Rushlight Points Of View 
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How could anyone ever take Squinter serious again.?
(Below his blog which has been removed from his archives, did he mean it or did he not ? why did he delete it ????)
Robin Squinter: Taking a sideways look at the week
20 years on, Gerry
must face the truth. “The cruellest lies are often told in silence.” Adlai Stevenson wasn’t far wrong when he said that. Not that Squinter can be accused of keeping quiet too often, but it is the case as we prepare to bury Bap McGreevy that there are some things that are said and some things that aren’t, and one of the things that isn’t being said - publicly at least - is that it’s time for Gerry Adams to shoulder his share of the blame for the mess we’re in and stop blaming everybody else.
Adams has been the West Belfast MP for 20 years. First elected in 1983, he has served continuously since then, save for a five-year break when Joe Hendron took back the seat for the SDLP in 1992.
If a week is a long time in politics, then 20 years is the Upper Paleolithic Age. It is in that same 20-year period that the slow, steady decline into chaos in certain parts of West Belfast began, and it was on his watch that it has gathered pace to become the runaway train that it is today.
First thing to be said is that there are many people and many agencies to blame for the state of the lower Falls, to take that as an example: the Chief Constable, the Housing Executive, the courts, the Prison Service, the Probation Board, Social Services, certain local parents - the list goes on. But while Adams can and does point the finger at some or even all of the above, Squinter has to say that he has never heard Adams accepting any responsibility for the fact that large parts of his constituency are no-go areas, but without the bellbottoms, the parkas and the armalites, of course.
It definitely wasn’t Adlai Stevenson who said: “You don’t drown by falling in the water, you drown by staying there.” Whoever said it had a point. Like every one of us, Bap McGreevy fell into the water when Harry Holland was slaughtered. It was hoped back then that the wave of community disgust and horror might be fashioned into a life raft which would carry us all on a tide of community solidarity and determination to a safer shore. Didn’t happen. What happened was that Bap McGreevy was left to drown - in his own blood - while the rest of us continue to flail around hoping that we won’t go under too.
Who’s to blame for the failure to press home the Harry Holland momentum? Gerry Adams is to blame, that’s who. He’s not the only one to blame, of course. Squinter refers you back to the list above, and every one of us who complains and then pulls the curtains and turns up the TV when the sun sets is to blame in our own collective way. But Gerry Adams is the MP, has been for 20 years. He’s supposed to know how to marshal and direct; he’s supposed to give us the ideas and the leadership; he’s supposed to make things better. When he asks for and gets our votes he accepts a host of very onerous responsibilities, and the most basic of those responsibilities is to make his constituency a good place for decent people to live and for parents to bring up their families. In that he has failed terribly.
Of course the police are falling down on the job, but how long is it possible to get away with that excuse? Bears crap in the woods, fat babies fart, the Pope wears a funny hat, the Trevors are jaw-droppingly useless. Tell us something we don’t know. Gerry Adams knows a lot better than Squinter that while the PSNI might have a lot of intelligence about the people of West Belfast, they know them as well as they know the remotest tribe of Western New Guinea - and they care even less. Against that background, complaining about the PSNI not doing their job is like complaining about the cold weather we’re supposed to be getting over the Easter weekend.
And every time Sinn Féin gets together at another fist-clenching Stormont meeting (the 2008 equivalent of Long Kesh political lectures), we’re told that economic deprivation underpins the myriad social problems that are convulsing the West Belfast community. They hope nobody will think to ask whose job it has been for the past 20 years to get investment and jobs and to generate community confidence and optimism.
It wasn’t as if Adams didn’t have the clout and the contacts. A former aide of Tony Blair has been making frankly embarrassing revelations in a new book about how close Adams and Blair were. Adams was the Oprah Winfrey of Irish-America. And what did we get? InBev gone and Visteon going. A huge investment conference that holds its nose as it swishes past West Belfast ferrying ministers and Invest NI suits to Hillsborough and Cultra. Adams might have got away with pointing to the lack of investment in his constituency in 1983 and saying: “Nothing to do with me, mate.” 20 years on and you’d buy a house in Ross Street quicker than you’d buy that.
20 years. Two decades. Four parliamentary terms. Four US Presidents. Two Popes. 11 Secretaries of State. Five UN Secretary-Generals. Five Taoisigh. Five Prime Ministers. In Ross Street the wind of change blows in empty Budweiser boxes and despair; it blows out good people and hope.
