Pauline Mellon looks at the shenanigans that pass for politics in the North's sectarian carve-up. Pauline Mellon is a rights activist and justice campaigner in the North West. She Blogs at The Diary of A Derry Mother.


The past few weeks in this grubby little statelet we call home have been quite eventful and needless to say not in a very positive way. We have had Stormont Ministers paying political football over the long & disputed savage welfare reform legislation, alleged nefarious plots and plans of rocket attacks against the Deputy First Minister and the SDLP, one of the most inoffensive middle class parties on the face of God's green earth gaining the dissident tag from a former dissident himself the Deputy First Minister. In all seriousness there are things listed here that even the most imaginative of people just could not make up.


On February 10th amidst discussions over the Welfare Reform Bill the DUP were accused by the Ulster Unionist's Roy Beggs of "killing off discussion” when they tabled a series of petitions of concern against amendments to the bill. Beggs went even further describing their undemocratic actions as “shameful”, which in the grand scheme of things is a pretty mild term to use.

A member of the SDLP's "dissident" faction Alex Attwood accused the DUP of trying to run a "coach and horses" through proposed amendments with their continual use of petitions of concern. The DUP are famous for their use of petitions of concern as was witnessed and criticised during the Nelson McCausland and Red Sky fiasco at the end of which every Stormont party with the exception of the DUP agreed with a Stormont monitoring committee that Nelson had indeed deliberately misled MLA's.

Later on Feb 10th and true to form Sinn Fein rose in support of their BFFs the DUP when the Deputy First Minister accused SDLP members of defying their leadership and political grandstanding. This came after the SDLP submitted amendments to elements of the Welfare Reform Bill. It was in the middle of his little outburst that Mr McGuinness referred to “dissident” elements within the SDLP adding that their submission of amendments could potentially risk the collapse of both the Stormont House agreement and the institutions themselves.

It seems very convenient that the SDLP have been given the dissident label at this point. Could it be an attempt to erode support for Mark Durkan in Derry who receives widespread cross community support or is it just the age old tactic of ignoring the message and demonising the messenger? Considering Sinn Fein has in the past accused journalists of being dissidents, this does not surprise me. I'm just waiting until Martin doesn't get strawberry sauce or the right type of sprinkles on his ice cream, at which point we could have dissident ice cream men. No matter what way you look at it, it's very pitiful!




It might be an idea for Sinn Fein to look at their own political grandstanding as they continue to falsely promise people support in resisting and opposing Tory Cuts yet at the same time implement savage cuts to services and welfare reform.. Maybe they could explain how the millions of pounds set aside to cushion those most affected by Welfare Reform is actually money which will have to be repaid to the British Treasury on top of the already crippling debts Stormont has accrued in our names.


100 School closures -Thank SF

Furthermore as former Education minister and senior member of the party which has held that office since the Assembly was formed Martin could explain his party's audacity in standing in support of St Mary's and Stranmillis teacher training colleges when Sinn Fein through their successive Education Ministers have closed over 100 schools in the north leaving existing schools oversubscribed.

Finally Sinn Fein might want to take time to explain the story of Patsy Gillespie to their Foyle Westminster Candidate Gerry O'Hara who recently claimed at an event attended by children to be unaware of what was one of the most heinous acts of the troubles. Patsy Gillespie was tied to a vehicle and forced to drive a bomb to a British Army checkpoint as his family were held hostage at gunpoint. Maybe when attending policing board meetings Gerry would be better using a search engine to keep to date with what's happening in the city he wants to represent by not taking his seat instead of playing cards on his i-pad. Listen to Gerry below.





Now on a separate issue Sinn Fein this week have voiced their outrage and concern over yet another alleged threat against the Deputy First Minster. No one should feel under threat or have violence visited upon them, however from a personal perspective it seems that these threats are often timely in that they occur mostly around election time. Whilst I do not condone a threat against anyone's life I find it ludicrous that people are expected to believe that Mr McGuinness is today more under threat from members of his own community than he ever was from State Forces and their Loyalist associates. The more cynical side of me wonders if these threats are also concocted to deflect public attention from real issues.

