LMAO You couldn't make that up!

So it's Brits Out AND Irish out now?

Gerry is showing his age - a real Socialist rallying cry pre-Thatcher ... "Everyone Out!"

The SDLP must have so few election workers on the ground they have to bring in McDowell to hand out election literature

LMFAO.

Although it is not without precedent. There was the time Alex Maskey told a Dubliner campaigning for Joe Hendron in West Belfast to "fuck off home".

last year I was out leafletting in lenadoon with a friendly southerner who had come up to show his love for the stoops.

At one door I was having a friendly chat with an old boy who wanted to know what party I was from. When I told him I was from the stoops, he said, "if I had a gun, I would shoot you myself." Good chat.

So my southern chum piped in with a friendly injerjection. The old boy from the Sinn Fein Lenadoon party wasn't impressed, and told him that there was no need for "foreigners" to come up to belfast to try and tell the good people of lenadoon what to do.

Good chat indeed.

To All:

I'm not sure why you've all got this story wrong, other than you've no interest in getting it right.

Adams was complaining about an Irish government minister showing support for a particular party at this election time, not about southerners coming up to support the SDLp which they always have done in the past.

Mark Devenport discusses this issue and compares it with the way the British government are keeping out of the local party politics now that the election propaer is under way.

If he can manage to understand the story, there's really no excuse for any of the rest of you.

Ha ha.. Stop it, Jim Bob.. you're killing me ;)

To Peteb;

Adams made the distinction between the presence of an Irish government minister and an ordinary southern politician. That's quite clear in what he said, and very explicitly so.

Devenport understands the point. You've chosen not to understand the point.

Governments differ in poll approach

By Mark Devenport

BBC Northern Ireland political editor

It is election time in Northern Ireland, so the government is staying silent - the British government that is.

The Irish government appears to be adopting a rather different approach to the campaign.

The governments are taking differing approaches to the poll

British civil servants and ministers are strictly following a long standing convention known as "election purdah".

According to official guidelines, the principle is that the government should "do everything possible to avoid competition with parliamentary candidates for the attention of the public".

Civil servants are warned that "material produced with complete impartiality which would be accepted as objective in ordinary times may excite criticism during an election period when feelings are running high".

That is why British ministers limited themselves to a brief written response when Gerry Adams launched his latest IRA initiative.

It is also, of course, not particularly convenient for direct rule ministers to spend time responding to Northern Ireland developments whilst they are concentrating on defending their seats across the Irish Sea.

The wall of silence from one government makes a flurry of activity by the other all the more interesting.

The Irish Foreign Minister, Dermot Ahern, spent a day visiting South Down in the company of the outgoing SDLP MP Eddie McGrady.

Michael McDowell will back SDLP deputy leader Alasdair McDonnell
The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs said the minister was not engaging in party political campaigning but was responding to a long-standing invitation.

However, Sinn Fein did not buy this line - a party source accused Fianna Fail of doing anything possible to "give a leg up" to the SDLP.

Then, interviewed for the BBC's Inside Politics programme, the Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams, revealed that he made a formal protest to the Irish government over the visit.

But shortly afterwards it emerged that Dermot Ahern's visit was not a one off.

The Irish Labour leader, Pat Rabbite, announced plans to visit Derry in support of SDLP leader Mark Durkan.

Then, the BBC learned that Irish Justice Minister Michael McDowell would be heading to Belfast to back SDLP deputy leader Alasdair McDonnell.

Changing mood

Given Mr McDowell's status as a special "hate figure" for Sinn Fein, this intervention promised to be particularly interesting.

Whilst the SDLP's close links with the southern parties are no secret, these visits appear the most overt interventions in a northern election campaign for some time.

They clearly reflect the change of mood in Dublin towards Sinn Fein since the allegations surrounding the Northern Bank robbery and the McCartney murder.

As republicans would be quick to add, they must also be seen against the backdrop of Sinn Fein's growing electoral success in the south.

Whether such interventions will assist the SDLP is open to question.

