66 Comments

• GeorgeDillon | Sep 26, 2011, 02:39 PM EDT

  What a nasty racist you are, eiriamach. And a nitwit too, because you put your silly (sic) after the description of you (amadan) but in every post you leave out the sineadh fada on your own moniker. Still, why should you spell it right--don't feel bad. I'm assuming you're American. 95% of the Irish can't spell in Irish either, and 99.999% of the foreign migrants in Ireland have no interest in the language. And yet the migrants are the ones you look to to invigorate Irish language and culture! What a chump you are, eiriamach, are you for real or just a troll? No rational person could come out with that garbage. And there's no need to tell us about the effects of migration on the American Indian. We know you can use google--it doesn't impress. But you're an utter racist hypocrite, with your crocodile tears about the American Indian even while you're cheerleading the capitalists and globalists who are pumping foreign settlers into Ireland.

• eiriamach | Sep 25, 2011, 04:12 PM EDT

  Oh yes, RE: my screen name, GeorgeD, please see Niall Ó Dónaill’s Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla: "An tÉirí Amach" translates as “the (Easter Week) Rising,” but “éirí amach” translates “outing, pleasure trip, first visit of bride to old home; muster, levy; up-rising, insurrection, revolt” (pp. 489-490 of the paperback edition, 2005). Mis-spelled? Only in leaving out the accents and by contracting to one word, as is often done on the 'net, to facilitate a reply by screen name for anyone who wishes to reply to anything I’ve written (they should not have to take the time to insert accents). Check it out! You'll have to put up with it because I'm not likely to change it, unlike some others who switch names or use multiple names when others attack them.

• eiriamach | Sep 25, 2011, 03:13 PM EDT

  The European settlers waged war, genocide, and epidemic diseases against Native Americans, GeorgeD, and drove survivors onto reservations. Considering what the European descendants have done to the land since they arrived, I sometimes think it would have been better for them to assimilate, especially into a Lakota Sioux way of life. At least our natural environment would have survived! But the European settlers arrived with modern weaponry and a determination to "own" the land, strip it of its resources, and exploit it commercially. I see NO ANALOGY between the recent arrivals in Ireland and the European settlers of the USA. So I do not fear the loss of Irish culture! You have not convinced me, nor anyone else, I'd bet. GeorgeD, I know of no other IC visitor who can assemble as many ad hominems in one com box as you can, yet your insults haven't the thinnest veneer of truth. I noticed recently that some commenter pointed out the hypocrisy of your rants against foreigners by simply mentioning that in your visits abroad, you are a foreigner! Right. It looks like you got that point; you write, "I am a foreigner in every country in the world save two--are you such an amadan [sic] that you think I am hostile to myself?" So I conclude you can learn; you can even change your tune! Nor will I engage in a tit-for-tat with you about racism: your record remains unchallenged in that field.

• GeorgeDillon | Sep 25, 2011, 10:49 AM EDT

  Our racist straw man eiriamach appears to think that settling in a place means you acquire the culture of that place. I guess that means that if I go to Minneapolis or Rapid City the culture all around me will be Lakota Sioux, since that was the culture into which huge numbers of settlers migrated well over a century ago. After all, her craziness predicts that foreign settlers in Ireland will become Irish, so her thought process, if we can dignify it with such a term, must predict that the settlers of the lands of the Lakota are now indistinguishable from Sitting Bull! Didn't they "integrate" well! Similarly, this nitwit would predict that if I go to Tel Aviv I will find myself in an Arab city, since the culture of that place was Arab until just a couple of generations ago. Utter nonsense and garbage, eiriamach. You need to go traveling a bit more. Go to Minneapolis or Fargo, you fool, you'll find that the culture of the original inhabitants of those lands is long extirpated. Go to Tel Aviv--those Arabs who lived in Tel Aviv are nowhere to be seen. They have been exiled to concentration camps by your fellow-racists. What a nasty bigot you are. You want the Irish to suffer the same fate as the Sioux and the Cherokee and the Palestinians. Stop using that faux ID "eiriamach". Ignoring its misspelling, it means rebellion or uprising. An ultra conservative bigot like you has no business claiming to be a rebel. If you support globalization, that's your business, eiriamach (sic) but stop posturing as a progressive while supporting the destruction of indigenous cultures. You're a reactionary and a racist.

