Blair Apologises

[liam88]

Tony Blair has just apologised to the Guildford Four-another chapter of the Torubles closed;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4249175.stm
WIll be interested to see the reaction around here (Guildford) in the next few days; can't imagine it being massive although there are still strong feelings about the bombing itself within memebers of my generation locally....

[Gary]

This isnt a politics forum (http://foot.ie/showthread.php?t=21755)

[liam88]

Thought it was a bit more historical than political but good point-sorry Adam; feel free to lock it. Just thought it was a bit of a different topic.

[piratemousey]

he was putting on a good show there, looked like he was even going to start crying at one point.

[green goblin]

I accept that foot.ie might have carried a little to much politics of late, but I think that people back home migt not realise to what extent stories like this affect exiles like Liam and myself.
I grew up in a 70's and 80's Britain that was fiercely anti-Irish. I've never been less than proud of my Irishness, and as a result had to endure taunts and racist abuse that would not be acceptable today.
Forgeting the "Too little too late" arguments that will surely abound, can I please say that the full and unconditional apology of the British Prime minister is very much appreciated. It's a day a lot of us thought might never come.
And as it's Ash Wednesday, a word from ; "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice" Matthew Chapter 5 Verse 6.
There you go. Politics and religion. I'll consider myself banned. See you all in two weeks time, hopefully. :) :o

[dahamsta]

I have no problem with political discussion and debate, in fact I like and follow politics, and have even seriously considered (and rejected) running for office. I actually watch PM's Question Time[1] occasionally, completely voluntarily. And I enjoy it. And I'm a lurker and occasional poster on the Boards.ie Politics forum. And I read The Phoenix[2].

However when political issues pop up here on Foot.ie, particularly when it comes to issues like this, the words "discussion" and "debate" would be deeply embarassed to be associated with the accompanying melee. It gets personal, and cruel, and rude, and bigoted, and ignorant, and the same cr*p comes up time and time again, from the same people.

Given that, I'm unsure why people think I'm such a nasty man for locking threads and telling ye to stfu. Because it wouldn't happen if ye did, actually, stfu, and learned to debate and converse like human beings, instead of continuing to hold onto your grudges and hatred like those people that we really should be hating.

So there's my tip for the day: Converse, and debate, and discuss, they're the watchwords around here. Take your hatred out on a wall or something, keep it the hell off our site.

(Organised religion, on the other hand, is a major dislike of mine. Keep it the hell away from me please. No Touting on Foot.ie, and No Preaching neither. :))

adam

[1] Bizarre I know, but have you ever watched Oireachtas Report? There's never anyone there.
[2] But we won't get into that.

[dahamsta]

You guys are never able to keep it on-topic, why change things now? :rolleyes:

(Look at the thread davros. How much of the discussion has been on-topic? What would be the point? I'd prefer to have a discussion on this issue now, and get it out of the way and done, than have to deal with another flame war revolving around the North. So either input on how political discussion should be handled around here, or, get this, stfu.)

adam

[dahamsta]

Hmmmm, haven't seen 'Dahamsta' on it, but then again I'm not 'Conor74' there either...
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/search.php?searchid=379379

I normally get outdebated pretty quickly. People like arcadegame2004 and Cork drives me nuts, I have to walk away from the computer. You're not arcadegame2004 are you? :)

adam

[dahamsta]

Nah, don't hang around there. Don't like the site to be frank, the layout offends my sense of style and good taste. :) Operators seem to be ok though.

adam

[liam88]

I accept that foot.ie might have carried a little to much politics of late, but I think that people back home migt not realise to what extent stories like this affect exiles like Liam and myself.
I grew up in a 70's and 80's Britain that was fiercely anti-Irish. I've never been less than proud of my Irishness, and as a result had to endure taunts and racist abuse that would not be acceptable today.
Forgeting the "Too little too late" arguments that will surely abound, can I please say that the full and unconditional apology of the British Prime minister is very much appreciated. It's a day a lot of us thought might never come.
And as it's Ash Wednesday, a word from ; "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice" Matthew Chapter 5 Verse 6.
There you go. Politics and religion. I'll consider myself banned. See you all in two weeks time, hopefully. :) :o

If I could nominate a post of the month.......
Fair play to ya!! :D

[TheJamaicanP.M.]

I agree with the lads that the appology from Tony Blair is very much appreciated. I would like to congratulate my fellow PM for being big enough to appologise.