Most Wanted
Today's newspapers are full of the pictures of eight men who the police want to assist them with their inquiries about burglary and car crime. Which made me think again about what was missing from this week's IMC report - namely pictures of the seven people who sit on the IRA's Army Council. As Gerry Adams pointed out, it's pretty hard to get a picture of the seven not meeting, but still it would have been nice to see them in retirement, sunning themselves in Malaga, or wherever. Since the police don't want to talk to them about anything (assuming the Northern Bank investigation is now regarded as a closed book) I presume issuing photos would be considered a waste of valuable resources, as would any up to date pictures of the UDA and UVF leadership.
It will be interesting to see how quickly the PSNI get results. Presumably they won't want to be on the trail as long as their counterparts in the F.B.I. who have spent decades pursuing James "Whitey" Bulger the senior citizen wanted for his part in 19 murders, including one connected to the IRA's "Valhalla" arms shipment. They have just doubled the reward to $2million.
On the devolution of justice stand off, there have been a couple of developments today. Jim Allister has published a pamphlet arguing against the transfer of powers which, he says, would give Martin McGuinness a say in appointing judges. He went on to make a personal appeal to Nigel Dodds, Jim Wells, David Simpson, Willie McCrea and Maurice Morrow not to let others in the DUP accede to the devolution of justice.
(UPDATE: On Talkback Nigel Dodds was at pains to deny that the OFMDFM would have powers over judges, instead insisting that all relevant powers would be concentrated in a new Justice Department, which would not be headed by a Sinn Fein minister.)
Meanwhile Irish Academic Press has released extracts of an interview with Bertie Ahern which the Irish Times' London correspondent Frank Millar has conducted for his new book, "Northern Ireland - A Triumph Of Politics". Bertie is fairly definite that, at St. Andrews, the DUP was party to a deal that policing would be devolved in May this year.
Here are the key quotes: (Ahern) "Sinn Fein had a cast iron guarantee that 1st May (2008) was the deadline' for achieving it".....
(Millar) Cast iron?
(Ahern) 'It was absolutely crystal clear from the British Government and from everybody else.'
But from the DUP?
'Everybody that would move... I mean there's no doubt May was the date.'
Yet the DUP has consistently said it never signed up for May 2008?
'Yeah, well, I mean listen,' says Mr Ahern, clearly unimpressed with any protestations to the contrary now: 'The devolution of policing from May was part of the deal in my view. OK, you can say that the governments didn't extract that from everyone in writing but it was what the two governments agreed and everybody else agreed."
The DUP is sure to point out that the publicly available document only referred to May as a "target date", but, coming after the IMC report, Mr Ahern's comments will no doubt be used to ramp up the pressure on Peter Robinson.
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Hmmm....
I think we all have our doubts about the boul Bertie's ability to recall specific details.
I mean - this is a man who doesn't recall meeting people or whether he had a bank account or not.
I'm sure we can all take his word as gospel then on some back of a fag packet deal he thought he had with the shinners.
Move on... nothing to see here.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Is it true that from September whenever the Assembly meets Gerry and Peter will sing the following at the start of each session?
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
though' your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on
with hope in your heart
and you'll never walk alone
you’ll never walk alone
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Only a few years ago Gerry Adams and co said the war was over, all the guns were gone and the DUP wanted that confirmed by the IMC. This week the IMC said the war is over and the IRA Army Council is now defunct and not operational and now the DUP want this confirmed by the Republicans. Is this a sign of the times in that Gerry and Peter have a better understanding??? The only person can lose is the lemon drinking Jim Allister.
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Moderators - You are being too severe.
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When there are so few contributors it is unfortunate to see moderators blocking contributions to the blog.
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I agree with you whole heartly bushmill 1608
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Devolution of Justice, transfer of powers to Stormont.....
A number of our MLA's hold the law in contempt by failing to register as *Data Controllers under the Data Protection Legislation and despite the best efforts of the Information Commissioner and the Assembly Commission the ongoing failure is swept under the carpet.
This one example is a small example why our ill conceived compulsory coalition assembly is not yet politically mature/wise enough to handle the last element of the St Andrews Accord.. Devolution of Justice... whats more law makers in breach of the law... it could only happen here.
Of course for a minority it may not be the first time they have been on the wrong side of the law
* Note to the Moderator...A public register of Data Controllers can be found at www.ico.gov.uk
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The first clip is just sound bites under media pressure to diss one another during a loaded political debate. The other clip shows a more extensive, personal reaction, response and opinion of Obama when Joe is not touting his own cause. It's all politics but I believe the second "shirtsleeve" clip is more honest and fairminded. i just saw in pollclash that Joe Biden has now been officially introduced as Barack Obama's Vice Presidential selection well you can see teh video in http://pollclash.com
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This is classic DUP behaviour, agreeing to something behind closed doors then moving the goal posts as soon as crunchtime comes around. In their recent tantrum over the devolution of Policing and Justice they m
Short of employing the services of David Blaine, how on Earth is the IMC supposed to satisy DUP cries for the IRA Army Council to completely vanish? Do they want its members to simply cease to exist?! It's a ridiculous statement, like saying devolution can only go ahead if we can all pretend the last 30 odd years didn't happen.
The Council, and it's Loyalist counterparts (of which media coverage is frighteningly scarce), can only truly disappear with time, as paramilitary influence wanes and Northern Ireland takes it's well earned place among civilised nations. No one says it's going to be easy but asking the impossible doesn't help things.
This kind of pigheadedness serves only to set us back, with the Maze site situation providing another example. There can be no doubt as to what happened there, history has recorded it on both sides of the divide yet the refusal of the DUP to accept this means it's now more than likely we will miss out on the once in a lifetime funding lottery that is the 2012 Olympics.
The DUP really are experts at cutting off their nose to spite their face, and the faces of everyone else apparently...
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