• warrenpoint00 | Sep 25, 2011, 10:06 AM EDT

  I wish Martin well in his presidential bid but why would a confirmed Irish nationalist like him want to preside over a broken down inept little statlet that has been a complete failure since its partition in 1922 from the proud and glorious nation of Ireland

• eiriamach | Sep 25, 2011, 08:14 AM EDT

  I certainly understand a "straw man" when I read one, George. The phrase "straw man" does not refer to a person; it refers to an argument that over-simplifies the opposing side's argument. In committing the straw man fallacy, a person sets up a simplistic argument, easily shot down, but not an accurate representation of the opposition's words. If indeed I exaggerated when I used the phrase "racial purity" to refer to your repeated diatribes against immigrants and non-whites in particular, it wasn't very far from an accurate representation. And btw, logic is not a matter of "manners." It may not be polite to call you a racist, but it is accurate, isn't it? And I'm far from the first to have done it.

• GeorgeDillon | Sep 25, 2011, 02:49 AM EDT

  "Being Irish is not a matter of "racial purity." I never said it was, you fool. You probably don't understand the concept of "straw man". I'll explain it for you. It refers to clowns like you who ascribe arguments or language to an opponent that that opponent has never used, and then attack them! You specialize in that inanity--witness your claim that I am hostile to "foreigners". What an utter fool you are. I am a foreigner in every country in the world save two--are you such an amadan that you think I am hostile to myself? Do us a favor--refrain from addressing me until you have the basic good manners to deal with what I say, not with what you say. Learn some manners, you poltroon.

• eiriamach | Sep 24, 2011, 05:45 PM EDT

  Now I think finally understand GeorgeDillon's obsessive hostility to 'foreigners' and 'immigrants.' He writes, "What do you think is wrong with Irish nationality and ethnicity that makes it unworthy to survive among the nations of the world?" George, if you had two or three more lifetimes and spent them producing a 100-volume book on Irish history and culture, you'd have some sense of what it is to be Irish: cultúr, dúchas, heritage, the values and ideas and arts and temperaments and memories of the generations. None of that is programmed into your DNA, George. You think it's genetic, don't you? If you really are Irish-descended, you're a hybrid, maybe a hodge-potch, what we call in the USA a mutt, and not a pedigree! Being Irish is not a matter of "racial purity." Your obsession with ethnicity strikes me as 1930s German thinking rather than Irish of any era. It's a bit on the narrow side of "ethnicity."

• FallsRNat | Sep 24, 2011, 05:24 PM EDT

  hooray

• GeorgeDillon | Sep 24, 2011, 12:52 PM EDT

  citizen69, your point about foreign corporations is really stupid. What foreign corporation ever demanded that Ireland import a million foreign migrants, many of them with no skills. Check out the ones shining shoes, or giving out free newpapers, or flipping burgers--I guess you'll tell us that Intel demanded that these be imported to Ireland--what arrant nonsense you come out with. And ignorant, too, because you appear to be unaware that there was large-scale foreign investment in Ireland in the 1990s, long before the crazy policy of Mass Importation was adopted by Fianna Fail and the Irish capitalist class.

• GeorgeDillon | Sep 24, 2011, 12:47 PM EDT

  Ireland has gained many benefits from the EU! So how come the country is broke and passing the begging bowl? I guess one of those benefits is that Ireland gets to pay child welfare to Polish, Latvian etc children who have never even been in Ireland! Or who in many cases probably don't even exist. And I hear that the new phenomenon is of elder immigration, old folks from Lithuania, Romania Latvia etc are moving to Ireland, because Irish welfare is so much better than in their own countries. I certainly was impressed by the number of elderly foreigners I saw shuffling around the shopping malls in Ireland when I visited a few weeks back. And I was also astonished by the vast numbers of Indians and Pakistanis, of all ages, --did India and Pakistan join the EU while I wasn't looking? If not, why are the Irish capitalists importing these people? Will the Irish capitalists pay for the health care and education of these Indians and their children? Sure they will, just like they've paid to educate and provide healthcare for all those they have imported since 2000. Not.... The Irish bosses privatized the profits of Mass Immigration, but they socialized the costs. And all of that without one minute's debate in the Irish Parliament in more than a decade of Mass Immigration.

