When he wanted to know what the Irish people were thinking, de Valera is said to have gone off and looked into his own heart. Not a particularly democratic way of working but sometimes it can unearth truths. Which is why I’m looking into my own heart with regard to the big Irish week coming up in Windsor.
I haven’t been following it as closely as perhaps I should but the present Mrs Collins tells me that President Higgins will be bowling along in a carriage with Queen Elizabeth II. And I know that Martin McGuinness will be in attendance at some sort of soirée at Windsor during the week. Like a lot of Irish people I find myself instinctively recoiling from both events so let’s see if I can figure out why and if I’m right to do so.
The image of Michael D along with Her Maj in a carriage/coach I find totally unsurprising and a teensy bit comic. Michael D is the Irish president and a member of the Labour Party. As president it’s his job to meet foreign heads of state so I suppose he’s doing his job. Why should I feel in any way uneasy about that? Because it suggests that Ireland and England are as friendly as they could possibly be, with nothing that might impede that friendship. Which patently isn’t the case, since so many nationalists/republicans still feel that the six northern counties are part of Ireland and should be governed by Irish people. The obstacle to that is two-fold: Britain and the unionist people in the six counties. So while I know that getting into carriages with queens is part of the president’s job, the symbolism of so doing, which suggests a happy no-fly-in-the-ointment harmony, makes me uneasy.
The image of Martin McGuinness attending a soirée at Windsor Castle makes me even more uneasy. A central plank – maybe the central plank – in Sinn Féin’s philosophy is the right of the Irish people to govern themselves, free from British interference. Rubbing shoulders with the head of the state which has for centuries seen to it that Irish people do not govern themselves sends a message to some that all is now forgiven and forgotten, and as I said in yesterday’s blog, we’ve come to the end-point in the quarrel between England and Ireland. This patently isn’t the case, so like, I suspect, a lot of other Irish people, I recoil at the Deputy First Minister’s move.
On the other hand, maybe this message is not for me or other Irish nationalists and republicans. Maybe it’s directed at those who, like the Dublin taxi-driver I spoke of a few months back, see Sinn Féin as a party that goes around killing people. While that’s obviously not the case, it’s a notion that the media in the south have managed to lodge firmly in many people’s minds. It may be that Sinn Féin figure Martin McGuinness’s smiling attendance at the nosh-up in Windsor Castle will help rebalance the thinking of those in the south who have been taught to view Sinn Féin as wild-eyed psychopaths. There’s an election coming up in the south as well as the north and Sinn Féin are determined to emerge with an expanded electoral base. Martin at Windsor is part of that determination.
In the end, we need to ask ourselves ” Does attendance mean that Sinn Féin have changed their stance on reunification, are quietly preparing to saw off the anti-partition plank in their political philosophy?” Those who are Sinn Féin critics will chorus “You bet!”. Others who see politics as much more than who you have dinner with will say “Sorry guys – wishful thinking again”.
Its seems to get harder and harder to criticize anything Sinn Fein does as in doing so we are said to be anti peace, I remember the leadership saying they would never rub shoulders with royalty of any kind let alone the British!!
Jude…..there is no lengths Sinn Fein won’t go to secure more votes. With every passing week the republicanism of this party is being eroded. Its simply not the republican party it once was in the past. Is it any different now than the SDLP, FF, etc.??
“I recoil at the Deputy First Ministers move”. This must be a first—Jude Collins disagreeing with a Sinn Fein policy decision!
Dangerously close to sedition by Jude. But he managed to get his mind right by the last paragraph.
Jude :
Maybe it’s just a case of Martin being secure in his own socks.He has no problem being a republican and sees the “armed struggle” as being as far back in his republican history as the Second World War or the Battle of Waterloo. You know ….That was then . A bit like us now buying Japanese and German cars , unthinkingly years after the destruction of the war and the atrocities of Hitler’s and the Emperors legions.
. This is now.He’s being pragmatic and statesmanlike, which is probably how he’d like now to be seen …..as the “war” ended many years ago and the Good Friday agreement is part of that history.. He has been the one extending the after -war hand of friendship to former foes in the safe knowledge that they all know where he stands and without apology.
He’s just getting on with the “hands- across -the- water” inclusivity that Peter Robinson, his other half, in the dual- leadership stakes, appears to have some problems with.
The facts are that Nationalism and republicanism[with a small”r”] in Ireland have everything to gain by their current stance and unionism has it all to lose. Everything Martin does is obviously done from a position of personal positivity, strength and knowledge that his followers know exactly what his republicanism means,; with the aim to take everyone away from violence which at this stage of the game-plan would do no one any good and disrupt politics.
