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Yes - Corbyn met with Linda Quigley and Gerry MacLochlainn after the Brighton Bombing - the meeting was arranged to discuss the treatment of prisoners the North of Ireland - both had served convictions on conspiracy charges, both claimed that they were not members of the IRA and had been wrongfully convicted. At the time Corbyn had no reason to disbelieve these individuals - he was also campaigning at this time for the release of the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven - all of whom had their convictions quashed after it was proven that the police had lied in court.
Breandán Mac Cionnaith spent six years in prison for an IRA bombing of a British Legion Hall in 1981. After his release Mac Cionnaith focused on political activity and there is zero evidence that he was involved with the IRA. Corbyn spoke on a platform with him in 2000 to demand a full inquiry into the murder of 14 innocent people by the British army in Derry in 1972. The Saville Inquiry had been established in 1998 - its findings weren't published until 2010 - 38 years after the killings and it confirmed that the victims were innocent of any wrong doing. Mac Cionnaith resigned from Sinn Fein in 2007.
Yes - Corbyn spoke on a platform in 2005 with Raymond McCartney to demand the publication of the report of the Saville Inquiry. McCartney was on the protest in Derry on Bloody Sunday in 1972 - he was 18 years old at the time. His cousin, James Wray, was one of those killed by the British Army, he was shot in the back as he was running for cover when the shooting started. McCartney joined the IRA after the killings (as did numerous others). In 1979 McCartney and another man were convicted of killing a member of the RUC and a businessman in 1977, sentenced to life in prison. He was released under licence in 1994. McCartney claimed he was innocent - and his convictions were quashed in 2007 - the only evidence against him was a confession that was fabricated by the police. At the time of this meeting McCartney was an elected member of the Northern Ireland Assembly and has been one of the leading figures in Sinn Fein who advocated for the end to the IRA campaign.
Mitchel McLaughlin is a loud mouth - the IRA wouldn't touch him with a barge pole. There is zero evidence that he was ever involved in the IRA. McLaughlin was elected as a Sinn Fein member to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998. The meeting with Corbyn happened in 1996 - Corbyn was one of several MPs who met with him to discuss the Northern Ireland peace process and how to move it along. McLaughlin was told that the IRA would have to reestablish their ceasefire before talks could progress.
This one is a beaut - Martina Anderson served time for conspiracy charges - she was elected an MLA in 2007 and is currently an MEP. The meeting with Corbyn organised by the Islington LP took place in 2007 (after Anderson was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly) and was a debate on the peace process in the North - also participating in the debate was Sammy Wilson, hardline MLA for the Democratic Unionist Party (and racist Tory). So if Corbyn is to be criticised for meeting with Anderson - he should be equally criticised for meeting with Unionist bigot Wilson.
Yes - Corbyn had dinner with Gerry Kelly - in 2009 in London (by the way - I have also had 'dinner' with Gerry Kelly - we were in the same room - and the guy is an arrogant pr*ck). Corbyn was one of several hundred people at the event (and not the only British politician).
This was a conference that discussed the 1981 IRA hunger strike and its impact on international events today. Corbyn chaired one session of the conference - Bik McFarlane spoke at a different session. McFarlane joined the IRA in 1969 at the height of a loyalist pogrom in Belfast when loyalist thugs were burning Catholics out of their homes. He was convicted of a bombing in 1975 on the Protestant Shankill Road in Belfast that killed 4 innocent Protestants and one loyalist paramilitary member (who was there incidentally) and injured more than 60. The bomb attack was in retaliation for the Loyalist massacre of members of the Miami showband two weeks earlier. The bombing took place at the tail-end of an extended period of brutal sectarian killings that saw republican paramilitaries kill 88 Protestant civilians and loyalist paramilitaries kill over 250 innocent Catholic civilians. It was the darkest period for sectarian violence in the North and almost catapulted the North of Ireland into an open sectarian civil war. The Shankill bombing was one of the events that led to the establishment of the 'peace people' and the trade union 'Better Life for All' campaign with Catholic and Protestant working class people uniting on the streets to demand an end to sectarian killings.
If only you could help, we could have been so great, but you kept dictating about your bendy banana law, straight bananas were good for me.
au revoir mon ami
Auf Wiedersehen mein Freund
farvel min ven
Actually if you listen to him he talks about his irish and Ghanaian heritage.
what is making him electable is the fact that he is on the LP ticket.
The Greens policies always 'seem really good' - it is what they do when in government that counts - their policies in Britain are no different than Ireland or Germany or anywhere else - their antics in government are all the same as well.