As a friend bitterly told Squinter over a St Paddy’s Day pint, Ourselves Alone are not the proud and risen republican people surging shoulder-to-shoulder towards a new Ireland, but the abandoned pensioners of the lower Falls who now fear the night a million times more than they ever feared the Brits or the loyalists. And don’t tell Squinter they’re not right to be afraid. When the bad guys can kill a well-known and popular ex-prisoner who was a fit and strong body-builder, then quite frankly Squinter’s more than a little concerned himself. And so, next election day, Squinter thinks he’ll stay in the house in solidarity with those who are staying in their homes simply because they’re afraid to leave.
ADAMS RESPONDS TO THAT SQUINTER ARTICLE
A chara,
The ‘Squinter’ article of March 20, following the murder of Bap McGreevey, was both offensive and hurtful.
I am well used to and welcome criticism but I am disappointed at the tenor and tone of his tirade.
It was more reminiscent of a Sunday Independent columnist than the Andytown News.
Squinter’s advice that we should stay at home is also bad advice.
The duty of citizens is to join in the efforts to achieve more change, more jobs, better housing, and safer communities.
That’s the way forward for this constituency. Gerry Adams, MP MLA
The Andersonstown News accepts that the tone and the timing of the Squinter article last week, during a period of community mourning, was inappropriate and unnecessary and apologises to Gerry Adams and our readers for any hurt caused.—Editor. Robert Squinter Livinstone.
What Andytown News Readers Had To say
Note; how man are anonymous.. Free speech ?????
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 13:44
well said squinter. i’m a 22 year vet of the RM, voted for adams and endorsed the political direction believing it would bring a measure of social justice to our communities. now all i see is a very wealthy leadership who have abandoned west belfast to the hoods and scumbags: it is more dangerous living here than at any time during the war. but that doesn’t matter to adams and co. they have their “other” properties a million miles away from the mess they have left in west belfast. the leadership betrayed our loyalty to them. Despair is all we have left to show for our noble efforts. Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 13:55
Squinter is well named. Bad eyesight and a brain to match. Look at where we were 25 years ago when Gerry Adams was elected MP for this area and where we are today. The situation has been transformed. We are in a better place with great opportunities for the future. Are there still problems? of course there are. But it seems to me that the next election will not eb the first Squinter has stayed at home for. But then given your salary you can afford to. The rest of us will get on with trying to make a better place for our kids and Squinters as well.
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 14:41
Poor old Squinter… well seen the ‘Big Guy’ didn’t do 20 years at anything… come to think of it, how would Squinter know anything about Long Kesh lectures unless he heard about them over a pint in the Roddies? Having said that - fair’s fair - Squinter has spent all his time during Gerry A’s tenure as MP helping to turn the Andytown News from a staunch and courageous community flagship into an crappy advertising sheet for cheap labour and off-licences. And on that basis alone Squinter’s entitled to shout and squeal from the sidelines… and anyway how long is it since Squinter gave up ‘balefully’ standing on the other side of the barricades so he could sup tea in that sumptuous button back leather armchair with the Chief… ‘bout five years of retirement now, isn’t that right Squinter?
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 16:02
As a Sinn Fein activist, let me start by thanking Squinter for having the courage to honestly make his case against the leadership of my own party for letting down the people of west Belfast.
It gives me no pleasure to state that I believe he is correct in his criticisms. As republicans, we have succeeded in a number of key initiatives in the past 10 to 15 years, not least bringing an end to the war and negotiating a compromise which brought an end to centuries of British and unionist domination over nationalists. For that success, the Irish people- not least the catholic and nationalist people of the six counties- will remain indebted to the current leadership of Sinn Fein.
But our leadership has failed to date to develop the same strategic approach to what I would term ‘real politics,’ i.e. those everyday issues affecting people’s lives beyond the politics of the British-Irish conflict.
To this day, Sinn Fein has no economic policy nor economic spokesperson of note in the Assembly, which explains why the DUP has been permitted to shape economic policy for the new Executive without so much as a word from our leaders.
The leadership of Sinn Fein has never prioritised the development of imaginative, coherent and effective strategies and policies to tackle problems as diverse as tourism, enterprise, agriculture, health, transport nor education (the consequences of those failings regarding the last area being painfully obvious at this moment in time.)
Consequently, we have been left with a political leadership which has found itself exposed as the new era of ‘bread and butter’ politics has emerged.
