An opinion poll published by the Sunday Business Post over the weekend showed support for Sinn Fein had dropped by five points to 13 per cent. The figure was 18 per cent in February.
On Monday Ms McDonald said: “In respect of St Patrick’s Day, I think it starts certainly a conversation around that banner which has been up and down Fifth Avenue for a generation.
“It’s a very direct political statement, it’s an anti-partition statement.
“I know it was taken by some to be directed at English people. It certainly was not and is not.”
She described the slogan as a “fairly blunt statement at any time”.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1 she said: “I suppose all of us have to be conscious of not just what we say and what is meant, but also what is heard and what is understood.”
Asked whether she was inching towards an apology, she replied: “I don’t have to inch towards anything… for anybody who felt that it was directed at English people I just want to reassure them that that’s not the case.
“Indeed I have blood relatives myself who are English… and English people are very welcome in Ireland.
“Many of them live amongst us, they are our neighbours and our friends, so certainly I apologise to anybody who felt that the banner was intended in that way, and I’m happy to clarify that it’s not. It certainly doesn’t mean that.”
On the political sentiment behind the banner, Ms McDonald said she would not apologise for being “a united Irelander” and for wanting unity and democracy across Ireland.
“Far from apologising for it, I wear that political position as a badge of honour,” she said.
The DUP said Ms McDonald’s apology was motivated by poll ratings rather than remorse.
East Antrim MLA Gordon Lyons said: “Mary Lou McDonald’s apology is a cynical response to falling poll ratings rather than any acknowledgement of remorse.
“It is testament to Sinn Féin’s place on the sidelines of politics that gaffes by their new president have been their most significant contribution to politics in recent months.
“It is clear however that a drop in support has pressed those who take the decisions within Sinn Fein to stop defending the banner and belatedly send Mary Lou McDonald out to issue this supposed apology.”
Mr Lyons said if the party’s leadership was truly focused on repairing the damage it would commit to working with all other parties to restore the Stormont assembly.
In anticipation of the City pulling the 5th Firefighter from all 20 Group 2 Engines due to the rise in Medical Leave, we will be holding a press conference on the steps of City Hall tomorrow, April 1, at 11:30 AM. The UFA Executive Board will be joined by NYC Council Members Joe Borelli, Justin Brannan and other elected officials.
We are asking for any and all available off duty members to attend tomorrow’s press conference. We understand this is short notice and appreciate your efforts to attend. All members are requested to wear UFA or Company shirts.
Once again, this is a dangerous job. Injuries are unpredictable, and for the most part, unavoidable. Stay safe and we will keep you posted with further updates. If you have further questions, please contact your Company Delegate or Borough Trustee.
KNICKS 9/11 MEMORIAL STAIR CLIMB & FIRST RESPONDERS NIGHT This year’s New York Knicks 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb Presented by Chase will be held on Sunday, April 7, at Madison Square Garden. The Stair Climb is a way to honor and remember the FDNY members who selflessly gave their lives so that others might live on 9-11-2001. To donate or to register, visit events.firehero.org/2019NYKnicks. Cost to climb is $50 and includes a t-shirt, 343 honor badge and entrance for up to 3 guests. Madison Square Garden, the Garden of Dreams and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation have asked us to provide volunteers to assist with the Stair Climb. We still need about 7 volunteers. If interested, please email RecordingSecretary@ufanyc.org or call 212-545-6974 as soon as possible. After the Stair Climb, the Knicks will be hosting First Responders Night vs. Washington Wizards at 7:30 PM. Tickets can be purchased through the link https://www.fevo.com/edp/2019-Knicks-First-Responder-Night-fs4zCk9?referrer_hash=6mnnQqmd. A portion of each ticket purchased through this link will be donated to the UFA Widows and Children’s Fund. The Stair Climb After Party will be held at VERSA Restaurant NYC, 218 W 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 (inside the Renaissance New York Midtown hotel, a partner of MSG) from 2:30 to 5:30 PM with happy hour discounts.
The people of the border communities in Ireland are today demonstrating
against the demands of the unionist far right as Britain moves closer
to a crash exit from the European Union and a remilitarisation of the
border area across Ireland from April 12.
Despite suffering another humiliating defeat in the House of Commons on
the Withdrawal Agreement she has negotiated with the EU, British Prime
Minister Theresa May continues to ignore all other options. That deal is
opposed by Tory extremists and the DUP, who are demanding a clean break
with the EU and the return of border controls between the two parts of
Ireland.
A number of protests are taking place today at border crossings between
Louth and Armagh, Cavan and Fermanagh, Monaghan and Tyrone, Donegal and
Tyrone, and Donegal and Derry.
Spokesperson for Border Communities Against Brexit, JJ O’Hara, said that
two decades of peace efforts are at “real risk” because of Brexit.
“There’s so much good work done over the last 20 years, from the Good
Friday communities,” he said. “So many communities came together, and so
many different projects have been developed cross-community and
cross-border.
“This is putting [everything] in jeopardy. It’s putting the Good Friday
[Agreement] in jeopardy.”
Sinn Féin’s Donegal-based Senator Padraig MacLochlainn said Brexit posed
a “huge threat” to the border communities and the economies on either
side.
