sneaking regarder

• sneaking regard -er

sneaking regarder (plural sneaking regarders)

1. (Ireland, derogatory) With regard to physical force Irish republicanism: someone who sympathises with it without actively supporting it; someone whose opposition to it is equivocal or less than wholehearted.
   • 2014, Demond O'Malley, Conduct Unbecoming, Gill & Macmillan, →ISBN:

     We have had to endure the 'sneaking regarder' version of events, whereby every waver of a green flag is sanctified and those who tried to do something as boring as maintain the integrity and stability of the state and the rule of law are vilified.

   • 2016 December 11, Ruth Dudley Edwards, “It would appear the useful idiots and sneaking regarders haven't gone away”, in Sunday Independent:

     Here's a question about Clare Daly, Eamon O Cuiv, Thomas Pringle, Maureen O'Sullivan and Mick Wallace. Are they useful idiots (exploited for propaganda purposes by cynics) or sneaking regarders (the kind of people who were against terrorism, but had "a sneaking regard for the lads in the IRA")?

2. (by extension) Someone who supports an unpopular cause.
   • 2011 May 12, Ivan Yates, "Get well soon Garret, we still need your wisdom and experience" Irish Examiner

     Critics dismissed FitzGerald as a “sneaking regarder” and a West Brit — betraying the idealism of 1916 and aspirations of Irish sovereignty.

   • 2017 April, Tadhg Foley, “A Bit Of Stick”, in Dublin Review of Books‎:

     He justified the “necessary lie” and was a sneaking regarder of Machiavelli and Hobbes; he agreed with Cicero’s view that “we must dissemble if we would live in the world”.

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