As worrying, the similar shortcomings of a middle-ranking leadership and panel of political advisors employed by the party have been exposed, given that the expertise of these respected individuals belongs to the conflict era and not an era in which professional, political and legal expertise is the currency of worth.
For west Belfast, this has meant Sinn Fein has yet to take the initiative in developing a tourist nor economic development strategy, never mind getting beyond the type of nonsensical ramblings of one MLA recently defending the right of young thugs to not have their criminal records revealed after they turn eighteen.
I mustn’t have been alone in our community for wishing that our political leaders had’ve taken a leaf out of Ian Og’s book and use the negotiations with the Brits to bring economic investment and transport improvements to our communities!
The time has long since come for the Sinn Fein leadership to address the mammoth shortcomings within our party in terms of the failure to develop tangible policies and strategies to improve the lives of our people.
Squinter should not be lambasted for his contribution. Rather, he should be praised by genuine republicans and we in Sinn Fein should commit ourselves to delivering the policies our people deserve.
Sinn Fein activist,
West Belfast
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 17:30
Communities need leadership, that was why i supported Sinn Fein. i think Gerry Adams tries his best, but has depended on his councillors and MLAs to be the voice of communities and give leadership at local level. This is where the problem lies. For the most part they are a bunch of time wasters and play no part in the development of the upper Springfield. they will of course respond with a list of ‘we do this’ and have done this’ I went to a number of meetings attended by these so called councillors and felt they were taking up space reserved for someone with intelligence. How they were elected was anybody’s guess. The upper Springfield safer neighbourhood scheme is another farce........gerry will send them into the lower falls to initiate something there, while the murph goes into recline. Jobs for the toothless boys.
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 20:08
Is this the News Letter or Telegraph or was squinter on the swall with Willie Frazer.Well Squinter, you and your mate must of had a few jars when you started talking Politics and Gerry bashing in the Roddies on St Pats Day. I can just hear the many romantic republican tunes playing in the background eulogising all those dead and sacrificed republicans. They didn’t die so you could sing about them squinter. Maybe you should have been standing outside the off license in west Belfast with your rag of a newspaper (which will never be bought by me again) showing all the kids the latest offers off alco pops that were on sale advertised in your rag. As a young republican who has family members buried in the Milltown plot i say shame on your paper. Next time one of your papers go down the pan Mr O Mullieor don’t be asking Gerry A for help, ask squinter and the super provos he was gargling with on St Pats Day. Maybe it was Anthony Mc Intyre he was drinking with. Need I say More.
PS: Community Newspaper my Backside. Make money for O Mullieor more like it.
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 20:18
I whole-heartedly agree with the substance of Squinters article. I have been a Sinn Fein voter for the last 20 years but will never again give them my vote. I lived in the Lower Falls for all of my life and still have family living there. I fear for their safety every day and night. Whilst the Sinn Fein hierarchy have indeed abandoned us for holiday homes all over Ireland and Europe, the real residents are forced to deal with what they can’t or won’t. They have led us into a stabilised Northern Ireland with no foreseeable end, only dreams of the 32 County Socialist republic that all genuine Republicans yearn for. Yes, politics is a great career. The only difference in British Direct Rule and Stormont administration is that Sinn Fein ministers and MLA’s get the big fat cat wages. They have disgraced a noble ideology. The ultimate irony is that men like Bap McGreevy who fought to free us from British rule and to guarantee freedom for all citizens is murdered by the lowest dregs of our own society. Not British troops, not the RUC or their Loyalist proxys, but a child of people raised on his own doorstep. Maybe CRJ and Sinn Fein will organise a lunch in the Balmoral or a black tie dinner in the Europa to discuss the matter with their new comrades in the PSNI. We were better off with the IRA looking after our areas. I WISH THEY HADN’T GONE AWAY, YOU KNOW!!
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 20:28
So the mask slips. Squinter, that closet SDLP middle-class wannabe, deigns to turn his sideways look on some real issues facing the people of west Belfast. The people whose money gave him the comfortable lifestyle he enjoys courtesy of a good community paper that he and his cronies subverted for their own grubby ends and for personal profit. Robin secretly despises his own community, being the snob he is. He smarts because he wouldn’t have been able to cut it in the world of ‘real journalism’.
For once, however, instead of snide remarks about pyjamas and sideswipes at those addicted to nicotine, he uncharacteristically goes for the throat.
