# A Jersey Story...In One Act



## Deleted member 24029 (Nov 29, 2019)

Since we have been trading political stories recently, here's one:
(No names have been changed to protect the extremely guilty)

So...in the 90's, the Clinton Administration was brokering a deal to end the armed rebellion in Northern Ireland that had been initiated by the Irish Republican Army and their political party, Sinn Fein. At that time, I heard, through certain people, that Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein was going to a certain Irish bar in New Jersey after one of the meetings. The pub was owned by a guy who had "possibly" run guns for the IRA in the past ( read: he sure as fuck did!). So, I said to my at-the-time partner, "Do you want to go meet a legendary terrorist revolutionary?" She pointed out that the IRA has declared the Protestant Irish folks of Ulster to be the enemy, and that is her demographic. Was I really going to march a Presbyterian Irish girl into an IRA meeting? You know what I said...
So, we arrive at the door of Cryan's Pub and we move swiftly through, nodding at the obvious US Secret Service inside (while thinking, "Fucking wonderful, the Secret Service! Like the IRA can't protect Adams?" ) We make a left into the main room (if you've ever been to Cryan's) and squeeze in at the bar. The room must have been over capacity. The Secret Service was obvious, as was every Hybernean IRA fan who had undoubtedly bought their way in here with donations of various kinds, but then I slowly became aware that, in each corner of the room, stood two young guys with crew cuts, and trench coats. So, yes, we were surrounded by IRA Volunteers (as they were called); armed to the teeth, no doubt. My partner begins to wonder if she should order a drink, when a guy in a red blazer (the usual "uniform" of Sinn Fein staff) heads right for us. I thought, "Well, this works or not, right now." He stuck his hand out, " Who are you? " I told him, "Patrick Stanton" ; which is the truth and I must have said it with enough of an undertone of 'of course I'm here' that he accepted it, we shook hands, and he said, "OK, they're bringing Martin around." I nodded approvingly, not knowing, of course, who the living fuck he was talking about; while racking my memory for anyone I'd ever heard of in Sinn Fein named Martin. I thought of Martin McGuinness, but he was rumored to be an IRA Commander, surely he wouldn't be there in public in the pub?...And then McGuinness starts coming down the bar...(I just want to say here that, though it was later revealed that Martin was the Founder and leader of the entire IRA, I didn't know this at that time) Red blazer guy introduces me to Martin by name, and Martin asks, "Where in Ireland are you from?" . I tell him County Cork but I was born here (also true, moments like this are not a good time to practice improv!) He smiles, nodds, moves on. My partner looks at me and says she wants whiskey...now. Who can blame her. At this point, Adams gets on top of a chair, if I remember correctly, and gave a quiet speech about progress with the peace talks and a good future for Catholics in Northern Ireland; folks applaud, etc...But then Martin gets up to speak. Holy Jesus. That man failed for 30 minutes against the Protestants, Unionist, enemies, etc., in an absolutely, dead silent room. The crowd hung on his every word of invective. I still have a clear memory of exactly how he yelled that there would be victory over the Unionists. After, as the room erupted in cheering and Adams was being taken out through the kitchen, my partner and I left, to the parking lot. When we were out of hearing of the bar, I said, "There you go, a little bit of history." She said, " You're OUT of your FUCKING MIND! "
Who can argue?


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## Deleted member 23824 (Nov 29, 2019)

You’re surely going to set me, and maybe others, on studying history. I am woefully ignorant of Irish history and politics, time to start remedying that.


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## AAAutin (Dec 7, 2019)

Because of THE JOURNEY, throughout your tale, I could only envision Martin McGuinness as Colm Meaney.


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