DUP – Page 20 – Slugger O'Toole

If Sinn Féin weaponised the Irish language, the DUP had the power to change that…

Soapbox on February 27, 2018, 4:12 pm | Readers 4429

The DUP have accused Sinn Féin of weaponising the Irish language. They have used this ‘weaponising’ of the language as one excuse for their refusal to accept the terms of the proposed Irish Language Act and therefore also the reinstating of Northern Ireland’s devolved government. If Sinn Fein have weaponised the Irish language, the DUP had the power to change that. Instead, it remains a Trojan horse that will continue to destroy unionism. With the signing of the Good Friday …

“Northern Ireland to become an EU province” after a Brexit breakdown. Did we not know that already?

Brian Walker on February 27, 2018, 11:46 am | Readers 5373

Tomorrow the EU will publish its legal version of December’s joint Report or Withdrawal Agreement that was supposed to guarantee against a hard border. The intention is to remove any idea of a fudged political deal that could be changed later. It will however become the EU’s law not the UK’s. Britain will argue that Withdrawal Agreement will be superseded as a result of a final free trade agreement. However as has been well trailed, it will omit the guarantees …

Equality has arrived but the DUP and Sinn Fein have yet to face up to what it means

Brian Walker on February 23, 2018, 6:39 pm | Readers 2312

“Equality” has always been a Sinn Fein buzzword. As the recanted ex- IRA man Shane Paul O’Doherty lethally today quoted Gerry Adams speaking in 2014: “The point is to actually break these bastards – that’s the point. And what’s going to break them is equality … That’s what we need to keep the focus on – that’s the Trojan horse of the entire republican strategy is to reach out to people on the basis of equality.” Other views are un-cynical …

Congratulations are due to the DUP and Sinn Fein negotiators. How can the DUP be persuaded to implement it in their own long term interests?

Brian Walker on February 21, 2018, 1:26 pm | Readers 4736

After rubbing our eyes several times, the first thing to do about the 13 pages of the Draft Agreement published in full by Eamonn Mallie is to have it recognised for what it claims to be. As Sinn Fein has already insisted on its authenticity, the initiative now lies with the DUP. Clearly the document was the hymn sheet the secretary state Karen Bradley was working off in her Commons statement yesterday , although she understandably refused to publish it, …

Care is needed to stop the wheels coming off the Good Friday Agreement

Brian Walker on February 20, 2018, 1:04 pm | Readers 2960

I suppose it was inevitable. On the fringes of Westminster politics the alignment of Leave with a Brexit Union and Remain with support for the GFA is hardening, as shown in reaction to the failure so far to restore Stormont. This is what happens when people dip into the issues and pull out again. Living with them requires steadiness. Former secretary of state, stout Brexiteer and Shropshire lad Owen Paterson tweets that the GFA “has outlived its use.” Kate Hooey, …

Why the Good Friday Agreement has a future

David McCann on February 19, 2018, 4:20 pm | Readers 2706

The Good Friday Agreement has come in for a bit of criticism over the past few days following the failure to reestablish a new Executive. It’s natural, when you are at an impasse to want to review and perhaps chart a new course. However, whilst I share a frustration with the current political situation, I don’t share this idea that we need to abandon the Good Friday Agreement as if it has failed us badly as a society. Writing in …

The draft agreement revealed: So far but yet so near

Brian Walker on February 19, 2018, 11:19 am | Readers 4136

The cats have been let out of the bag thanks to the sources of Eamonn Mallie and Barney Rowan, (Sinn Fein?). From documents of “a dozen pages or so plus annexes and separate agreements,” we pick up the story below from a week ago last Friday. The secretary of state will no doubt be questioned on the details in a statement on the talks failure when the Commons resumes tomorrow. The Sinn Fein leadership will meet Theresa May on Wednesday …

As the 20th anniversary approaches, the contrast is glaring between the commitment and success of the Good Friday Agreement and the neglect and failures of today

Brian Walker on February 18, 2018, 4:51 pm | Readers 2294

Bill and Hillary Clinton may register a no-show at a conference called to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement on 10 April, the Sunday Times reports. Organised by the impressively branded Senator George J Mitchell Institute For Global Peace, Security And Justice at Queens University, the conference line up includes every surviving key figure from the 1998 peace settlement except the incapacitated John Hume. If Bill and Hillary scratch, Tony Blair may follow suit. And then …

Arlene and Mary Lou are at least explaining themselves. But how much does Stormont matter now?

Brian Walker on February 17, 2018, 5:39 pm | Readers 4384

“tiocfaidh ár lá Pat Leahy in the Irish Times The extent to which coaxing the DUP back into powersharing is secondary for Sinn Féin was captured perfectly by McDonald’s speech at her ardfheis coronation at the RDS last weekend. If Sinn Féin was primarily concerned with helping Arlene Foster to bring her party back into Stormont then McDonald wouldn’t have rounded off her peroration with that rousing “Tiocfaidh ár lá!”Never mind that it was unscripted; it wasn’t accidental. Arlene …

London and Dublin must clear their lines for close cooperation on direct rule

Brian Walker on February 16, 2018, 10:52 am | Readers 1871

Clarity rather than coyness is now needed over moves toward direct rule. Working on its scope and duration is one more compelling reason for London and Dublin to stick together. On Monday at the otherwise disastrous Stormont meeting, Theresa May and Leo Varadkar pledged “to work together on a new plan on how to achieve a frictionless Irish border.” Good luck to them with that. On the continuing local stand-off, two elements are essential. Enough action must be taken to …

