The BBC are reporting that the European Union’s Special European Programmes Body has dropped its offer of £18 million to the Maze peace centre / shrine after consulting with OFMDFM. The announcement is not yet on SEUPB’s website but according to the BBC: “The SEUPB has been in discussions with the lead partner in relation to the viability of the Peace Building and Conflict Resolution Centre. “It has been agreed that the project is no longer viable at this time …
The headline” Robinson no pushover” doesn’t really fit Henry Patterson’s measured analysis of the first minister’s U turn from Florida in the Newsletter. ..It is remarkable how weak and undeveloped the DUP case was against those who argued that part of the Maze site would house a ‘shrine to terrorism’. The weakness of the DUP case for the Maze was amplified by the fact that apart from occasional interventions by Robinson the only other figure of substance in the …
They must have put up Chinese walls inside Stormont Castle since I was there last. The sudden collapse of Peter Robinson’s position over the Maze peace centre strongly suggests that the joint leaders haven’t even managed to have frank exchanges about the past, much less wrestled with how actually to deal with it. But the bigger problem stretches down the hill to streets below. DUP electoral dominance has been again exposed as offering no protection against unionist fragmentation and a stampede …
So Peter Robinson has now effectively vetoed the Maze “shrine.” Amid all the complaints regarding this from republicans the real question might be Why did he take so long to do it? The reality is that very few unionists have ever supported the concept. A few loyalist terrorist ex prisoners might have had an interest due to their self interest in reinventing their sectarian murder campaign as one by “the fighting men” to quote Gusty Spence. Very few unionists, however, …
And so the Tweedledum/Tweedledee dialogue of the deaf between the only two political parties in Northern Ireland that have substantial political power continues after the First Minister’s ‘address’ to his own senior politicians. First of all, Raymond McCartney for Sinn Fein: “Peter Robinson, who has himself of course been totally absent over recent weeks, talks about difficulties around issues like parades and emblems. Surely then this should be all more reason why a Centre for Peace and Reconciliation should be built. …