• citizen69 | Sep 24, 2011, 10:21 AM EDT

  @GeorgeDillon my "logic" doesn't suggest you go out and murder anyone! How did you come to such a silly conclusion!? I just believe you should afford the same entitlement to others as you or you're family have had afforded to them when you/they emigrated to the USA. Don't you think there are people in America who think there are too many Irish immigrants in the US? Had they got their way they woulda sent your family packing back to where you came from. Don't get me wrong, i don't believe Ireland should just open it's doors to anyone and hand out benefits and "entitlements" to all who enter but the Republic is part of the European Union and has gained many benefits from that in the past. Do you also want the foreign-owned companies in Ireland that are responsible for over 90% of Ireland's exports to get out too? How many Irish jobs depend on Foreign corporations? Where did you get your figures from as they seem too high to me? The Guardian states Ireland has 504,000 immigrants (11.4% of pop.)

• maireadinmelb | Sep 24, 2011, 03:30 AM EDT

  @Tom I have not heard a heartfelt apology for the oppression and murder of irish people from the british or from loyalists! Why must the organisation that only exists as a result of british terrorism have to apologise if no other group is expected to do the same!

• maireadinmelb | Sep 24, 2011, 03:27 AM EDT

  @citizen69 was that the same deal they offered in 1980 for the first hunger strike! The Strike was done by the prisoners against SF instructions! The prisoners wanted the 5 demands not the scraps from the british table! Getting so Sick of the revision of history that has occured since america became a victim of terrorism! USA the country that funded the IRA now turning on it's past! see a pattern occurring?

• Woodman | Sep 23, 2011, 11:41 PM EDT

  Fintan O'Toole always wants to put Irish people in jail. He never said boo about the Birmingham 6, supported the Thatcher during the hunger strikes. And of course he opposed the US Visa for Gerry Adams claiming President Clinton was caving to terrorism. So he fought the peace process tooth and nail, it would be caving into terrorism. He never wanted negotiations, so it doesn't surprise me that he opposes McGuiness. O'Toole is just a bitter hate-filled man.

• Bailey2000 | Sep 23, 2011, 07:54 PM EDT

  Come on seriously, when a leading terrorist lays down his arms he isnt a "peacemaker", he has just decided that he can achieve more by peaceful means. I admire Martin McGuinness, I don't want him as President. When he goes to open a school I don't want to explain to children that our first citizen terrorised thousands for twenty years and then became a "peacemaker". So kids think what you can do. Get yourselves a stick of Semtex and put it in a hotel or Cafe and you too can be President.

• Aughavey | Sep 23, 2011, 02:22 PM EDT

  I see McGuinness has been endorsed by 2 Loyalist paramilitaries - Jackie McDonald the head of the UDA and former UDP / UDA think tank David Adams who now writes for the Irish Times

• GeorgeDillon | Sep 23, 2011, 12:12 PM EDT

  citizen69: You're an advocate of the settlement of Ireland by hundreds of thousands of foreign migrants. What do you think is wrong with Irish nationality and ethnicity that makes it unworthy to survive among the nations of the world? Why should Ireland have to accept such an influx, more than a million in a decade--over 20% of its population? Why should downtown Dublin have four foreign migrants for every one Irish person? If you think Ireland should be colonized by Poles, why are you on an Irish-American site? Why aren't you on the site polish dot org? And your pseudo historical argument is just garbage, pura mierda as my Mexican friends would say. Irishmen murdered many American Indians, your inane "logic" would suggest I should go out and murder American Indians. Irishmen in the First World War killed countless Turks, Austrians, Germans, Hungarians etc. You're loony logic would suggest I go out and do the same.

• citizen69 | Sep 23, 2011, 10:53 AM EDT

  @GeorgeDillon: You keep going on about immigration. Am i right in believing you live in the USA? Therefore aren't you an from immigrant stock? You or your ancestors were part of an 'unwanted invasion of foreigners' that also started 400 years ago (planted by the same king that planted Ulster). The only difference being that the American plantation WAS made up of foreigners to American soil whereas the Ulster plantation was made up of indigenous peoples who had inhabited those isles for thousands of years. Please stop giving immigrants a hard time, you're one yourself.

• sirpeter | Sep 23, 2011, 10:50 AM EDT

  Gee!! Tommy you have alot of doubts there.I guess they were toy guns that were cut in half and you must think the Unionists are very stupid.Same old Brit and West Brit attitude."We won't let you play unless you beg forgiveness for shooting back at us while we Brits are now forced to admit 40 years later that the indiscriminate slaughter in Derry didn't have the effect we wanted"Which corrupt politician is worthy of the Irish presidency Tommy?You mark my words a hell of alot more innocent people will die when these same corrupt politicians start skimping on the health service because THEY were not worthy of their jobs.It's hard to know who is even worthy to be called an Irishman in this country.I think we just have to follow the money.McGuinness certainly doesn't have much.

• sirpeter | Sep 23, 2011, 09:48 AM EDT

  In today's Irish Independent a columnist claims that the IRA Army Council continues to exist and that McGuinness continues to be a member. We cannot know for sure if this is true, not me and not anyone commenting in these pages. The IRA Army Council was (is?) a highly secretive organization. I also have doubts as to whether the IRA fully destroyed its weapons arsenal. There are many North and South who are sceptical. Earlier this year McGuinness refused to attend the Irish government's official dinner in honor of Britain's head of state. And McGuinness has never offered a sincere and heartfelt apology for the indiscriminate slaughter of men, women and children, Catholic and non Catholic. I guess I just don't believe Sinn Fein is ready for or worthy of the Irish presidency.

• sirpeter | Sep 23, 2011, 08:59 AM EDT

  Martin McGuinness is far more deserving then the others to be president.A loyal Irishman helps bring much needed change to NI and has saved life's.In Ireland you have to sup with the gunmen,otherwise you will NOT change anything.He helped change an almost impossible situation in the North.Power sharing has been achieved.Like many loyal Irishmen before him he has the best interests of the country at heart.I can't say that for alot of our politicians.BUT!!Far to many go with the West Brit media driven group-think more often than not.What McGuinness brings is the opportunity to evaluate our relationship with our Northern brethren of either persuasion and that in itself will be an important contribution.I expect Mitchell to go after him bald-headed and he will get a bump from that as the O'Reilly Rag, Red Tops and RTE all go on the murdering Provo route.

• GeorgeDillon | Sep 23, 2011, 08:47 AM EDT

  johhnyb: Are you crazy? The importation of vast numbers of foreign settlers into Ireland isn't a "gnat", it represents a fundamental and irrevocable threat to Irish ethnicity. In short, it is ethnocsuicide, and McGuiness is among the Sinn Fein cheerleaders for this mad policy. The irony is that the conflict in the North of Ireland is the direct result of another such unwanted invasion of foreigners. Almost 400 years after it was undertaken, the Irish are still living with the effects of the Plantation of Ulster. What do the two have in commnon? --The fact that the Irish people were never consulted about either! If you think the fact that Ireland has the highest rate of immigration IN THE WORLD is a "gnat" then I guess you're a "gnut"!

• pat.riot | Sep 23, 2011, 07:35 AM EDT

  the only difference between mcguinness and osama bin ladin is one of degree

• citizen69 | Sep 23, 2011, 07:09 AM EDT

  @ maireadinmelb: The only people that 'murdered' the hunger strikers were Sinn Fein and their rejection of Thatcher's secret deal that they finally accepted after 6 more people had committed enforced suicide.

• maireadinmelb | Sep 23, 2011, 05:29 AM EDT

  George Dillion - Do you know history at all!! Not Mandela was jailed as a terrorist for being part of an illegal organisation!!! Mandela and the ANC commiserated with teh IRA when Sands and the 9 martyrs were murdered by the terrorist state that is Britain!

• JamesDempsey | Sep 23, 2011, 04:05 AM EDT

  @Niall O Dowd A very well written and well thought out article. I agree with every point

• Rebelforce | Sep 23, 2011, 12:19 AM EDT

  I predict it will be very therapeutic for many Irish voters to be able to register their utter contempt and disgust for the Old, inept political establishment in Dublin by casting their vote for Martin McGuiness. If anyone in Ireland embodies resistance to, and abhorrence of, corruption and injustice on both sides of the Irish Sea, it has been Sinn Fein's Martin McGuiness. By voting for McGuiness, Irish voters can send a loud and clear message: No more corrupt politics as usual. No more of the same old same old. It is time to put a new, proud and self-confident face to Ireland. It is time for an Ireland that embraces ALL of its people, north, south, east and west . It is time for a new dawn of freedom. Martin McGuiness....Yes We Can!!