The fallout continues………

David McCann on February 15, 2018, 8:32 pm | Readers 3812

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Today’s developments, starting off with Sinn Fein President, Mary Lou McDonald (I have highlighted key bits); The DUP leader brought this phase of negotiations to a close and said “there is no current prospect of these discussions leading to an Executive being formed”. “It is up to Arlene Foster to explain this given that the DUP and Sinn Féin leaderships had achieved an accommodation across the issues involved. “In fact we had a draft agreement by the end of last …

Next time, the governments must not leave it entirely to the DUP and Sinn Fein in secret

Brian Walker on February 15, 2018, 10:54 am | Readers 3545

It would have been a remarkable feat if the DUP and Sinn Fein could have struck a deal in secret, alone and unaided. Secrecy may be essential for last moves to reach a compromise. But over a year none of the ground had been prepared with the public and it showed. The background was too noisy – RHI, the sudden illness and death of McGuinness, minority governments in London and Dublin with other fish to fry, including monumentally, the throwback …

Was an Irish Language Act really a bridge too far?

David McCann on February 14, 2018, 10:31 pm | Readers 7915

What a week. The DUP Leader, Arlene Foster has brought the curtain down on the current round of talks. It is commonly assumed that selling a stand alone, Irish Language Act is just something that would be a bridge too far for any Unionist leader. However, just taking a stroll down memory lane I wonder is this actually a fair representation of where Unionist voters actually are. Do I think they want an Irish Language Act? No. Would it be …

Arlene’s Valentines Day Massacre

Daithi McKay on February 14, 2018, 10:01 pm | Readers 11473

Today could not have turned out any bigger a mess for the incumbent DUP Leader and would-be First Minister. If sources are to be believed the Fermanagh MLA was ready to sign off on a deal which would have seen 3 Bills introduced : An Irish Language Bill An Ulster Scots Bill A Joint Respect Bill What has happened since the weekend to put the Stormont train off the rails? A DUP Group meeting on Monday morning, 3 days of …

For a political deal ever to emerge, mutual ignorance needs to faced and mutual respect observed

Brian Walker on February 14, 2018, 4:27 pm | Readers 1800

Mick has rightly just pointed out how tantalising easy the language issue could be to solve, were it not for the politics that expresses a far deeper mutual ignorance ( in both senses) than is often recognised and which 20 years of supposed power sharing has failed to reduce. Politically there must be limits to the management of the voluntary apartheid state we appear to be creating before cohesion collapses altogether. That moment may not be as far off as …

What would yet send them over the top? Or is it all over?

Brian Walker on February 14, 2018, 10:25 am | Readers 3009

While Mick has presented the glass half full argument that Sinn Fein have at least indicated a willingness to return to Stormont, attention is bound to be more focused on hopes dashed or at least seriously dampened . But there’s no point in railing against Arlene Foster for bursting out in public with a negative message against an Irish Language Act (“however packaged”) or speculating that DUP supporters with Jim Allister perched on their shoulder were “spooked “ by …

Now we see who’s ‘red (white and blue) lines’ are holding up the show!

Concubhar on February 13, 2018, 5:24 pm | Readers 5349

It’s becoming increasingly clear that unionist political parties and politicians have set their opposition to an Irish Language Act and, by extension, any form of an Irish identity within ‘British’ NI as a priority ‘red line’ ahead of returning to powersharing or, even, at the most fundamental level aspiring to an equal Union between NI and the rest of the UK. The rhetoric today from Arlene Foster in which she set out what she would not countenance in response to …

Getting a functioning, lasting Executive should be the focus of the debate

David McCann on February 12, 2018, 10:13 pm | Readers 1614

We seem to be getting close to a final deal which will likely see the reformation of the Executive after 400 days without devolved government in Northern Ireland. This is not the first time a collapse has happened, since the implementation of power-sharing in 1974 we have seen more than 4 collapses of an administration for one reason or another. The key question is now trying to make it stick. Any new Executive is going to face major challenges with …

Sceptical, not cynical about “the long drawn out attempt to breathe life back into the Stormont arrangement”

Pete Baker on February 12, 2018, 9:09 pm | Readers 2081

Whilst on Saturday Brian highlighted the question of “the prospect of Sinn Fein’s return to Stormont as Mr Adams’ parting gift”, today Ed Moloney posits another, equally plausible scenario… You know, a cynic might suspect that the whole thing, at least the long drawn out attempt to breathe life back into the Stormont arrangement, was staged or timed so that the breakthrough would happen just when Sinn Fein want to present a new, Adams-free image to the electorate down South, one …

Progress made on forming new Executive but no deal

David McCann on February 12, 2018, 8:01 pm | Readers 1858

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In from the Sinn Fein President, Mary Lou McDonald “Today Michelle O’Neill, our party chair Declan Kearney and I had the opportunity to meet with both An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and with British Prime Minister Theresa May and we gave them our assessment of the talks so far. “We believe an agreement is possible, an agreement is desirable. “Sinn Féin want the institutions back up and running and we have said very clearly that at this juncture what is required …