Posted by Jim on September 10, 2015
In a dramatic day in Belfast, DUP leader Peter Robinson has backed away
from a threat to immediately collapse the Six County Executive, instead
opting to step aside temporarily and withdraw all his Ministers,
leaving one.
The sole DUP Minister in the apparently doomed Executive will now be
his substitute, Arlene Foster, acting as both First Minister and
Finance Minister.
The DUP move will not bring about an immediate collapse of the northern
institutions. Executive departments will still function under the
temporary arrangements, but the Executive will not meet.
Robinson had urged the British government to immediately suspend the
institutions after a Stormont committee refused to adjourn (recess) the
Assembly. However, the British Direct Ruler Theresa Villiers has so far
refused to take that step.
With the exception of Mrs Foster, the DUP’s ministers have all signed
their letters of resignation. It is understood that the resignations
will take at least seven days to come into effect.
According to Robinson, he has “stepped aside but not technically
resigned”. He said Foster will remain as a ‘gatekeeper’ in the
executive until the resignation process is completed — ostensibly to
prevent nationalists from accessing Stormont funds.
“Arlene remaining in post allows us to ensure that no irrational
financial decisions are taken by other parties in what might appear to
be the last number of days of this assembly,” he said.
Robinson’s motivation for sustaining the Executive, even in the short
term, remains unclear. He could have acted to immediately collapse the
institutions by tendering his own resignation, but unexpectedly
declined to do so.
At a press conference this evening, he said he still backed devolution,
but it had been pushed “to the “brink”.
“Local ministers making local decisions is best for Northern Ireland,”
the DUP leader said.
“The failure of the SDLP and Sinn Fein to implement the Stormont House
Agreement, together with the assessment from the Chief Constable of the
involvement of IRA members in murder, the continued existence of the
IRA, and the arrests that followed, has pushed devolution to the
brink.”
Villiers later confirmed that she would not take the decision to move
towards suspension and called for all parties to work together.
She said it had been a “bad day”, but “there has been a number of such
bad days”.
One hopeful sign for the Stormont administration this evening was the
release from PSNI custody this evening of Sinn Fein’s northern
chairman, Bobby Storey, whose arrest helped to fuel the latest cycle in
the crisis.
Mr Storey had been arrested in connection with the death last month of
east Belfast man Kevin McGuigan. Two other senior republicans arrested
with Storey, as well as a 50-year-old woman arrested this morning,
still remain in custody.
Posted by Jim on
Brian Feeney. Irish News ( Belfast). Wednesday, September 11, 2015
“An executive that doesn’t work, doesn’t deliver, isn’t going to meet: big deal.’’ Jim Allister’s dismissal of Robinson’s self-important announcement delivered in self-consciously portentous tones in Stormont is the best summary of much ado about nothing.
On the face of it, it was an elaborate facade for doing nothing about the faux outrage the more anti-agreement members of his own party had whipped up after the PSNI’s ill-considered public voicing of their opinion on the killers of Kevin McGuigan.
Robinson’s real venom was reserved for Mike Nesbitt, whom he didn’t name but if he had the ability or talent he could have done a King Lear. “I will have such revenges on you…That all the world shall – I will do such things, – what they are, yet I know not: but they shall be the terrors of the earth.’’ Huh.
On closer examination Robinson’s empty performance was more than a cover story. Yes it was bluster designed for the grinning assassins grouped behind him but its content also betrayed an attitude of mind among Unionists. Like Unionists in general, he needs to feel in control of republicans, to be in charge, laying down the law, not bound by any constraints that apply to normal relationships. In short to be superior.
Unionists feel the need to police republicans and nationalists. It’s the same urge that drives Orangemen to march through republican districts, intimidate republican streets. That’s how and why Orangemen in 1813 caused their first riot in Belfast by marching into the only Catholic district in the town firing shots, one of which killed two Protestant bystanders.
This urge will dictate the futile and fatuous attempt to abolish the IRA. Unionists aren’t happy with the PSNI’s assessment that as an organisation the IRA is engaged purely ‘in promoting a peaceful republican political agenda’. You could appoint some monitoring body but that wouldn’t satisfy Unionists either any more than the decommissioning body satisfied David Trimble.
You might remember that during the Troubles unionists were never satisfied with the RUC and UDR. Repeatedly Paisley tried to set up his own militia to police nationalists resulting in the farcical Third Force and the Carson Trail, which actually distracted the police from their work.