• imokyrok | Sep 22, 2011, 08:54 PM EDT

  I think my fellow Irish would be crazy to vote such a man as our president. To this day when talking on line to to other countries, people go 'oh Ireland' very violent country. I explain that no it was only in the North and that their claims that the murder and torture they were committing were in OUR name were totally false . They had almost no support in the Republic of Ireland. If MCG were elected the Republics reputation would dive even deeper than it has for economic reasons. I do not want a man who orchestrated 30 long years of terror, murder and mayhem on other Irish men women and children representing my country as it's figurehead.

• PolinDeB | Sep 22, 2011, 08:15 PM EDT

  Yeah .. but he's not respectable.. the curse of Ireland.. 'Respectability'. it closes the curtains as the kid next door is abused, cleans up their grand-daughter and claims it never happened... bows to Europe as they rob us blind of the last few euro's we have.. all in the name of being respectable and put a good face on..

• seanomelbourne | Sep 22, 2011, 07:58 PM EDT

  I'm amused at the historical references about Dev and Collins. The nitpicking about which of them were right or wrong is irrelevant to the election.Most of the politicians post war were ex IRA members and they eventually died out.McGuiness is no exception (ex IRA).He is head and shoulders above the other canditdates,he is no different to Mandela or Washington they all fought repression.The likes of the plastic Irish,Georgy Dillon and co. cannot make a coherent practical assessment of the situation they lack either knowledge or commonsense.O'Toole is an excuse for an Irishman.

• pilib04 | Sep 22, 2011, 06:45 PM EDT

  So this is what it took to wake up Niall. I can't agree more, but why did it take you so long. I guess Marty's candidacy for Uachtaran na h'Eireann pushed your hand (to finally write what needs to be said). I like that "small Irish" comment. Sort of like westBrits. Keep up the pressure, Niall.

• shoobyding | Sep 22, 2011, 06:40 PM EDT

  Can you imagine a Irish Journalistic voicing his slanted in favor of the IRA in a popular English newspaper, would it ever get printed and if it did how long would he work for that newspaper afterwords. Can we not see what these British journalists are trying to achieve, why is this garbage, in a so called Irish newspaper, even getting the light of day.

• johhnyb | Sep 22, 2011, 06:23 PM EDT

  Hi George. Apologies for failing to make sense to you. You claim that your lack of support for Sinn Fein is because you disapprove of their immigration policies. I find this reason amusing in that, if you can overlook 30 years of questionable behaviour, you can surely overlook a questionable immigration policy. The phrase 'straining at gnats and swallowing camels' sums it up! Is that clear enough? Best wishes.

• johhnyb | Sep 22, 2011, 04:59 PM EDT

  ancavker and Dillon, there are conflicting accounts re. Dev's role in the civil war. For example, in one book we've got Frank Aiken, the IRA Chief of Staff ordering his troops to ceasefire in May 1923. In another, it is de Valera, as President of the alternate republican administration, who issues this order. While I accept that Dev probably had limited influence over the likes of Barry and Lynch, had he wanted peace, he alone was in a position to ensure it. Dev did not want peace. What we know for sure is that de Valera was practically revered by the Sinn Fein movement, which elected him president in 1918. He was equally revered by the rank and file IRA. When the Treaty vote in the Dail went against Dev in January 1922, he was crushed. He regarded it not as a betrayal of country - Dev couldn't care less about what the country wanted - but rather a personal betrayal of him. In anticipation of a further and more devastating defeat in the approaching General Election (which went 93 seats out of 128 in favor of the Treaty), he took his case, in March, to heavily republican Munster where at multiple stops he repeated a grim warning: "If the Treay were accepted by the electorate the fight for freedom will still go and the Irish people, instead of fighting foreign soldiers, will have to Irish soldiers of an Irish government set up by Irishmen." A few days later, he added,"The IRA will have to wade through the blood of Irish soldiers of the Irish government ... and perhaps through that of some of the Irish government, to get their freedom." Here's Dev, the great patriot, saying that the Irish people will have to kill their own. These are the words of a megalomaniac, consumed with his own power and self-importance. My point earlier and now: Dev and Sinn Fein/IRA were anti-democratic from the get-go, Dev more in common with Lenin than Jefferson; Sinn Fein/IRA more in common with Bolshevism than democracy and majority rule.

