Colm Meaney says treatment of Martin McGuinness during Presidential campaign was 'offensive'
Mr McGuinness made a bid for the Irish Presidency in 2011 but lost out to Michael D Higgins
Top actor Colm Meaney has said he found the way the late Sinn Féin President Martin McGuinness was treated during the 2011 Presidential Election was “offensive”.
Mr McGuinness made a bid for the Irish Presidency in 2011 but lost out to Michael D Higgins. But Meaney has hit out at the treatment of the late Mr McGuinness during that campaign.
Speaking to Ryan Tubridy on his podcast, The Bookshelf, Meaney said: “I found the way Martin McGuinness was treated during his Presidential Election campaign very offensive. I mean for 20 odd years he had been a statesman. He had done wonderful work for peace, and he wasn’t credited for any of that.
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“It was all about what he had done.. I was never a provisional (IRA) supporter, I was gone for a lot of what went down as well but once they signed the peace process, I could support Sinn Féin.
“For me, it is more to do with one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, but the attitude I find off some people here is that the IRA just decided to get together one Wednesday evening and start shooting at people up the North and planting bombs.
“The IRA happened for a reason. The IRA was dormant, gone, forgotten about after the '50s campaign and all through the '60s. And then the Troubles kicked off. The Civil Rights movement was a peaceful movement on the streets and they were beaten off the streets by the State.
“The aggression came from the State and that intensified and increased to the point where you had Bloody Sunday. It was a response to that,” said The Commitments actor. Asked by Tubridy if what happened justified that response, Meaney replied: “Well, people have to defend themselves.”
Meaney also opened up about his late mother and how he misses her “very much”. The Snapper star was left devastated in 2018 when his 95-year-old mother Kathleen, who lived in Finglas East, passed away. Meaney said his mother used to love her son’s fame and notoriety.
He said: “She loved it. I always enjoyed taking her places. I took her to the Venice Film Festival a few times, (she) used to come with me to the IFTAS and to your show. She was 95 and she was at home until a year and a half before she died and just various infections and eventually the heart gave way.”
Asked by Ryan if he missed her, the Dubliner remarked: “Very much.”
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