Sunday Independent Stupid Statement of the Week March 10, 2013
Posted by Garibaldy in Sunday Independent Stupid Statement of the Week.trackback
Since its relaunch, the now atrocious Sindo website doesn’t upload the bulk of its material until the afternoon. And today, it’s Man United versus Chelsea on the TV [cue outrage from the LoI contingent no doubt 
], and there’s no chance I going through the Sindo website this afternoon. So there’s an element of do it yourself this week. Having said that, it looks like we have a clear winner available in the early batch of releases. Step forward Jim Cusack.
Not far from Beechmount is the family home of the man who is believed to be the head of the re-formed Provisional IRA. He has a considerable republican pedigree.
In recent years this man and former Provisional IRA associates has been planning the relaunch of a new campaign. His re-entry into terrorism has stimulated other former Provisionals to rejoin and become active again. The group announced their formation last summer in statements to newspapers in Belfast. Little attention was paid to the statements at the time as there had been several such announcements before as the dissident elements formed and re-formed themselves into factions. There were two groups claiming the title “Continuity” IRA, at least another two claiming the “Real” IRA title and another calling itself Oglaigh na hEireann. The newly emerging group simply calls itself the IRA. It is taking over the disparate “dissident” elements.
So the Provisional IRA is reformed and back in action. Except, reading a few lines down, it’s not really. Nothing like clear reporting.
This weekend’s Sindo ‘Business’ segment, Shane Ross boldly strikes for gold, blaming civil servants for FG/Labour policies:
“Mandarins make a bloodless coup
[...]
The Government has surrendered menacing powers to this duo [Revenue head Josephine Feehily and Finance head John Moran - EWI]. Josephine was mighty on the soft sell but she made no bones of the underlying threat. Play ball with her and she will be reasonable – but cross her and you are dead. Her band of happy taxmen will chase you to the ends of the Earth [...] She will pursue you and your assets. She darkly asserts that she expects very, very few to escape.”
But fear not, citizens! Everyman protector Shane has a solution to the devilish power of the “mandarins”:
Last week when I asked an official at the Department of Finance for a chart of who did what in the mandarin’s citadel, he brushed me off. He would only give me the names and positions of those at the top. Beyond that, they will not go.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Imagine”, came the reply, “if we published the names, phone numbers and jobs of staff. You would have the public ringing us day and night.”
Junior civil servants would welcome it,but the very idea of top “public” servants serving the public?
You must be joking.
There appears to be some disagreement in the govt. about mortgage arrears with Labour trying to take the ‘good cop’ approach.
-Social Protection Minister Joan Burton has publicly slapped down the Department of Finance’s Secretary General John Moran, whose incendiary comments on repossessions have sparked deep divisions within Government.-
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/labour-warns-fg-on-home-seizures-29120587.html
And Colm McCarthy is concerned about homeowners ripping off the State.
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/colm-mccarthy-strategic-defaulters-must-be-pursued-29120466.html
If Ireland is to win back the trust of the markets and regain national sovereignty evictions have to increase; time to bring back the battering ram.
I had a long post lined up, but I’ll keep this short: McCarthy is full of shit. Gregory Connor’s piece on Irish Economy has been acknowledged by him to be flawed in many respects. This honesty is to be commended. McCarthy ignores this and proceeds with the calumny that strategic default is above 35%. This should not be tolerated.
Although, he is letting us in on the ‘famine fatigue’ that is beginning to grip certain parts of the civil service and the economics profession.
Have to love Cusack. its fairly decent spin on behalf of the Guards, though the idea that cutting back on rural barracks will directly aid the various IRA (s) campaigns is a bit of a stretch. Interesting that the most senior special branch man in charge of dealing with the Provos quoted J. Bowyer Bell’s The Secret Army. First published 1970, revised 1979 and 1989. He read it last week.
Interesting that in the course of his artice Cusack does not say that Maguire had anything to say about “normal” cime or drug dealing. Leaving aside where these articles fit in in relation to teh GArda row, across the media there is an attempt to felon set, reading the garbage in teh Sunday Worst yesterday indicates that a certain latitude is nnow being allowed or encouraged in order to set people up. The Worst exceeded its usual standard and made no attempt to shield identies.
One of the striking things about recent events which has not been commented on is the involvement of Garda in tose events. In the 2 most recent Republican killings, Eamonn Kelly & Peter Butterly Garda appear to have been on the scene and allowed the operation to go ahead, grab the operatives and spin it out as good policing. We are on a very dangerous road where they state forces in a democracy can sit back and watch murders occurring without intervention and then move in and clean up. Its only Republicans or Drug dealers so people won’t care, as we see fron gangland killings very often the innocent are caught up. The fact taht the so called crime journalists don’t even raise this is shocking though not surprising.
Interesting observation Ghandhi.
And indeed sound observation Garibaldy. I had to educate some poor Yanks on twitter who had taken Cusacks article at face value.
Which made me wonder – what would be the “neutral” (ie neither vociforously pro or anti- SF) view on Cusack as a journalist? Is he recognised as an agenda with regard to the provisional republican movement.
Jim Cusack: co-author of two underwhelming books on the UVF and UDA (both of which give the benefit of the doubt on occasion, something he would never do with the Provos). In 2006 claimed on radio that the Gardai were afraid to use their batons at the Love Ulster riot because of liberal criticism following the Reclaim the Streets carry-on in 2003. Also claimed that sinister, older republicans coordinated the rioting in O’Connell St with ‘blue tooth’ technology.
A while later he argued in the Sindo that Gerry McGeough was just an old-school republican who was being victimised by Sinn Fein trendy lefties. Of the ‘Sinn Fein’ are on the verge of taking over the world school of ‘journalism.’
Hates the Provos, cannot write objectively about them, sorry the war’s over type.
Interestingly its only this morning that RTE seems to have noticed the conviction for assault by a Garda last friday, where other guards saw nothing, RTE was only prompted by the statement from the Garda Ombudsman, compared to the coverage given to the Japanese murder trial, first item on the news and to the Australian case. The coverage of Japan is odd, comments like family dismiss claims, family horrifed etc, without being insensitive what did they expect to hear? Is it news for instance that their departure from here to Japan was covered? All distraction news. When one looks at the coverage of Property Tax, CP2, austerity it always starts from the basis of their is no other way.
In general all of teh commentary is about how to implement it not on the core issue, this is part of the problem I was touching on last week with the paid for voluntary and quango sector, all appear to be debating but in reality are saying the same thing.