• Trealach | Sep 22, 2011, 03:58 PM EDT

  So now we have TWO Braindead racist bigots to deal with - our resident BraindeadDillon in the US, and the self-important-opinionated West-Brit and braindead Fintan O'Toole. Neither of whom has a word of Irish, but have the audacity to claim to be Irish. At least McGuinness had the balls to take on the British and the Loyalists while these two stayed safely behind their mother's apron.

• Brolaur | Sep 22, 2011, 03:31 PM EDT

  Martin is the real deal. This is not a glory trip, nor a money trip. Just like the Patriots of our land he's for real. He has put his life on the line. This is a glorious moment for us all. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Let's roll in behind him!

• RedBranch | Sep 22, 2011, 03:18 PM EDT

  Things to look forward to if Martin McGuinness is elected: 1). First Palestinian, Basque & FARQ state visits to Ireland. 2).Another Royal visit 3). Muammar al-Gaddafi offered and accepts santury in Ireland 4). A big party in 1916, but no drink (Mr. McGuinness is teetotal) 5).Every employee receive the average industrial working wage (35K) and not a penny more. 6). Unionists will be flayed, roasted and shredded for fish food in Mr.McGuinness favourite salmon rivers. There and that's just for starters!

• JBRAFTREE | Sep 22, 2011, 03:02 PM EDT

  Depends who you are. He's a Patriot or a violent "Usurper". The Republic could do worse.

• JohnJoe4444 | Sep 22, 2011, 02:50 PM EDT

  It disturbs me to realise that this sort of nonsense in being put in front of Irish America and that it will affect their view of Ireland. Mr McGuinness is an expert on vicious attacks and the column from that eejit O Toole will not disturb him in the least. I realise that in the eyes of Mr O Dowd I am a "Little Islander". No, I do not want a man, with a doubtful track record, from another juristiction to come and be my President. Like it or not the region/state of Northern Ireland exists. There are many, many wonderful people there but there is also an undercurrent of hatred and bigotry on both sides. The people in the Republic coexist in a peaceful manner and do not want the cancer of violence to come here. If that is Little Island syndrome so be it! The obsession with a United Ireland is obsolete. If you want to carry history to the nth degree why not give Co Clare back to the O Briens and have them declare a republic, same for the O Reilly in Cavan, the O Byrnes in Wicklow. History is history. Bad deeds have been done on both sides. Just look forward and make sure the perpatrators of bad deeds are not in positions of authority. Incidentaly, the Republicans turned Statesmen mentioned above did not cover themselves in glory when they assumed office.

• GeorgeDillon | Sep 22, 2011, 02:34 PM EDT

  "a sandslide victory". Picturesque phrase, towngate, though I would have thought more appropriate in the Saudi elections, in the unlikely event that our Saudi buddies will ever go democratic.

• cuddlybuddly | Sep 22, 2011, 02:27 PM EDT

  Ha Ha say what you want, I will be voting for him as will about ten of my friends who believe Martin Mc Guiness speaks sense, equality and transparency!!! Shining a light on the dark...that's Martin Mc Guinness!!

• Towngate | Sep 22, 2011, 01:50 PM EDT

  Niall, a chara: The first casualty ~ a dishonest headline! The second: Martin McGuinness is standing as an Independant Candidate not for Sinn Fein! He claimes he will represent ALL the Irish people even if they have choosen to stay British , and whether they have a vote or not! ~ He has deserted his properly elected Position at Stormont and left his valid voters of all persuasions, to hang out to dry as the Party machine embarks on this premature Caper in the Republic! The time for him to stand (and probably get a sandslide victory) would be when The North has voted to join in union with The South, and the South accepts them! SF knows that is never going to happen,so they are chancing their arm at this route. ~ Gerry Adams should be standing proudly as a Sinn Fein candidate; but I can't help feeling the Boss has sent the Boy ~ echoes of The Long Fella sending The Big Fella ~ on a difficult message. ~~~ Niall you have been clear in your support for him in your post and perhaps he will get a good start, a fair crack of the whip, fair odds, meet the fences bravely as he joins the other runners for the Aras Cup! ~~~ But given your past form ans a Tipster, a chara, it will not be the Green Flag, but the Green Screens ~ they wrap around him that day ! Slainte!

