Sinn Féin has accepted that the constitutional status of Northern Ireland cannot be changed without the consent, not only of the majority of voters there, but also of the majority of those who define themselves by their opposition to any such change.
In other words, the majority of those voting No would have to vote Yes. Since that is impossible, change is impossible. Sinn Féin has signed up to this.
“Dissident” paramilitary activity raises the question of what we are paying for; Fianna Fáil hanged the IRA, as we had set it up to do.
But no “dissident Republican” contested the 2010 General Election, and the Workers’ Party failed to contest West Belfast for the first time in living memory. Northern Nationalism as a political, rather than a cultural, phenomenon is now manifestly minimal.
Any statement of such aspiration is, on any objective criterion, the very last thing made by means of a vote for Sinn Féin.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Exactly. This is about nothing more than what you get when you mix lots of alcohol with adolescent levels of testosterone and leave it out in the summer heat.
ReplyDeleteEven Sinn Fein now accepts the legitimacy of these marches and, as you said, not just the principle of consent but the Unionist veto. There is no one else for Republicans to vote for, indicating that not enough of them to get a candidate nominated want any alternative voice.
The rioting "dissidents" are too young to vote and that probably goes for the bombing "dissidents" too. That will be why they have not been shot. If they are still at it in their twenties they will be taken out, especially as Martin McGuinness will be First Minister by then so their activities will be directly against him.
There is the question of how much longer there are going to be Orange marches at all. Even within the Protestant community, joining the local Orange Lodge is no longer the way to get on, as once it was. They are an ageing lot, with no sign of replacement coming through.
ReplyDeleteThe main Unionist party now has only the most tangential relationship to it (Ian Paisley himself has never been a member), and the rising Protestant denominations, and tendencies within the more established denominations, largely view as a form of Freemasonry and therefore, so to speak, beyond the Pale.
But if not over this, then tanked up teenage boys will continue to kick off over something else on a summer's evening, of course.