At a time in the national politics of Ireland, when the issue of Irish unity and
national sovereignty are to the fore in providing a viable solution to the social
and economic wellbeing of all the Irish people in a post Brexit environment, a
humiliated Provisional Sinn Féin ignored the dynamic of that narrative and took
the retrogressive step of returning to the corpse of Stormont which represents the
most potent symbol of the failure and injustice of partition.
Having feigned a principled stand on both the Irish language and the suitability
of Arlene Foster to hold office they were ushered into that political tomb like
scolded school children by their British paymasters. Not content with their
political myopia they also chose to denigrate the Irish language by placing that
ancient vernacular on a par with so called Ulster-Scots which is nothing more
than the poor pronunciation of English.
Inherent in the New Decade, New Approach initiative both governments
explicitly acknowledge that further failure at Stormont is all but inevitable and
have drafted measures to ensure the bureaucracy will continue to function after
the political process has collapsed. The grotesque spectacle of well-paid
Assembly Members and Ministers lining their pockets without a day’s work done
in over three years, whilst the unemployed and the indebted struggled daily, will
be glossed over with a veneer of ‘let’s make Northern Ireland work’ semantics.
And to further compound this abject failure of political acumen the upcoming
26 County Elections will ensure that all talk of Irish unity will be denounced as
premature and injurious to reconciliation between the traditions on the island. The
prevailing mindset, tactically denied for electoral purposes, is to revise history to
subtley make the case that the struggle for Irish freedom lacked total legitimacy.
And now it emerges what the real intent of the British Government and
establishment is where it concerns polls and referenda on constitutional matters
within the UK. Scotland is to be denied a second referendum on independence
despite the landslide victory of the SNP in the recent Westminster Elections. A
new bill is being proposed, entitled the Referendums Criteria Bill, which will
ensure a weighted favouring of the unionist position in any future poll on the
British imposed border in Ireland.
And this we were told was the great strategy that would lead us to the
Republic!
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