• GeorgeDillon | Sep 22, 2011, 01:11 PM EDT

  O'Loonsigh: "attempt to compare him with Mandela in Apartheid South Africa show just how desperate the pro-SF lobby really are." No one will accuse me of being a member of the pro-SF lobby, but I find O'Looney's post to be the usual garbage he offers here. He throws in a big generalization, such as the one I cite above, but there is no analysis, no rational expression of thought, no cogent evidence to support his empty phrase. In sum, put a piece of bread on it and you'd have a baloney sandwich. If you want to see how it should be done, why not download some of my posts and study them, O'Looney? Otherwise you'll never improve.

• GeorgeDillon | Sep 22, 2011, 01:05 PM EDT

  johnnyb: "I'm amused that George Dillon can't support SF because of their immigration policies"--What's your point? Your post is badly written, makes no sense.

• GeorgeDillon | Sep 22, 2011, 01:03 PM EDT

  ancavker: You are usually on the money about Irish history, and you're right again. TomSwinford shows his intellectual laziness by blaming Dev for the Civil War. The fact is that men like Cathal Brugha, Tom Barry, Liam Lynch etc. didn't give a damn what Dev thought. They had sworn an oath to an Irish Republic, believed they had seen that Republic become a reality in 1918, and in 1921/22 saw that Republic disbanded by Free Staters, many of whom had done nothing in the War of Independence.

• sirpeter | Sep 22, 2011, 12:27 PM EDT

  Well they did a poll on 96fm on Cork local radio to-day and Martin McGuinness got 65% of the vote.Martin also said he gets £112,000 sitting in the Northern Ireland Assembly and only gets around £35,000 a year the rest going back into Sinn Féin.He said money means nothing to him and that he sees himself as no better then any other person.If this poll is any indication of the mood of the people.I think Martin will be moving to a nice big house.

• ancavker | Sep 22, 2011, 12:21 PM EDT

  Tom Swim: AS far as Dev and the civil war, he was a bit player in it. Saying he was responsible for it, is simply not true. While his support for the treaty may have limited the civil war, it was out of his hands. The hard line republicans were against the treaty regardless of Dev.

• oldboreen | Sep 22, 2011, 12:20 PM EDT

  Fintan O'Toole reveals a lamentable knowledge of both Irish and world history in his article about Martin McGuinness. Frankly I'm astonished that the Irish Times published such nonsense-unless of course its sales are declining.

• ancavker | Sep 22, 2011, 12:18 PM EDT

  Is is Fintan, did you expcet anything less.

• donlea11 | Sep 22, 2011, 12:15 PM EDT

  I think Fintan O'Toole is one of The Twenty-Six Counties finest writers and thinkers. I have great respect and admiration for the man and his writing. Unfortunately his intellectual excellence and superb comprehension cannot traverse or fathom that narrow man made line between The Republic and The Six Counties. How can one who is so brilliant be so blind?

• JohnJoe4444 | Sep 22, 2011, 11:29 AM EDT

  Vicious attacks? I think that Martin McGuinness will be able to withstand the verbal attacks from a pompous journalist! However, saying that McGuinness is a peacemaker is like saying that a reformed wife-beater is a paragon of social virtue. The IRA/Sinn Fein took a pragmatic view that violence was not working and that they needed to enter mainstream politics. Sinn Fein are just as cynical and manipulative as any of the existing parties. I welcome his inclusion on the ticket so that Irish people can show their revulsion for crimes committed allegedly in their name.

• Rebelforce | Sep 22, 2011, 11:16 AM EDT

  I predict it will be entirely therapeutic for most Irish voters to be able to register their utter contempt and disgust for the performance of the Old political establishment by voting for Martin McGuiness. If anybody in Ireland embodies resistance to, and abhorrence of, corruption and injustice on both sides of the Irish Sea, it is Sinn Fein's Martin McGuiness. By voting for McGuiness, Irish voters can send a loud and clear message: No more corrupt politics as usual. No more of the same old same old. It is time to put a new, proud and self-confident face to Ireland. It is time for an Ireland that embraces ALL of its people, north, south, east and west . It is time for hope and change. Martin McGuiness....Yes You Can!!

• DanOLoingsigh | Sep 22, 2011, 11:09 AM EDT

  I can’t see how electing MMcG, an avowedly partisan politician, will enhance the prospect of a United Ireland…how would nationalists feel if someone behind ‘Bloody Sunday’ was elected to represent not just unionism, not just NI, but the whole island?

