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GAY MITCHELL HAS come under fire from his presidential rival Martin McGuinness after suggesting that he would take join the British Commonwealth in exchange for Irish unity.
At this afternoon’s seven-way presidential debate, Mitchell said he would be “disposed to the idea” of rejoining the Commonwealth “if it was the price of a united Ireland”. He added that we have to stop thinking about the issue with “blinkers on”.
But speaking to reporters after the Today FM debate, McGuinness hit out at Mitchell’s words, branding them “pathetic”. He added: “We’re a Republic, we’re very proud to be a Republic, and I don’t think we want to have our President be subservient to any king or queen from anywhere else in the world.”
Mitchell was also criticised afterwards by Independent candidate Mary Davis, after speaking about his ambitions to bring the Olympics to Dublin and appearing dismissive of the Special Olympics which were held in Ireland in 2003.
Davis, who was director of Special Olympics Ireland at the time, said Mitchell’s words were insulting. “I felt it was an insult to many of the 30,000 volunteers and family members,” she said. “The pride that we brought to Ireland during that time – even President McAleese herself said.”
Davis added that the Special Olympics “wasn’t about the big event that would have been Gay’s interest at that time. It was about the impact of those games in terms of providing opportunities to those with intellectual disabilities.”
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Gay is pathetic alright – But moreso because how ironic it is that Gay hates Gays.
Your dead right there Sean, no chance of him being question of the sexuality issue to the exyent Norris was.
McG is proud to be a republic.
-is that the same republic he didn’t recognise a couple of months ago?
He has done since 1986 actually. But don’t let facts get in the way of your ignorance.
Mitchell is such a shmuck.
I had to check if it was Mairead McGuinness, calling Gay pathetic will certainly strike a chord with many FG voters. He has to be the worst candidate I have ever come across.
I think they are both pathetic.
McGuinness shows ignorance here. Republics can be members of the Commonwealth. Of 54 members, sixteen of the member states are Commonwealth realms with the Head of the Commonwealth also as their head of state, five others are monarchies with their own separate monarchs (Brunei, Lesotho, Malaysia, Swaziland, Tonga) and the rest are republics.
I am pretty sure McG KNOWS that about the feckin commonwealth! It is more the suggestion, after all the violence and bitterness and struggle, that an Irishman could be so flippant about the course of hard wrought freedom and specifically the last 100 years, that galled him! It was an unbelievably stupid and insulting comment to a great many more Irish people than Mitchell thinks. God almighty. I had no idea just how much of a moron mitchell was until now.
Then why did he show ignorance to how the commonwealth works? Shows yet again that he is not fit to be President.
ANY1 WHO WANTS TO JOIN THE COMMONWEALTH I`LL GLADLY PAY UR BUS FARE JUST BE SURE TO BRING ALL THE FG MUPPETS WITH YOU
ahh accepting as always
I’m sure that The Brits would do cartwheels to have us join their stiff upper lip club , so that the can put us back in line , to become their second class citizens again !
Shame on you Mitchell !
The British Empire is finished.Thankfully!
They all sound like banana republics to me, not that were trailing far behind. The Free State was part of the commonwealth anyway..Britain basically subcontracted the running of Ireland to Costello because they couldnt have been arsed trying to run the place. Maybe Gay is harking back to those halcyon days of cricket and cucumber sandwiches.
They all sound like banana republics to me, not that were trailing far behind. The Free State was part of the commonwealth anyway..Britain basically subcontracted the running of Ireland to Collins because they couldnt have been arsed trying to run the place. Maybe Gay is harking back to those halcyon days of cricket and cucumber sandwiches.
You do realise two members were never ruled by the UK, but joined because they saw the value of being in the Commonwealth. I think its about time we thought the same. (Rwanada and Mozambique were both ruled by France but are full members of the Commonwealth of Nations)
Stiofan,
Pull your head out of your ass and move to the U.K. If you are so keen on being part of the Commonwealth. My ancestors and many many more did nt die fighting off foreign invaders for the day to come when we would join ‘the former British empire slaves club’ and wave at Liz thanking her for all she has done for us. Dream on.
What really gets me is the comment he made “if it was the price of a united Ireland”. I didn’t realise that we would have to pay to have a united Ireland. For us to have a 32 county Republic we have to pay for it!. If anyone is paying anything for a united Ireland it should be the Queen of England and the British Government. 850 years of war reparations should pay of our debts nicely!
I think if Ireland was ‘united’ you’d find we would be paying for it, higher taxes etc. Why should there be a ‘united’ Ireland anyway?
Mary D is pathetic. She keeps waving the disabled card and how marvelous she is as a champion of the disabled….. She earns ?3,000 a week for Special Olympics Movement, Disability Allowance is ?188 per week.
It’s mind boggling how Gay Mitchell,a professional politician, could have made such an colossal haims of his campaign! Everytime he speaks I have an image of Alpha-Inda with his head in hands worried about what gaff will come next.
