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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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All well and good to making jokes but judging by the picture, the ewe suffered an awful death. If your dog is off leash or out of your control and in a field where sheep are, then it’s not going to end well if they’re spotted by a farmer with a loaded gun! Your dog and YOUR fault if it gets shot.
@selfsustainable:
Unless the dog owner also owns the live stock then they have no place having a dog loose around sheep or cattle, its irresponsible to do so.
Its not a big ask to expect dog owners to have dogs on leads when around other animals,
I wouldn’t for a second leave my dog loose while walking on mountains or farm land unless I owned the land or livestock on it.
That’s a given Barry.
Absolutely selfsustainable. People have no idea the damage their darling dogs can do to sheep. I’ve seen it first hand. People need to be more responsible & not let their dogs just wander as they please.
Never the fault of dogs. Always their owners.
@@UK:
Farmer is still justified in shooting the dog if its not on a lead though.
I say this as a dog owner.
Anybody leaving their dog loose around lifestock they don’t own is an idiotic,
Unless it’s a Pitt Bull. Devil dogs. Nobody to blame but bad doggy genes maybe.
Unfortunately farmers will shoot with no mercy, and a dog will be shot that was doing no harm. As a avid walker and we always bring the dogs on leads it never ceases to amaze me the amount of people who let their pets roam freely. Some of the owners should be on leads.
@Paul Somers: If a farmer’s livestock is threatened they are right to shoot.
@Paul Somers: Some people are able to train their dogs that they have more control with their mouths then they will ever have on a lead.
@Paul Summers: even well trained dogs should be on a lead around livestock. It’s just responsible dog ownership. Sheep can come to harm just by panicking on sight of a dog, especially if the flock has previously been attacked. Dogs should be nowhere near flocks of sheep close to lambing time as the risk of sheep aborting their lambs is too great.
@Angry Gaminour dogs As a dog owner I don’t believe your stupid comment, our dogs and previous dogs would never be good enough to allow/free off lead where therr are livestock. Regardless it is simple sense to keep dogs under your control by having it on a lead unless you own the land end of story. Our dogs are complete pets but they are still dogs.
Sounds like the work of “the beast” to me… They say it’s as big as four cats and has a retractable leg so it can leap up at you better and it lights up at night and it’s got four ears, two are for listening and the other two are kind of back up ears and it’s claws are as big as cups and for some reason it’s got a tremendous fear of stamps, Mrs Doyle was telling me it’s got magnets on it’s tail, so if you’re made of metal, it can attach itself to you and instead of a head, it’s got four arses.
What’s more, it’s yawn apparently sounds like Liam Neeson chasing a load of hens around inside a barrel.
This is why farmers have the right to shoot dogs on their land
I never allow my dog off a lead unless she is in an enclosed area where there are no other animals except her. In otherwords the house, back garden
Sheep kills are awful but to ask dog walkers to stay off the 3000 sq km of Wicklow mountains including 200 sq km of national park is OTT hysteria. And I live up here. And walk my well trained well disciplined dogs off their leads on national park land.
@All Hail Bukowski: they’re not asking them not to walk, they’re asking them to be responsible and put the dogs on leads when near other animals, that’s not a big ask to ask folk to use their brain.
People are not being asked to stay off the land All Hail but simply to keep dogs on the lead. Obviously not all dogs are well trained.
Doh, they are but that’s overkill. Keep them on a lead.
I always let my dog off the lead when I’m walking him. He goes off by himself sometimes and chases things, and I can hear him barking far away. He joins me agin after five or ten minutes though, so it’s fine
@calvin candie: How stupid can you get? Hard to believe you admit your off lead dog goes off chasing things, did you even read the article?
It’s the dog walkers that are vicious! They have to stop those dog walkers. The dogs are fine.
Bear Grylls?
@Diarmuid: nope, FENTON!
Welcome back Islamomonkey, remembered your password did ye?
It definitely wasn’t my Chihuahua anyways…..
Sheep is going to be killed anyway. Farmers annoyed that dog beat them to it.
I am sick and tired of people thinking their dogs are part of the family,and allowing them to run wild.
have your say