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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that the timing of Gerry Adam's arrest does stink a bit?

299 replies

ClubName · 05/05/2014 08:53

I despise the man and hope they have enough on him to let him rot, throw away the key etc

But, whatever they have it's not new (not new this week anyway) and I can see why he and his supporters think the timing of his arrest is political.

More importantly, unless he does end up in prison for a long time (which sadly I doubt) this whole business is just going to enhance his popularity and build the case that the PSNI aren't impartial Sad

OP posts:
JanineStHubbins · 05/05/2014 21:03

That's ok, treaclesoda, I don't think there are necessarily any easy answers to those questions. But I do think the blithe 'they should just campaign within the law' answer comes from a position of deep privilege.

Waltermittythesequel · 05/05/2014 21:05

Gany it's ignorance, I think.

Most people in Britain have no idea what really went on because they were shielded from it.

scarlettsmummy2 · 05/05/2014 21:07

Firstly- I equally don't understand how anyone supports Peter Robinson or the DUP either!
Secondly- I don't think it is self righteous to believe that Catholics should have campaigned and protested only, rather than turn to the PIRA to sort out the prolonged discrimination. The British Army went in to protect the protestors originally and agreements for equally rights were being made (admittedly not without challenges) but from my understanding, it wasn't long before the PIRA started their campaign and the ground shifted considerably.

BruthasTortoise · 05/05/2014 21:08

Nope, not even one bit verystressedmum. Or at least not the RoI as it is now. What I would like to see in the long tern is Westminster to step completely out of NI, it complete galls me that there will most likely never be a PM or indeed any Cabinet minister from NI, but that would involve the bozos at Stormont upping their game which is probably going to take at least another generation.

scarlettsmummy2 · 05/05/2014 21:11

I actually think it would be better to just go back to complete direct rule from Westminster as there are too many fuckwits in stormant on both sides to actually do a decent job. The vast majority of them should be shipped off to an island somewhere.

Waltermittythesequel · 05/05/2014 21:11

but from my understanding

In all fairness your understanding hasn't been terribly reliable on this thread.

Catholics did protest peacefully. They didn't turn en masse to the PIRA as some sort of beacon of hope.

scarlettsmummy2 · 05/05/2014 21:15

Walter- I didn't say they did. But equally it angers me that Sinn Fein/ IRA get so much support as what they did was so so wrong! What is wrong with voting in SDLP?

treaclesoda · 05/05/2014 21:15

I don't want direct rule from Westminster! That leaves us with next to no say in anything that affects us.

Stormont is indeed full of self serving loathsome holier than thou types, but at least they have some understanding of what it is to live here...

scarlettsmummy2 · 05/05/2014 21:16

I was joking about direct rule.. Just that even that would be better than the current pile of bigots and ex terrorists.

ihatethecold · 05/05/2014 21:25

walter
I think you're right, I just remember the news when I was growing up would focus on IRA bad cop! British army good cop.

I learnt nothing about the troubles that is being talked about on here.

VeryStressedMum · 05/05/2014 21:31

I know a lot about it now but when I was young (not even that young, early 20s) I never knew there was another side in NI, I'd only ever heard of the IRA.

BruthasTortoise · 05/05/2014 21:31

There's an interesting article I read in a journal about the Hierarchy of Victims in the Troubles (can't remember the author, it might've been Richard English but possibly not). Essentially it was argued that at the top of the hierarchy are civilians killed on English soil which is why there is so much more focus on the civilians murdered by the PIRA than any other group. Since the PIRA were the only group to kill anyone on the Mainland they became in many people's minds the only villains of the piece.

scarlettsmummy2 · 05/05/2014 21:35

I did law at Queens, having attended a predominantly Protestant grammar school from age 4-18. I got quite an awakening in my criminal law tutorials being one of only two Protestants out of eighteen. Internship was a particular eye opener.

scarlettsmummy2 · 05/05/2014 21:36

Sorry internment! Silly spell check.

JanineStHubbins · 05/05/2014 21:37

Don't mean to be rude, scarlettsmummy, but it's internment! Internship is when people do a job without pay to gain experience. Internment is when people are imprisoned without trial.

JanineStHubbins · 05/05/2014 21:38

xpost.

Interesting, though, that you didn't learn about internment until you went to university. Surely part of the solution has to be integrated education and some sort of an agreed and shared curriculum.

treaclesoda · 05/05/2014 21:39

Scarlett going to Queens at all was a bit of an eye opener when you came from a predominantly Protestant grammar school!

wigglesrock · 05/05/2014 21:41

People stopped voting for the SDLP because they took their eye of the ball. They were the biggest Catholic backed political party at one time & they coasted. They forgot about grass roots politics, they didn't spend the time or money trying to appeal to new voters. They became staid, happy with the status quo. And then a more "vibrant" political party began to gain ground, encouraged voters, came from local communities, continued to live in those communities. The SDLP seemed out of touch, a party full of doctors, lecturers, men who let their opportunity slip by. It's a great shame, there were good decent SDLP politicians but in fighting and complacency scuppered them and they feel very irrelevant now & that's their own doing.

VeryStressedMum · 05/05/2014 21:42

Treaclesoda, why would that be?

scarlettsmummy2 · 05/05/2014 21:42

Yes. There weren't many of us Protestants. I remember being horrified when Sinn Fein had a lot of support around the campus!

Also know the difference between internment and internship- hence LLB. But, no , we didn't do any Irish history passed second year. I got an A in A level history but again no Irish history.

treaclesoda · 05/05/2014 21:55

verystressedmum because there was a lot of intimidation of Protestants in the halls of residence. I
Didn't happen to me personally , thankfully, but I had a couple of school friends who suffered terribly, with things such as having shit smeared on their door handle etc. But Protestants were outnumbered by about four to one in the hall I lived in, and in the two others that I spent a lot of time in.

scarlettsmummy2 · 05/05/2014 21:59

I lived at home and didn't really enjoy Queens at all. The course was ok, but all of those from school who were at queens stuck together and didn't really integrate. I found the others in my tutorials very different to my usual social group to be completely honest.

VeryStressedMum · 05/05/2014 22:03

Oh I see, where were all the protestants then? Is it still like that do you think?

treaclesoda · 05/05/2014 22:04

I'm only in touch with one person who I met at Queens. Everyone else who I know from Queens I knew already from school. People did tend to stick together, right down to Catholics sharing houses with Catholics (and living in the Holylands) and Protestants sharing houses with Protestants (and living on the Lisburn Road). And I don't think people set out to do it, it just happened.

JanineStHubbins · 05/05/2014 22:07

I was just going to post about the de facto segregation you get between the Holylands and Lisburn Rd (with Stranmillis a type of in-between zone). It's very problematic, but I'm not sure what Queens can do about it.