Martin McGuinness to run for Irish Presidency

[Caoimhin]

Martin McGuinness to run for Irish presidency

Sinn Féin to announce deputy first minister of Northern Ireland and former IRA chief of staff Martin McGuinness' bid to become head of state in Irish Republic



Martin McGuinness, the former IRA chief-of-staff who is now deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, is to run for the Irish presidency.

Sinn Féin will announce his bid to succeed fellow northerner Mary McAleese as head of state in the Irish Republic later tonight.

The Sinn Féin MP who admitted he was the Provisional IRA's second-in-command in Derry during Bloody Sunday will hold a press conference on Sunday explaining why he is standing for president.

But senior sources in Belfast were stressing that McGuinness' decision to stand in the presidential race south of the border would not destabilise the power-sharing executive back at Stormont.

McGuinness has built up a close personal relationship with Peter Robinson, the Democratic Unionist first minister in the five-party coalition in Northern Ireland.

Although McGuinness will have to step down temporarily from the post as deputy first minister during the three-week long presidential campaign sources said that would be "mess but not a crisis" for the power-sharing government in Belfast.

Whilst he is likely to increase Sinn Féin's national share of the vote in the Republic above the 9% it gained in this year's general election McGuinness is not expected to win the presidential contest.

In the intervening three weeks before polling day in the Republic McGuinness may well be temporarily replaced as deputy first minister by another Sinn Féin figure possibly the Newry and Armagh MP, and former IRA prisoner Conor Murphy.

The Derry-born former IRA commander's entry into the presidential election will inevitably raise questions about his past inside the Provisionals. The Guardian revealed earlier this week in documents it had obtained containing evidence from a former military intelligence officer Ian Hurst alleging that McGuinness was aware of the murder plot against two top police officers in 1989.

Hurt's testimony to the Smithwick Inquiry into alleged Garda-IRA collusion includes claims that British state agent Freddie Scappaticci was centrally involved in the plot and reported directly to McGuinness who was then on the IRA's council.

If McGuinness were to be elected as head of state it would mark a career during which he had been chief of staff of AN organisation outlawed in both Northern Ireland and the Republic and ends up being chief of staff of the officially recognised Irish Defence Forces.

[Jolly Red Giant]

Maybe they can haul out Paisley and re-unite the Chuckle Brothers for one last performance.

:cool:

[Jimmy Haddow (SPS)]

“If McGuinness were to be elected as head of state it would mark a career during which he had been chief of staff of AN organisation outlawed in both Northern Ireland and the Republic and ends up being chief of staff of the officially recognised Irish Defence Forces."

Not unusual of non-left individual’s involved in Individual Terrorists groups to end up as the head of a capitalist state. Just look at Menachem Begin who was one of the leaders of the Irgun organisation before and during the battle of the State of Israel that was involved in individual terrorist action against the British, that included the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in July 1946 with 91 people, both military and civilian of many nationalities, were killed and 46 were injured. Menachem Begin became the Prime Minister in June 1977 to October 1983 and became a ‘statesman’ over the Camp David Accord in 1978 and signing the Israel Egypt Peace Treaty in 1979 which lead to the disastrous events within Lebanon and for the Palestinian people.

[Jolly Red Giant]

Borrowing a comment from another left-wing forum:

'8 out of 10 warmongers prefer Martin McGuinness'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGDoq1G9Fdo

[Jolly Red Giant]

Martin McGuinness was on the RTE news at one o'clock today declaring that on the day his candidacy was announced he was sitting in Wall St. with ‘executives’.

[ProletarianResurrection]

Borrowing a comment from another left-wing forum:

'8 out of 10 warmongers prefer Martin McGuinness'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGDoq1G9Fdo

And the British Labour Party were oh so innocent the years that the CWI was deep into it? :rolleyes:

Fuck Shame Fein though.

[Soldier of life]

Martin McGuinness was on the RTE news at one o'clock today declaring that on the day his candidacy was announced he was sitting in Wall St. with ‘executives’.

Everyone knows SF are no socialists.

But also, would you and your ULA comrades put a muzzle on RBB, talk about soft left supporting David Norris. Michael D is further to the left than him!

[ProletarianResurrection]

Everyone knows SF are no socialists.

But also, would you and your ULA comrades put a muzzle on RBB, talk about soft left supporting David Norris. Michael D is further to the left than him!

SF and the ULA are cut from the same "left-populist" cloth.

[Crux]

And the British Labour Party were oh so innocent the years that the CWI was deep into it? :rolleyes:

Fuck Shame Fein though.
Are you insinuating that the Labour Party was, at one time, controlled by the CWI? :rolleyes:

[Jolly Red Giant]

Commenting after the latest significant jobs announcement in the north, this time from Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC), Irish Presidential candidate and former deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said:

“When I first became deputy First Minister four years ago we prioritised growing the economy and job creation as the main plank of our Programme for Government. Alongside Ministerial colleagues I have been central in bringing about thousands of new sustainable jobs to the north. This week alone we have seen the announcement from Capita for 330 new positions in Belfast and the announcement today of over 200 graduate positions by PwC.

“This is all welcome news. And I am confident that in the time ahead we will see further announcements resulting from the recent trade mission which Peter Robinson and myself conducted in the USA in the last fortnight.

“This tells me that Ireland is an attractive place for foreign companies to invest in if the right political and economic pitch is made. My record alongside the First Minister over the past four years is evidence of this.

