Fascinating. Liam Clarke nails something vital here:
….the only way through the marching season is for Parades Commission decisions to be honoured and enforced by the police. That is the message we need from politicians and, if they don’t like the situation, the answer is in their own hands.
They have spent years trying to agree an alternative means of regulating the very small number of disputed parades which blight each summer here.
Their failure is the backdrop to the mess that now seems to be unfolding this year. The uncertain touch of the current commission should spur the politicians on to agree something better when they meet in all-party talks next week.
Quite so. But if the latest Twitter briefing from Barney Rowan is anything go by, the word from SF point men Spike Murray and Bobby ‘How dare they’ Storey is, ‘Nah…’
As Gerry once idly boasted to RTE back in 2007 all of this discord suits Sinn Fein, so why would they let go now. The semeiotics of annual chaos suit their preferred narrative of the failed state they are in turn failing to administer.
Besides, it’s hardly a coincidence that in both places where both these disputes are taking place the party has a difficult turf war with dissident groups of ex SFers who are more than happy to take the credit for finishing ‘the fun so well begun’ by Mr Adams and Co back in the 1990s.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty