Slugger O'Toole

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1. Comment on Uniting Ireland: no #abortion, no #equalmarriage
   on 3 May 2013 at 4:24 pm

   How is it progressive of Sinn Féin – or the Workers Party – to support ‘abortion’ on demand as the poster seems to advocate? He says that the statistics – 4000+ Irish women travelling to Britain for abortions per annum – doesn’t support the ‘opening the floodgates’ argument proposed by anti abortion advocates when in fact it proves that limited abortion always leads to more extensive availability. That’s what happened in the UK where up to 95% of those seeking abortions of their pregnancies claim to have some mental anguish because of their pregnancy in order to obtain the life-ending treatment. Britain has opened the floodgates – but that doesn’t mean we should open them in Ireland.
   As for same sex marriage, that’s a different matter. A life ends when there’s an abortion but that isn’t the case when two of the same sex join together in matrimony. I don’t think churches should be obliged to marry two of the same sex if that’s contrary to the beliefs of the church but then again I don’t see why two of the same sex would want to get married in a church that regards homosexuality as sinful (while some of its priests and clergy practice it behind closed doors). It’s touching, however, to see the concern of parties such as Sinn Féin, the Workers Party and the DUP for the unborn – and the mothers – when they tacitly or even explicitly supported murder campaigns over the years. In the case of SF, their IRA colleagues in arms infamously abducted and murdered single mother Jean McConville, orphaning numerous children.

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2. Comment on Micheal Martin: NI’s ‘establishment parties’ are failing the Belfast Agreement
   on 1 March 2013 at 5:32 pm

   Mick, I attended the Sinn Féin Summer School last year and a criticism which came from the floor on a few occasions was the lack of concrete progress towards putting a United Ireland on the national agenda was being made. Sure SF makes a lot of noise on the issue – but it’s to little effect. What the party has failed to advocate is incremental changes which would benefit more people – eg banking, language, food safety – so focused it is on having a border poll or such, pointless gesture politics designed for posture rather than real progress. The entire business about the Union Flag is part of this agenda – a symbolic matter which will goad unionists into apoplepsy but do nothing otherwise. Sinn Féin is an all gong and no dinner party with no agenda except self advancement.

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3. Comment on Micheal Martin: NI’s ‘establishment parties’ are failing the Belfast Agreement
   on 1 March 2013 at 12:48 pm

   It’s a great pity that Micheál Martin didn’t for a moment focus on the work of the cross border bodies. In the case of language, which is my specialist subject, if you were to ask an Irish speaker north or south about the benefits of cross border co-operation embodied by Foras na Gaeilge, you would get a frosty response.

   While there have been minor advances – for instance the creation of Irish language of development officers in different areas throughout the north which otherwise would not have such support – the impact of Foras na Gaeilge since its inception has largely been negative. It has closed newspapers which were in existence before it came into being and largely acted as an ineffective and very expensive bureaucracy for funding work on the ground among people

   It’s largely obsessed by self curation, employing clerical officers and the like, measures whose value is not clear. And of course it has brought lack of transparency, accountability and political favouritism/appointments to a new level. The Language Body only published its 2009 accounts before Christmas. It isn’t bound by FOI either north or south and its code on the issue is a joke.

   I have sought documents via that code and been hugely disappointed at what I was allowed to see. Of course the system of appointing political hacks north and south (but particularly in the north according to a version of D’Hondt) means only that those with the right politics (rather than expertise) get appointed.

   SF appointed four representatives to the current board – two of those are putative general election candidates in Mayo and a border county respectively. These are the party’s ‘northern’ appointments. Other parties are guilty too of feathering their own nests and though a ‘conflict of interests’ policy abides in Foras na Gaeilge, reading the minutes of the 2012 board meetings (which are heavily redacted) the board members step out and in again dance routine leaps out.

   Of course the fact that a board member is not in the room when his/her project is being discussed is no guarantee that his colleagues won’t ensure that their interests are served anyhow. After all, it’s your turn today, my turn tomorrow….

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4. Comment on Interview with Noel Doran as Irish News widens circulation gap with Belfast Telegraph
   on 22 February 2013 at 4:11 pm

   it seems to me that the sales for all three Northern Irish dailies are in permanent decline and I can see why as they are not alone suffering the same ailment as other newspapers (advent of internet etc) but are not providing the local coverage, being mostly full of press releases and the like.

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5. Comment on Gaelscéal : UUP’s terminal decline nears its conclusion
   on 21 February 2013 at 10:16 am

   This is the second last edition of Gaelscéal and, today, the NI Assembly Culture Arts and Leisure Committee is hearing the account of Foras na Gaeilge officials on their decision to unilaterally terminate the contract one year before its end date.

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6. Comment on Time for Unionism to find a place for the Irish National flag in Northern Ireland
   on 19 February 2013 at 1:33 pm

   Flags are not the real issue here. Both sides show a complete lack of respect for the flags they supposedly follow by hanging them from lampposts until they become rags.
   This entire episode appears to contrived by SF/SDLP with the unwitting support of the Alliance Party to obscure from nationalists their abject failure in securing parity of esteem across a range of issues for ‘Irishness’ in the north and securing practical advantages of a uniting Ireland. For instance, eliminating the problems with transferring money north and south. Roaming charges etc. It’s curious also how little has been achieved in terms of benefits for Irish speakers even though SF have the culture ministry. There’s no Acht na Gaeilge, no Irish language strategy and the Minister has remained silent following the decision by Foras na Gaeilge to close Gaelscéal. That Irish language newspaper was fulfilling the UK Government’s committment to support one Irish language newspaper, a commitment freely made in the European Charter for Minority Languages, a charter which the UK government committed to sign up to in the GFA.
   It seems to me that the flags issue is being used by both sides to distract us from their failures to change things for the better for all (rather than enhance their own power and prestige).

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7. Comment on Farewell to Gaelscéal
   on 5 February 2013 at 2:23 pm

   I think the arguments about the politicisation of Irish are old hat – sure it’s been politicised by republicans but it’s also been demonised by unionists. This isn’t about that. I do think that the amount of your taxes used to fund Gaelscéal wasn’t a bad investment but you should remember that Irish speakers pay taxes too.

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8. Comment on Micheál Martin – opportunism and cynicism of the very worst kind
   on 20 January 2013 at 3:40 pm

   As I’ve written in Gaelscéal, the flags dispute is as predictable as it is unnecessary. SF have admitted they knew what the reaction of unionists would be when the party proposed the ‘take down the flag’ motion originally. Now I’m no fan of the Union Flag on City Hall but I spent 11 years in Belfast and never heard anybody give it the time of day. There were a great many other issues on the agenda, ahead of the flag issue. Leaving Bread and Butter issues to one side, there was for instance the issue of Irish language signage. Instead of working from the inside out, SF elected to go for outside in politics. It will be ever more difficult now to achieve meaningful changes at Belfast City Hall, where the Union Flag still flies, because of SF’s very foolish and unwise and poorly timed foray. My own view is that the flag atop Belfast City Hall is the last issue on the agenda after both communitiess and all others are prepared for it. The decision to go for the Union Flag’s removal was the worst type of opportunitist politics as it seemed to be masking other SF failures at both the Belfast City Council and at the Executive/Assembly. Eoin O’Broin’s attack on FF Leader Micheál Ó Mairtín is,of course, predictable because SF, when they don’t like the message, try to shoot the messenger. Eoin O’Broin makes no mention of Martin’s point regarding the protest outside the PSNI last November by SF and downplays the role of SF in instigating this entirely avoidable row. And to top it all, SF choose this weekend to have a ‘major’ conference on All Ireland unity when in they North, where SF are in power, their provocative gesture politics is at least partly responsible, alongside their Unionist accomplices, the DUP/UUP, in engendering such obvious disunity. SF have become what they once avowedly abhorred, a party of hypocrisy, partitionism and regressive politics.

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9. Comment on Gaelscéal : “Unionist Forum ends attempts to attract Catholics to the Union cause”
   on 17 January 2013 at 12:47 am

   If the project is a United Ireland, then surely the mission is to assure unionists they will have an honoured place in same, not just a token presence. Gerry Adams proclaims that is his aim but he and his party are all about depriving unionism of its place at every opportunity.

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10. Comment on “If you set so much store by symbols then don’t be surprised if…”
    on 16 January 2013 at 11:09 am

    There’s a very good article – in Irish – in today’s Irish Times about a seminar held last week – a joint venture I think between the Cultúrlann and the Shankill Women – about the Irish language and Protestantism. http://www.gaelport.com/nuacht?NewsItemID=9182
    This to my mind is a good indication of what is possible if unionism opens its eyes.
    In contrast to that, Gerry Adams has an op-ed piece proclaiming the ‘demographic’ imperative for a Border poll. To my mind, the antics of SF in the flags dispute and other controversies is adding an unwanted toxicity to the United Ireland cause. If unionism is endangering its relevancy, so too is so called republicanism.

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