From this bar stool, crawthumping coward, who wouldn’t be fit to lace the boots of those he now denigrates, it is all a bit rich. Were it not for the fact that Mr Livingstone, who likes to draw a discreet veil of secrecy over his own identity, has to fill the few non-advert inches in Marty Millar’s rag then this bum would spend all his time in the Roddies having his ego massaged by those who haven’t the wit to realise that he only rubs shoulders with the snooker room crowd so that his ‘mighty intellect’ may shine.
Robin you wouldn’t know how to find your way to Ross Road or Ross Street they are just a little bit out of your normal orbit and your comfort zone. Stick to the witty remarks and to the company of the wine and cheese brigade where you feel so much more at home.
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 22:29
Squinter, Hold your nerve my friend,
in the morning pull your shoulders back and get out and about west Belfast , especially the lower whack where your own people are from, your own family are a proud republican family who have gave more than most , at such a heavy cost, this in itself gives you a definite right to say what you did ,as you thought was right, when journalists are lambasted or prevented from doing this then newspapers and indeed us all are finished, major and the free state tried it and it didnt work,i am in no way a dissident, but i have no doubt that there would be many who would love to label me one for commending you, you have just taken ONE GIANT STEP FOR WEST BELFAST! Thank you, wont be missing the atown news for a while, that is if its still there.
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 22:37
The Sinn Fein thing gets more like Animal Farm - some are more equal than others etc - the longer it goes on. Closed siopa methinks. Could someone tell me why there are 3 Councillors Maskey in the city hall? Dare I go into the QUANGOs as well? Mr Adams has fooled too many for too long - and I’m sure Squinter you will be labelled an ‘extremist’ like anyone who dared to question the strategy of the SF leadership. Gerry may have cut his teeth in the war - but in the ‘peace’ he is a political flyweight - dare I mention the elections in the 26 last year? As for Catriona.. tell her thatthe people of “Wist Billfest” know that she is a blow-in and a pretty inept one at that .. but then again .. it’s not what you know...etc
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 23:44
Bap McGreevy was killed by a member of a well known criminal family. What’s the big surprise? Nothing, except that on this occasion Robin Livingstone, who has made a career out of playing to the lowest common denominator, has eventually had the ‘dutch’ courage of his convictions and has been goaded by his beer-buddies into speaking out against Sinn Fein.
Costly mistake Squinty boy. The life of ‘haircuts’, ‘picking up at the airport’ and generally skiving and lording it over your ‘yellow-pack’ journalists may well be at an end.
At least your ‘out of character’ outburst is a step up from slagging off a mother who had the audacity to smell of drink at your daughter’s confirmation and to breath on your ‘dry-cleaned suit’ I wonder how often Bap had his suit dry cleaned?
You don’t really give a shit about Bap Robin let’s be honest. Robin you really hurt that ‘hung-over mother, who recognised herself in your obnoxious piece. You really are a sanctimonious b****** and your ex-friends in SF will now hopefully bury your non-career and Mairtin’s rag with it.
We all know who will applaud you for your anti-SF diatribe:
Dear Robin, sorry squinter, welcome to the club,
Signed by your newest and dearest friends, Malachi, Suzanne, Ed, Mackers, Eilish O’H , Pól O’M, Kevin M, Conor Cruise, Eoghan H etc, etc, etc.
Squinter writes:
Dear crew thanks a bunch all is forgiven, I hope. Home at last, your long-estranged but prodigal friend.
Anonymous Says:
21 March 2008 00:26
I was at the vigil on thursday and Squinter you must have struck a raw nerve,Alex Maskey made a comment about hiding behind a pen , I agree with some of your comments Squinter , some i don,t but is Alex Maskey now telling people not to vent their anger , or write of their fear or critisize our elected politicians through letters to papers, since the end of the war against the british or since since the new phase of the struggle our community has been attacked within murders ,rapes , robbing , death riding , drugs i, m to old to fight any more , i and people like me are scared i have served my community well the only thing that i can do is pen a letter or have a pint and give off about what is going on so Alex, Gerry , Martin and all the rest i haves been loyal all my life remove the reasons and causes of our fear , lead our people and stop using vigils to complain about your critics our lives are at stake
Anonymous Says:
21 March 2008 00:31
Your brothers and your father, who all contributed mightily to this community, would be thoroughly ashamed of you. Look into your heart sqinter stop playing to the gallery.
Squinter certainly has hit a raw nerve. Cui bono?