Peter’s Robinson’s deck so far has produced the polar opposite effect …..the negativity of the “Maze” letter from America,, the threats to resign over the OTRs, the rejection of the Haass proposals, the kerfuffle over the Paisley programme, and the latest “nuclear” option….just to pick a few ….
It’s a bit like “NO, NO, NO ! all over again isn’t it.? .
Or perhaps his “handlers” have forced this on him ; )
Joking aside this is a fine move from him i know many people in the unionist side have a sneaking respect for him because he is straightforward type of man a lesson that perhaps G Adams could learn from him?
Neil:
Remember neither Martin nor Gerry will be around for ever. When a new generation of faces appear, untouched by past violences, what is conservative unionism going to use for a whipping boy ? What new ideas are going to be produced to delay equality for all…….all those gays who can’t marry here , for example…all those controversial plays that they don’t want us to see…in case it might damage us little lambs…all that creationist and Old Testament hoohaa that doesn’t bear any reasonable scrutiny…the nonsense about flying flags and the expense of said lunacy? How is any of that to be explained rationally as making the place a cup of charity and equality ?
Paddy change the record it becomes a trifle boring after a little while.
There is equality in Northern Ireland accept it and move on anything else is moaning for no reason.
I would respectfully disagree with the notion that there is equality in Northern Ireland. It doesn’t feel that way to me. Where I live, a Union flag hangs in the town square 365 days a year and the entire town is draped in red, white and blue bunting and many other flags for much of the Summer. In July, an arch is erected in the centre of the town decorated with emblems pertaining to the Orange Order, the DUP, the UUP and the B-Specials.
I can’t speak for everybody, but I know a lot of people who feel incredibly unwelcome in their own town during the Summer months, and the place can feel like a ghost town for much of July as many clear out. This doesn’t seem like equality to me. Is this what a shared future looks like?
Paddykool – I think not for the first time you’ve touched on the central issue. The southern media – esp the Sindo and RTÉ in the person Miriam the Confessor – like to do the SF/IRA thing. That’s going to be kind of hard when images of M McG tucking into supper in Windsor Palace are flashed across the world. Stand by for them now denouncing him for betraying his republicanism. When you have your critics yelping, you’re usually doing the right thing…So gio and co – not so much sedition, more honest consideration. You should try it
Jude
You have to expect a bit of stick over this!
But I do think it is just part of his job. You can’t talk about Unionist outreach one minute and insult the Queen the next.
Let’s hope Peter the Puntiff has the good grace to do the same if the Pope makes it here.
It is interesting ,though, how you try so hard to understand Martin’s motives yet in the past those gladhanding with Mrs Windsor have been given no such understanding.
The Irish Times piece here omits the term ‘deputy’ and refers to him as ‘Northern Ireland’s First Minister Martin McGuinness’ (!) – a taste of things to come perhaps? 😉
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/mcguinness-says-presence-at-state-visit-a-challenge-1.1752027
Headline on B B C(N I) website”Sinn Fein praise Queen’s peace role”. How much more of this can you tolerate,Jude?!
; )
Ha ha ha, Argenta. You’ll have to struggle to escape this stereotypical thought-cellar you’ve locked yourself in…
Far from it , Jude.I’m just bemused at how quickly you’ve adjusted to the new Sinn Fein thinking after your brief ” recoiling”!In view of your blog of 27 th March,it’s ironic how Martin’s attendance at the Queens banquet and other events can be made to seem so noble while others were pilloried by you for attending an earlier event and having conversations with Her Majesty!
Enda Kenny saying there’s no reason why Windsor royals can’t come to Dublin for centenary celebrations.
Sweet all that is good, is the free state gonna invite Lizzy over to celebrate 2016 !? I wouldn’t put it past them.
Of course when Dev was ignoring the Irish people’s wishes regarding democracy it was during his Sinn Fein days as president of the Irish Republic. But I think he examined his own heart to come to that conclusion also. It seems, to qualify for abuse on planet Jude for saying hello to Her Majesty, you have to be either a rugby player or have a market stall in Cork. Sinn Fein Ministers need not apply. Anyway Jude, was it spittle licking you used to describe this formality? Go get her Martin!
