The idiom I am using in the title of this article will be known to most. It refers to being in a similar situation as the items in a pickle jar, enduring the biting acetic acid of vinegar!
Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Fein is currently in such an uncomfortable set of circumstances as the result of evidence given in the recent murder trial in Dublin of Gerard Hutch, 59, from the Paddocks in Clontarf, Dublin, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of David Byrne in the city during a 2016 boxing weigh-in.
She strongly denies the substance of secretly-recorded conversations between Mr Hutch and former Sinn Féin councillor, Jonathan Dowdall.
Mr Hutch’s lawyer has objected to use of the tapes because eight of the 10 hours were recorded in Northern Ireland when police bugged Dowdall’s vehicle. Mr Hutch and Dowdall were driving to Strabane in County Tyrone when the recordings were made.
The recordings reveal that Hutch and Dowdall talked of how McDonald denied any links with those involved in the murder.
Here is what is published this morning in a report on the BBC news site of the recordings of the two men’s conversation.
We have copied the report in full below.
“Dowdall then criticised Mrs McDonald for not attending the funeral of Mr Hutch’s brother, Edward, who was killed days after the shooting of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel.
Dowdall said she should have attended the funeral and that she stayed away from it on purpose.
‘She didn’t attend the innocent man’s funeral. She was on the telly the night Neddy got shot and she branded everyone as scumbags, she said they’re all scumbags,’ he said.
‘She shoulda turned around and said, I know that deceased man and I know that family. It’d be different Gerard if she was a politician and it was not her area. You’s are in her area and she shoulda said that,’ he said.
‘But ya’s were good enough to use Gerard for votes, ya’s were good enough to use for money.’
Mr Hutch replied there wasn’t ‘one of them at’ the funeral.”
It is little wonder Mary Lou is in a bit of a stew, to use another idiom!
These men, unaware they were being recorded by the Northern Ireland police, were talking candidly and under no duress about the Sinn Fein leader and her attempt at distancing herself and her party from the gangsterism in Dublin. The comments these men make regarding McDonald’s readiness to use those within the circle of the family involved in the gangland killings for ‘money’ and for ‘votes’, is very telling indeed.
Dowdall’s comments: “But ya’s (McDonald and her Sinn Fein compatriots) were good enough to use Gerard for votes, ya’s were good enough to use for money” — in truth shows Sinn Fein to be what it truly is, an organisation linked to gangsterism.
McDonald’s denials are empty and a sham. They are as false as the colour of her hair and the suntan of her face, not to mention the colour of her lips.
She is a patently ‘painted on’ counterfeit!
Such involvement in wickedness as these recorded comments indicate are less damningly evil as are Sinn Fein’s involvement with the IRA and its campaign of murder, which left thousands of innocent Protestants and Roman Catholics dead, seriously injured and and maimed for life.
Certain verses in God’s Word come to mind. They contain statements indicating that such hypocrisy does not go unnoticed by heaven and that there is a divine determination that such false virtue and lying humbug will be fully exposed.
“Behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out,” Numbers 32:23.
“Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance,” Psalm 90:8.
“Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth: evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him,” Psalm 140:11.
“Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him,” Isaiah 3:11.
“But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile,” Romans 2:8-9.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
28th November 2022
Mary Lou McDonald denies claims heard in Gerard Hutch murder trial
Mary Lou McDonald was speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Politics programme
Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald has denied claims heard during a murder trial in the Republic of Ireland.
Gerard Hutch, 59, from the Paddocks in Clontarf, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of David Byrne in the city during a 2016 boxing weigh-in.
A Dublin court has heard an allegation that the party used the accused “for votes and for money”.
“That is absolutely not true,” Mrs McDonald told Sunday Politics.
“Let me further say that that case is ongoing in Dublin,” she said.
“This case is as a result of incredible, sterling work by the gardai (Irish police) over many years and I’m certainly not going to say anything… that would in any way jeopardise or undermine or influence the outcome of that important trial.”
Her comments come as the Special Criminal Court in the Irish capital is to rule on the admissibility of secretly-recorded conversations between Mr Hutch and former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall.
The court has heard 10 hours of tapes.
In the recordings, Dowdall and Mr Hutch talked about Sinn Féin and Mrs McDonald.
Dowdall said the party would be stupid not to go into coalition government, with Mr Hutch saying it should do what is in the best interests of the country and not the party.
Dowdall then criticised Mrs McDonald for not attending the funeral of Mr Hutch’s brother, Edward, who was killed days after the shooting of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel.
Dowdall said she should have attended the funeral and that she stayed away from it on purpose.
“She didn’t attend the innocent man’s funeral. She was on the telly the night Neddy got shot and she branded everyone as scumbags, she said they’re all scumbags,” he said.
“She shoulda turned around and said, I know that deceased man and I know that family. It’d be different Gerard if she was a politician and it was not her area. You’s are in her area and she shoulda said that,” he said.
“But ya’s were good enough to use Gerard for votes, ya’s were good enough to use for money.”
Mr Hutch replied there wasn’t “one of them at” the funeral.
Mr Hutch’s lawyer has objected to use of the tapes because eight of the 10 hours were recorded in Northern Ireland when police bugged Dowdall’s vehicle.
Mr Hutch and Dowdall were driving to Strabane in County Tyrone when the recordings were made.
Dowdall, 44, of Navan Road, Dublin, was due to stand trial for Mr Byrne’s murder alongside Mr Hutch.
However, he pleaded guilty in advance of the trial to a lesser charge of facilitating the Hutch gang by making a hotel room available ahead of the murder. He was jailed for four years.
He is currently being assessed for the Witness Protection Program after agreeing to testify against Mr Hutch.
The trial continues.