“With Doherty going on to decree that The Good Friday Agreement is only an accommodation – not a settlement, and part of a process towards Irish unification, this is a direct challenge to the DUP … “And,
“It is clear from Doherty that for Sinn Fein the Belfast Agreement, like St Andrews and Hillsborough, is a mere staging post to be used and exploited to roll out Irish unity by stealth”Well, apart from the ‘stealth’ bit he is quite right, of course. Sinn Féin and the SDLP (as well as non-party nationalists) do see the current arrangements as transient, and transitional. Of course – otherwise they would hardly be nationalists at all.
The strange thing is that Allister only seems to have woken up to this reality recently. What did he think from 1998 to 2007 – that all Irish nationalists had meekly bowed their heads and agreed to remain in the UK for the rest of all eternity? And, if he did think this, then why did he bother with politics during the past decade – if he thought that the constitutional position of Northern Ireland had been ‘settled’, then what further need was there for unionist parties? Why did he set up the TUV? If he thought that the constitutional position of Northern Ireland had been ‘settled’, and yet he was still agitating for the exclusion of nationalists from any positions of power, at a time when he apparently thought that they had ‘acquiesced’ to this ‘settlement’, then he was truly a nastier and more bigoted person than many thought. He thought nationalists had surrendered their constitutional ambitions, but he wanted them excluded from power nonetheless!
Now that he appears to have realised that behind all the talk about being nationalists, nationalists really are nationalists, poor Allister is going to come up with a whole new political strategy – instead of just trying to exclude nationalists because of their previous errors, he is going to have to think of a way of countering their current and future plans!
No wonder nationalists have so often seen Allister and his TUV as unwitting allies – because he was fighting a completely different (and totally off-target) battle, while nationalists were fighting for national unity and self-determination.
Allister was just trying to kick nationalists while they were down, but in his rage he failed to notice that they weren’t actually down, they were up and working away on achieving their political goals.
So Allister’s inadvertent assistance was not because he was completely stupid – it was because he was stupid and blind. But now that he has seen through Sinn Féin’s ‘stealth’ campaign, presumably he will refocus his strategy.
5 comments:
It seems to me more and more Unionists are deluding themselves into believing that in time nationalists are just going to stay quiet and accept partition now that they aren't being discriminated against.
They are turning their eyes away from the reality on the ground - like they have always tried to do -and are living in a dreamy world where the north is no different to Britain.
Shock horror, Sinn Fein's entire plan by participating in Stormont is to unify Ireland. Allister and his ilk simply cannot accept the nationalist people of the north having the potential and right to defeat Unionism. They still believe Northern Ireland is theirs and theirs alone.
The Provos surrendered old boy, they'd had enough and so had their supporters - thanks to Mr Adair and 'C' Company amongst other hassles. Hard to see how sitting in a UK subordinate assembly with a double veto will bring about a UI - still the money's good.
Mr Adair and C Company were just brainless drugdealers. The British Army themselves said that. They couldn't organise an orgy in a brothel. Talented at sketching tatoos and bodybuilding though, I'll give you that.
Many Irish politicians had to work the British political system to remove the British yoke from Ireland bit by bit. Nothing has changed by Sinn Fein's current tactics.
"Mr Adair and C Company were just brainless drugdealers. The British Army themselves said that. They couldn't organise an orgy in a brothel. Talented at sketching tatoos and bodybuilding though, I'll give you that."
I'm afraid you're confusing the activities of Loyalist paramilitaries pre and post ceasefire old boy. As for any comments originating from any branch of The UK state, I'd suggest you take them with a pinch of salt - they are usually targeted in one way or another - a bit like 'C' companies munitions.
"Many Irish politicians had to work the British political system to remove the British yoke from Ireland bit by bit. Nothing has changed by Sinn Fein's current tactics."
There's a double veto, or haven't you realised that yet? This obviously favours the status quo, which Unionists want to preserve (in a broad sense) - any change that is agreed between the various parties - well I have no problem with that.
"Anonymous"- (I wonder who it is?) has barely concealed admiration for Mr Adair's C Company. What was it, 40 Catholics? Something like that. The victims we know of, anyway.
Which is strange, really. There are some here who like to remind us of the opinion polls that tell everyone time and time again that lots of Catholics don't actually want a United Ireland.
So when Mr. Adair and his buddies in the U.F.F. were on the rampage, just think of how many Unionists were accidentally killed! Sean Graham's shop, the Rising Sun bar, Dublin/Monaghan, just full of Unionists getting killed by the U.F.F.!
What a bizarre strategy. And he seems to think it strengthened the Union too. The only motivation for killing random taigs, surely, would be if you were sure they wanted a UI? Johnny Adair must have thought so. The police at his trial thought so, too, describing his victims as those he "regarded as militant republicans - among whom he had lumped almost the entire Roman Catholic population."
So was Adair wrong, like the rest of us, in assuming most RCs want a United Ireland? If so, you'd think you'd hate him for killing so many Unionists. So why the admiration?
Logic and consistency dear boy, try to use them old bean.
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