More mixing of messages

A report in the Irish Echo, by Paul Colgan, has Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams calling on “whoever is elected U.S. president to ‘deliver’ on their commitments to support the Irish political process”… Mmmm.. Perhaps he should have told Bairbre de Brun what he was going to say?Apart from the obvious hedging of bets Adams is full of quips, as ever, “Obviously, 2016 is an emotive date for republicans and nationalists, but I’ve never been taken up that much with it — a United Ireland could happen before then”.

Let’s leave aside the attempt to use the calendar as a ‘political’ argument, he’s already trying to pass the blame if he fails to deliver on that over-hyped possibility “If it doesn’t happen by 2016, people shouldn’t come complaining on Easter Monday because they’ll only have themselves to blame.”

Setting down a deadline for such a move is in every respect, contrary to the Agreement – which Adams and SF are so publicly supportive of. Worse still, it is likely to be counter-productive.. unless, of course, the aim is to further undermine the pragmatic elements in Unionism?

The sequence Adams puts his party’s objectives points out where his priorities lie – “we have two big challenges. One is to persuade the British government that its duty lies in leaving Ireland. Secondly, we have to reach out to unionists.”

So much for the principle of consent, then.

And how exactly does Adams see his target audience in the US working to “put the ‘ending of the union’ onto the U.S. political agenda” while Sinn Féin continues to call for an “end to the use of Shannon Airport as a staging area for US forces involved in the occupation of Iraq“?

Answers on a postcard please.

Pete Baker