I have tried in vain to find the wisdom, propriety and timing behind this harmonious gathering as anything but folly and remain firmly of the opinion that it is wrong on several levels. There may be those who assume this move by SF to be visionary, brave and Mcguinness as a Statesman exhuding Political maturity embracing such a courageous “Pragmatic” stance…A statesman for who? SF have been losing ground in their traditional support base of working class nationalists in the north of the country at a steady rate, though it remains to be seen how they will fare in these regions come the impending elections. There is no appetite for War to redress on going injustices between Ireland and England, and there appears to be a complacency in SF once famously articulated by McGuiness that their initiatives were the only show in town. The Dublin Taxi driver you cite has been atypical of many southerners well programmed by aggressive media bias.the War is over certainly and the groups continuing it are playing into aggressive elements in the British camp seeming keen to stoke the flames. Saying that many outstanding grievances remain where British impunity to the rights of Irish people north of the DMZ not favourable to Partition are railroaded over. The British Queen and her retinue are integral representatives of the British establishment of course. Higgins as President will represent Ireland as a whole, but now we have the lunacy of officially embracing the norths artificial status by sending a regional rep of this Statelet which clearly sends a message of equainimity and solidity to the current arrangents. I do not think SF will cut unification cut unification out of their manifesto but I will certainly thing twice before voting for them now with a toaying endorsement of Royal Patronage. Maybe those who wish an end to Sectarianism in Ireland and believe Partition perpetuates it are old fashioned in their thinking, but many people in the whole country hold the view that divided we keep and fertilise the ground for new generations of culturally brainwashed unionists to stamp their feet, bang their lambegs and insist over two hundred plus years on from Thomas Paine and the enlightenment, to willingly regress to ignorance through the Orders loyal to Mrs Windsor….would Thomas Paine or William Blake attend such an archaic pageant? I think not. It would be intetesting to note our Statesman respond to an English Republican decrying the archaic statutes of Monarchy, patronage, Empire and epic theft nearby number1 Pallmall? ‘I’m only here to placate a section of the Irish people who are still suspect about my commitment to Peace?” Our pro consul Villiers knows the deficits in so called accountible government in the north of Ireland despite saying she requires Stormont to economically attack its own populace with cuts to the vulnerable and marginalised economically…”Taxi for McGuinness” might be the wry reply to him.f
So what’s the new ‘bottom line’?
Martin McGuinness, is going to London to shake the Queen’s hand just like she shook his hand in Ireland. One doesn’t have to agree with the monarchy in order to be civil to another human being! She is important to some people here and he is reflecting the fact that he is part of a government which represents everybody here.
We complained when unionists refused to shake Gerry Adam’s hand, we can’t have it both ways!
The way some people are going on you would swear he was going over to accept a knighthood!
If someone had told me in 1981 that Martin would be going to a royal bash at Windsor Castle I would have doubted their sanity, but back then the Berlin Wall was still up and the Cold War was…..raging? Plastic bullets, Hunger Strikes, IRA Volunteers, Loyalist gunmen, British oppression, RUC brutality, war and more war. Us v Them. No odds about their people, no odds about mistaken identity or informers lying on the road with their shoes off. No odds about bomb scares. What we have now is far from perfect and the Unionists really have to step up to the mark and start behaving as if they WANT to share power. But is IS better and that is why I will continue to support what is still being referred to as the Peace Process. And I will still vote Sinn Féin because when Republicans said they wanted peace with justice they meant it. I am totally opposed to the royal family, I hate privilege but there are thousands of my fellow Irish men and women who love the Queen and her family, weird as that may appear to a Republican. Maybe I am just a loyal `party man`.
If someone had told me in 1981 that martin mcg would be going to a royal bash at windsor castle in 1981 i would have believed it never mind 2014. No morals no principles. Alas the gullible will always have blind faith in these chancers-if sinn fein put someones wee dog up for election the sheep would obey and vote for it.
How would you explain the fact that the great majority of committed republicans support the line SF have taken?
“The great majority of committed republicans support the line SF have taken.”
Where is the proof to back such a statement?? In my view more and more genuine republicans are becoming disillusioned with the direction SF is going down. How many of your so-called committed republicans you refer to are old enough to remember the 70’s, 80’s or early 90’s.
Well I haven’t done a count, Keith, but I know a lot more who would be fairly staunchly SF than I do those who are staunchly anti-SF. You could be right but the polls seem to suggest otherwise. Maybe May 23rd will clarify things.
I know of committed republicans who have no truck with them or even the ‘dissos’. Totally disillusioned with their blatant attempts to mirror those other ‘republican’ parties like FF or the SDLP. Alas the sectarian carve up known as the good friday agreement guarantees that they will still obtain the votes they need to continue their joint glorified council with the DUP. But it proves nothing. The very fact that sinn fein fans view the flag protests as some sort of victory reveals how low these ‘republicans’ have aimed their ambitions these last few years. For that agent of the state mcguinness to praise lizzy windsor is laughable-he will apologise before her that is a given. Alas the sheep will be given a nod, a wink and a nudge and be told its all part of ‘the wider picture’; dont worry marty just there to wind the brits up etc etc. Heard it all before.
Some unionists reading this thread might be confused as to the difference between “a true republican” and individuals who could appear to be just a tad intransigent and bitter. It is easy to be a knocker but not just as easy taking steps towards some type of shared future with a bit of give and take.