Well, who would have thunk it? I have never been a fan of Ian Paisley Jr, but last night he took, as they say, my breath away. During THE VIEW on BBC, he offered unstinting praise to Martin McGuinness for the work he’d done in advancing reconciliation, and called on the DUP to show the same degree of respect that Mr McGuinness had shown his father and unionism in general.
I’ve just come off the Nolan Show this morning where Ruth Dudley Edwards, who never tires of telling us she is a historian, was very miffed. There she’d been preparing to condemn McGuinness’s retirement speech as cloying and self-serving, and the whole story was Ian Paisley Jr’s statement about the need for respect and reconciliation in order for everyone to make progress. Agggggh . She did her best to seem even-handed (‘I’m a historian’) by knocking Ian Paisley Snr, but her whole thinking couldn’t quite turn its steering-wheel to cope with Ian Paisley Jr’s statement of last night.
The calls coming in on the Nolan Show, for the most part were positive. I suspect Ian Paisley may have his eye on Arlene Foster’s job, but right now I don’t care. What I care about is (i) Will Ian Paisley maintain this position consistently and especially over the course of this election; and (ii) Will enough of the unionist electorate give those unionist politicians of like mind the kind of support they deserve?
For decades republican leaders have been wondering if unionism can produce a De Klerk figure who will lead his/her people to a better, reconciled future. It’s just possible – I can hardly believe I’m typing this – they may have found that figure in Ian Paisley Jr.
“Will Ian Paisley maintain this position consistently and especially over the course of this election?” And beyond? This is a good question Jude to consider but wouldn’t it be a weaker stance if Ian Paisley junior’s rightful appraisal of Martin Mc Guinness was just a political manoeuvre? Mistrust in peoples motives runs deep for me and only time can tell. Please time, do tell……
It’s what we call “divine” intervention, you are having a laugh,,,, the dup’s back is against the wall and miraculously the snide, poking, sneering entity that is Ian paisley Jr comes forth with great humility and no less compassion for Martin mcguinness. We all know Snarlene is finished with and we know she needs replaced and re-branded if the DUP are to survive, this is a pup and has been sold to no other person than yourself, I hope and pray with sincerity the electorate all sides see this for what it really is.
He would have my vote as a result if he was standing in upper bann or whatever it is called now.
An-mhaith Ian Jnr
(hopefully that reads well done Ian Jnr)
Well the old man changed his stripes didn’t he? So who knows?
The old man denied that any fault was his or that he had done any wrong – to the end.
Ian Junr reminds me of somebody who comes to a wake and goes though the motions with the family and then comes back when the dust has settled to remind the family that now would be a good time to sell that wee field that lies into his ground. Maybe he is genuine but the thing that sticks in my craw is the number of times he felt he had to say my country,our country,this country that Martin McGuinness had helped to progress. I prefer the dour Arlene. You know what you’re dealing with. Or the even dourer Jim Alllister who brightens my day.
“Or the even dourer Jim Alllister who brightens my day.”
I sure hope I’m wrong but I see Jim and his party potentially challenging the DUP in the future. The DUP did it to the UUP, so why cant TUV?
I think the recipe of success for the TUV is the DUP going moderate and Jim becoming the Ian Paisley of the 1980’s, with the “Never Never Never” talk, as in “Never, Never, Never to SF in Government”, etc.
The fear of loss vibrates a lot stronger with the Unionist electorate than hope of progress and change.
If the Nationalist electorate were like the Unionist electorate then SF and the SDLP would’ve been dissolved a long time ago.
Hmmm… I have watched Ian’s comments a few times and call me a cynic but something just doesn’t sit right with me. I hope I’m wrong but could it be that Ian’s comments were the proverbial ‘dead cat’?
The letsgetalongerists will not like this talk from the boul Ian. They’ll be demanding he sticks to the script.
I agree WT.
How could republicans be the peace makers and promoters of equality even earning the respect of Ian Paisley Jnr?
Has the southern media and establishment been telling porkies and promoting their own separatist agenda all this time?
Surely not.
And old Colum thought the new look SDLP who would take the fight to unionism, that Sinn Fein were too soft, and all the time it was not that they were being to soft the public disliked, just that Sinn Fein in pursuit of reconciliation could soak up more abuse than the public could bare.
Once again, the SDLP gets it wrong
Just as the UUP got it wrong trying to out DUP the DUP, the public know Sinn Fein have shown the way forward and the positive support for Ian Paisley Jnr taking the first leap into respectful reciprocation, may well have come when they had little other choice but came none the less.