Because he’s a politician . Plus he got off very lightly by the media.. Plenty of skeletons in old Grays closit…
Gay really did Cameron a favour dropping this today. Takes the notice off Cameron telling pat Finucane family there’ll be no public enquiry into his murder. I wonder why gay isn’t pursuing the truth here. Seeing as he’s seeking the truth from MMcG. Wouldn’t he like to show the commonwealths collusion in murder. Oh yeah They mightn’t let him in.
ah matry you’re just a blow in to southern politics, back to norn iron with ya
How did Gay Mitchell last so long in politics with his "foot in mouth" disease? He seems to find new categories of the electorate to alienate each day. Had he expressed any views on euthanasia yet?
mitchell can move to the commonwealth if he wants and he can bring the rest of the blue shirts wit him wot a muppet to even suggest such a rediculous move
Does anybody here actually know what the commonwealth is? Do a bit research before making comments based on badly remembered history schoolbooks
Emmmmmmmmmmm …. One last one, does anyone understand where the term “West-Brit” comes from ? I do not think for one second, it refers to the people of Dublin with the exception of those who want to reunite with the UK ….??? but i could be wrong. Kevin Meyers, Eoghan Harris, Hogan, Gay Mitchell …. I really and honestly believe there is no other term to describe these “Patriots”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Brit Mitchell ticks a lot of the boxes. :-)
In wiki it says the term can be used for followers of English football clubs… Also the guy who started using it seems like a wee green bigot, but there you go…
@Donnacha.
So you think that Daniel o’Connell was a “wee green bigot”. I suppose that nasty catholic emancipation turned you off him.
Time for you to go back to the 1600′s.
Is there anythin to be said for another mass :D
If we re-joined the Commonwealth we would be a laughing stock. Stupid old Paddy can’t run his own affairs and runs back to the Motherland as soon as things get a little tricky. The British would forever more see us as fools, and rightly so. We should be concentrating our efforts on proving to our Unionist friends that we on this Island are capable of establishing a flourishing Nation for all our people. For once I’m totally in support of the Shinner.
Canada is in the commonwealth – they seem to be doing alright. In fact most of the previous empire territories are in it. Rejoining is the next logical step following the Queens visit.
Move there
@donncha – nothing to do with Canada’s vast natural resources? It’s all to do with commonwealth membership is it?
No wonder the Americans fear the day the queen of England visits because apparently the next logical step for them to take would be to join the commonwealth…
I don’t understand why they have to get so personal.
It all seems so very childish. Gay was acting very ignorantly last week, but he is entitled to his opinion and one where he only says he would consider something. I would hope that most politicians consider most things most of the time………Then Martin who was coming across quite well, starts throwing mud at Gay. Did he not know how that made Gay look last week? Sean G has moved from near bottom of my pile to top two!
It’s our President. They are part of us and I don’t want somebody to represent us that is not on a par with the Queen of England and the Presidents of other countries. The only one who is of some pedigree is Norris. Best of a bad lot.
If people want to elect a king of Dale Fard I suggest they vote for Mitchell or Mc G.
David Norris, you have got to be joking – did you see the antics of him in Moore Street yesterday- he was anything but presidential. I would go so far as to say he was an embarrassment.
ah Sheelagh..always harping on about Norris.
Just vote for Dana who you seem to adore..or have you changed your mind seeing as she’s a sinking ship now.
Were you on Moore street yesterday?..I was, and the people loved him there. A snippet on TV can be very misleading.
Norris wants to b part of the commenwealth also.. Remember there running 4 IRISH president. He could at least sound like it. Not English gentry…
Maybe Mary McAleese should have toned down the Northern accent then?
How someone sounds should not rule them out – ridiculous comment
Did Mary Davis have something to do with the Special Olympics?
By process of elimination Michael D is the only one left. Campaign is about as interesting as watching the Box Set for the Angeles for the last year.
On this day in 1984 (12th Oct) SinnFein/IRA attempted to murder the entire democratically elected cabinet of the British government.The event is called the "Brighton Bombing".Those creatures now deign to lecture us about peace and democracy.
yes a day of celebration so seen you used the old unionist trick of calling provisional ira sinn fein/ira well done
You do realise that a little bit of blood was spilt in the creation of this state,don`t you?
Who ever becomes prez, they should demand as a right the 6 counties back. We should not have to pay for them gay. Idiot. Tony Blair said a number of years ago it was only a matter of time. 2016 is the time to reunite Ireland !
Do you realise what Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution say?
Do you know what they used to say?
Do you understand that it was the democratic will of 94% of those citizens who voted on the Good Friday Agreement referendum to give up any territorial claim to the six counties?
You DO realise that the democratic will of the people gave up this claim, right?
Thumb down all you like. This is what happened. These are facts.
Tony Blair said a lot of things :/
Barra to reply to you.
Articles 2 & 3 say that a referendum needs to be held not only in Northern Ireland but also in Ireland before a united Ireland could be brought about, in other words we here in the south and the irish people living in the north must vote yes or no to reunify Ireland. The new prez can put pressure on the republic as we know it and the uk to hold this referendum. I.E demands this referendum.
Also “all like me” what’s that about, I am not a republican or part of any party, I just want to see a united Ireland.
Get a life Barra
no im not sean saying there seprate just pointing out thats what unionists always call ira.and i do have learning difficulties so i would describe myself as intellectuallty challanged.doesnt mean i cant comment
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