DUP rejects first minister post

[two gun sid]

From The BBC:
DUP leader Ian Paisley has refused Sinn Fein's nomination to be Northern Ireland's first minister as efforts to restore devolution continue.

Mr Paisley had already indicated that he intended to reject the nomination.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams also put forward party colleague Martin McGuinness as deputy first minister.

Declining the nomination, Mr Paisley said his "reasons were well known and had been endorsed by the majority of the unionist voters".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/5005192.stm

[brook]

1. And then...

came the allegations that MacGuiness was a British agent by "Marty Ingram". I've been following this the past couple of days on slugger o'toole.com. (sorry, not having any luck with the link).

[Maeve]

2. Yeah, the Ingram bit is wild

After years of them trying to make McGuiness out to be a murderous devil, now they want to claim he was a Brit agent all along! Which would make the British government even more devious and evil than the wildest uber-Nationalist ever tried to paint it... And Ingram come on with a "what would I have to gain..." like it wasn't known he has a book in the works. (I've been reading slugger, too!)

[brook]

3. Hello!

I have been reading slugger every day - along with a few other irish blogs -trying to
learn and understand more about 'real' Ireland. Half my paternal ancestors came during the famine and some were most likely from NO while my Mother's Mother came from Galway. Nobody in my family would speak about
"the Troubles" - at least, not in English in front of us. Coming to realize now how painful it was/is.

[Maeve]

4. So which blogs do you read?

I'm always looking for new sources...I read politics.ie and www.nuzhound.com for general politics and NI news, RTE for an overview of Irish news.

Still hope to retire to the island someday...

[brook]

6. My list:

North Atlantic Skyline (for the beautiful pictures)

Nelly's Garden (because I like her 'what happened today' stories enough to think I'd like to have a cuppa with her & Bert)

The Blanket (political)

Eamon Fitzgerald's Rainy Day (political)

Then I wander through the links on those blogs as I try to learn more.

I'll be adding nuzhound. Thanks.

I'm one of those who longs to visit the island -but for now, 'visiting' via the net...and becoming aware
that I actually have a position vis a vis a Free Ireland. An awakening of sorts? Perhaps sparked by the
hostile environment in this country since 2000; feeling we've an imposed government as well.

[two gun sid]

5. I heard those allegations about McGuinness several months...

ago on a anti-Peace Process Republican radio program out of NYC. http://irishfreedom.net/RFE/radio%20free%20eireann.htm

McGuinness has been negotiating with the Brits for years on behalf of republicans. Mark my words, they will use his contact with the Brits to try him by innuendo.

The Brit securocrats are still geared up for the long war.

[brook]

7. Thank you for the link.

I need to listen again after some more coffee - but it was very informative and interesting.

At the time Bobby Sands was on his hunger strike, I lived near a pub which I had frequented for years.
Overhearing some patrons' god-awful comments one evening, I left mid-drink and never went back. I wish now that I had at least thrown my drink in their cruel and stupid faces.

[brook]

8. Hmmm...Ingram's documentation

about MacGuiness doesn't seem to pass the sniff test according to Derry Today. In fact, from this article, if true, one wonders why MI would try to pass the papers off at all.

For some reason the links I try to include are not working these last two days. Should I indulge my paranoia yet?

[Maeve]

9. Not sure, but here's the Sunday Times article dismissing the papers

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-1507-2210039-3048,00.html

Security experts discredit claim that McGuinness was M16 spy

A DOCUMENT purporting to show that Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein’s chief negotiator, was an agent for MI6, Britain’s secret intelligence service, is a fake, according to senior security sources.

It was obtained by Martin Ingram, a former agent handler with the British Army’s force research unit, with the help of Kevin Fulton, a disgruntled former agent who is trying to pressurise his spymasters into paying him a pension.

The document was offered to the Sunday World and The Observer by a journalist who has worked extensively on stories with an intelligence angle. The Observer decided not to run it, neither did The Sunday Times, which obtained the document independently.

Ingram believes it is genuine, but last night Fulton said he knew nothing about it and had no idea whether it was authentic or not.
<snip>

[brook]

10. Yes.

That's the story I read. Curious, isn't it? The way the document is described makes Ingram look a fool in trying to pass it off.

Just about every time I read something, I go off searching for background to try and put it in context.
It can be very confusing for someone who hasn't been following events. Heck, I took at face value that the GF agreement was a good thing. Doesn't seem so much now.

[two gun sid]

11. A good source for background material is the CAIN archives...

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/

[brook]

12. Again, thank you.

I appreciate your help.