“A majority of people in the North voted to Remain and the Tories along
with the DUP are ignoring this democratic mandate. Our rights, economy
and agreements must be protected,” he said.
“The antics on display at Westminster show clearly the complete
disregard the British Government has for Ireland, especially our border
communities.”
The British Labour Party has now called on Theresa May to finally accept
that her deal is dead and to call a general election.
But with only days left before a potentially cataclysmic departure from
the EU, May appears unmoved, apparently encouraged by the last-minute
support of a number of prominent Brexiteers, including Jacob Rees-Mogg,
Iain Duncan Smith and Boris Johnson.
She has until April 12th to go back to Brussels with new proposals and
seek a longer extension to the negotiation process, or see Britain leave
without a deal, taking the north of Ireland suddenly out of the EU
against its will.
The crisis has already brought the British system of government to a
halt. The two main parties are balkanised and at war within themselves,
while backbench MPs at Westminster have taken over control of parliament
from May, whose power has all but seeped away. One Minister described
the situation in Cabinet as “like the living dead”. Asked the point of
the third vote on May’s deal, he (or she) responded: “F*ck knows, I’m
past caring.”
On Friday, to mark the original planned exit day, loyalist flute bands
joined fascist Tommy Robinson and about a thousand right-wing activists
at a pro-Brexit demo in London. Participants loudly hurled abuse at
anti-Brexit MPs, parliament staff and members of the media until night
fell. Demonstrators jostled with journalists after the planned speeches
ended, and five were arrested. Scottish Nationalist Party justice
spokeswoman Joanna Cherry QC said that she was subjected to abuse as she
left Westminster and “told to go back to my own country”.
On Monday, MPs will stage a second series of “indicative” votes on
alternatives to the negotiated deal. In the first round of votes on
Wednesday none of the eight options considered – including a customs
union with the EU and a second referendum – were able to command a
majority, although those options were the most popular.
With support for Brexit in clear decline, discussions between the
various groups of MPs involved are taking place over the weekend to find
a compromise proposal. Another idea would see a crash ‘no deal’ Brexit
ruled out in favour of an extension to the deadline of about a year,
seen by many as the most likely next step.
Most commentators are predicting an imminent end to the political career
of Theresa May, something she has already promised her right-wing rivals
within the Tory party in return for support to pass her negotiated deal.
One plan is for a climactic ‘grand final’ vote next week between her
deal and a rival proposal stitched together by backbench MPs.
Regardless of the ‘Tory psychodrama’, as one Labour MP described it, the
European Union and the Dublin government Taoiseach Leo Varadkar are now
exclusively preparing for a crash Brexit on April 12. Tánaiste Simon
Coveney has said Dublin’s focus this weekend is turning away from what
is happening in Westminster to a “new phase”.
“That new phase is to focus more on preparing ourselves what essentially
would be an emergency of an accidental crash-out Brexit which I don’t
think anybody wants – certainly nobody here and only a very small
minority of people in Westminster are looking for that but it could
happen by accident.”
John Manley. Irish News. Belfast. Saturday, March 30, 2019
AFTER yesterday’s Westminster drama commentators are going to have to find new words to convey the depth of uncertainty that British politics finds itself in.
The cure remains elusive for the Brexit condition and there’s a growing danger that it could become terminal.
All the options that were there ahead of the so-called MV2.5 remain on the table but the margin of defeat for Theresa May, arguably double what she had hoped for at the very least, means the Tory leader is unlikely to try and push the withdrawal agreement through for a fourth time.
But you can’t rule anything out. Nor can we discount the possibility that Mrs May will throw all the balls in the air by resigning or calling a general election.
However, assuming the prime minister doesn’t hit the nuclear button just yet, there will now be a number of concurrent processes that will both seek to buy time and break the deadlock.
Crashing out remains a possibility but it is something that will be arrived at by accident rather than design, and given its far-reaching consequences for Britain, Ireland and the EU, it’s hoped there’ll be enough of a collective effort to avoid such a scenario.
On Monday, MPs will continue their search for consensus through the indicative votes process, which given yesterday’s events must surely carry more weight than it did on Wednesday.
Brexiteers are justifiably unnerved by parliament’s intervention, as the more momentum it gathers, the greater the likelihood of a soft landing or no Brexit at all.
The most popular options emerging from the backbencher-led process were a second referendum and a customs union between the UK and the EU, so support is expected to coalesce around these, though in common with the Withdrawal Agreement and every other solution floated thus far, they don’t yet have the backing of a majority of MPs.
Given the disparate nature of Westminster at present, coupled with overriding party and personal interests, finding consensus is near impossible.
Meanwhile, the British government is expected to ask the EU for another extension though this is likely to be conditional on a change of tack, given that Mrs. May’s approach appears to have run out of road. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was yesterday talking of a “long extension”, which will require participation in the European elections in late May.
This is an outcome that nobody wanted, as the election will prove to be a divisive distraction but a legal necessity.
Much commentary on the current logjam cites Theresa May’s Lancaster House speech and her insistence since that the UK must leave the customs union.
What is now apparent is the need to rewind and reboot the Brexit process, this time forging a more workable strategy with broader cross-party support.
But perhaps it’s just wishful thinking to believe the Tory leader has the room to maneuver or the inclination to concede she made fundamental mistakes.