I am well used to and welcome criticism but I am disappointed at the tenor and tone of his tirade.
It was more reminiscent of a Sunday Independent columnist than the Andytown News.
Squinter’s advice that we should stay at home is also bad advice.
The duty of citizens is to join in the efforts to achieve more change, more jobs, better housing, and safer communities.
That’s the way forward for this constituency. Gerry Adams, MP MLA
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 13:44
well said squinter. i’m a 22 year vet of the RM, voted for adams and endorsed the political direction believing it would bring a measure of social justice to our communities. now all i see is a very wealthy leadership who have abandoned west belfast to the hoods and scumbags: it is more dangerous living here than at any time during the war. but that doesn’t matter to adams and co. they have their “other” properties a million miles away from the mess they have left in west belfast. the leadership betrayed our loyalty to them. Despair is all we have left to show for our noble efforts.
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 13:55
Squinter is well named. Bad eyesight and a brain to match. Look at where we were 25 years ago when Gerry Adams was elected MP for this area and where we are today. The situation has been transformed. We are in a better place with great opportunities for the future. Are there still problems? of course there are. But it seems to me that the next election will not eb the first Squinter has stayed at home for. But then given your salary you can afford to. The rest of us will get on with trying to make a better place for our kids and Squinters as well.
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 14:41
Poor old Squinter… well seen the ‘Big Guy’ didn’t do 20 years at anything… come to think of it, how would Squinter know anything about Long Kesh lectures unless he heard about them over a pint in the Roddies? Having said that - fair’s fair - Squinter has spent all his time during Gerry A’s tenure as MP helping to turn the Andytown News from a staunch and courageous community flagship into an crappy advertising sheet for cheap labour and off-licences. And on that basis alone Squinter’s entitled to shout and squeal from the sidelines… and anyway how long is it since Squinter gave up ‘balefully’ standing on the other side of the barricades so he could sup tea in that sumptuous button back leather armchair with the Chief… ‘bout five years of retirement now, isn’t that right Squinter?
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 16:02
As a Sinn Fein activist, let me start by thanking Squinter for having the courage to honestly make his case against the leadership of my own party for letting down the people of west Belfast.
It gives me no pleasure to state that I believe he is correct in his criticisms. As republicans, we have succeeded in a number of key initiatives in the past 10 to 15 years, not least bringing an end to the war and negotiating a compromise which brought an end to centuries of British and unionist domination over nationalists. For that success, the Irish people- not least the catholic and nationalist people of the six counties- will remain indebted to the current leadership of Sinn Fein.
But our leadership has failed to date to develop the same strategic approach to what I would term ‘real politics,’ i.e. those everyday issues affecting people’s lives beyond the politics of the British-Irish conflict.
To this day, Sinn Fein has no economic policy nor economic spokesperson of note in the Assembly, which explains why the DUP has been permitted to shape economic policy for the new Executive without so much as a word from our leaders.
The leadership of Sinn Fein has never prioritised the development of imaginative, coherent and effective strategies and policies to tackle problems as diverse as tourism, enterprise, agriculture, health, transport nor education (the consequences of those failings regarding the last area being painfully obvious at this moment in time.)
Consequently, we have been left with a political leadership which has found itself exposed as the new era of ‘bread and butter’ politics has emerged.
As worrying, the similar shortcomings of a middle-ranking leadership and panel of political advisors employed by the party have been exposed, given that the expertise of these respected individuals belongs to the conflict era and not an era in which professional, political and legal expertise is the currency of worth.
For west Belfast, this has meant Sinn Fein has yet to take the initiative in developing a tourist nor economic development strategy, never mind getting beyond the type of nonsensical ramblings of one MLA recently defending the right of young thugs to not have their criminal records revealed after they turn eighteen.
I mustn’t have been alone in our community for wishing that our political leaders had’ve taken a leaf out of Ian Og’s book and use the negotiations with the Brits to bring economic investment and transport improvements to our communities!
The time has long since come for the Sinn Fein leadership to address the mammoth shortcomings within our party in terms of the failure to develop tangible policies and strategies to improve the lives of our people.
Squinter should not be lambasted for his contribution. Rather, he should be praised by genuine republicans and we in Sinn Fein should commit ourselves to delivering the policies our people deserve.
