Hell hath no fury like an Adams hater scorned……..

Let’s recap, shall we?

First, we have a queue of unionists salivating at the prospect of humiliating the detested republican enemy, Gerry Adams in the Mother Parliament.

What should have been a mere footnote reference, worthy of the bit columns in the newspaper, was turned by the Adams haters somehow into a lead story on the local news.

Then, when the moment of triumph appeared to arrive, just look at the thread headlines churned out by some of our regulars here.

But if that wasn’t enough, when the triumph proved a false dawn, frustration clearly triumphed, prompting a further barrage of attacks aimed at compensating for the lost opportunity to put some much-needed manners on the malcontent.

As I indicated yesterday, some people appear utterly incapable of observing events through the eyes of others. An Irish republican who has refused to take an oath of loyalty to the British Crown during his tenure as Member of Parliament was never going to accept a British title on his leaving. Indeed, the tens of thousands strong majority of nationalists who have made Sinn Fein the dominant Irish nationalist party in the Six Counties have voted for the republican party on the clear understanding of principled abstentionism from Westminster.

Given that unionism is supposed to be engaged in efforts to convince nationalists of the merits of remaining in the Union, those gleefully hoping for a moment of humiliation to savour would need to consider quite how they can square the two. Should a progressive-minded unionist party not be more interested in making the British Parliament a more friendly environment for those of an Irish nationalist/ republican persuasion? Unless, of course, persuasion is only meant to be a one-way street….

Unwittingly, the Adams haters have provided the Sinn Fein President with a neat little victory, ironically in a battle he was too busy elsewhere to even know he was fighting. Plus ca change…..

Chris Donnelly