Below is a draft of a letter I sent to The Irish Times yesterday. I can’t think why they didn’t print it.
Having trudged through yet another anaemic attack on Sinn Féin (‘Bid to end Stormont stand-off should be taken seriously’ Thursday 27 July 2017), Newton Emerson ends his column by turning from Sinn Féin chairman Declan Kearney to aim his blancmange fire at Michelle O’Neill, demanding “Is O’Neill still a serious person?” His question appears to be prompted by her insistence that an Irish Language Act must be guaranteed and Arlene Foster must step side as First Minister while her role in the RHI scandal is investigated, before a Stormont Executive can be re-established.
An Irish Language Act, as Emerson knows, was promised in the St Andrews Agreement of 2006. And in most other jurisdiction, a Minister who initiated and presided over a flawed scheme potentially costing the public half a billion pounds, amid accusations of corruption, would not wait to be asked before stepping aside temporarily. Michelle O’Neill merely repeated what has been Sinn Féin’s public position on both matters for months.
There was a time when Emerson was a witty commentator. Now he’s just a weak joke.
Me Thinks His Switch From Glasses to Contact Lenses has Tainted His Vision To a ORANGE HEW….
Newton’s ‘liberal’ unionist views chime with the Irish Times. Nothing new there.
You can’t be a little bit unionist. If you accept the right of Britain to govern part of Ireland, you are a unionist. Lán stad. Isn’t Germany lucky that people of the calibre of some of the free State politicians were not in charge of the reunion of Germany.
A unionist is a unionist is a unionist. No matter what the hue, when push comes to shove, they’ll all piddle up against the same lamp post.
1/ The Irish Language Act was NOT promised by the DUPers in the St Andrews Agreement – it was an entirely vacuous undertaking made by the British government. There was no meat on the bones to tell us what it actually meant then, and as Peter Hain said “Nothing is set in stone”.
The initiative was then devolved to Stormont whereupon the DUP, entirely predictably, crushed it. I cant recall Sinn Fein screaming “Foul” at that time, and they certainly never threatened to collapse the “institutions” that Marty McGuiness continually demanded our respect for.
The DUP were so comfortable in their victory that Edwin Poots told us his greatest triumph whilst Culture Minister was blocking an Irish Language Act.
Again, Sinn Fein didn’t threaten the precious institutions, and rolled over for both perfidy, and the humiliation.
So resolved to this rollover were they, that an Irish Language Act played absolutely no part in Sinn Feins contributions, or demands, to the Haass talks.
Indeed, after the Fresh Start agreement, Marty went back to telling us that everything was hunky dorey back on track again, and Stormont was delivering for everyone. Still no mention of an Irish Language Act though.
So, now we are presented with Sinn Fein, á la Rip Van Winkle, with their ever-changing list of red lines, pink lines, green lines and invisible ink lines.
And it’s all posturing.
The most cynical, cold-blooded, self-seeking posturing.
My prediction is that the Shinners will settle for any form of Irish Language Act, no matter how gouged out form it takes.
And that’s it.
Empress Arlene will be restored to her throne.
Michelle O’Kneel will continue, parrot-fashion, with her entirely vacuous “Respect, Integrity, Equality” mantra. And she will never be reminded that pre-election, it was her specifically that referred to Stormont as not only “corrupt”, but it had a “culture of brown envelopes”.
Maybe that’s why Michelle is so keen to get her hands on the levers of power again.
And we will all be told to respect the institutions again. And that’s precisely what the amnesiac Uncle Tims will enthusiastically do.
Shame Feign.
It’s hard to argue with the points you make,huge Celt, but the voter base for SF have finally woken up. Now what’s your plan? Who do you think can do a better job? It’s very easy to snipe from the sidelines.
@ Fiosrach.
It remains a fact that Sinn Feins vote was drifting hopelessly until their perfect storm Assembly election in March.
The “huge surge” was a fairly paltry 3.9%, and the loss of one MLA – not exactly Nationalism showing it’s electoral muscle, more like a flicker of an eyelid from a movement and a Party that has long since lost it’s purpose.
And, undoubtedly, the person that most motivated that ‘surging’ vote wasn’t Gerry Adams, or Michelle O’Kneel, but Empress Arlene and her belligerence to the crocodiles.