Sinn Fein activist,
West Belfast
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 17:30
Communities need leadership, that was why i supported Sinn Fein. i think Gerry Adams tries his best, but has depended on his councillors and MLAs to be the voice of communities and give leadership at local level. This is where the problem lies. For the most part they are a bunch of time wasters and play no part in the development of the upper Springfield. they will of course respond with a list of ‘we do this’ and have done this’ I went to a number of meetings attended by these so called councillors and felt they were taking up space reserved for someone with intelligence. How they were elected was anybody’s guess. The upper Springfield safer neighbourhood scheme is another farce........gerry will send them into the lower falls to initiate something there, while the murph goes into recline. Jobs for the toothless boys.
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 20:08
Is this the News Letter or Telegraph or was squinter on the swall with Willie Frazer.Well Squinter, you and your mate must of had a few jars when you started talking Politics and Gerry bashing in the Roddies on St Pats Day. I can just hear the many romantic republican tunes playing in the background eulogising all those dead and sacrificed republicans. They didn’t die so you could sing about them squinter. Maybe you should have been standing outside the off license in west Belfast with your rag of a newspaper (which will never be bought by me again) showing all the kids the latest offers off alco pops that were on sale advertised in your rag. As a young republican who has family members buried in the Milltown plot i say shame on your paper. Next time one of your papers go down the pan Mr O Mullieor don’t be asking Gerry A for help, ask squinter and the super provos he was gargling with on St Pats Day. Maybe it was Anthony Mc Intyre he was drinking with. Need I say More.
PS: Community Newspaper my Backside. Make money for O Mullieor more like it.
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 20:18
I whole-heartedly agree with the substance of Squinters article. I have been a Sinn Fein voter for the last 20 years but will never again give them my vote. I lived in the Lower Falls for all of my life and still have family living there. I fear for their safety every day and night. Whilst the Sinn Fein hierarchy have indeed abandoned us for holiday homes all over Ireland and Europe, the real residents are forced to deal with what they can’t or won’t. They have led us into a stabilised Northern Ireland with no foreseeable end, only dreams of the 32 County Socialist republic that all genuine Republicans yearn for. Yes, politics is a great career. The only difference in British Direct Rule and Stormont administration is that Sinn Fein ministers and MLA’s get the big fat cat wages. They have disgraced a noble ideology. The ultimate irony is that men like Bap McGreevy who fought to free us from British rule and to guarantee freedom for all citizens is murdered by the lowest dregs of our own society. Not British troops, not the RUC or their Loyalist proxys, but a child of people raised on his own doorstep. Maybe CRJ and Sinn Fein will organise a lunch in the Balmoral or a black tie dinner in the Europa to discuss the matter with their new comrades in the PSNI. We were better off with the IRA looking after our areas. I WISH THEY HADN’T GONE AWAY, YOU KNOW!!
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 20:28
So the mask slips. Squinter, that closet SDLP middle-class wannabe, deigns to turn his sideways look on some real issues facing the people of west Belfast. The people whose money gave him the comfortable lifestyle he enjoys courtesy of a good community paper that he and his cronies subverted for their own grubby ends and for personal profit. Robin secretly despises his own community, being the snob he is. He smarts because he wouldn’t have been able to cut it in the world of ‘real journalism’.
For once, however, instead of snide remarks about pyjamas and sideswipes at those addicted to nicotine, he uncharacteristically goes for the throat.
From this bar stool, crawthumping coward, who wouldn’t be fit to lace the boots of those he now denigrates, it is all a bit rich. Were it not for the fact that Mr Livingstone, who likes to draw a discreet veil of secrecy over his own identity, has to fill the few non-advert inches in Marty Millar’s rag then this bum would spend all his time in the Roddies having his ego massaged by those who haven’t the wit to realise that he only rubs shoulders with the snooker room crowd so that his ‘mighty intellect’ may shine.
Robin you wouldn’t know how to find your way to Ross Road or Ross Street they are just a little bit out of your normal orbit and your comfort zone. Stick to the witty remarks and to the company of the wine and cheese brigade where you feel so much more at home.
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 22:29
Squinter, Hold your nerve my friend,
in the morning pull your shoulders back and get out and about west Belfast , especially the lower whack where your own people are from, your own family are a proud republican family who have gave more than most , at such a heavy cost, this in itself gives you a definite right to say what you did ,as you thought was right, when journalists are lambasted or prevented from doing this then newspapers and indeed us all are finished, major and the free state tried it and it didnt work,i am in no way a dissident, but i have no doubt that there would be many who would love to label me one for commending you, you have just taken ONE GIANT STEP FOR WEST BELFAST! Thank you, wont be missing the atown news for a while, that is if its still there.
