Posted by Jim on February 24, 2018
Fallout from Stormont talks hasn’t played well for DUP or its leader
John Manley. Irish News. Belfast. Saturday, February 24, 2018
You suspect Arlene Foster may regret putting the kibosh on the Stormont talks last week. The fallout over the past 10 days has not played well for the DUP or its leader. There has been a catalogue of inconsistent and contradictory accounts of where the negotiations had reached and what was on the table. With every revelation Mrs Foster’s authority diminishes, while the party once regarded as monolithic and professional suddenly appears at sixes and sevens.
Sir. Jeffrey Donaldson’s claim that he was unaware of any deal between Sinn Féin and the British government to release money for Troubles legacy inquests beggars belief. As the DUP’s ‘go to’ man on legacy issues, it appears incredible that the Lagan Valley MP was unaware of this apparent side deal – and even more so given that one week earlier Mary Lou McDonald told a Stormont press conference that Sinn Féin had struck a separate deal with the British government. Again, it points to a gaping disconnect between the DUP negotiating team and the rest of the party.
Mrs. Foster’s short statement yesterday further muddies the waters. She did not refute knowledge of a deal per se but said no one in her party was aware of inquest funding being progressed “in the absence of an overall agreement”.
The former first minister said it was common knowledge that Sinn Féin were in discussions with the British government over legacy matters but that it would be “astonishing” if the funds were released without a deal to restore devolution. It is equally astonishing that Sir Jeffrey was kept completely in the dark.
The glee with which Sinn Féin negotiator Gerry Kelly outlined the details of how matters were agreed highlighted the degree to which his party appears to be enjoying the DUP disarray. But while the exchange made captivating television, it only serves to drive deeper divisions between the two prospective partners in government.
Whether by accident or design, Republicans have emerged from the events of the past fortnight on the front foot. It often appears Sinn Féin has only a modest appetite for returning to Stormont and in the time since Valentine’s Day the DUP has gifted Republicans the perfect riposte to its critics in The South who hoped to gain advantage by pointing to dormant institutions north of the Border. The proposed deal itself may have been comparable to a score draw but it’s clear republicans have run rings around the DUP in the aftermath of the talks collapsing.
Yet, sadly, all these shenanigans simply sets the process back further and makes the prospect of agreement any time soon increasingly remote.
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Allison Morris.Irish News.Belfast. Friday, February 23, 2018
A GROUP of 50 Northern Ireland lawyers have signed a letter expressing concerns at the “vacuum confronting victims and survivors seeking access to justice”.
The solicitors, specializing in legacy cases, represent a range of law firms. They have said it is “unacceptable and intolerable” that the legacy mechanisms agreed in the Stormont House Agreement more than three years ago, have yet to be implemented.
They have also expressed concerns at growing calls by a number of Conservative MPs for a statute of limitation to prevent any further investigations into the actions of British soldiers while serving in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The lawyers include Patricia Coyle, Niall Murphy, Kevin Winters, Pádraig Ó Muirigh, Patrick Fahy and Peter Madden.
They have signed a letter carried in today’s Irish News saying they are committed to a “human rights compliant approach to addressing outstanding legacy issues”.
“We also note the delays which many families have recently been notified of, in respect of pending reports by the Police Ombudsman, as a result of recent litigation by the Retired Police Officers Association.
“The maxim that justice delayed is justice denied could not be more appropriate in the circumstances.
“The loss suffered by many families in our recent conflict has been compounded by the failure of the justice system in the past to acknowledge the wrong done to them.
“If we are to restore confidence in the justice system and rule of law it is imperative that the reasonable expectations of the victims are implemented without any further delay.”
The lawyers confirmed they will also be joining with victims’ families and campaigners at a march this Sunday in Belfast.
Participants in the Time for Truth march will assemble at noon at two separate locations in the city; the McGurk’s Bar memorial in north Belfast and Divis Tower in west Belfast before making its way to Belfast City Hall.
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William Scholes.Irish News. Belfast. Friday, February 23, 2018
A casebook of mysteries has emerged from the soutane recesses of the square brackets débâcle.[As in this square bracket, the text of the Stormont Agreement, or lack thereof, was peppered with sqare brackets. Hence Mr. Scholes’ lampooning-use of square brackets in next paragraph].
These include questions over Arlene Foster’s [lack of] leadership and the length of time it will take the DUP to [inevitably] sign up to the [modest] Irish language commitments it has [already] negotiated with Sinn Féin, and thus restore devolution.
