's determination to illegally invade Iraq. Now, it's not a question of claimed layabouts lambasting Blair for his misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan; it's more a question of why anyone would bother to acknowledge the man. By fallig into the trap of tossing eggs and other insults, protestors have provided him with the kind of publicity he doesn't deserve. In short, tricky Tony is a charlatan.
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Posted by adrienrain on Sep 05, 2010, 02:20 PM EDT
I am amazed that Blair has any credibility anywhere. Why are all the engineers of the Middle East bloodbaths in prison somewhere. Cause there's nojustice.




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