I don’t know if Peter Robinson follows the example of his former leader and abstains from the devil’s buttermilk, but he’s certainly been acting in recent times like a drunk man on an uneven boreen.
In 2011 Peter told his party: “The conflict of the last 40 years has created terrible divisions…It became a case of ‘them and us’ and that attitude deepened divisions even further. If we want a better society it can’t be them and us – it can only be all of us”.
In November 2012 he went further , told them that a majority of Catholics here want to maintain partition. Which sounded as though he’d realised his ‘all of us’ hopes from the year before. But that said, it was time for a lurch towards royalty and the Windsors. “Long may you reign over us. God save the Queen”. And to ram home the point that he was now on the other side of the road from ‘all of us’, he compared Sinn Féin’s push for a referendum on leaving the Union to “turkeys voting for Christmas”. Hasta la vista, ‘all of us’.
Then a month later we had the flag vote in Belfast City Council and Peter was outraged. So outraged that he sent 40,000 leaflets talking about tearing down our flag into 40,000 letter-boxes. All of us? Nah – never mind the Shinners, those pesky Alliance people were intent on betrayal of our British cultural heritage. It was us against them. Another boreen lep.
More recently – two days ago, to be exact – Peter was telling the Belfast Telegraph that the source of division here was Gerry Adams. Martin? Sure him and Martin got on fine – it was that Adams that was queering the pitch with his concern for matters in the south of Ireland. Adams, Peter said, was engaging in ‘crankery’. (No, Virginia, I don’t know what it means either, but it’s not nice). “There are those who are committed to operating within the new arrangements and the new era [that’d be Martin], but there are others who seem to want to drag us back [that’d be Gerry].” So not only is there not ‘all of us’ now; the way Peter sees it, there’s not even ‘all of us’ within Sinn Féin: “I believe there is something of a tussle going on inside Sinn Féin”. How he knows, given that he’s never knowingly shaken hands with a Shinner in his life, nor has any of his party, I’m not sure.
But I am sure the reason that Peter is lurching ever more rapidly is that he’s trying to be on both sides of the boreen at once. He’s fearful that those damned flag people will pull away sufficient votes from him to allow Alliance to make further headway, so he travels up one side, beating his chest and saying he thrills at the very thought of royalty visiting us. But then he reads the demographic chart and sees where all this is heading – a clear Catholic majority in the north inside seven years. Cue another sideways lep. Somehow, he’s got to get enough of that Catholic majority to vote for unionism, without at the same time alienating his hard-core, flag-enraged vote. God pity the poor man. With every day, his lurch keeps looking more like a ricochet and he’s in danger of doing the splits.
‘Up the bóithrín’ – now that’s an expression I haven’t heard in 50 years and it awakens some joyful memories but not of Peter Robinson or his ilk, I should add.
My father used to say, “The old dog for the high road and the pup for the bóithrín.” It’s a pity the DUP gave the wise old dog the shove.
Peter is wall eyed one on the shinners one on the flaggers.I hope he sees the pole before he hits him
I think it was Brian Feeney who described Peter as `talking out of both sides of his mouth` or something similar. Sums him up perfectly I think. He has been playing that rather bizarre `Sinn Féin are divided“ card for a while, everyone knows it is the DUP which was torn asunder by the Paisley interview, the Mighty Dodds and co. eyeing up Ian junior. I don`t think it is possible for the DUP or UUP to attract Catholic voters, their links with the marching orders/loyalist paramilitaries are too deep and playing up to Catholic opposition to abortion is really scraping it. Most Catholics can see through this attempted flattery, miniscule as it is.
Is it possible for SF and SDLP to attract Protestant(with the exception of voting sdlp to keep sf out?)
The only Unionist party that I could ever see Catholics being attempted to vote for is NI21. Do I think Catholics would ever vote for the likes of DUP/UUP/TUV/PUP/UKIP/etc? Not a chance, they’re far too entrenched in Protestantism and Orangism, they thought they’re protestant majority was for life, there was no need to pander to the Catholic minority, though they clearly thought there was a need to discriminate and demonise that Catholic minority through the generations.
I think the vast majority, both Catholics and Protestants, want to move forward and have a better future but I don’t think either will be forgetting the past and the past actions of certain Unionist politicians, especially Catholics.
There is no doubt that NI21’s raison d’etre is to attract Catholic votes. A token Catholic choosen for the Euro election is evidence of this as is the use of Irish on their twitter account. Will it work? Doubtful. Catholics have plenty of non sectarian non Unionist parties to vote for. NI21 will take more votes from the UUP and Alliance.
I agree with you, one thing is for sure, there are only 2 Nationalist/Republican parties and a lot of Unionist parties, the Unionist vote is going be splintered and fragmented even more now with the TUV and PUP getting more media attention along with UKIP and the DUP becoming more and more unpopular (that’s the feeling I gain from speaking to many Unionists) or maybe the DUP’s tactic of using SF as the “boogie man” might keep them as the top Unionist party, a tactic which has served them well in the past. We’ll just have to wait and see.
