Iâve tried to explain that a few times now on TFK but the likes of Tim and carryharry want high rise tenements now and will shout down anyone who tried to educate them.
Physician, heal thyself
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âIf you keep reaching for the past, it shows you are not up for the futureâ 
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Brits out.
The close links between Sinn FĂ©in and IRA untangled
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Background: The memory of the partyâs terrorist past has waned at precisely the same time that dissatisfaction with Fine Gael and Fianna FĂĄil has grown
Sinn FĂ©in leader Mary Lou McDonald speaks to the media as she arrives for the reconvening of the 33rd DĂĄil Eireann. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Sinn FĂ©in leader Mary Lou McDonald speaks to the media as she arrives for the reconvening of the 33rd DĂĄil Eireann. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Conor Lally
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about 17 hours ago
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When the van arrived at the prison gates in Co Roscommon it was carrying three men. One was a Sinn FĂ©in TD at the time, Martin Ferris.
They pulled up at about 6.30am and within half an hour the IRAâs convicted garda killers Pearse McAuley and Kevin Walsh came out of Castlerea Prison.
They were being freed from jail that morning after 10œ years for the gun killing of Det Garda Jerry McCabe during a botched armed robbery in Adare, Co Limerick.
When McAuley and Walsh emerged to freedom they were driven away in the van. Some media decided to follow them.
The van was driven from the prison in the direction of Dublin for about 3km before turning left on to a minor road. It soon came to a sudden stop under a very tight railway bridge, blocking the road in both directions.
McAuley and Walsh jumped out and ran to a car that had been parked on the far side of the bridge. They changed vehicles rapidly and were whisked away at speed.
All the while the white Transit didnât budge; parked in the centre of the road under the small bridge ensuring none of the pursuing cars could follow McAuley and Walsh.
Ferrisâs presence that morning in August, 2009, was significant.
This was a Sinn FĂ©in TD collecting two IRA men who had killed a garda and wounded another in 1996. It was a message intended by Sinn FĂ©in to demonstrate clearly it hadnât forgotten about, and wasnât turning away from, the IRA.
The IRA and Sinn FĂ©in remained so closely linked that one of the partyâs TDs was dispatched to collect two IRA killers from prison.
The fact Ferris had been chosen as the man to collect McAuley and Walsh was perfect for the messaging required on the day. He was both a Sinn FĂ©in TD and an IRA man, having served a lengthy time in jail himself for gun running and he was named in the DĂĄil as a member of the IRAâs army council, which he denied.
That relationship between Sinn FĂ©in and the IRA is something that had undoubtedly discouraged some people in the Republic from voting for Sinn FĂ©in, despite the peace process.
But with the IRAâs campaign of terrorism having ended more than 20 years ago now, the result of the general election suggests 25 per cent of the electorate sees Sinn FĂ©in as not just acceptable, but attractive.
Paul Quinn
The memory of the partyâs terrorist past has waned at precisely the same time that dissatisfaction with Fine Gael and Fianna FĂĄil has grown.
However, Sinn FĂ©in found itself dragged back into the bad old days during the election campaign when controversy engulfed the party over the 2007 murder of south Armagh man Paul Quinn (21). Security forces believe he was beaten to death by a group of south Armagh IRA men, though it was not sanctioned by the leadership of the provisional movement.
Sinn FĂ©inâs Conor Murphy MLA, the finance minister in the North, remains under pressure from the Quinn family to state clearly on television their son was not a criminal. He had stated on TV less than a month after Quinnâs murder that the young man âwas involved in smuggling and criminality and I think everyone accepts thatâ. Ahead of the recent general election Mr Murphy âunreservedlyâ withdrew and apologised for his 2007 remarks but Breege Quinn, the mother of Paul Quinn, said he did not go far enough.
Sinn FĂ©in has long dismissed efforts by its rivals to raise the IRAâs terrorist campaign or more recent events like Paul Quinnâs murder as something that makes the party an unsavoury, or even dangerous, choice for voters in the Republic.
Sinn FĂ©in TD Martin Ferris at Castlerea Prison picking up Pearse McCauley (left) and Kevin Walsh (right), who were freed after serving their sentences for the killing of Det Garda Jerry McCabe. Photograph: Alan Betson
Sinn FĂ©in TD Martin Ferris at Castlerea Prison picking up Pearse McCauley (left) and Kevin Walsh (right), who were freed after serving their sentences for the killing of Det Garda Jerry McCabe. Photograph: Alan Betson
Some of the current crop of Sinn FĂ©in politicians were still in school and others werenât old enough to enter a classroom when the IRAâs terrorism ended. But the past is not ancient history.
Dessie Ellis TD, who topped the poll for Sinn FĂ©in in the Dublin North-West constituency, is a convicted IRA bomb maker.
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Martin Ferris, whose time as a Sinn FĂ©in TD has just come to an end, was also a convicted IRA terrorist. Gerry Adams has also just concluded his time in the DĂĄil as a Sinn FĂ©in TD and was widely regarded as a crucial figure at the top of the IRA, though he denied it. The aforementioned Conor Murphy MLA also has convictions for IRA membership and possessing explosives.