And even in that perfect storm which coincided with McGuinness’ demise, Sinn Fein couldn’t overtake the DUP.
Close, but no cigar.
When Unionism gathered itself, and locked Empress Snarlene up in her padded cell for a monty or two, they played their Identity Card-trick are subsequently roared ahead of Sinn Fein by nearly 50,000 votes in the Westminster election.
The Orange State is indeed alive and well, and in cahoots with the Tories.
All pretence of honouring agreements has been torn up. “Internationally-binding” means precisely nothing to the British and Unionism, as they desperately stare into a Corbyn abyss.
And what do Sinn Fein do?
Errr, well, truth-be-told, other than rabbit on endlessly in vacuous cliches, they’ve done nothing.
They’re still stuck in the same slavish mindset that they’ve been stuck in for the last 20 years.
It’s all about those precious institutions.
It’s become about shoring up Partition rather than dismantling it.
And now they’re begging to be let back into the exact same institutions that they themselves collapsed in a fit of pique, courtesy of Bobby Storey at the Felons. The RA still calls the shots.
And the Shinner propagandists refuse to see the irrationality, the inconsistency, the hypocrisy, the bankruptcy of this.
And watch now, as those red lines evaporate as Sinn Fein squirm their way back to the illusion of power, the source of the loot, and the whole circus will rumble on for another lap of dysfunctionality, corruption and sectarian carve-up.
And we’re supposed to “respect” that?
It’s a failed experiment.
Frankensteins monster couldn’t be tamed.
Put it out of its misery, and strike for something better.
I will archive your post and study it in the coming months. In the meantime I would remind you that if the numbers are not there, you cannot outvote the opposition – no matter how worthy your case.
@ Fiosrach.
I might have the benefit of a few years on you, but I remember a republican movement that aspired to make “Norn Iron” ungovernable.
A republican movement that challenged the very legitimacy of the statelet.
Basil McCrea – hardly a republican heretic – also hit the nail on the head when he said “It’s not up to Nationalism to make Stormont work, it’s up to Unionism to make it work”.
Well, it hasn’t worked.
And it will never work.
Sinn Fein should be screaming that fact from the rooftops.
They should become The Awkward Squad.
But they won’t.
Because they are wedded to the whole pantomime, and if course the filthy lucre it brings them,
I rarely call people stupid, h C, so I’ll just call you maybe just a little confused. Or devious. When you sign up to a document, you commit yourself to the implementation of everything in it. If this weren’t the case, there’d be separate sections for which each party was responsible and they’d sign just those parts. The St Andrews Agreement wasn’t like that. Ergo…
@ Jude.
Let’s just remind ourselves who the signatories of the St. Andrews Agreement were….
In the red, white and blue corner we have Perfidious Albion who have a long history of duplicity and cute hoorism following centuries of colonial conquest.
Can it really be the case that Sinn Fein so naively and blindly trusted our Imperial masters to deliver both the spirit and letter of any agreement that didn’t suit Britannia?
Even Ian Paisley Snr was appalled ar Blair’s dirty dealings specifically on the Irish Language Act,, but you’re telling us that it never occurred to Sinn Fein that Britannia might waive the rules?
Have the Shinners learned nothing from the Empires history?
In the Orange corner, we have the DUP who were never signatories to the Good Friday Agreement, and have made no secret of the fact that they are there to frustrate and scupper any progress, whilst engorging themselves and their kin on the public tit.
Nearly 20 years have passed since the GFA, and nothing has been delivered.
I challenge you to give us ONE example where the GFA delivered anything tangible or meaningful or worthwhile.
The reality is that Stormont has delivered yet another veto to the very same Unionists who voted against the GFA, and exists solely to copper-fasten the Orange statelet.
That’s the facts.
And Sinn Fein refuse to pull the wool from their eyes, and declare the whole experiment as an abject failure.
When will they stop flogging the dead horse?
@ huge Celt
I’ve enjoyed reading your comments so far HG, you provide a distinctive and might I say very well written contribution which (even though I don’t completely views) is a pleasure to read.
I wonder if you could flesh out a little what you think the largest Nationalist party, which at the moment is SF should do then?
Are you saying that they should abstain from Stormont? Refuse power sharing with Unioniam? Or perhaps, and I hope I’m wrong about this, a return to violence?
Just a bit more depth into what the strategy should be. Cheers in advance.
@ Scott.
Thank you.
(I suspect that some of our Sinn Fein-orientated readers might not be just as welcoming to me.- Jude has already inferred that I’m either stupid or confused, so my time here may be cut short…..)
In answer to your question, I’m definitely against any return to ‘armed struggle’ – it was an enormous cul-de-sac the first time around, and only had the net effects of brutalising generations and entrenching Unionism still further – so the road can only, and must only, be a political one.
As for Sinn Fein, it was them that were cheerleading for “armed struggle” which was disastrous.
And then, the exact antithesis, they became cheerleaders for the partitionist Orange statelet.
And that has been disastrous.
Their next folly is to throw their arms open to Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, two parties that are busying themselves re-Catholicising Ireland, to form some sort of pan-nationalist front, and essentially outbreed and outvote the Prods.
It’s madness.
And, in my view, is the pathway to a sectarian civil war.
No doubt, I’ll be harangued for being a heretic, but hey, here I stand, I can do no other.
So we know you’re not in favour of the way Sinn Fein are going. Fair enough. Is there maybe any chance you could propose a realistic alternative way of doing things that will lead to the outcome of a united and just Ireland? If you’ve a better idea or better way of doing things I’d love to hear it? Thanks in advance.
@ Patrick.
I have a cunning plan as devised by Professor Cunning at the University of Cunning.
Let’s take €2 billion from the money owed by Apple, a mere nibble from the €19 billion they owe, and build two oil-rigs in Harland and Wolff.
It will give the Prods something to rivet, and stop them from burning the arse out of the place with their incessant bonfires.
Then we launch those oil-rigs and go hunting for the 550 million barrels of oil off the west coast of Ireland, and the 350 million barrels off the coast of Cork.
They shouldn’t be too hard to find in those sorts of numbers, and hopefully the barrels are luminous.
Sure, if it ends in typically Irish abject failure we can at least say we gave it a lash, and then get back to throwing stones at each other.
But if we succeed…….
Welcome to Saudi Hibernia, my friend!
As I said ,huge Celt, most of your criticisms of SF are reasonable. As I also said, it is very easy to snipe from the sidelines. When you were, however, asked for an alternative plan you produce a ‘Private Eye’ type fantasy which leaves us none the wiser. Fairy stories aside, what is your grand plan? Aside from PBP p*ssing in the wind and barroom frolics?
Well Fiosrach, whilst my Economic Super-plan may have been outlined with some merriment in mind – and is constrained by the space allowed – there is at its core, a fundamentally sound economic model that could produce a transformative amount of wealth in this wee island.
Ok, so you didn’t like the idea.
Not because you gave it a through grilling and came to a balanced and well-reasoned judgement based on evidence.
Oh no.
You rejected it out-of-hand because
you were always going to be a nay-Sayer.
That’s because you have closed your mind to anything that you might consider heretical from your Sinn Fein orthodoxy.
At the Sinn Fein National Convention, your Dear Leader claimed that the United Ireland project welcomed all strands of thought, all constructive inputs, all innovations and suggestions. Very inclusive. The media lap that sort of guff up. (Perhaps you weren’t there, or you didn’t get the memo?)
Of course, what goes unmentioned, is that in typical Shinner fashion, there were no questions or contributions allowed from the floor, and the two dissenting voices on the stage, Ben Lowry and Kieran Allen, were suitably ignored when they threw any sort of real and practical objections into the discussion.
At one stage Lowry said Loyalism would act “with Rage” if a Border Poll was won.
Was this a point worthy of further discussion, perhaps.
“Rage”!!!” opines chairman Eamonn Mallie “That sounds like a precursor to civil war, no? Surely that would be disastrous to the whole project, wouldn’t it??”.
But Eamon didn’t say that, did he.
He studiously ignored Lowrys comment, completely blanked it.
The elephant in the room hadn’t farted after all.
And anyone who disagrees is a Begrudger and/or a Looney.
They hate us.
They envy us.
They fear us.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
So its all aboard the good ship Certain Disaster and it’s “Full steam ahead to a United Ireland – a Land of Milk and Honey, and never-ending money trees, DLA and Motability”.
Don’t worry about jobs and generating wealth – we will all eat Tricolours and bask in our own Patriotism for a living.