The bottom line for this whole attitude of mind is the refusal to contemplate living on equal terms with the rest of the people on this island which was the fount and origin of Unionism itself in the 19th century.
This refusal to accept mere equality prevents them seeing themselves in the same light as nationalists and republicans.
Thus, for example, when Arlene Foster defected from the declining UUP to the rising DUP, did she try to ascertain whether Peter Robinson had sold his Ulster Resistance [UR] red beret on ebay? Did she or Jeffrey Donaldson try to find out what had happened to Ulster Resistance’s share of weaponry smuggled into The North in 1986? Did it ever occur to them? Why would it, since Unionists never viewed UR in the same light as the IRA?
How would they know if the DUP still had links to Ulster Resistance or indeed if some DUP members were still members of it or the UVF or UDA? How could they know? How then could anyone know if someone has left the IRA? Or is a member of the IRA? It’s a criminal offence. To say you’d left would mean admitting you’d been a member and as we all know the only person who doesn’t know he was a member is Gerry Adams and no-one can prove he knew, and it’s not for want of trying. But how would anyone prove they’d left? Get the adjutant-general to swear an affidavit?
“Yesterday upon the stair I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today. I wish, I wish he’d go away.”[“Antigonish” or “The Little Man Who Wasn’t There” by Hughes Mearns].
It’s a wild goose chase, a piece of political idiocy inaugurated by Mike Nesbitt which Robinson didn’t have the leadership strength to rubbish.
Now it’s aided and abetted by our clueless proconsul[ Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers] whom Charlie Flanagan and the Irish ambassador to Britain met on Monday, to try to explain how stupid and dangerous is her pandering to that idiocy.
Posted by Jim on
Stormont collapse likely after DUP ultimatum is rejected
A Stormont committee has refused to adjourn the Six County Assembly
despite a DUP threat that it would otherwise pull down the North’s
political institutions.
Yesterday, DUP leader Peter Robinson vowed that his party would resign
from the Stormont Executive no later than tonight if the Assembly’s
business committee did not agree the proposal or if the British
government did not suspend the institutions.
It is thought a suspension could be announced within hours.
The unusually grave political crisis at Stormont deepened on Monday
following the arrests of three top republicans on Wednesday, including
Sinn Fein’s northern chairman Bobby Storey.
They are being questioned about the death last month of Short Strand
man Kevin McGuigan, the chief suspect in the murder of former PIRA
commander Jock Davison last May.
The PSNI police chief George Hamilton said last month that he suspected
individual Provisional IRA members had a role in Mr McGuigan’s murder,
although he admitted that the organisation no longer functions in a
military capacity.
Sinn Fein maintains that the Provisional IRA has ceased to exist.
The current crisis was also sparked by the decision last week of the
DUP’s main rivals, the UUP, to withdraw its minister from the
power-sharing Executive and become an ‘opposition’ party.
“The contrived crisis has been provoked by the crass party politicking
of [UUP leader] Mike Nesbitt who is incapable of providing leadership,”
said Sinn Fein negotiator Conor Murphy.
“And in a further failure of leadership the DUP are foolishly
responding to the stunt politics of the UUP.”
Sinn Fein voted against the adjournment, or recess, of the Assembly in
today’s meeting of the Stormont business committee. They were supported
by a combination of the SDLP and Ulster Unionist parties.
Votes on the business committee do not require cross-community support,
but straight majorities. Last week, the DUP’s request for the
adjournment was similarly rejected because it was supported only the
Alliance Party.
The SDLP failed to change their mind despite a crisis meeting with the
26-County Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Dublin this morning. Party leader
Alasdair McDonnell said earlier today the decision would be in the best
interests of the “whole community”.
Nationalists had expressed concern at Robinson’s use of the ‘bullying’
tactic to force his agenda, and warned it could be used similarly
again.
After today’s meeting, Mr Adams said he hoped both governments “will
respect the integrity” of the decision taken by the Assembly via its
business committee, and make it clear they will not suspend the
institutions.
“We need real talks, not pretend talks” to resolve the outstanding
issues, he added.
Posted by Jim on
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
And we built this Country. We are a Nation of immigrants
Posted by Jim on September 8, 2015
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In Our Motto,
Steve Kiernan
AOH Kings County President