“In that time through direct contact in boardrooms in the United States we have attracted amongst others corporations of the stature of CitiBank, New York Stock Exchange, Universal, HBO, Allstate and Dow Chemicals to the north. This is work I want to continue as President. I am confident that I could have direct access to any boardroom in the United States and elsewhere as a salesman for Ireland.

“Ireland needs jobs, I have a proven track record of delivering them.”

http://www.thepeoplespresident.ie/contents/29

[Coggeh]

Everyone knows SF are no socialists.

But also, would you and your ULA comrades put a muzzle on RBB, talk about soft left supporting David Norris. Michael D is further to the left than him!
The ULA is not a political party.
RBB is not in the SP.
And the reason we nominated David Norris was because he was 20% in the polls and the establishment parties were blocking him from running. It was in the interests of democracy. We do not support nor do we call on people to vote for him. I know I won't. RBB can do what he likes I don't care.

[Dzerzhinsky's Ghost]

I know nothing of Irish politics, I just find it hilarious that he has Guinness in his name and is so named McGuinness as if he was Lord of the Guinness.

[Jolly Red Giant]

Comments by McGuinness when he was Minister for Education and cheerleading privatisation within the education system -

“PFI contracts highlights the opportunities for partnership with the private sector in the pursuit of good value for money and the effective use of resources to meet the needs of schools.”

“It is now clear that PFI does offer real potential for value for money solutions to the pressing capital investment needs of our schools generally. My Department will, over the coming months, be consulting with schools authorities and other interested bodies, on its plans for the extended future use of PFI in conjunction with conventional capital new starts”.

"My Department has proved that PPP is a viable method of procuring facilities for young people - just last month the last of four pathfinder projects opened its doors to pupils. My Department will continue to work with school authorities to ensure that the best use can be made of PPP in tackling the backlog in the schools estate. Building on last year’s PPP announcement, I have decided to include two PPP clusters in this year’s capital programme. This will be subject to a value for money deal being secured with the private sector.”

“This is a challenging but exciting project, which will for the first time bring together controlled and integrated school sectors working together within PPP to procure new facilities without in any way compromising the ethos or management of the individual schools and I would hope to pursue this approach further in the future.”

“These two clusters represent new approaches to using PPP and I believe that the Department and the school authorities should continue to explore the opportunities provided by PPP.”

PFI = Private finance Initiatives
PPP = Public Private Partnerships

The PFI’s introduced by McGuiness when he was Minister for Education and Sinn Fein's Barbre deBrun as Health Minister have proved to be a disaster. Reports published on the PFI’s have indicated that the buildings were poorly designed, badly built (to the point of being unsafe), badly run and the cost for repairing the faults will be borne by the Northern Irish taxpayer. At the same time private companies are making super-profits on the back of PFI’s while hospitals are near bankruptcy.

[Soldier of life]

The ULA is not a political party.
RBB is not in the SP.
And the reason we nominated David Norris was because he was 20% in the polls and the establishment parties were blocking him from running. It was in the interests of democracy. We do not support nor do we call on people to vote for him. I know I won't. RBB can do what he likes I don't care.

1/ I know RBB is not in the SP, I didn't say otherwise

2/ I know the SP have not endorsed Norris but merely nominated him, which is fair enough for the reason you outlined, hence why I didn't mention it.

3/ You should care what RBB does, he is in the ULA which while not being a political party, means that the SP and Pb4P are linked in the public mind. Why would the SP link up with the most prominent member of the other primary constituent member of the ULA if they don't care what he does? Perhaps that is just your own personal flippancy.

Whether the SP like it or not they are part of the ULA and are now linked to all comments by ULA representatives as far as people are concerned. If someone was to say otherwise it would be to deny reality. But ye can ***** all ye want about SF, but your comrades in the ULA could do with a smack for endorsing someone who is hardly a tribune of the working class and rather bizarrely, wants Ireland back in the British commonwealth.

[Jolly Red Giant]

Whether the SP like it or not they are part of the ULA and are now linked to all comments by ULA representatives as far as people are concerned. If someone was to say otherwise it would be to deny reality. But ye can ***** all ye want about SF, but your comrades in the ULA could do with a smack for endorsing someone who is hardly a tribune of the working class and rather bizarrely, wants Ireland back in the British commonwealth.
The ULA is an alliance of a number of groups and individuals. The Socialist Party has no control over what RBB or the SWP say or do. Should RBB be 'endorsing' Norris - of course not - but its par for the course for the SWP who constantly give a platform to what they consider 'progressives'. The debate within the ULA is very much along these lines - with the Socialist Party arguing for a clear socialist programme and the SWP arguing for what could be classed as a softer progressive liberal approach.

[Soldier of life]

The ULA is an alliance of a number of groups and individuals. The Socialist Party has no control over what RBB or the SWP say or do. Should RBB be 'endorsing' Norris - of course not - but its par for the course for the SWP who constantly give a platform to what they consider 'progressives'. The debate within the ULA is very much along these lines - with the Socialist Party arguing for a clear socialist programme and the SWP arguing for what could be classed as a softer progressive liberal approach.

Yeah I'm aware of that debate and agree with the SP on it, the SWP are such a rag-tag mix of liberal soft lefties. But sure who am I to question Yigael Gluckstein:blushing:

[Devrim]

But sure who am I to question Yigael Gluckstein:blushing:

Seeing as he has been dead for over a decade I'd presume you would have to be a medium of some sort. ;)

Devrim