There will be no need for lifeboats on this wondrous journey, Our Dear Leader has assured us that He walks on water so we will all be fine…
“Last call, all aboard….
Ps. I don’t appreciate being referred to as “stupid”, or “a little confused”, no matter how underhand or subtle the reference.
I would appreciate it if you could play the ball, not the man.
HG,
Who is the ‘we’ that will take €2 Billion of Apple, build 2 oil rigs in Belfast and launch them into the Irish Sea?
@ Pointis.
“We” is the Irish government/the Irish nation/ the Irish people/ the Irish state.
Whoever you prefer it to be.
I was asked for a big idea – that’s all it remains at this stage.
Well HG, I think we would mostly all agree that the Government in Dublin have no intention of taking €2 Bn of Apple since they went to court to ensure Apple got to keep their non-taxed gains. So that means you would require a change in government in the South and again I think there is not many here who don’t think that is a bad idea.
The type of government that would spend money for the benefit of all the people not just the capitalist classes has the ring of a socialist government to it and does not really represent the actions of any of FG, FF or Irish Labour (who administered over water charges).
So step 1 of your plan requires overturning the political institutions in the 26 Counties, is that correct?
@ Pointis.
Absolutely
Much has been made of the in-built Unionist majority disappearing in Stormont.
But very little mention has been made of the fact that Fine Gael and Fianna Fail can no longer command 50% plus of the 26 Counties – the first time ever in that statelet.
I consider the refusal to accept the Apple money as an act of economic treason – not a word I throw around lightly – but incredibly, the EU are sticking to their guns and insisting that the 26 Government accept the money – and our capitalist class are bricking themselves..
Obviously, the EU are merely flexing their muscles in a showdown with the US, and global capitalist interests but hey, let’s grab the loot and run…
And hopefully someday, we will get to hang our traitors from the lamposts of the Liffey.
Is huge Celt Kevin Connolly?
Or Hugh Jardon?
I didn’t realise there was ever a time when Newton Emerson was considered a witty commentator. I must have been away that week.
Perhaps the most memorable of the Blackpool-style postcards of the Fabulous Fifties (at least to this live-long sieve-like memory) was the one which featured two red-nosed Inebriates seated in a train as it passed Wembley Stadium:
-Is this Wembley?
-No, it’s Thursday.
-So am I: let’s have a drink.
One can never take up The Man who is Thursday’s column in – by its own admission – the ailing, failing Unionist Times without bringing that hilarious postcard to – what one is still pleased to call – ‘mind’.
With his Mi-Wadi-sodden column Newton Emerson (for it is he!) has truly added a dash of bright colour to the Guinness-dark Blackpool of Duibhlinn.
There was, alas, a double poignancy about his angstimonious sermon to the Southern Yunes on the Northern Vermin this Thursday.
THE RECRUIT in the CUTE ORANGE JUMP SUIT
It was Newt, forsooth, TUT did recruit
To toot for loot on a New Orange Flute
No Boyne Water this week
D’pipes, d’ pipes did leak
Just a good thud from his unopened parachute.
The second half of the double poignancy was the sad announcement today, Friday, of the retirement from RTE of Yawning Ireland’s main whack-attack hack, The Woodman.
And as this SUPERannuated Boyo of Biased Broadcasting slopes off into the cash-for-ash twilight, it is a snark reminder that The Newt too will also traverse that Erse-free twilight trail once The Unionist Times bites the dust in the not too dist. future, as it has of late being prognosticating, unabated.
Soon there’ll be none left to lampoon in the, erm, Blogoak Monolith, ochone, ochone.
-Is this Wembley?
Newt sells his writing to the highest bidder, and if the Irish Times want him to do anti-Sinn Fein articles, that is what he will write.
If another organ paid him to write pro-Sinn Fein articles, that is what he would do.
Maybe its just prostituting his profession!
Newton Emerson’s is out of his depth when commenting on matters regarding the Irish language as are most people who don’t speak the language or have little or no understanding or experience with speakers of the language.
Oh, that sounds like good old-fashioned chauvinism.
How ugly.
Oh my oh my Huge Celt are you really who you say you are or just another Troll?
@ Joe c.
Yes, I’m a huge Celtic supporter – is that a problem?
