These Irish eyes are smiling at White House snub of IRA

Chicago Sun Times ^ | March 13, 2005 | MARK STEYN

[Semper Paratus]

The Sinn Fein party in Ireland is as popular as the one Al-Sadr leads in Iraq.

[bert]

He didn't mention Ron Flyn, the IRA fund raiser in America.

[aculeus]

You're not impressed with Steyn, or do I misunderstand?

I love Steyn. It's just that he told Brian Lamb on CSPAN that one of his ancestors came from Poland and now he says he's Irish American. My guess: he's Irish on his mother's side.

[niteowl77]

Adding insult to injury, McNamara ends decades of obscurity with a downright creepy book, after which the left miraculously bestows "older, wiser" status on him. I liked it better when he was gone.

[aculeus]

Oops. Now I see where I went wrong.

I thought you were praising Peter King, not Mark Steyn!

My error.

[elhombrelibre]

I kind of thought that, and it's a problem with these threads and especially if someone, say me, starts comments about someone with a pronoun rather than the name of the subject (the old pronoun antecedent problem). You'd like Behan's writing, but sadly he drank himself to death. He was quite a wag. I understood that you didn't like King's championing of the IRA. He needs to wake up.

[Happygal]

Steyn is saying exactly what the Irish Freepers on these boards have been saying for years.

It's a pity that there are still so many (yes, even on FR) who look upon the Northern Ireland 'situation' with some throw-back romanticism.

[elhombrelibre]

Yeah, I think the two parties share a similar minority of respect today. But the problem is, and I'm sure you know this, there was a time when the IRA was much respected, especially in the South. But too many Irish-Americans are basically unaware of the way the IRA treats people, especially how it treats Catholics in the North (the purported people they're supposed to be protecting!). They also don't know how the IRA today works with drug dealers, terrorists in Colombia, or how they rob banks (the biggest bank robbery in history), and on and on.

[elhombrelibre]

I've been saying much of that tonight too. It's good to have a lass from the auld sod chime in.

[Madame Dufarge]

This article didnt mention any connections with Senator Fat Ted.

It appears that the esteemed Senator from Massachusetts is furiously backpedaling.

"WASHINGTON - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy yesterday abruptly reversed course and joined the White House in canceling his St. Patrick's Day meeting this week with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams."

IRA atrocity triggers Teddy's St. Pat's snub

[aculeus]

You'd like Behan's writing, but sadly he drank himself to death. He was quite a wag.

I read a lot of Behan and watched him interviewed on television (by Murrow who should have cancelled the interview) while blind drunk.

I do remember his beautiful putdown of a snotty Canadian who was sneering at the US space effort, telling him Ireland will put a shillelagh in orbit before Canada does anything worth noticing.

[Semper Paratus]

But too many Irish-Americans are basically unaware of the way the IRA treats people

When I worked in Boston in the '70s I was familiar with the Northern Irish "Relief" associations that fed the beast.

[Madame Dufarge]

Remember the old Rabbit Inn in South Boston?

[Semper Paratus]

Remember the old Rabbit Inn in South Boston?

Didn't have the pleasure.

[Madame Dufarge]

A hotbed of IRA fundraising.

[Semper Paratus]

A hotbed of IRA fundraising.

I bet! Would never go into a Southie bar without a 'regular' with me.

[TigersEye]

That was exactly my take on that photo!

[finnigan2]

I saw a documentary some time ago about the Irish situation and the long running IRA/ British Army "war". It used interviews with current and ex- IRA members, SAS undercover officers (all with concealed identities) and government officials.
The IRA types admitted that Thatcher's policy of infiltration and assassination of key IRA Provos had that organization on it's last legs in the early nineties. What surprised me most was that some of the most effective SAS "spies" doing the most dangerous undercover assignments were women.
Anyway,when Blair took office he canceled Thatcher's plans and embarked on the present course of accommodation (ably assisted by Clinton, who never met a terrorist he didn't want to appease).
Given the respite, the IRA regrouped and renewed itself and turned itself into the killing machine we see today.
Unless both governments in Ireland conduct an overnight lightening round up of all known Sinn Fein/IRA members (and they do know who they all are),they will never defeat this menace to Ireland's freedom from terror.

[Clara Lou]

I do remember his beautiful putdown of a snotty Canadian who was sneering at the US space effort, telling him Ireland will put a shillelagh in orbit before Canada does anything worth noticing.
That comment is priceless! LOL! (It's true, too.)

[Bombay Bloke]

Actually, it was John Major who began the current policy of accommodation. Blair continued it.