@eamonncork
Eamon Gilmore, the current Tanaiste, was, just over two decades back, a TD in a party successively led by Pronsias De Rossa and Tomas MacGiolla, both of whom had served time for IRA membership.
In fairness to Gilmore, his involvement was so tangential that he literally has no memory of the the name of the Shinner-ish party he flirted with in the early 70s. Well, at least that`s he tells Marian Finucane.
And as for Pronsias De Rossa, he was little more than a teenage fantasist when nabbed in Glencree during the Border Campaign. By the time the conflict reared up again, his branch of the IRA had largely absented itself from the fight in order to concentrate more fully on armed robbery, counterfeiting, and the sale of self-adhesive flowers.
So neither of the above have in any real sense blood on their hands, unlike some others in Sinn Fein and the ex-WP gang.
Not that this will stop your buddies in Fine Gael continuing to use Jean McConville as a political punchline every time Sinn Fein challenge their budgetary policy.
The moral gymnastics that some are capable of when it comes to Jean McConville never fails to astound.
Jean McConville wasn`t just another random victim – the manner and motivation for her murder, the subsequent actions of her murderers in denying her a decent burial for decades until her remains were discovered by accident, plus the implication of Gerry Adams by one of the perpetrators, puts it in on different plane altogether.
And in fairness to Kenny, I see no reason why he should bound by some sort of conspiracy of silence on the matter (lest those who-haven`t-gone-away-you-know might reappear on the stage), unless and until Adams comes clean about his actions at that time.
Though you probably approve of the Ballyseedy massacre, given that it’s your lads who were responsible.
Not sure what the your lads reference is all about, certainly the behaviour of the Free State Army in Ballyseedy was regrettable and probably a war crime (even if such legal concepts were much fuzzier then than now).
However I wouldn`t be alone in seeing the harsh actions of a democratically elected government, taken to preserve the state against an extistential threat, as being qualitatively different to the indiscriminate killing of civilians.
There`s a living-by-the-sword-and-dying-by-the-sword element to Ballyseedy that was certainly absent in Enniskillen and Omagh (and yes, in Greysteel and Monaghan Town, too).
Certainly I didn`t hear too much hand-wringing around this parish over Obama`s extra-judicial drone campaign, amid the back-slapping after his victory last November.
@WbS
In terms of this site being in any legal peril, I`d refer you to the pithy phrase cited by Justice Keane when dismissing the Supreme Court appeal by Beverly Cooper-Flynn against her lost libel suit:
\”The tort of defamation protects those whose reputations have been unlawfully injured. It affords little or no protection to those who have, or deserve to have, no reputation deserving of legal protection.\”