Issues such as the ill treatment of political prisoners in Maghaberry which seems to have escaped the notice of many of our elected representatives including those who built their electoral success on the prison issue. The recent events in Maghberry saw, as Raymond McCartney calls them 'political prisoners' being severely beaten, denied medical treatment and denied legal visits. Yet at two recent events in Derry to raise awareness of the prison issue the closest Sinn Fein and indeed SDLP members got to the protest was when the drove past for a nosey. They seem to forget that 10 men died and many were brutalised on the blanket protest to fight against criminalisation and ill treatment, and they also forget that as the violence against prisoners increased inside the jails, the violence on the outside increased, clearly the lessons of history have not been learned or if learned have been forgotten...

Maybe this memory loss is contagious, Gerry O'Hara can't remember Patsy Gillespie, Gerry Adams forgets he was in the Provos, and Martin McGuinness just forgets himself, and at the same time hopes people forget promises such as the 2013 petition of concern he said he would raise against the bedroom tax. Sinn Fein also guaranteed the expansion of the Magee University last Westminster election, still waiting on that! Cuts to the University would explain why there was cross party support for the upgrade of the Derry to Coleraine railway line, as outside of this service it's quicker to cycle to Belfast than go by train.

If you consider the promised benefits that were to come to the city on the back of project kelvin, which later went to Coleraine it stands to reason that they would upgrade the railway line out of the city as they're certainly not bringing jobs in. This unfortunate situation is compounded by the lack of parking at the Waterside railway station. I would say that people could use the multi million pound car park funded by OFMDFM but unfortunately it's closed to the public...

In the run up to the 2010 Wesminster election both the SDLP and Sinn Fein signed the following manifestos on the Guildhall Sq in Derry. Over to you the voting public?





Those Who Shout the Loudest Are Only Shouting

Pauline Mellon looks at the shenanigans that pass for politics in the North's sectarian carve-up. Pauline Mellon is a rights activist and justice campaigner in the North West. She Blogs at The Diary of A Derry Mother.


The past few weeks in this grubby little statelet we call home have been quite eventful and needless to say not in a very positive way. We have had Stormont Ministers paying political football over the long & disputed savage welfare reform legislation, alleged nefarious plots and plans of rocket attacks against the Deputy First Minister and the SDLP, one of the most inoffensive middle class parties on the face of God's green earth gaining the dissident tag from a former dissident himself the Deputy First Minister. In all seriousness there are things listed here that even the most imaginative of people just could not make up.


On February 10th amidst discussions over the Welfare Reform Bill the DUP were accused by the Ulster Unionist's Roy Beggs of "killing off discussion” when they tabled a series of petitions of concern against amendments to the bill. Beggs went even further describing their undemocratic actions as “shameful”, which in the grand scheme of things is a pretty mild term to use.

A member of the SDLP's "dissident" faction Alex Attwood accused the DUP of trying to run a "coach and horses" through proposed amendments with their continual use of petitions of concern. The DUP are famous for their use of petitions of concern as was witnessed and criticised during the Nelson McCausland and Red Sky fiasco at the end of which every Stormont party with the exception of the DUP agreed with a Stormont monitoring committee that Nelson had indeed deliberately misled MLA's.

Later on Feb 10th and true to form Sinn Fein rose in support of their BFFs the DUP when the Deputy First Minister accused SDLP members of defying their leadership and political grandstanding. This came after the SDLP submitted amendments to elements of the Welfare Reform Bill. It was in the middle of his little outburst that Mr McGuinness referred to “dissident” elements within the SDLP adding that their submission of amendments could potentially risk the collapse of both the Stormont House agreement and the institutions themselves.

It seems very convenient that the SDLP have been given the dissident label at this point. Could it be an attempt to erode support for Mark Durkan in Derry who receives widespread cross community support or is it just the age old tactic of ignoring the message and demonising the messenger? Considering Sinn Fein has in the past accused journalists of being dissidents, this does not surprise me. I'm just waiting until Martin doesn't get strawberry sauce or the right type of sprinkles on his ice cream, at which point we could have dissident ice cream men. No matter what way you look at it, it's very pitiful!




It might be an idea for Sinn Fein to look at their own political grandstanding as they continue to falsely promise people support in resisting and opposing Tory Cuts yet at the same time implement savage cuts to services and welfare reform.. Maybe they could explain how the millions of pounds set aside to cushion those most affected by Welfare Reform is actually money which will have to be repaid to the British Treasury on top of the already crippling debts Stormont has accrued in our names.


