The elephant and the wedding feast…
Conall points to Tom Kelly’s piece in yesterday’s Irish News, which focuses on what wasn’t said at that controversial breakfast on the Armagh/Louth border: the proverbial elephant in the room, i.e. a prospective unification of the two parties.
The disjoint between instincts of some SDLP apparatchiks and realpolitik on the ground among the wider nationalist community often means they are blinded to things like elephants in the room.Of course, the presence of a hugely popular Taoiseach is a huge drawing power.
Mark Durkan, freed from the rigidity of Stormont protocol, was at ease on the national stage and spoke succinctly and impressively.
Not that any of this mattered as the room was lit with expectation because of the elephants was presence. Naturally, as taoiseach-elect Cowen says, our immediate concern is for political stability in the north – so nothing will happen quickly.
Indeed the Fianna Fail tent is perhaps wider and more inclusive than the SDLP offers.
But the chair of the Fianna Fail commission is foreign affairs minister Dermot Ahern who played a significant part in organising and hosting the wedding breakfast.
Both parties have yet to consummate and that’s not a given but now the elephant has showed up and it’s hard to ignore.
I am not familiar with Tom Kelly’s work and on the basis of this piece I find no reason to read more of his efforts. The only “elephant” that was discernible to this reader was the great clodhopping one stomping thoughtlessly across a keyboard to produce this… this… whatever it was supposed to be.
I was however so happy to learn that Mark Durkan spoke “succinctly and impressively”. Not having noticed earlier that he had such accomplishment I can only wish for him that he continues to be freed “from the rigidity of Stormont protocol” and that he is able to spend more time with his family and in attending self-congratualatory bean feasts. The man has earned it.