Labour hypocrisy on murdered Northern nationalists

[Wednesday]

I see that Liz McManus attached herself like a barnacle to the McCartney sisters today, escorting them to a Women's Day conference and gleefully placing herself in the front of a picture taken with them in front of Leinster House.

Pity neither she nor any of her colleagues showed the same amount of concern for An Fhírinne, an organisation of relatives of victims of British Army Collusion, who visited Leinster House about a year and a half ago. Every TD and Senator was invited to meet with them and although all the party leaders (apart from Sinn Féin's of course) declined to do so, at least most of them had the courtesy to send other members of their party. But Labour could not even be arsed to send their lowliest backbencher, nor did they send any apologies for failure to do so.

************************************g hypocrites the lot of them

[ireland2004]

Shar of useless ba*tards

[Wednesday]

Oh, the PDs didn't send anyone either, but what else would you expect.

[Carrier]

Were the McCartney sisters invited to the SF Ard Fheis or did they ask to could they go?

[Wednesday]

I haven't got a clue Carrier.

[Trefor]

Were the McCartney sisters invited to the SF Ard Fheis or did they ask to could they go?

Invited by Gerry Adams I think.

[Conor]

Oh, the PDs didn't send anyone either, but what else would you expect.

I'm a bit surprised by that. I thought Fiona O'Malley was big into the women's stuff.

[Libero]

Pity neither she nor any of her colleagues showed the same amount of concern for An Fhírinne, an organisation of relatives of victims of British Army Collusion, who visited Leinster House about a year and a half ago. Every TD and Senator was invited to meet with them and although all the party leaders (apart from Sinn Féin's of course) declined to do so, at least most of them had the courtesy to send other members of their party. But Labour could not even be arsed to send their lowliest backbencher, nor did they send any apologies for failure to do so.

f****** hypocrites the lot of them

Oh spare us the faux outrage.
An Fhírinne are a republican group who refer to Northern Ireland as the six counties. They are entitled to their beliefs but shouldn't be surprised when non-provisional parties don't endorse them.

Much of what they claim to be cast-iron cases of British-loyalist collusion are unsolved murder cases. It would not be wise for a non-SF politician to sign up unquestioningly to their agenda. And it is an agenda.

I'm all in favour of more investigation into these murders. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if there was widespread collusion. So these women deserve our moral support but unlike the McCartney relatives they have already aligned themselves to the provisional movement. That was their choice and that's politics.

[leftsoc]

As a Labour Party member, I think we should step back from the anti-SF frenzy.

Nobody can really sincerely believe that the McCartney murder has any real connection to the SF leadership. The likes of Adams and McGuinness et al. would have nothing to do with violence if they had been born in a normal society.

We in the South consigned our Northern fellow citizens to a semi-facsist regime for 70 years. That regime was worst than the regime our ancestors suffered under the British. Objectively, it would have been better for the whole of Ireland to have stayed in the UK.

We in the South could have shamed the Brits into abolishing fascism in the 6 counties at any time after 1945 - if we cared, but we didn't. Our elected leaders were too cowardly to do that. We cannot now pretend to believe that everyone in the 6 counties should behave as if they had lived in a modern European democracy for this last 80 years.

It is no accident that the anti-SF fever in the south is led by the PDs. The PDs freely admit that they despise any aspirations to equality. Their hatred of SF is not derived from any real hatred of murder or violence ( they lose no sleep about US planes stopping off at Shannon), the real motivation for their hatred of SF , is that SF represent an ideal of racial equality, which the PDs despise as much as Labour's aspirations to less class inequality.

[NJP]

Leftsoc,
I agree with almost all of what you said your post (apart from it being better for the whole of Ireland to stay in the UK, though I do see your point). It's very encouraging to see a Labour party member tell it like it is.