A report in 2015 on the status of terrorist groups in Ireland, commissioned by the British government and drawn up by the PSNI and MI5, featured a section on the IRA. The PSNI has told The Irish Times its appraisal of the IRA in the 2015 report remains the same today.
âThe assessment commissioned in 2015 by the then Secretary of State on Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland has not changed,â the PSNI said in reply to queries.
The PSNIâs assessment then as now is that the IRAâs structures continues to exist, albeit in a much reduced form and is committed to peaceful means and the political process rather than terrorism.
The IRA still had âa senior leadership, the âProvisional Army Councilâ (PAC), and some âdepartmentsâ with specific responsibilities,â the report said. It also found the IRA still had access to some guns, despite having decommissioned, but was not trying to procure any new ones.
The most damning section of the report for Sinn FĂ©in sets out the management position the Provisional Army Council still has over the partyâs strategy, citing IRA members as sources.
âPIRA members believe that the [Provisional Army Council] PAC oversees both PIRA and Sinn FĂ©in with an overarching strategy,â the report says. âWe judge this strategy has a wholly political focus. PIRA members have been directed to actively support Sinn FĂ©in within the community including activity like electioneering and leafleting.
âSome PIRA members are involved in gathering information of interest to the group including details of DR [dissident republican] activities and the attempted identification of covert human intelligence sources [informers].
The allegation, of unelected men effectively being the invisible power behind Sinn FĂ©in in office, is likely to continue to dog the party.
âA small number are involved in the storage of remaining weaponry in order to prevent its loss to DRs. Individual PIRA members remain involved in criminal activity, such as large-scale smuggling, and there have been isolated incidents of violence, including murders.â
The appraisal raises the question about whether Sinn FĂ©in in government in the Republic would consult with, and take direction from, the Provisional Army Council.
Cash for ash
During the so-called cash for ash scandal in Northern Ireland, email correspondence within Sinn FĂ©in as recently as 2017 showed the partyâs then finance minister MĂĄirtĂn Ă Muilleoir seeking consent for decisions from senior Republicans, including those who have been senior IRA members.
Ă Muilleoir consulted PĂĄdraic Wilson and Martin Lynch as he was considering signing off on a business plan to reduce subsidies in the renewable heating scheme, reducing its cost to the public.
Lynch was jailed for 10 years in 1982 for having a Soviet-made rocket launcher, rocket propelled grenades and firearms and was described in the Northern Assembly in 2001 as the then adjutant general of the IRA.
Wilson is a former leader of IRA prisoners at the Maze Prison where he served eight years on explosives charges. He was charged with IRA membership as recently as 2012, though never convicted. That charge related to his alleged role in so-called IRA kangaroo courts in 2002 into allegations made by two men who said they were sexually assaulted by an alleged member of the IRA.
The allegation, of unelected men effectively being the invisible power behind Sinn FĂ©in in office, is likely to continue to dog the party.
Ă Muilleoir had also asked senior republican Ted Howell if he was âcontentâ with the plan to reduce subsidies in the renewable heating scheme. Howell acted as a link contact between IRA leadership and prominent Irish Americans during the peace process in the early years.
The Garda does not publish assessments about Sinn FĂ©inâs relationship with the IRA and the current state of the IRA in the way that the PSNI and MI5 has done.
However, some Garda sources have told The Irish Times they agree with the PSNI view that one army council leadership effectively presides over Sinn FĂ©in and the IRA. And Garda sources were clear that the control by the army council was the same over Sinn FĂ©in and the IRA in the Republic as it was in the north. Some gardaĂ were concerned at the lack of support by Sinn FĂ©in in the Republic for the Special Criminal Court and the continued uneasy relationship between Sinn FĂ©in in the North and the PSNI.
Another Garda source was concerned about the treatment of MĂĄirĂa Cahill and others who were allegedly sexually abused within the Republican movement. In such cases the allegations were investigated by IRA kangaroo courts.
Garda sources believe a large group within the Republican movement still fall back on the power they derived from their IRA membership and use that power to control the communities they were from in the North.
Some gardaĂ who spoke to The Irish Times said many members of the force under the age of 40 knew very little about the IRA, had no lived experience of the Troubles, did not associate the current Sinn FĂ©in leadership with the IRA and would not regard anyone from the party as a security risk.
One source very experienced in policing in the Border and investigating terrorism said Sinn FĂ©in could not be given the justice portfolio if it got into government because some IRA members were still wanted for prosecution and were on the run.
âThe minister for justice has authority over the guards and a very clear conflict of interest could arise,â he said.
âA quasi-military forceâ
Another noted that Garda Commissioner Drew Harrisâs father, RUC superintendent Alwyn Harris, had been murdered by the IRA in 1989.