I always come back to this Robinson may be the biggest hypocrite in the 6 counties( no mean feat). His invasion of Clontibret, his associations with Ulster Resistance and Paisleys “Third Force” make all of his talk of nonviolence and democracy ring very hollow.
All sides had a part in the violence, but we must remember it only tokk one or two nationalist marches for one man one vote and equal job and housing rights to incite a cycle of violence and aggression. Burntollet, Duke Street, the sit in at Caledon were met with violence by Unionists. Imagine the sheer audacity of people wanting equal oppurtunities for employment and housing. The northern’state’ was founded on violence and the threat of violence(Ulster Covenant) and R Churchills”Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right.”
For the DUp to whinge about men of violence reminds me of a pot and kettle story, my ma told me about. Maybe the DUP can get bryson to join … that will help
Jude :
Who’s this Gerry Adams that Peter says is queering the pitch with his “crankery” ? As far as I can see Gerry has been off -radar for quite some time as far as Peter is concerned [If he is at all….} The last time Gerry featured prominently on the news was when his brother had that wee bit of bother and somehow sucked old Gerry into its slipstream…..not a very pleasant place to be , granted, but hardly anything to bother Peter politically, really.
As usual , Peter needs a whipping boy or none of this game makes any sense to the loyalist wing. ..He’ll have to flag up some obscure argument now that Marty has well and truly proven that he too can dine royally at the castle and survive….Marty obviously is better house- trained than some of Peter’s flag-waving followers who’d quite ironically ,never get within howling distance of Windsor Castle with their bottles of “Bucky ” and their upside down flags…Lucky thing there that Marty is a life-long tee- totaller, whose tongue never lapped the Devil’s Buttermilk …{ It’s probably why he and Big Ian got on so well, come to think of it….better probably than the cynical Peter…!!}.
There is nothing stopping Peter and his gang at having a go at the levers of power in the republic.Wouldn’t that be a turnaround on a par with Marty’s toast to Her Maj…? If only they’d realise the power bloc they could command in Irish politics if they spread their wings and flew southwards…..then again , nobody might vote for them anyway. I’m sure they’d be the very last choice for any soft Catholic /Nationalists who wanted to hitch their wagon to a unionist party of any stripe….
When Unionists politicians put economics issues on the agenda then maybe some Catholics will vote D.U.P or U.U.P. I should say if unionists politicians do this rather than when. Even the most moderate nationalist is not going to vote DUP while Robinson has panic attacks over the Parade’s commission restricting a handful of loyalists bands and parades.
If they were smart they’d have put economic issues to the fore years ago because with the economic problems in the Republic it could have paid real dividends, if not in terms of votes from Catholics at least in terms of goodwill.
I think if Sinn Fein were to be honest they would say that the economic crisis in the republic is so great that a change of sovereignty is impossible for the foreseeable future.
paddykool, I have always felt the Protestants of the north east would be a fantastic element in any new, fresh Ireland. Rather than be a tiny little speck of the empire, unwanted by the British people they would punch way above their weight in a new, independent, secular country. Mind you, it would be rather hard for some of them to leave the sectarian rule they `enjoy` under a Protestant established Church but hey, they could do it.
paul, it never ceases to amaze me the free run Peter gets from what passes for a media here, over his dodgy past. Then again maybe it shouldn`t. He and the DFM have both been to jail in the south for political actions. Or does he regard himself as a criminal? How come he jets back and forth to America? I thought they banned people with a `past`?
AJ, the US govt seems to have a one eyed view of the conflict as well
Paddy and Another Jude
You’re both right, unionists would have a more significant influence doon south than they do in London.
Furthermore, if they were to start ‘negotiating’ before they lose the majority vote they could actually feather the nest a little bit as in set up a few preconditions.
But I imagine it’ll go onto the last minute.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Peter knows this deep down, but he also knows he’d be put on the Lundy bonfire should he point that out to the fleggy masses.
Ho hum
Bang on the money – always Amadeus me that Unionists want to wait until they are a minority in the North – this ensuring they will negotiated a Reunited Ireland from the weakest possible bargaining position.
Always amazes me…..smartphones are not so smart sometimes……
NorthMunsterman
I have this fear that some of them (well, ‘us’) think that they will once again be able to hid behind Britain’s skirt.
Fat chance.
As soon as the ink is dry on the agreement we’ll just find a box of pasta and ready meals outside the gates of Hillsborough castle with a post-it note saying “Free Food! Had to move in a hurry”.
Surely someone somewhere has whispered in the ear of unionist ministers and explained this to them?
Or am I being too blinkered and naive?
The fact is that Unionists will get pretty much what they want in a Re-United Ireland.
Nonetheless, the point remains that they would – as you correctly point out – be in a much stronger position to exact concessions the earlier they start. From 2020 the Nationalist majority kicks in and from the mid-2020’s, the Nationalist electoral majority will be in situ so the Unionist negotiating position gets weaker with each passinig year subsequently.
Interesting times ahead.