• johhnyb | Sep 22, 2011, 11:05 AM EDT

  I'm amused that George Dillon can't support SF because of their immigration policies. Someone in Northern Ireland recently withdrew their support from SF because of their policy on hare coursing. Haven't met any of their supporters though who feels that their policy of supporting an occasional spot of violence here and there was a problem.

• IronMountainMovies | Sep 22, 2011, 11:04 AM EDT

  Poor Fintan. Had he the balls to stand for election himself when asked to by the Irish people last February, then he might actually have a real say in the matter of the Presidential race. That other lover of all things Sinn Fein 'Gay Byrne' apparently doesn't think Mr McGuinness a suitable candidate either yet when asked to serve his country and run for the office he too declined. I have respect for both these men on many other issues but in this case they are acting and speaking like regressive idiots. Given that this week is Dinosaur Week on Discovery, perhaps we might see a documentary on both men whose views on McGuinness seem like fossils from the dark past. Ronan Gallagher Lough Rinn Ireland

• tomgallagher | Sep 22, 2011, 10:58 AM EDT

  O'Toole is a fool of the first order. McGuiness for President.

• paddygrant | Sep 22, 2011, 10:30 AM EDT

  Brilliant article, well written and spot on the mark.

• johhnyb | Sep 22, 2011, 10:26 AM EDT

  Hang on. I understood that Martin wasn't even in the IRA so why are you comparing him to those who were? Gay Byrne has commented that to him it sounds like Martin spent the last 30 years on Peace keeping duties with the United Nations. Indeed.

• DLW12183 | Sep 22, 2011, 10:24 AM EDT

  Looks like Obama Chicago style politics are being used in Ireland. What a shame as it is so divisive to the people.

• DLW12183 | Sep 22, 2011, 10:19 AM EDT

  I have mixed feelings over McGuinness' candidacy but Niall makes some compelling observations which I am mindful of. Michael Collins, too, was a terrorist by definition but he was also a peacemaker, the latter costing him his life. On the other hand, there is Dev, his inflated ego not permitting him to accept the overwhelming will of the Irish people in June 1922 and taking the already war-ravaged country into civil war. Then Dev put down the gun and returned to politics in 1927, giving us Fianna Fail and a legacy of corruption and incompetence ever since. I see in McGuinness and Sinn Fein echoes of the past. In Ireland it has been said that there is no future, just the past happening over and over. These words should haunt us.

• unconvinced | Sep 22, 2011, 10:19 AM EDT

  THe ROI harbered maguiness and his cohorts for years incase they faced justice. So ROI what goes round comes round.ROI was a safe haven for them when they murdered, or whatever evil deed they carried out. It seemed it was alright to applaud NI for putting gunmen in government but now the RIO is going to have a gunman for a president its not alright for them --HYprocrits

• Tooreenagrena | Sep 22, 2011, 10:02 AM EDT

  O'Tool is a fool. The election of Martin McGuinness as the president of Ireland is the worse kind of nightmare for anti republicans. This process is about changing minds. Its about normalising the situation. A Sinn Fein president would bring a united Ireland a little closer a little faster.

• mcdolan | Sep 22, 2011, 10:00 AM EDT

  Well said.

• DanOLoingsigh | Sep 22, 2011, 08:47 AM EDT

  I read the article you refer to; it did not call for MMcG to be arrested at all, it merely pointed out that he could be, quite different…and your attempt to compare him with Mandela in Apartheid South Africa show just how desperate the pro-SF lobby really are. Yes, he deserves recognition for his role in NI; although this undermined the rationale for the campaign of the previous 25 years… if he was elected Ireland’s Head of State, this would not be seen as a friendly move by the Northern majority. OK, it’s not their business who we elect, but I don’t see a good outcome if this happens.

• GeorgeDillon | Sep 22, 2011, 07:11 AM EDT

  O'Dowd, points well made. I wouldn't vote for McGuinness because I totally oppose Sinn Fein's Open Door immigration policy--even as young Irish men and women leave Ireland Sinn Fein supports the importation of foreign settlers into the country. Nevertheless, it is quite hypocritical for Fine Gael to come out with these sanctimonious and dishonest platitudes. I would add to your list the fact that FG themselves nominated as president (unsuccessfully, twice) one Sean McKeown, who was a notorious gunman in the Irish Midlands during the War of Independence. Mckeown was sentenced to death for killing a policeman, and was apparently guilty of many other killings. Yet he's one of the pantheon of Fine Gael.