:-)
"Sex scandal threatens Northern Ireland power-sharing deal" by John F. Burns, New York Times News | January 10, 2010
Why does that seem so appropriate?
A s*** subject from a s*** source.
LONDON - The sex scandal that has transfixed Northern Ireland in recent days has a cinematic echo: a 60-year-old Mrs. Robinson who was caught in an affair with a man who was 19 at the time, and is now at the center of a scandal that threatens to bring down the power-sharing government that has steered the province out of 30 years of sectarian bloodshed.
WOAH!!!!
And CUI BONO?
Predictably, local newspaper headline writers and bloggers have resorted to catch phrases like “Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson,’’ borrowed from the song in the 1967 film “The Graduate.’’
:-)
But the storyline unfolding in Belfast has a more serious edge because this Mrs. Robinson, Iris, a stridently moralistic lawmaker, is the wife of the province’s loyalist first minister, Peter Robinson, who is now struggling to keep his job.
Yeah, it's ALWAYS the MORALIZERS who are the WORST!!!
The revelations come at a critical time, when the mostly Protestant loyalists and mostly Catholic republicans are in increasingly bitter discussions about how to put in place the last and most difficult piece of the US-brokered power-sharing agreement: the transfer of police and justice powers from British officials to the unity government that took office more than two and a half years ago.
Oh, and CUI BONO?
Related(?): EU Extortion in Ireland
The transfer would be a step of historic significance for republicans, who viewed the police as a paramilitary arm of the loyalists during the 30 years of “the troubles’’ that left 3,500 people dead.
Yeah, not that they should worry or anything.
Time for BRITAIN to get its FALSE-FLAGGING FRU ASS out of IRELAND!!!!
Can I make that any clearer?
But it raises alarms among loyalists, who fear that republicans will not adequately pursue and punish militants who have rejected the unity government and mounted a deadly campaign of bombings and assassinations in recent months.
Yeah, who is doing that again?
And how come the RESPONSIBILITIES for SOLUTION being IMPOSED on the VICTIMS? It's the SAME EVERY TIME you turn around in the agenda-pushing AmeriKan *ewspapers!
Peter Robinson’s fate is crucial to the future of the agreement; as negotiations have dragged on 18 months beyond the deadline for transferring police power, both sides have become more entrenched in their positions. If Robinson were forced from power, analysts say, there would be little chance of any new loyalist leader risking the wrath of his followers by moving ahead with the deal. When the leaders of the shared government left for their Christmas break in a state of angry impasse, both sides warned that the shared government could collapse early in the new year.
This has been a time of equal-opportunity scandals for the loyalists and the republicans, divided through history over whether the six Protestant-majority counties of Northern Ireland should remain part of Britain or become part of the Catholic-majority Irish Republic.
It's ON the ISLAND of IRELAND, right?
And this comes up just as the Brits are leaving, huh?
Just as the loyalists have been damaged by the revelations about Iris Robinson’s affair, republicans have been struggling to absorb recent disclosures by Gerry Adams, their preeminent political figure, of a history of sexual abuse within his family. Those include episodes of pedophilia by his late father - a republican icon - and investigations of a brother accused of molesting his own daughter. The shock of the revelations about the family lives of the Adamses and the Robinsons has hit especially hard because Northern Ireland remains a world apart from Britain, with its more laissez-faire social and sexual attitudes.
I really fail to see where those personal issues have anything to do with this. Just BASHING CATHOLICS again, 'eh, *ewspaper?
Related: Irish Are No Fools
I never said they were!
Having a BRITISH BOOT on you all those years wises you up quick!
You seem to have forgotten that, AmeriKa.
With the recent decades of violence across the province entrenching many people in their faiths, Catholics and Protestants alike have hewed to the sterner moral codes of an earlier age. Politicians flouting those codes have done so at their peril.
It is NOT JUST the SEX s***!
It is the LOOTING, LYING, and CORRUPTION that HAVE PEOPLE FURIOUS no matter WHERE THEY ARE and WHAT GOVERNMENT they have!
Last week, an emotional Peter Robinson told reporters that he learned of his wife’s infidelity only on the night last March when she tried to commit suicide over the affair, by means he did not disclose.
Translation: He BID for SYMPATHY by playing the "suicide" card.
Btw, I'm a BIG BELIEVER that POLITICIANS should be SUCCESSFUL in all their endeavors.
Step on up, lady:
But the sympathy he earned turned to demands for his resignation when a BBC documentary on Thursday revealed that Iris Robinson had taken $80,000 in secret loans from property developers to finance her lover’s investment in a cafe near Belfast, the province’s capital.
And THEN she tried to "kill herself," right?
And the PEACE DEAL is in FURTHER DOUBT just when BRIT CONTROL was to be handed over -- and this BBC DOCUMENTARY arrives?
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!
Can't you SEE WHAT is GOING ON, folks?
The TERROR CARD DIDN'T WORK, so now the British have fallen back on political corruption to STAY in IRELAND!!!!
And you WONDER WHY the IRISH picked up arms?
Neither she nor her husband had reported the loans to the Belfast assembly or the British Parliament, where the Robinsons each hold dual seats.
Oh, the POLITICIAN didn't REPORT the SELF-SERVING LOOTING, huh?
What a complete shocker.
--more--"
And it turns out she had SEVERAL LOVERS?
"Northern Ireland’s leader steps aside after wife’s affair; Trysts with teen, financial dealings raise questions" by Peter Morrison, Associated Press | January 12, 2010
BELFAST - The peace process faces a new challenge as Northern Ireland’s leader was forced to step down, at least temporarily, amid outrage after revelations of his wife’s affair with a teenager.
In an emotional statement yesterday, First Minister Peter Robinson said he would step aside for a few weeks to answer questions about his wife’s romantic and financial dealings with the 19-year-old for whom she helped raised tens of thousands of dollars when she was 58.
Maybe they should have made a doll for her, huh, ladies?
Iris Robinson, also a lawmaker, said last week that she began the affair less than two years ago while she was suffering a bout of mental illness and comforting someone after a family death.
Then WHY was she SERVING in her SEAT?
Should she not have STEPPED DOWN?
Yes, I AM TIRED of LAME-ASS EXCUSES and DODGING of RESPONSIBILITY at the TOP, and I KNOW YOU ARE , too, readers!!!
Giving few details, she said she had encouraged friends to give her lover financial support. The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that Iris Robinson allegedly solicited $80,000 from people in business so her lover could open a restaurant....
The scandal has outraged Peter Robinson’s socially conservative Protestant power base, and threatened to undermine the Democratic Unionist Party’s partnership with the Catholic Sinn Fein, critical to maintaining Northern Ireland’s shaky coalition government. Robinson said his wife was receiving psychiatric treatment and that he was stepping down to deal with family matters and to allow an inquiry to take place.
Is she resigning the seat?
He denied any wrongdoing....
We got something for you, Pete.
Yup, that's what we were thinking -- if you want to keep that noggin.
Also see: Irish Speaker Likes Playing the Ponies
Yeah, I thought the world of politics smelled like something.
I'll tell you what; you really want the pulse of Ireland and an inside view of the thinking there? Go here.
Trust me, it's a lot more (see bottom, smile?) than that!