100 School closures -Thank SF

Furthermore as former Education minister and senior member of the party which has held that office since the Assembly was formed Martin could explain his party's audacity in standing in support of St Mary's and Stranmillis teacher training colleges when Sinn Fein through their successive Education Ministers have closed over 100 schools in the north leaving existing schools oversubscribed.

Finally Sinn Fein might want to take time to explain the story of Patsy Gillespie to their Foyle Westminster Candidate Gerry O'Hara who recently claimed at an event attended by children to be unaware of what was one of the most heinous acts of the troubles. Patsy Gillespie was tied to a vehicle and forced to drive a bomb to a British Army checkpoint as his family were held hostage at gunpoint. Maybe when attending policing board meetings Gerry would be better using a search engine to keep to date with what's happening in the city he wants to represent by not taking his seat instead of playing cards on his i-pad. Listen to Gerry below.





Now on a separate issue Sinn Fein this week have voiced their outrage and concern over yet another alleged threat against the Deputy First Minster. No one should feel under threat or have violence visited upon them, however from a personal perspective it seems that these threats are often timely in that they occur mostly around election time. Whilst I do not condone a threat against anyone's life I find it ludicrous that people are expected to believe that Mr McGuinness is today more under threat from members of his own community than he ever was from State Forces and their Loyalist associates. The more cynical side of me wonders if these threats are also concocted to deflect public attention from real issues.

Issues such as the ill treatment of political prisoners in Maghaberry which seems to have escaped the notice of many of our elected representatives including those who built their electoral success on the prison issue. The recent events in Maghberry saw, as Raymond McCartney calls them 'political prisoners' being severely beaten, denied medical treatment and denied legal visits. Yet at two recent events in Derry to raise awareness of the prison issue the closest Sinn Fein and indeed SDLP members got to the protest was when the drove past for a nosey. They seem to forget that 10 men died and many were brutalised on the blanket protest to fight against criminalisation and ill treatment, and they also forget that as the violence against prisoners increased inside the jails, the violence on the outside increased, clearly the lessons of history have not been learned or if learned have been forgotten...

Maybe this memory loss is contagious, Gerry O'Hara can't remember Patsy Gillespie, Gerry Adams forgets he was in the Provos, and Martin McGuinness just forgets himself, and at the same time hopes people forget promises such as the 2013 petition of concern he said he would raise against the bedroom tax. Sinn Fein also guaranteed the expansion of the Magee University last Westminster election, still waiting on that! Cuts to the University would explain why there was cross party support for the upgrade of the Derry to Coleraine railway line, as outside of this service it's quicker to cycle to Belfast than go by train.

If you consider the promised benefits that were to come to the city on the back of project kelvin, which later went to Coleraine it stands to reason that they would upgrade the railway line out of the city as they're certainly not bringing jobs in. This unfortunate situation is compounded by the lack of parking at the Waterside railway station. I would say that people could use the multi million pound car park funded by OFMDFM but unfortunately it's closed to the public...

In the run up to the 2010 Wesminster election both the SDLP and Sinn Fein signed the following manifestos on the Guildhall Sq in Derry. Over to you the voting public?





4 comments:

  1. O'hEara's absurd claim about Patsy Gillespie not having been tied into the van bomb is not only a down right lie, it's an answer to a question he wasn't even asked by the young girl. She didn't mention anything about Gillespie having been tied.

    This is the same Gerry O'hEara who told the Saville Inquiry that he was the leader of Na Fianna Éireann in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday, when in fact he hadn't even been in Na Fianna Éireann never mind been it's leader.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dixie a cara maybe the bold quisling meant that he was in fact in the homes of the Fianna and other republicans uninvited of course,everyone has heard of Patsy Gillispie even Gerry Itwasntme

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ambushed by a st marys dissident

    ReplyDelete
  4. If you happen to get the chance to access last nights Nolan show, at around 25.45 mins into show you can listen to an audience member view on who he thinks doesn't vote for Sinn Fein. It made me smile....it make a few on here smile too.

    ReplyDelete