Support for Mcguiness?

McGuinness has some good ideas and plans, but i think his past will go against him and he wont get enough support to be elected.

Also i find it interesting how some are so quick to attack him over his past in the IRA etc. Yes he has a dodgy past ( which he holds his hands up for) but hes also played a big part in the peace process. But anyway what about the criminal acts performed under the leadership of Tony Blair ? George W Bush ? How many millions of innocent people have been killed under their command ? Yet in forums like this people will attack McGuinness over his involvement with the Provo IRA .. Sinn Fein etc, and many of the people who attack him are from the U.K and the States. But its okay for their leaders and former leaders to kill millions upon millions around the world ? Why are British troops still in the middle east ? Why are US troops still in the middle east ? No reason to be there.... How many innocent people have been killed in the war there ? search online, theres sites that show the bodycount ... Its not always the bad guys get killed !! lot of innocents too in the crossfire.

Many innocent men women and children have been killed by British and US troops merely because they happen to live in that part of that world, caught in the crossfire.... bomb attacks etc.

Why are the troops still in these places ? they caught the bad guys didnt they ? they caught the evildoers they were after didnt they ? Bin laden is dead isnt he ? Saddam is dead isnt he ? so why are they still there ?

Tell me how Blair is not a war criminal ? or Bush ? does nobody care about the innocent people living in those parts of the world, who are not terrorists but get shot at , bombed, killed etc etc just because they live in the warzone .

Bush and Blair never apologized for their actions which make. Actions which make McGuinness look like a cartoon character in comparison .

The found their bad guys but continued to let troops roam around shooting at will ....because they liked to invade and have power, they like throwing their weight around........ but thats okay is it ?

Some eejits on here ill tell ya .

Double standard some people have ......

Anyway, getting back on to the election. I think McGuinness has the best ideas and plans out of all the other running candidates, but i doubt he will be elected because of his past so many wont vote.

McGuinness is the best for the job, you have a very british biased based attitude towards your fellow Irishman. People call him a terrorist & a thug, but remember the Catholic people in the North were very badly treated & got absolutely nothing, so something had to be done, the Catholics had to stand-up for themselves there was no other option. It was either fight back or be treated like dogs on the street. BUt I guess you don't care about that & would have preferred to see the Catholics tramped down. Please do not ask question when you do not know the WHOLE FACTS. It baffles me how people are calling him a terrorist & thug & so on...that is the kind of biased british talk I used to hear on the BBC or UTV news when I was growing up. It was always the IRA did this the IRA did that!! The UVF were very bad indeed & killed alot of innocent Catholics, & not forgetting the british soldiers, but of course the british kept that low key. It upsets me how some Irish people do not know this & blamed the IRA for everything. I would like to make a point that I do not condone the poor innocent people that died, but I would just like people not to blame the IRA for all that happened cause that's the british viewpoint some Irish people seem to have taken. Martin McGuinness is as good as any other candidate, unlike Norris. People should be questioning his position. How can a homosexual supporter of his pedophile ex-partner run for President??and furthermore he wants Ireland to join the commonwealth!! & his british ways. He cannot humiliate our country De Valera, Collins, Connolly etc etc would be turning in there graves!! O & you say you do not want someone like this representing our country!!?? Look at Enda Kenny!! lier, cheat, anti-Catholic & corrupt government. Gilmore & him are earning peanuts to you I guess??

Oh you are dead wrong alot of folk here haven't a positive thing to say about him, but wait didn't you not see the loyalists in the North make gusty spence out to be some of saint yet that guy was no stranger to blowing people up either. McGuinness is made out to be the devil but yet UVF members are okay? Don't get me wrong McGuinness ain't no saint either but come on now. Now then as for him being president why not? You think the likes of Norris or Dana would be better? Because they won't. And McGuinness if elected President has promised(though I doubt it) he will take an average working class salary. Also before you go on about salaries aren't you forgetting about the egects in the Dáil? Edna Kenny gets 300k for doin sweet f u c k all, also you don't see Bertie, Biffo or any of the rest of those Fianna Fáil pricks paying a single cent back for the amount they've wasted now do ya? Thought so!

People do change, or do you still draw on walls with crayons? What McGuinness wants hasn't changed, an equal and fair united Ireland. When he was in the IRA he was a second class citizen in what rightfully should have been his own country so he decided to try and do something about it but after some time in the IRA... HE LEFT, because he realisied it wasn't the best way to ahieve what he wanted and now he is trying to do it politically. He has the best interests of the Irish people at heart, both northern and southern and I think as president he could, and would do a lot of good.

To be honest with you I dont really support Martin McGuinness but lets be honest have you seen the other candidates??? Some aul wan who won the eurovision decades ago, A fella off of Dragons Den who makes the rest of them look good he's that boring!! And another guy who iv only heard of because he's been on so many stupid programs on RTE 1 and 2 just to be popular (Norris) its an absolute joke!

Someone like what ....I think you may have forgotten how "our" state was founded...This opinion smacks of the sentiment of fence sitting...a border was drawn and the issues which had historically enveloped the entire country were pushed to the North. Isn't it nice that you weren't asked to deal with such issues otherwise you wouldnt be able to patronise a man, infinitely your present and future better ....someone like this....indeed.

I don't want him at all to be honest and before someone gives out, I am from the ROI, I am catholic, have an irish background and am for a (peaceful) united Ireland. I think it goes against everything this country has worked for. Irelands government is now very less linked to the Ira and having mcguiness as president would be stupid. An Ira man as president, honestly. It kinda goes against mary mcalesse's presidency theme too. Building bridges with the north. Right cause electing an Ira man as president makes perfect sense...

wow. Im actually agreeing with Alan M's answer :O :L

plus like irishlad76 said he wants us to join NATO which would mean we wouldnt exactly be a neutral country which Ireland should be. God i think i might actually vote for Dana now :L

Dev one of our most famous presidents, he had plenty of blood on his hands, from the war of independence and civil war. Many of our most prominent politicians over the past century have been involved at some stage in their life in armed struggle.

In an international comparison, Nelson Mandela was part of the ANC which didn't shy away from violence in its aims against the injustice of apartheid, and he is viewed as an elder statesmen of the globe.

McGuinness has been involved in exclusively democratic, constitutional politics for the last 15 years, playing his part to bring peace to Northern Ireland. He is no saint, and I'm critical of him in many ways, but I'd take him any day over the likes of Mitchell that wants to get Ireland into NATO, so that instead of violence in our own community we can help deliver it overseas.

well, quite clearly leopards do change their spots, alot of the the greatest leaders the world has ever seen had violent pasts but it didnt effect them when they got into politics (e.g george washington, winston churchill), i'd go as far as to say it even helped them, men who are willing to die for a cause can at least be trusted to put their all into a job for their country, unlike alot of the money greedy guys we've seen in recent years. in short, mcguinness isnt the first guy with a violent past to make a successful transition to politics and with upheavel in alot of the muslim countries at the moment he certainly wont be the last either.

theres not a forgiving attitude were British are concerned ive seen the posts in response to the very same question in UK section on here and all are really against it but it has to be said they werent mouthing off when we had to sit in govt with sinn fein