Lt Col Michael C Murphy, a now retired former deputy director of military intelligence in the Defence Forces, said it was no surprise to him that PSNI and Garda officers still believed the Provisional Army Council set strategy for the IRA and Sinn FĂ©in on both sides of the Border.
He said the goal of the Republican movement, headed by the Provisional Army Council, had always been a 32-county socialist Republic. That goal, he said, was still being pursued as rigorously as ever.
However, the Provisional Army Council had now decided to further its cause through the ballot box in the Republic and the North using its political party, Sinn FĂ©in, rather than using terrorism, he said.
âThey consider themselves the legitimate Government of Ireland and the IRA as the legitimate armed forces on the island of Ireland and everything else is an imposter,â he said of the Provisional Army Council.
He added the councilâs continued existence, its thinking and the goal it was working towards subverted the Republic as a state.
âI honestly donât think most of the people involved in politics realise what they are dealing with and I donât think the media understands either. This is a quasi military force.â
Lt Col Murphy was concerned but not surprised at David Cullinane, Sinn FĂ©in TD in Waterford, shouting âUp the Raâ after his recent election and his election agent Michael Doyle saying Sinn FĂ©inâs success in the general election had âbroken the Free Stateâ.
However, he said Doyleâs language â particularly referring to the Republic as âthe Free Stateâ that had been âbrokenâ by the surge in the Sinn FĂ©in vote â was a real insight into the Republican movementâs enduring outlook and motivation.
He added that Sinn FĂ©in were also masters at dismissing as ânonsenseâ anyone who raised questions about the party being part of a wider movement and having its strategy set by an army council.
The Irish Times put it to Sinn FĂ©in that the PSNI still believed the party and the IRA were both overseen in âan overarching strategyâ by the Provisional Army Council.
It replied in a brief statement that it would ânot be lost on people that this nonsense is again being repeatedâ.
By god.
A summary of news stories over the last 20.years thrown together as fresh news and then the Garda commissioner used to give the story substance⊠North Korea wouldnât get a look in.
Be funny if there wasnât very real consequences⊠Once again politicians in the south are willing to use the north to score points.
Scumbags.
If the IRA existed and there was proof theyâd all be locked up ffs.
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If this is important then why the fuck didnât Micheal Martin talk about this before the election? If he brings it up now heâs either the most incompetent man in Ireland or a fraud.
Strange one. The woke morons who voted for CHANGE donât care, they werenât too aware of this but this is so far removed it wonât change their minds. Maybe its an effort to remind the apathetic of the danger of not voting?
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Iâm woke and proud of it. Frankly anybody who has a functioning brain cell is woke.
Leo said he couldnât get into government with SF because if their economic policies and the Special Criminal Court. Micheal Martin said it was a moral issue because SF still said the IRA was entitled to fight during the troubles. Neither of them gave this is a reason, theyâre completely incompetent.
Strange that the article didnât mention the four lads being brought on stage at the 2003 Ard Fheis to a standing ovation.
That did happen.
Paddy Cosgrave has performed the most unexpected face turn since Nikolai Volkoff. @TheUlteriorMotive is stage 10.
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They clearly thought the electorate had it in mind and it didnât need to be highlighted but the younger voters donât. I donât see it as a fruitful strategy really. People are jaded at this stage and unlikely to be motivated to vote solely to keep the country safe from SF. Twenty years ago they absolutely would have. But SF have been running an excellent propaganda machine for years now. Adams is an evil scumbag but many know nothing more of him than the harmless grand uncle who tweets about rubber ducks. And they have preyed on peoples fears and offered themselves as the cure for those, populism in other words. I still think SF have erred in not dampening the Republican rhetoric post election, they were voted in to provide gaffs, not re unification. Their new vote couldnât care less about that.
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Every time gobshites like you open your mouth, you push any people who have the misfortune to see or hear your words further towards SF because youâre such an intensely dislikable and detestable individual. The best chance of SF falling away would be if people like you actually started supporting SF.
The more the establishment push this stale bullshit the more they are turning people towards SF. Youâd think someone would see this ⊠Itâs bizarre.
Insightful and well reasoned post, pal.
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The biggest party in this stateâs history was formed from a refusal to recognise the state and saw no problem with having a sectarian killer as Tanaiste and Minister for Finance and Foreign Affairs and saw no problem with having an unashamed Nazi supporter as TD for Tipperary for 32 years. Fine Gaelâs first leader was an actual fascist and an FG TD cheerled the Holocaust from the Dail. Even Labour had old IRA men as ministers and thatâs in the 1990s. FG saw no problem with that then.
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They also had no problem tying young irish men to a landmine and blowing them up.
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As one wag on twitter said, youâd have to credit the army council for forcing SF to adopt such progressive policies.
I hear Paul Williams was on the Ivan Yates show earlier saying army council members travel to local council meetings all over the country and give SF councillors the nod at the appropriate time as to which way to vote.
The last 10 days or so has been hilarious.
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Sid tagging me re Perennial COTY nominee Paddy Cosgrave posts on twitter.
The same twitter Sid tried to destroy TFK on
Take care lads.
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