[ALazyThracian]

THE Queen is to shake hands with ex-IRA chief Martin McGuinness in an historic meeting in Belfast next week.

The momentous encounter comes 33 years after the IRA murdered Prince Philip’s uncle Lord Mountbatten.

Mr McGuinness was the IRA’s second-in-command in the early 1970s but is now Deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland’s government.

It will be the first time the Queen has shaken hands with anyone from the IRA. Its political wing Sinn Fein was criticised for snubbing her visit to Ireland last year.

Sinn Fein leaders met in Dublin to agree the U-turn.

Lord Tebbit, whose wife Margaret was paralysed in the IRA Brighton bomb in 1984, said: “I’m glad Mr McGuinness is moving to finally acknowledge the Queen is sovereign over Northern Ireland.”
Tory MP Andrew Rosindell added: “McGuinness was part of an organisation that murdered a member of her family. The Queen must be a very forgiving person.”

Sinn Fein boss Gerry Adams claimed it would be “difficult” for Republicans

Source:http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...next-week.html

Views?

[meenu89]

It's going to be difficult for the Queen but I am glad it is being done.

[Norton1]

(Original post by ALazyThracian)
Lord Tebbit, whose wife Margaret was paralysed in the IRA Brighton bomb in 1984, said: “I’m glad Mr McGuinness is moving to finally acknowledge the Queen is sovereign over Northern Ireland.”

Views?

Lord Tebbit clearly on a wind up there.

[DaveSmith99]

The guy is a terrorist, no respect for him whatsoever.

[kingsholmmad]

It's a constructive move but that makes him no less of a thug, terrorist, criminal or hypocrite.

[nmccann]

First of all - no racist or sectarian views should be projected on this thread

This is huge as it is the first a republican has ever shaken hands with a monarch. Despite the views of him being a thug, criminal or hypocrite,this is completely dependent on one's perspective of historical events. He is branded with these labels as criminal and terrorist because he had possibly been responsible for a fraction of the deaths in the conflict . Needless to say, QEII is the head of the armed forces and commander in chief, so how can one have a relaxed attitude to the Queen when HER forces have not only caused many deaths in Northern Ireland during the conflict but also since many centuries ago. What are your views on this?

[DaveSmith99]

(Original post by nmccann)
First of all - no racist or sectarian views should be projected on this thread

This is huge as it is the first a republican has ever shaken hands with a monarch. Despite the views of him being a thug, criminal or hypocrite,this is completely dependent on one's perspective of historical events. He is branded with these labels as criminal and terrorist because he had possibly been responsible for a fraction of the deaths in the conflict . Needless to say, QEII is the head of the armed forces and commander in chief, so how can one have a relaxed attitude to the Queen when HER forces have not only caused many deaths in Northern Ireland during the conflict but also since many centuries ago. What are your views on this?

The Queen has no control over the military, and the military weren't actively targeting civilians.

Saying that someone who was involved in the leadership of a terrorist organisation is a terrorist isn't racist or sectarian. I'm from an Irish catholic family by the way.

[nmccann]

(Original post by DaveSmith99)
The Queen has no control over the military, and the military weren't actively targeting civilians.

Saying that someone who was involved in the leadership of a terrorist organisation is a terrorist isn't racist or sectarian. I'm from an Irish catholic family by the way.

I only mentioned that at the start in order to pretty a potentially petty argument ensuing , I never said anyone was being racist or sectarian. Its a dubious statement to say the military weren't actively targeting civilians. They colluded with loyalist paramilitaries, who murdered civilians.

[AverageExcellence]

Its pretty sick imo, why is the queen acting civil to these terrorists and laying a wreath at the graves of IRA memorials. Dont get me wrong i know the black and tans were barbaric and that the ira only wanted self determination. But they did so on the kings orders and laid down their lives to serve their governments will. Now the queens is just making their sacrifice a worthless one. And as for Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams, theyve got got the blood of the innocent on their hands and dont deserve a scrap of official recognition

(neggers gonna neg)

[Cyanohydrin]

Better for overall peace and stability. IMO it is much more embarrassing for SF than it is for the British establishment.

[Snagprophet]

Why the hell is the IRA in UK politics? Piss off, bloody cloverheads.

[Fusion]

Belfast was the most violent city in Europe in the 1970's now it's one of the safest. This is due in part to bringing the republicans into decision making. Blair/New Labour deserve a lot of credit for this.

[Planar]

Tebbit is such a ****er. Although this is largely symbolic, it is still important, and he belittles it by using it to score cheap political points.

[nmccann]

(Original post by Snagprophet)
Why the hell is the IRA in UK politics? Piss off, bloody cloverheads.

Is this in reference to Sinn Fein? Because they are elected by the people. Simple

[Snagprophet]

(Original post by nmccann)
Is this in reference to Sinn Fein? Because they are elected by the people. Simple

So basically the Irish equivalent of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

[nmccann]

Believe it or not, republicanism has nothing to do with religion so no.

[Lord-Voldemort]

Well, she's the Queen - she could refuse if she wished and nobody could compel her. So clearly she has agreed to this as well.

[Snagprophet]

(Original post by nmccann)
Believe it or not, republicanism has nothing to do with religion so no.

As in a terrorist group which loves sectarian violence if it doesn't get it's own way (a united Ireland).

[FrogInABog]

(Original post by nmccann)
Believe it or not, republicanism has nothing to do with religion so no.

Not officially, but the split is almost as much a Protestant/Roman Catholic one as anything. Republicanism in Ireland has always been strongly linked with Roman Catholicism.

[nmccann]

(Original post by FrogInABog)
Not officially, but the split is almost as much a Protestant/Roman Catholic one as anything. Republicanism in Ireland has always been strongly linked with Roman Catholicism.

Need I say the majority of founding fathers of the United Irishmen a republican group in 18th century were protestant nationalists? Wolfe Tone, Henry Joy McCracken, Thomas Russell, Theodore, LORD Edward Fitzegerald, William Orr and I can go on forever. It is only in the past 100 years through the establishment of the UVF and other Loyalist paramilitaries did a "split" become visible. Of course it had been strongly linked to Catholicism but it was not exclusively Catholic.