I’ve been very busy work-wise so it seems I’ve more than a little catching up to do blog-wise. So these are some of the things that struck me over the last while:
Let’s start with The Famous Northern Ireland Peace Process: Shortly after my last entry, the auspicious day arose, the day when Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness came together to jointly take up the reins of First Minister and Deputy First Minister. For me, the most telling image on TV was that of old Mr Paisley of the DUP turning to shuffle back through the front door of Stormont while young Martin McGuinness of IRA/Sinn Fein gently laid a guiding and – massively – patronising hand on his back.
That annoyed me somewhat. Not just because it was a hypocritical piece of body language, but mainly because we went through a period of three and a half thousand dead to get to this stage of patting each other on the back.
Let’s face it, if this is where everyone wants to be, why did we not – for example – accept the Hume-SDLP vision much sooner? Because that’s what we now have, albeit packaged with significantly more pizazz. And that’s why the prospect of smiling photo-calls with beaming SF and DUP MLAs now annoys me. Not because of the power of their mandate, but because they’ve both callously switched the ‘Process’ on and off in the past.
Noticed a death anniversary notice in the local paper for an IRA man. Standing proudly by the words Oglaigh na hEireann were those other famous Republican words: You’ll Never Walk Alone. And instead of an Easter lily or some such iconic Republican graphic, was the gleaming crest of Liverpool Football Club.
Like Luke Kelly sang long ago, For What died the Sons of Roisin?
I thought you’d never write about this! Very enjoyable. Thank you.
Well said fellow citizen of Europe!