A photograph of Eddie McGrady with the Irish foreign minister can do the party no harm.

But will Michael McDowell's presence in Belfast make it more or less likely that Alasdair McDonnell will be able to attract the Sinn Fein voters whose support he needs if he is to take South Belfast?

That is a question which can only be answered after 5 May.

I hear the stoops have hired Cliff Richard to help them drum up support.

I don't however think he'll be singing congratulations, come May 5th

Jim Bob

To be serious then, for a moment.

Actually, I understand the point that SF would prefer everyone to discuss very well. But, as my original post illustrates, in pushing that agenda Sinn Féin are echoing the language and behaviour of Unionist political parties in the recent past.

But since you insist, how's this instead?

SF want the Irish Government to be more like the British Government. That's even funnier.

Sinn Fein turn the stomach of most reasonable Irish people because they are an invention and creation of the British in Ireland.

The big surges for Sinn Fein were in 1916 after the killing of 1916 heroes by the British, and in 1981 after the letting die of the Hunger strikers.

On both occasions Britain was in the driving seat and they created by their negligence an obnoxious theology in Ireland. Even the British are nowhere near as obnoxious as Sinn Fein are these days.

But the point is that Sinn Fein and their neoNazi nationalism is a product of Britain's negligence in the affairs of Ireland. It's up to us as Irish people to deal with Sinn Fein on this basis - as a foreign import - and to reject them accordingly.

John - the big surge was when DLG was considering the introduction of conscription. SF was on the wane after an initial surge. It was Conscription more than the executions that gave SF their big vote.

To Peteb

"To be serious then, for a moment.

Actually, I understand the point that SF would prefer everyone to discuss very well."

Obviously you don't, since you insist on changing their point to a straw man of your own invention. So rather than deal with the point they're making, you've invented your own point that you'd prefer everyone to discuss.

"But, as my original post illustrates, in pushing that agenda Sinn Féin are echoing the language and behaviour of Unionist political parties in the recent past."

They're not. You're still avoiding the point. What Adams has explicitly complained about is Irish government ministers interfering at the time of an election. He's not complaining about Irish governemnt interest in the North more generally which was always what Unionists complained out.

You really need to be honest about the point that Adams is making, a point which Devenport had no problem identifying immediately. A point indeed thast Ahern had no problem immediately identifying, since he sought to excuse his behaviour by suggesting that he had an engagement planned long in advance and by implication couldn't of course have known there was going to be an election on.

"But since you insist, how's this instead?

SF want the Irish Government to be more like the British Government. That's even funnier."

You really are determined to get it as wrong as possible, aren't you?

What Adams wants the Irish government to do is not abuse their offices in selectively intervening in the election process. Again a point Devenport had no problem understanding but which you continually insist on misrepresenting.

I have to say I also see the issue as relating around a government minister helping the SDLP.

All the independent TD's came up last week to support Dr. Deeny in Tyrone and there was no issue.

Nobody has a problem with Labour leader Pat Rabitte, who is in opposition, coming up too. There's no issue with back bench FFers canvassing either.

"It's up to us as Irish people to deal with Sinn Fein on this basis - as a foreign import - and to reject them accordingly."

We Irish people do deal with Sinn Fein by supporting them in our hundreds of thousands

I think its bitter and twisted people like yourself john o connel who are a product of the british involvement in Ireland

You really are determined to get it as wrong as possible, aren't you?

That's just my irreverent nature... again.

Given that Fianna Fail have allowed party members to organise in the Northern six counties of Ireland one wonders why they are electioneering by stealth.
They are by history a particularly dishonest party. Why not simply put their Saturday night United Ireland lasnguage to the test and fight elections in areas like West Belfast, West Tyrone etc.
Of course they wont, gutless as they are, they are not stupid. Humiliation would await them and they know it. When you have to use the SDLP as a stalking horse it really is desperation all round.

They are by history a particularly dishonest party.

How come ? All political parties are dishonest. Why are FF especially so ?