Can any other party all over this island live up to the high standards Sinn Fein have set over the last 20 years?
That is the question many politicians today will be struggling with.
Words are one thing, consistent actions and deeds over a decade will prove difficult to pick apart.
His father did become friends with Martin and I’m prepared to accept him at his word. We can’t constantly berate unionism for it’s negativity and then , when a glimmer of light breaks forth , engage in the same rhetoric . I’m not foolhardy enough to believe there has been a “Road to Damascus” conversion but as in the Chinese proverb….a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step !
It was hard not to be moved by Ian Óg’s performance last night.
We often couch our discourse in dry, contestabe or politicised terms like “equality” or “parity of esteem”. Understandably so. But what Ian Óg demonstrated last night was something simpler: common decency.
What nationalists require from unionists – what we have demonstrated towards them, without much reciprocation – is common decency. The insititutions have fallen because unionism cannot bring itself to extend common decency to nationalism.
Now, there certainly hasn’t been any Damascene conversion here, and I understand the chariness expressed by some. Doubtless Ian Óg will say something outrageous in the near future, and we can all go back to the comfort of loathing him.
But I recall Churchill’s definition of a fanatic: one who cannot change his mind, and cannot change the subject.
Many in the DUP fit this description. Ruth Dudley-Edwards and the whole Harrisite Sindo mob are particularly obvious examples.
But in the end, it turned out that Ian Paisley Snr was not. Martin McGuinness is not. Perhaps Ian Óg isn’t. And I don’t want to be, so I’ll set my chariness aside.
There are plenty in the southern establishment and indeed the southern media who could do well to take a leaf out of his book.
I wrote this in March last year after reading a piece by Kyle Paisley
Seeing past the lineage
Often we view people through lens
That have been focused on a family name.
In teaching this was common,
Often the child fulfilled the prophecy
Occasionally, the prophecy was false.
Even in this place of atavistic prophecy,
Sometimes the apple rolls away from the tree,
A child of a republican votes unionist,
A child of a unionist becomes republican.
A child of our time? Well, that’s for the future.
Sometimes a name means more, so cemented
With the past as to be a foundation stone.
So we think the scion must be cut the same
And are surprised to find the cut is not a clone
But, because of natural grain, is individual.
We must be open to possibility of difference,
A divergence from the norm caused by education,
We should see people for whom they are,
Not for the gene pool from whence they came.
Prescient, PJD – at least I hope so…
Delivery not words.
I welcome Paisley’s remarks. He may have his own reasons for saying what he said in terms of his father’s legacy and a possible leadership bid. Nonetheless it was brave.
Foster does not possess the attitude for power sharing and any challenge to her is to be welcomed.
That said, SF need to deliver. It will take more than kind words.
Get the language act, nail down inquests for victims and achieve parity of nationality in the north.
Delivery not words are needed now.
Ta bron orm a Chairde nach, Ian og?
Just a few day’s ago, on this blog, I pointed out how, when a student, in the UGM at Queen’s University, the same Ian og seriously endangered the life of a Union staff, and, at the same time, those of his colleagues and friends by stating a matter, without doubt drawn from ‘RUC intelligence’ sourced from his Father, that this fellow student w as a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, a serious allegation, made at the time without qualification.
One might say that ‘ach sure he was young’ but equally, and I was seriously injured a few years later but, what he said that afternoon could have seriously damaged my and others health.
My opinion, he’s looking h i s Da’s place and thinks sucking u p to Fenians will get him p ast what Martin said about Arlenes approach to themuns.
I’ll reserve judgement on Ian Junior’s motives. Part of me was not surprised at his statement given that the relationship with his father has been much trailed in the past and he probably knows more than anyone the dynamics of that relationship. There’ll be many in his own party who will hate him for saying such a thing but we expect that . Many nationalists will refuse to believe him. People are many faceted beasts , though, so even the hardest criminal might still love his mum and family, for example .We can’t paint them all as simple ogres. Every politician worth his salt takes chances politically and it’s great to see a little honesty …if that what it seems to be .
There’s no doubt that there is a DUP fissure between the Paisley family and friends and some others in the DUP whole .They feel that Ian Senior was shafted . This has certainly raised young Ian’s profile at the start of an election but it’s probably no more than actually spotlighting the different aspects of people within that party.Some are as bitter as limes about the past just as some republicans might be equally bitter at the other extreme of political thought.
