Just to mark it, here’s a screen shot of tomorrow’s Irish Star… I don’t know if our Mr Angry was first with it, but he was first with it here… Good man… Just one reason why we really appreciate the wit and occasional insight of our readers… Mick FealtyMick 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 …
Tonight the Telegraph have a typically sage and balanced op ed from Paul Bew on what meeting the Queen means in real political terms… …what is next for Sinn Fein, given that the most recent poll in Northern Ireland shows support for a united Ireland at a new low of 7 per cent? It is now clear that Sir Patrick Mayhew’s prediction in the early Nineties that Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom would come to a crucial test before …
One of the stories that’s been hanging in the air for the last few weeks has been will Martin McGuinness meet the Queen, or won’t he? Well, it seems he will. Though the i’s and the t’s remain to be dotted and/or crossed. In recent weeks Slugger understands that the leadership within Sinn Fein have deployed some very senior members ‘of the Movement’ in selling ‘the deal’ to their own activists. Slugger also understands that the party’s Ard Comhairle (high …
Useful conversation on UTV last night between Brian Feeney and Alex Kane on ‘the deal’ that apparently is ongoing regarding Martin McGuinness’s ‘price’ for shaking hands with the Queen: It’s all about choreography. In particular Feeney says its about photographs [What, again? – Ed]. Photographs of Martin stuck with the UK’s head of state and a sea of Union flags at his back. And over at the Beeb, Mark Devenport notes McGuinness’s line was that it was a huge ask …
“When The Visit was first announced, I guess most Irish people were a bit surprised that such a high-profile guest would be coming to Dublin. It’s not that they aren’t welcome, but there was a lot of animosity about stuff that happened in the past. Some people will never get past the association with the army and the violence carried out against Irish people, but times change. “So the anger was relatively muted, with only the dissidents genuinely offended. There …
The Queen’s visit to the Republic has received almost wall to wall coverage. It has also elicited almost universal praise. Almost everyone in the RoI seems to have been delighted by the exercise apart from the dissidents: even Gerry Adams whilst not reversing his claim that the visit was premature, praised her remarks. There is little doubt that the Queen will have enjoyed the visit: she seems to have an ability to be genuinely interested in the places she visits …
The dissident republican threat may be a factor in producing a confusing response to the Queen’s visit from Gerry Adams. In the Examiner he ‘d seemed to cast aside SinnFein’s former reservations to welcoming it grumpily, seeing it as an opportunity for “much fuller discussion” about the British-Irish relationship. This would allow him to write its significance into the republican narrative rather than leave it for the various rejectionist IRAs to capture. Later under questioming he went back to calling it “premature,” which …