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 22:37
The Sinn Fein thing gets more like Animal Farm - some are more equal than others etc - the longer it goes on. Closed siopa methinks. Could someone tell me why there are 3 Councillors Maskey in the city hall? Dare I go into the QUANGOs as well? Mr Adams has fooled too many for too long - and I’m sure Squinter you will be labelled an ‘extremist’ like anyone who dared to question the strategy of the SF leadership. Gerry may have cut his teeth in the war - but in the ‘peace’ he is a political flyweight - dare I mention the elections in the 26 last year? As for Catriona.. tell her thatthe people of “Wist Billfest” know that she is a blow-in and a pretty inept one at that .. but then again .. it’s not what you know...etc
Anonymous Says:
20 March 2008 23:44
Bap McGreevy was killed by a member of a well known criminal family. What’s the big surprise? Nothing, except that on this occasion Robin Livingstone, who has made a career out of playing to the lowest common denominator, has eventually had the ‘dutch’ courage of his convictions and has been goaded by his beer-buddies into speaking out against Sinn Fein.
Costly mistake Squinty boy. The life of ‘haircuts’, ‘picking up at the airport’ and generally skiving and lording it over your ‘yellow-pack’ journalists may well be at an end.
At least your ‘out of character’ outburst is a step up from slagging off a mother who had the audacity to smell of drink at your daughter’s confirmation and to breath on your ‘dry-cleaned suit’ I wonder how often Bap had his suit dry cleaned?
You don’t really give a shit about Bap Robin let’s be honest. Robin you really hurt that ‘hung-over mother, who recognised herself in your obnoxious piece. You really are a sanctimonious b****** and your ex-friends in SF will now hopefully bury your non-career and Mairtin’s rag with it.
We all know who will applaud you for your anti-SF diatribe:
Dear Robin, sorry squinter, welcome to the club,
Signed by your newest and dearest friends, Malachi, Suzanne, Ed, Mackers, Eilish O’H , Pól O’M, Kevin M, Conor Cruise, Eoghan H etc, etc, etc.
Squinter writes:
Dear crew thanks a bunch all is forgiven, I hope. Home at last, your long-estranged but prodigal friend.
Anonymous Says:
21 March 2008 00:26
I was at the vigil on thursday and Squinter you must have struck a raw nerve,Alex Maskey made a comment about hiding behind a pen , I agree with some of your comments Squinter , some i don,t but is Alex Maskey now telling people not to vent their anger , or write of their fear or critisize our elected politicians through letters to papers, since the end of the war against the british or since since the new phase of the struggle our community has been attacked within murders ,rapes , robbing , death riding , drugs i, m to old to fight any more , i and people like me are scared i have served my community well the only thing that i can do is pen a letter or have a pint and give off about what is going on so Alex, Gerry , Martin and all the rest i haves been loyal all my life remove the reasons and causes of our fear , lead our people and stop using vigils to complain about your critics our lives are at stake
Anonymous Says:
21 March 2008 00:31
Your brothers and your father, who all contributed mightily to this community, would be thoroughly ashamed of you. Look into your heart sqinter stop playing to the gallery.
House of Lords rules Parades Commission appointments were “unreasonable” and “unlawful”
The decision by the British Government in December 2005 to appoint two members of the Orange Order to the Parades Commission in the North was improper and unlawful, the highest British court, the House of Lords, has ruled in London today.
The ruling is the successful culmination of a two year legal campaign by the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition (GRRC) in Portadown challenging the appointments made by Peter Hain when he was Secretary of State for the North. Disclosures made during the legal battle also show that the current Secretary of State, Shaun Woodward, at the time NIO Security Minister, was also intimately involved in the unlawful appointments and decision making process.
Speaking after today’s ruling, Breandán Mac Cionnaith, spokesperson for the GRRC said:-“This ruling vindicates the stance which we have taken over the past two years. From the outset, the GRRC questioned the lawfulness of, and the motivation behind, the appointments of Mr Burrows and Mr Mackay to the Parades Commission. When this present Commission was appointed, we stated that it was far from independent, that it was essentially “a packed jury”, and that it certainly would not enjoy the full confidence of Nationalists. The government had undoubtedly set out to formulate a clear and partisan agenda which was intended to be pro-unionist, pro-Orange Order and pro-sectarian marches. The process through which it was to be delivered has now been proven to have been deeply flawed, unreasonable and wholly illegal.