We all want to believe that it might herald the beginning of some fresh DUP thinking or at least similar humility to that expressed by Martin McGuinness ,in that everybody hurts …not just unionists. The contrast between someone like Edwin P oots and Ian Paisley Junior is stark at this moment ,for example. Whether this gesture could be the spark for some kind of revolution in the DUP’s thinking, it would be difficult to tell, but one thing that is sure is that no real change will come under Arlene Foster’s leadership. To survive you have to be able to bend in the wind.It might twist your spine out of shape but at least your back will not be broken. You have to know when to take that chance . That’s real leadership.The fact that we had none of that from our First Minister is why we are now heading for an election which the DuP really did not want.
Felt a not dissimilar reaction to yourself, Esteemed Blogmeister, while listening to the Sean O Rourke Show on RTE this morning.
To hear Ian Og Paisley compel one to leave the –re out of the Og came truly as a shock, a pleasant one and one which left one also wondering how long before it fades in the future. But, as you say: sufficient unto the Lá !
His jovial admission to wearing a balaclava (while cycling to a meeting with Martin Mac) almost made one topple from one’s High Nellie. (Did one really use the j-word in the same sentence as Ian Og? One did, one did).
The critically acclaimed comedienne of the sit-down stripe in her regulation Duds sounds like she was a regular hoot on the Nolan Show. Funnily (in both sense s of that FF word) there was a not insignificance shoe-sole whiff of the Sindo off the Sean O Rourke Show on RTE Radio 1.
(Or maybe, it was on the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk fm. You mean – there’s a difference?)
In the FForm of one Martin, erm, provisionally, eulogising an other Martin. This was Blessed Martin of No Porridge in the first instance and the newly Blessed Martin de Porridge. The first Martin (with the Meehawl appendage) is double jobbing at the moment, though his principal day-j. is that of Dummy for the Ventriloquist in the Bomber Jacket : Eoghainín na nAontachtoirí, of the Sindo.
-Hysteria will judge him ultimately in the round,boy.
This was the viper-tongued Ventriloquist’s crafty kick to touch, the proviso in the provisional, when asked how did he reconcile the early stage of the other Martin’s career, the sniper phase, and the later stage, the pin-striper phase.
-McGuinness IS good for you; but let hysteria decide whether McGuinness WAS good for you.
But, of course, all this belated beatification of Martin Mac is not , of course, really about him at all, at all. Rather it is about whacking the non-retiring Fear na Féasoige whose second name begins with the first letter
-A. A for Adams, A for Aloof. A. is for Alfredo.
Alfredo?
-As in Bring me the Beard of Alfredo Adams the Aloof.
Yes, indeed, that is the buzz word that has begun to be shouted from the Rooftops of the Sindo, going forward :
-Aloof.
As Martin the Dummy mouthed his fellow-Corkonian’s words (don’t ask where the Ventriloquist inserts his hand, the manipulative one) one’s thoughts went back to a d. and distant day when one first encountered Martin Mac.
It was in the early 70s or thereabouts under another roof, the roof of the magnificently gothic pile known as the Spa Hotel, Lucan, West Dublin. There was something not entirely inappropriate about this venue. This hotel dates back to the aftermath of the year of our Lord, 1758, when a sulphurous spa was discovered locally, in Lucan. Tourists flocked, and the then absence of a hotel indicated that bednights were, erm, blocked.
One’s first glimpse of Martin McGuinness was of his off-blonde curly head bobbing in the middle of a phalanx of bodyguards, performing an uptempo, silent version of the Planxty Exit Pronto . Martin Mac was in his (gulp) sulphurous stage of his career (see history, provisional above) .
This meant that though he was On the Run at the time such was the demand for his hand to be shaken that he didn’t manage to rise above a hurried shuffle as he bade a hasty retreat form the SPA Hotel and the purusit of the SPA. (Special Branch Aonad/ Unit) .
The Spa Hotel at the time was a noted venue for Republican gatherings being in the ownership of a Mayo man with (gulp) Republican leanings. Which automatically rules out Lord Lucan, the noted, erm, absentee landlord.
To pursue the armed conflict motif, Mike McTigue stayed in The Spa Hotel while preparing to box Battling Siki of Senegal in the Theatre Royal, 1923. This was at the depth of the Civil War and the Senegalese slugger had arrived in Dublln via Cobh (or, Queenstown which the Sindo might prefer).
On the train from Cork to Dublln the train was halted in the Midlands and Free Stateen soldiery boarded. Among those frisked was Battling Siki. He was spreadeagled against the window in the corridor of his carriage. The soldiers joked:
-Just looking for arms, sir.
