Link works sound and vision, although it doesn't carry an apology directly from Mary McAleese, merely an RTE reporter describing her words. Oh and Bertie sitting on the fence ;)

merely an RTE reporter describing her words

Did she leave any clauses out or get the tenses wrong, I wonder? Maybe, for example, she was merely expressing regret? LOL!

Does anyone in the media owe McAleese an apology for the misquote now? It did change the meaning, after all.

Right, an apology of sorts, now thats sorted lets get back to the Northern. All that talk of inherent sectarianism has had a few of our regular posters in a right old pickle, the poor sensitive dears.

To keep Davros happy ;)

Here's

Sorry, that should have been -

Here's the Beeb version

Dont know what shes apologising fore. True Ulster Protestants want nothing to with Papists.

Why should we not hate those who would try to wipe us out.

Victory is ours,

The Pope is on the run,

God Save The Queen.

ulsterman
she's apologising for twits like you
who always pick up the wrong side of the stick

ulsterman
"what you need is a good thick 'ear
an den you'll be roight as rain"
c'mon home lad
cry in my arms
I'll hold you

To Ulsterman,

I still dream of Orgonon.
I wake up crying.
You're making rain,
And you're just in reach,
When you and sleep escape me.

You're like my yo-yo
That glowed in the dark.
What made it special
Made it dangerous,
So I bury it
And forget.

But every time it rains,
You're here in my head,
Like the sun coming out--
Ooh, I just know that something good is going to happen.
And I don't know when,
But just saying it could even make it happen.

On top of the world,
Looking over the edge,
You could see them coming.
You looked too small
In their big, black car,
To be a threat to the men in power.

I hid my yo-yo
In the garden.
I can't hide you
From the government.
Oh, God, Daddy--
I won't forget,

'Cause every time it rains,
You're here in my head,
Like the sun coming out--
Ooh, I just know that something good is going to happen.
And I don't know when,
But just saying it could even make it happen.

The sun's coming out.
Your son's coming out.

Every-time you come here hating
I just want to love you more
to show you a way out of your darkness
to give you a reason to live
to say "its gonna be alright"

and my above is a song by Kate Bush
that you can download easily "Cloudbusting"

I ask that you reflect on it
and come back to me.

I offer you my hand of friendship.

Marc Mulholland has a look at this row:

Hitler's Ideas

Davros
I salute her bravery

Davros

Try to keep on thread, and less spinning your own, what is your position on the apology ?

Ball not man Shay. It is on topic. If you are able to understand Mr Mulholland's writing he shows that Hitler and the Nazis were in their own way rational rather than irrational as claimed by McAleese.

"Now, I'm not one to minimise anti-catholicism in unionist attitudes, but this is clearly an infelicitous comparison. Hitler's own opinions on the Jewish Question are worth recalling for the bizarrely worked out consistency. Within his own parameters, Hitler was rational."

As a gracious and understanding apology, it certainly does it for me.

The original was a clumsy comment, this apology recognises that and adds the balance that should have been there from the outset. It should now be left at that . . . except we can now wink at her and say *you were a bit of a bin lid there, girl*.

Fair enough.Well done. Move on.

Perhaps a good way to rebuild would be to invite all the Prods down to the Vice regal lodge for a slap up feed followed by an Orange parade throught the Phoenix Park . Or shew might make a generous donation to a fund for the return of the Boyne obelisk? :0)

davidbrew,

Mc Aleese has admitted being clumsy in expressing her views not that the views were wrong. By taking the course of action you advocate she would be perpetuating the very sectarianism she was trying to highlight.
In the fuss over the timing and Mc Aleese not being specific enough lets not forget that the Orange Order and its various hangers on are sectarian organisations that have fomented religious intolerance and hatred and has been the focal point for violence and murder.

The usual nonsense from Pat, demonising an organisation and community, which in itself proves the point that Mary McAleese should have been making about the dangers of prejudice. She sais she was sorry for the hurt she caused; Pat is obviously happy to jump into the vat of whataboutery and wallow in his own preconceptions.