“Ever since the present Parades Commission took up office in January 2006, British Government ministers, along with the Commission’s chair, Roger Poole, publicly and robustly defended what have now been proven to be totally unlawful appointments. Peter Hain’s failed underhand attempt to create an unlawful imbalance within the Parades Commission reinforces suspicions that elements in the British government intended to reverse some of those hard-won changes which have been achieved by local communities in the Six Counties over the past decade.
“It is clear that British ministers in the North of Ireland operate with a cavalier attitude towards the law and today’s ruling underlines that fact."
Joe Duffy, who initiated the court case, said:- “During the past two years, British Government ministers publicly accused us of mischief making and of putting factional interests first. Others, including Roger Poole, chose to defend the indefensible. Our approach all along has been one of integrity and principle. That approach has now been vindicated by the British Law Lords, one of whom, Lord Brown, specifically states in his published ruling that the residents’ position in relation to this whole appointments controversy was the correct one.”
“Had Peter Hain attempted to gerrymander the make-up of a comparable public body dealing with inter-community conflicts in Britain by openly appointing members of a racist organisation to it, he would have been pilloried by his colleagues in the British Labour movement. But it appears that within the Six Counties, such unlawful gerrymandering is deemed to be the norm. Moreover, the British Government is content to spend vast amounts of taxpayers’ money trying to defend their own illegal actions.
“Transparency is essential in decision making bodies if the bridges of trust and understanding are to be built in the North; equality in the access to justice is paramount and unimpeachable fairness and justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done. The British Government failed each of those tests in this case.”
Mac Cionnaith added:-“Today’s ruling places a major question mark over the manner in which the Commission handled this controversy and how it has conducted its own internal arrangements. There are still major issues to be resolved regarding this present Parades Commission, not least of which is how it restores the credibility and integrity enjoyed by the previous Commission. A clear starting point must be the re-establishment by the Commission of its impartiality and its independence from the British Government, rather than its willingness to collude in implementing clearly biased agendas. If that means further changes to the current personnel, then that is the step which must be taken in light of the House of Lords’ ruling today.
“We are aware that the Commission took its own legal advice to examine how conflicts of interests are dealt with. On the basis of that advice, Roger Poole and his colleagues unlawfully concluded that, provided the interest was declared and taken into account in the Commission’s decision making process, those who had declared a conflict of interest could fully discharge their duties as Commissioners. We believe that today’s ruling now places the collective competency of the chair and other members of the Commission under the spotlight.”
Concluding, Joe Duffy said:-“Our legal team had to overcome a number of major hurdles, not least of which was the decision by the Belfast Court of Appeal to refuse to allow us leave to have this case tested in the House of Lords. However, they successfully petitioned the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords in 2006. Much of today’s outcome rests upon their ability, diligence and efforts and we congratulate them for that."
Seamus Heaney is A Great Poet but he has a short memory
BBC. Local News 7th December 2007 ..On returning on an nostalgic visit to his childhood school, Anahorish Primary School, Co. Derry, Seamus Heaney, the Poet Laureate, “discovered" that his name in the roll book was actually “James” Heaney, he explained to the camera that his parents had no particular ethnic reason for one or the other James or Seamus...but his baptism certificate they had him listed as Seamus... What Seamus didn’t explain, and well he would have known, is that his parents , under the six counties laws were forbidden to have him registered as “Seamus”,which is the Irish for James, and so all James and Sean's were listed as James and John, but called Seamus or Sean by their family and friends. Being a schoolteacher I am sure Seamus would have known that, and he must surely reflect on the fact that the same law required him to take an oath of allegiance to the Queen before he could become a teacher. I recall a time when he objected at being included in a book of British Poets, and uttered these lines,
'Be advised, my passport's green. No glass of ours was ever raised, To toast the Queen'. Even a cleaner in the Royal Victoria Hospital had to take an oath of allegiance to the Queen. These issues were part of the Civil Rights Issues for which we fought hard and sore for, we had them abolished after a hard brutal struggle about 1972, and so, should not be so easily forgotten by anyone. All you Sean's and Seamus's, Bronagh's etc, etc, owe a debt of gratitude to the Civil Rights Association, for all those issues is what we fought for and achieved before the 30 year war even started.