Sinn Féin must also explain why, having droned on and on and on for month after month about “no return to the status quo”, it was prepared to embrace a deal that appeared to offer such little progress on so many of its cherished issues.
Yet instead of Sinn Féin being on the back foot because it was going to buy tickets to a status quo tribute act, it is the DUP – as well as unionism more widely – that finds itself rocked back on its heels.
This is, in part, because of internal DUP dynamics and Mrs. Foster’s own cloddishness. Once again, she has approached a political problem with the delicate poise and quiet self-control of a sideboard stuffed with crockery being shoved down several flights of stairs
But it also reflects a wider malaise in DUP-dominated Unionism and the way it has shaped itself and the political landscape in recent years.
A siege mentality and an increasingly parochial outlook are its hallmarks as the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, mere weeks away, limps into view.
There is a fixation with defining Britishness in a very particular way that is not only alien to the British on ‘the mainland’ but also, with its orange and green, them and us narratives, corrosive to citizens in Northern Ireland.
Even when it has got a good deal for its voters, as the latest sensible compromise appears to have been, 21st century Unionism is incapable of talking about it without looking like it is sucking a lemon or sounding like the end of the Union is nigh. It is just a coincidence that ‘nigh’ is Ulster-Scots for ‘now’.
Mrs. Foster’s latest difficulties show a more worrying development, not least for her own position.
Struggling to persuade your voters about the merits of the latest deal with the Shinners is one thing, but being embarrassed into denying its very existence by your own MLAs and MPs is a shambles of an altogether different, bewildering order.
The spectre of internal party opposition is one with which Mrs Foster ought to be very familiar.
While in the UUP, she was among those who felt that David Trimble had sold out Unionism through his support for the Good Friday Agreement.
With others, she eventually left the UUP in 2003, though not before helping sow the seeds of Trimble’s demise, that party’s decline and confirming the notion that Unionists don’t know a decent political deal when they see one.
Fast forward, and it is Mrs. Foster who now finds herself in the isolated position of being out of step with much of her party because of the Irish language elements to the [draft] deal she negotiated with Sinn Féin.
A strong leader can get away with being a step in front of their party. But Mrs. Foster is anything but a strong leader, as demonstrated by the speed and manner with which matters at Stormont unravelled last week.
The gap between her own public pronouncements on the Irish language, crocodiles included, never mind those of comic turns like Gregory Campbell and Sammy Wilson, and the reality of the negotiations with Sinn Féin was simply too wide to be credibly bridged.
And at no time had the DUP signaled to its voters what it was prepared to agree to on the Irish language.
Nor had it the wit to indicate that it was cooking up a good deal for Unionism and that Sinn Féin had dropped its red lines.
When, for example, did you last hear Sinn Féin say Mrs. Foster couldn’t be first minister, or agitate over RHI and Nama? And where has reform of the Petition of Concern and same-sex marriage gone?
After meeting Theresa May on Wednesday, Mrs. Foster again insisted that she was not contemplating an Irish Language Act with impressive sincerity for someone who just days earlier was, erm, contemplating an Irish Language Act.
The consensual optimism of the Trimble era has been obliterated. If Unionism is to have a long future, then it will need to find confident leaders who can articulate a vision fit for a modern, shared society without begrudgery and casual offensiveness.
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Arj Singh, Press Association. Irish News. Saturday, February 24, 2018
Tony Blair has claimed the British government is sacrificing the Good Friday Agreement so that it can leave the Customs Union following Brexit.
The former Labour prime minister, who was a key figure in the 1998 negotiations, attacked Conservative ministers’ “sickening” irresponsibility.
In an article attacking the ‘road to Brexit’, series of speeches which will culminate in an address by prime minister Theresa May next Friday, Mr Blair wrote that the agreement is being sacrificed so the government can leave the customs union to strike free trade deals around the world, raising the prospect of border posts on the island of Ireland.
He wrote: “There are politicians prepared to sacrifice the Good Friday Agreement on the altar of Brexit and declare that the peace agreed in Northern Ireland is not really worth having anyway.
“This is irresponsibility that is frankly sickening.”
Mr Blair also urged his Labour Party to oppose Brexit, as Jeremy Corbyn prepares to deliver his own key speech on withdrawal on Monday.