Pat
If you want to stay in your trench that's your concern, but let me tell you-the view's never going to change peeking over the parapet

I waited to hear the apology before posting a comment. The reporting of the apology had been ambiguous. Now I'm quite satisfied that the original comment was indeed a very clumsy error, from the normally very PR conscious President. I'm quite prepared to accept it as human error and move on.

David,

The Orange Order and various organisations, parties and individuals from with in the unionist community have done a great service in demonising themselves without any contribution from me.

The manufactured and quite shallow angst coming from the Orange Order and political unionism over the comments is quite pathetic.

Let me tell you David people like yourself are the victims of their own history and actions there is no use in applying the scatter gun approach and blaming everyone else for holding up the mirror to yorr face, it just wont wash.

Good to hear the apology, she is in a position of influence she needs to word things a bit more carefully.

Its enough for me and I hear on the news this morning it was also enough for DUP, UUP and the Orange Order. In fact the Orange Order have to agreed to reorganise their meeting with her. Alls well that ends well.

Pat,

So far, it looks like everyone else is being generous . . .

Alan,

I too accept the apology and am generous enough to realise that the timing was wrong and she should have been more specific. However, I am not prepared to accept lies and manufactured outrage of sections of the unionist community.

However, I am not prepared to accept lies and manufactured outrage of sections of the unionist community.

You were happy enough with Republican lies and manufactured outrage ... ;)

Ach Davros don't be so sensitive, this will be all over in a while and we'll be able to return to those nasty republicans and blame them for the worlds ills.
Reminding unionists of their bigotry and sectarianism, while painful, is only a temporary aberration.

Now as I was saying about the Northern....

A strange slip from someone with lots of legal and political training, I'm just glad that she isn't representing me in court........sorry m'lud I didn't mean to say my client was guilty, that was only an example because some people are guilty I meant to say all people are guilty, well not all people just some of them. M'lud I'm sorry let me start again there are many guilty people of which my client may or may not be an example and there are others who may or may not be guilty.....M'lud I'm really not cut out for this -I know I'll be President of Ireland I can't make a mess of that......................

Perhaps now David Trimble or Ian Paisley or Jackie McDonald - whoever considers himself the 'leader of unionism' - will come out with an apology for the state supported sectarianism against catholics since its inception.

Or do they deny that as well - just remember the disdain in which informed world opinion holds Holocaust deniers!

The point is I think that if you call somebody bald and fat the fact that they are bald and fat doesn't justify you saying so.

And apologising doesn't cause them to gain hair or lose weight but you should do it anyway.

I find it very amusing that with McAleese issuing a full, complete and very humble apology for her words, those that tried to justify her original mistake don't have the grace or intelligence to let it be.

vespasian; you are correct. I too am amazed that someone with McAleese's legal background and intimate knowledge of broadcasting should be caught out so badly. That's why I found it diddicult to originally believe that it was a genuine eror. However everything she has said since Friday, can only point in that direction. Of course, her position was probably untenable had she not apologised.

"Reminding unionists of their bigotry and sectarianism, while painful, is only a temporary aberration."

erm yes, but lets not forget that there are plenty of bigoted republicans and nationalists as well as bigoted unionists! It applies to both sides.

Of course it does Rebecca but it is more organisationally structured on the Orange/unionist side.

PAT

We are all bad but themuns is worse than usuns...........geat a grip and join the real world they are all EQUALLY bad there are no grades of bigotry you either are or you aren't and there are few in NI that can say they are completely free of ALL bigotry; can you after your remarks?

'few in NI that can say they are completely free of ALL bigotry; can you after your remarks?'

Yes.

Pat

I would suggest then you are only fooling yourself.

Vespasian,

Do you have a point other than whataboutery?

Pat

Your whataboutery is one display of the shortcomings of which I spoke, nowhere in any of your posts here have I found the balance that I would expect from someone who could answer yes - can you show one post that unequivocally EQUATES bigotry in both communities?

Of course you may not believe that it is equal, if not then QED.