Huge Celt is Kevin Connolly-
I’m guessing by his deep sense of betrayal and nihilism. I have also found at least 3 distinct phrases used by both. ‘Shame feign, play the ball…’ etc. Interesting that he has started calling out traits he displayed eg. chauvinism.
Emmet
It doesn’t matter who he is does it?
If he makes an argument then you either agree or disagree.
Simple really.
So what? Are you afraid of him?
Are you unable to address his arguments?
Tam I have yet to see you put forward an argument yet. FYI Kevin Connolly was on here making accusations and abusing people. He made several false allegations and was asked to withdraw one of them. As far as I am aware he never did.
@ Emmet.
I dont want to prolong your trauma, but just how bad could this abuse have got – you’re safely anonymous behind a keyboard, in our own home (presumably), and surrounded by a family that love you.
This Connolly chap does indeed sound like a proper rotter, but you’re in your safe-space now.
Ireland cherishes you, and Jesus loves you.
Don’t you worry your sweet little head about what anybody else thinks about you…
Take a deep breath, and you go get ’em, Champ…..
The abuse was mainly directed at people not on the blog. I wasn’t directly offended but found his attitude towards women worrying. He also seemed to be very paranoid.
@ Emmet.
So this Connolly chap came onto this blog, and randomly started throwing abuse, some of it chauvanistic abuse, around at people who weren’t on this blog.
Well, by that evidence alone, I find him to be a complete buffoon, a bounder and a scoundrel.
I hope you gave him a piece of your mind (assuming, of course, that you can afford it).
I’ll keep an eye out for this rotter, and I’ll be sure to take offence on behalf of other people I don’t know, and people I will never meet, and thereby signal my virtuosity.
It seems like the only sane thing to do.
That includes most of SF, then.
Newton Emerson is*
The blog does not really address the substance of Newt’s piece which was mainly about Declan Kearney’s article in the Telegraph. Perhaps that is why the Irish Times did not think it worthwhile printing it.
It is setting up Emerson as a target and judging by the comments it has been successful.
A lot of manplaying and precious little on the subject.
As for Michelle her adherence to the line that Arlene needs to step down is not sensible. Arlene is in a position of strength just now and it is not feasible that she would step aside. It makes the whole negotiation process for returning the institutions moot if SF are going to maintain that line.
Ach gio – ever eager to join the fray. So eager you’ve overlooked what I was addressing – Emerson’s comments on Michelle O’Neill, not on Declan Kearney. Had I wished to address his comments on DK I’d have done so. I take your point re Arlene not agreeing to step aside – which is unfortunate, because as you say, it’ll mean no restoration of the Executive in the foreseeable future. But it’s a bit illogical to blame the Shinners because she won’t step aside. Or are you saying that if, say, one of Theresa May’s Cabinet – or more accurately, Theresa herself – had initiating such a scheme, supervised it, been accused by one in her own Cabinet of, um, unorthodox activity, that said Minister wouldn’t have been expected to step down during the investigation? The truth was, she should have; the truth is, she won’t. And the truth is, the DUP have brought things to this shambolic state.
Jude
I did not overlook what you addressed, I just pointed out that it was only an addendum at the end of Newt’s piece.
Anyway I think my point is clear enough when you look at the comments which are full of manplaying aimed at him and very little about what he said.
I am not specifically blaming SF for Arlene’s refusal to step aside although I still think they handled the whole affair badly.
Now Arlene is riding high they are stuck in a cul de sac they cannot back out of without some loss of face.
The cost of RHI now looks to be much less than feared and people will soon forget the details of who did what.
But you seem to accept that she will not step aside so why do you think SF are bothering to push for an ILA or a Bill of Rights when they will refuse to go back to Stormont in any case?
@Jude.
Surely you should be directing your questions to Gerry Adams who has publicly stated that he doesn’t doubt that Arlene Foster is innocent and she can return.
As Gio says, post-Westminster elections Arlene now finds herself in an unassailable position (more-luck-than-judgement), so why would Michelle O’Neill be trawling this issue up again purely to scupper the circus returning to town.
It seems to me that either Gerry is off-message, or Michelle is.
Or perhaps more intriguingly, the whole Sinn Fein project is in such disarray that both of them are kite-flying to see if anybody actually cares about Stormont anymore.
And the answer is that no, we don’t.