The former Labour leader released a study accompanying his article showing that Brexit will cause economic pain, and that the UK needs most categories of EU migrant
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The defacement of a bilingual road sign in Fermanagh has symptomised a
new wave of anti-Gaelic and anti-Irish hate in the wake of the
collapsed Stormont talks.
The Mid Ulster council road sign, located outside Caledon in County
Tyrone, had the Irish lettering painted out.
Sinn Fein Assembly member Colm Gildernew said: “The vandalism of this
sign is indicative of the attitude of some in society who show a
complete disregard and lack of respect for the Irish identity.
“There is no excuse for this type of vandalism and it will not be
tolerated.
“Anybody removing, destroying or vandalising bilingual signs is
involved in criminal damage and should be reported to the PSNI.
“Occurrences like this bring into focus the need for protection of
Irish Language rights through Acht na Gaeilge.”
Last week David McNarry — a former leader of the UK Independence Party
in the north of Ireland — said he would break the law to remove an
Irish language sign if one was erected on his street.
This week he said he would not condemn the vandalism at Caledon.
“I would be a total hypocrite if I condemned the people who did this,”
he said. “I don’t know what reason they’ve had for doing it except that
they may have just been standing up for what they think are their own
rights and their own British dimension.
“This is where we’re heading with the Irish language – people are going
to have to think very, very carefully that these things aren’t just
being done to agitate people and to cause friction.”
Meanwhile, there has been an angry response to the mockery of the Irish
language recently by BBC broadcaster Stephen Nolan, with a petition
calling for an apology receiving almost 10,000 votes.
Award-winning actor winner John Connors has turned down an appearance on
Nolan’s television show as he was “disgusted” at the presenter’s
attitude to the Irish language.
He was invited to appear by a researcher to appear on Nolan Live
following his celebrated speech at the Irish Film and Television Awards
(Ifta) last week. Mr Connors was widely praised for his speech in which
he referred to the barriers he faced as a Traveller as well as his own
mental health.
He said he was “disgusted” at the treatment by the show’s host of former
Sinn Fein Belfast City councillor Niall O Donnghaile, in a discussion on
the language.
Mr Connors said: “I will forever boycott that show because of Stephen’s
disgusting mockery of the Irish language, the native language of the
whole island of Ireland”.
Mr Connors said he thought “a BBC presenter should be trying to bring
people together, trying to mediate. Instead he seemed to be talking for
the DUP. I thought the way he kept persisting with it, I thought it was
horrendous and disgusting.”
The online petition for a public BBC apology to the Irish Language
community is online at the address: https://bit.ly/2ChxqWi
SECOND ST PATRICK’S DAY BAN FOR TRICOLOUR
Meanwhile, Newry, Mourne and Down District Council has been accused of
tagging on to an anti-Irish bandwagon in the north of Ireland. It has
emerged that the Irish tricolour flag has been banned from the St
Patrick’s Day parade in Newry, just weeks after it was banned in
Strabane and Derry.
According to local Saoradh representative Stephen Murney, the flag has
been barred from the annual event for a number of years now.
Speaking to the Newry Democrat, Mr Murney expressed his anger at the
continuing situation, and said that another ban had also now been
imposed on the Four Provinces flag.
“I was contacted by a representative of the Banna Fliuit Naoimh
Phadraig,” he said. “They informed me that they had phoned the council
to enquire if the flute band could carry the tricolour in this year’s
parade in Newry.
“Not only were they told that they are banned from carrying our National
Flag, but they were also told that the flag of the Four Provinces would
also be banned.
“Banna Fliuit Naoimh Phadraig have quite rightly told the council that
unless the ban is lifted they won’t be taking part.
“This is outrageous and is clearly an attempt to suppress and erode any
display of Irish culture and heritage in the Saint Patrick’s day
parade.”
The news comes less than a month after it was revealed that Ireland’s
national flag had been banned from the St Patrick’s Day parades in both
Strabane and Derry city.
In those cases, the council withdrew the bans after facing a massive
public backlash on social media.
However, a spokesperson for Newry, Mourne and Down District Council
insisted the Irish flag will not be permitted by any of the participants
in the Council’s St Patrick’s Day carnival parades in either Newry or
Downpatrick.
“Saint Patrick’s day is a worldwide recognition of Irish culture,” said
Mr Murney. “It’s a disgrace that our nation’s flags are being banned. It
has to be asked who will enforce such a ban? Will the British forces be
tasked to enforce it?”