Both want a united Ireland.

Really? Was I imagining Ireland being one of the countries which had the largest crash and needing major financial assistance?

Irrelevant. There is no overlap between the memberships of the SDLP and the IRA, and your ignorance and your persistence in parading it is getting very close to UVF/UDA propaganda of the type used to justify murdering SDLP members. I suggest you either have the decency to admit you spoke in ignorance and retract, or at the very least, have the sense to STFU.

5 euros for a pint of Guiness in Dublin! That's what the OP said.

I can hardly believe it. Guiness is cheaper in Canada where the price of alcohol includes seventy percent tax.

What is going on in Ireland, indeed

I never said there was. Supporters was the word I used.

Not true. Here's your original post...


When I pointed out that it was ridiculous to say that IRA members would be in the DUP you responded with "well spotted, I meant the SDLP."

Yes, I should have said "supporters":

http://www.londonderrysentinel.co.uk...laim-1-4464833

You should have said nothing at all. As for Martin McGuinness's claim in that link, Unionists might seize on it because it confirms their prejudice that all taigs are provies, but as I pointed out to you earlier, SF see the SDLP as the competition. If you saw an unsupported allegation made by a Labourite about Tories, or vice versa, would you instantly believe it, or would you take it with a pinch of salt?

I might be more likely to believe it were it about Labour and the SDP, or the Tories and UKIP.

A week before the general election earlier in the year a Polish taxi driver in Dublin said to me he had no real interest in Irish politics but hoped the government would be returned as business was thriving.

Fastest growing economy in the European union 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Unemployment halfed.
Government tax intake up, corporation tax take surging.
Debt to GDP levels falling.
Lower government borrowing bonds.
Way ahead of schedule on debt repayments.
Pubs and restaurants packed.
Car sales surging.
Consumer confidence up.

Envy of europe with our recovery turnaround. T'is the Irish spirit.

You call that a rescue?

You missed out about the poor and the homeless.

Okay, you've got the job as the chief spin doctor.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/socia...ntre-1.2915478

Dublin , thousands queue for food parcels

“The Government may say there’s a recovery, but there is no recovery for the poor.”

That sums it up right there, the poor getting left behind.

The one thing I'll say about the Irish media though is that they're on the case : lots of stories about the poor and the homeless in recent weeks.

Another crash on its way, and seeing as you've sold you're sovereignty out to Frankfurt there isn't a thing you can do about it.

They didn't go bust like Argentina.

Do you know what's happening in Greece?

They spent far more than they earned and are having trouble closing that gap.

We've sold it to Frankfurt now? I thought it was Brussels, or Berlin, or the eurocrats. We seem to sell our sovereignty to a different place every day, or maybe its just that you have trouble with the concept of pooled sovereignty.

Never Berlin. Brussels and Frankfurt. Do pay attention. And it's not pooled sovereignty. It's giving your sovereignty away.

Ireland had full sovereignty in the 30s, 40s and 50s, relying heavily on protectionism and being cut off from Europe (and even getting into a trade war with Britain at one point) and had nothing but abject poverty and mass emigration to show for it.

I'm not sure I'd agree with you there, but this probably isn't the place for a debate about the Anglo-Irish trade war. Suffice to say that after the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the resulting global depression, protectionism was Ireland's least worst option and during the war we didn't exactly have much option to be opening up trade links with our neighbours anyway. As with much about the 1950s, Ireland carried on running the economy in ways that were appropriate in the previous decade long after they'd ceased to be sensible policies.

You could certainly excuse protectionism up until the early 1950s but that is the period when Europe was being rapidly rebuilt under the Marshall Plan and Ireland got completely left behind. That was very much a 'lost decade'.

One of the other huge drawbacks of being cut off from the rest of the world in this fashion is that there was cultural stagnation. The government were even able to impose strict censorship on the population. It was an obvious example of sovereignty and nationalism being not all it was cracked up to be.