It’s been a dysfunctional charade from start to ignominious finish.
And besides, half-arsed Direct Rule has delivered more rights in two months than Sinn Fein have delivered in two decades.
Maybe these Brits aren’t too bad after all.
Not wanting to change the conversation hc but the oil in the areas you mention is estimated to be 8 billion barrels recoverable.
As things stand the Irish state stand to gain very,very little. All signed away by Mr Rabbit
@ Fiosrach.
Well, there is of course that licencing problem that I hadn’t mentioned before. And it might take a good old-fashioned piece of socialist expropriation to return all rights, risks and returns to the Irish people collectively.
And of course, there is an important difference between wells, versus viable wells – a problem that Norway appears to overcome with little difficulty whatsoever, working in very similar topographies, and ocean basins, and reserves.
Call me an old cynic if you must, but when Irelands elite tell us that there is nothing there, but the experts tell us there is, then I’m prone to believing the experts.
At the very worst, we squander €2 billion of the Apple windfall* whilst we train a demi-generation of engineers, steel erectors, joiners, etc, and develop a world-class facility in Ireland, and then move onto my next fabulous idea – hydro-electric electricity plants at our three tidal loughs in the North – Carlingford, Foyle, and Strangford.
It’s green.
It’s clean.
And can you imagine a future where no-one ever pays an energy bill ever again.
And then we export that expertise to the World.
Voila!
*we just squandered €1 billion on aborted water charges without breaking a sweat, and in the North it would seem that Sinn Fein and the DUP were more than happy to be subsidising Moy Park (one of the biggest food conglomerates in the World), and powering solariums for horses.
So, there’s clearly no need to be afraid of the big numbers.
If you have a grand plan, why don’t you join or form a political party and put your plan to the people? You have a good chance of swinging the SF vote as they are all stupid and do what Gerry/Michelle tell them. As I say it is easy to snipe.
@ Fiosrach.
I’m not sure you realise just how exhausting it is for me to come up with my fabulous ideas – must I do everything myself!
Didn’t I mention that I’m a bona fide member of Inishowen Sinn Fein, or as it’s known locally the Pearse “I’ll get back to you about that” Doherty Fan Club.
I would be worried that such a radical free-thinker such as myself would be vilified and expelled, just like those Shinners in Wexford that are in the paper today.
Or was it Cork?
Or North Antrim?
Dublin, perhaps?
Oh, I cant remember.
But the one common complaint seems to be that the Sinn Fein Politburo simply can’t tolerate dissent, or any free-thinking approach that may rock the party boat and it’s orthodoxy.
Some have even suggested that there remains a thuggish element within Sinn Fein that physically threatens and abuses former members, and indeed anyone that would dare to cross them.
You wouldnt know anything about that, would you?
Rubbish! You know that SF policy evolves from the bottom up. Witness the dismantling of Stormont against the wishes of the Politburo. And why are you still a member if you so heartily disagree. And there are no heavies to lay down the law, as well you know.
@ Fiosrach.
I can only accept the accounts of people who have left Sinn Fein en masse, and then go on to make these scurrilous allegations.
A member for 46 years who suddenly complains about the lack of Democracy in the party, for example. That’s clearly an MI5 plant if ever I saw one.
Of course, Sinn Fein wouldn’t make up malicious lies about people, be it political opponents or former members, in an attempt to intimidate and smear them.
No way.
It just doesnt bear thinking about.
You’re right.
It’s all an MI5 plot.
And Dennis Donaldson must have killed himself.
Kevin Connolly (aka Huge Celt)is definitely not a member of Sinn Fein- and definitely not part of the ‘Pearse’ Branch. If he ever did join a branch it would be as a an agent of sabotage.
@ Emmet.
I suggest you ask the Inishowen cumann to check their records.
Which branch are you a member of?
I’m not sure if Newton ever reads Jude’s blog or some of the replying posts.If he does,he must be more than a little bemused by the tone of many of them.The big sin of course is to criticise Sinn Fein.Surely in a democracy ,columnists are allowed to express dissenting views and naturally others will disagree with them.As Gio has pointed out,there seems to be a consistent element of “man playing ” on this thread,not only against Newton but also against some of the posters themselves.
Could somebody post a copy of this bit of the St Andrew’s agreement? It would clear the waters a wee bit.