Martin McGuinness, of course, fought against the Battling Pyschos of the BA and their Allies.
The tradition of the Roped Ring/ Cage still survives in Lucan: chap name of Conchubhair McGreagoir attended the local Gaelscoil there, Coláiste na Life. (Both B. Siki and an Laoch MMA can be seen on Youtube, one scrapping McTigue, the other rapping in the lingo of Taigue – Department of Education, please note).
It was under a different roof that one encountered F.W. de Klerk (the John Reid-look alike in the snap above): under the roof of Government Buildings, Dublin 2 where one was on, erm, porter duties at the time. This was the Year of our Lord, 1991 when the South African Taoiseach was, in fact, the first P.M. to visit the newly renovated Edwardian pile.
(The themesong of choice among the Porterage of said buildings at the time was, not surprisingly:
-Give the woman in the bed more porter.)
Some years later, Kadar Asmal, the new Minister for Water in the post-Apartheid Government paid a return visit to Dublin, where he had resided and campaigned for human rights in his native land, and called into Government Buildings.
It was a quiet morning, just ripe a slightly bored porter name of The Perkin, for a spot of, erm, ball hopping.
Which involved requesting the guest to guess who was the first official visitor to the renovated Government Buildings which Minister Asmal had known in a a previous existence as The College of Science, but which had since his departure become the, erm, College of Political Science.
-I give you: you tell me.
When The Perkin mentioned the name of the John Reid-look alike, he nearly choked on his voluminous moustache. While a chastened Porter did not quite give the visitor a whack on the back to clear his tubes, nonetheless he did desist from the dubious art of ball-hopping.
On an interim basis, in anyways.
Ba leor sin.
mohamad ali.called it the rope a dope.lure your enemy in with false pretences..then strike.
whos he trying to kid were to old of cats to be buxked by a kitten.
” What I care about is (i) Will Ian Paisley maintain this position consistently and especially over the course of this election”
I certainly hope he does Jude but its important to remember that Paisley Jnr’s respect was mainly directed towards Martin McGuinness, not necessarily all at Sinn Fein or Republicanism in general. He has good reason to like McGuinness, he was very respectful towards his father, I think its obvious now they really did have a genuine friendship and Martin even visited Paisley when he was dying and spoke “for hours” about what they went through together. People tend to underestimate how difficult it was for Paisley/McGuinness to achieve what they achieved. I even remember Martin saying that Paisley turned to him when Stormont reopened and said “You know what Martin? We don’t need English Ministers coming over here and telling us what to do. We can rule ourselves”. If only more of the Unionist electorate thought the same way…..
“and (ii) Will enough of the unionist electorate give those unionist politicians of like mind the kind of support they deserve?”
Again, I certainly hope so but going by historical trends within Unionism its unlikely. Terence O’Neill tried making the tiniest of outreaches to Nationalism/Catholics and he was derided as a traitor (ironically by Paisley Snr and others). David Trimble tried going moderate and he was given the boot too by the Unionist electorate (ironically, again, thanks to Paisley Snr). And to top off all the irony, Paisley Snr himself went a bit moderate, agreeing to go into government with Sinn Fein. Eventually Paisley was removed from his own party (apparently by the “Mighty Dodds” aka Nigel Dodds) because he wasn’t hard core enough. When Peter Robinson replaced him he tried going a little bit moderate too and behold! there were plenty of daggers ready to be plunged into Robbo’s back from within his own party and eventually he left too. A lot of people don’t know that Robbo was determined to honour the Maze agreement but it was fierce opposition from within the DUP that stopped it.
So forgive my scepticism but I don’t believe the Unionist electorate will change that much but I’m open minded.
Indeed I believe if Ian Paisley Jnr did become the leader of the DUP, or if he simply remained an MP, and he went on a SF style crusade of outreach to republicans then I believe he would be removed from the DUP just like his own father was. Unfortunately there’s too many extremists in the DUP.
Even if the DUP did become more moderate, becoming committed to reconciliation and reciprocation, then a group like the TUV will simply attack them at every turn and maybe grow to replace the DUP. That’s exactly how the UUP was replaced.
Whatever happens, I think it was decent of Paisley Jnr doing what he did because he didn’t need to do that and it would’ve been so easy for him to take the stance Gregory Campbell, Mike Nesbitt and Jim Allister took and bring up the past. But Ian Jnr didn’t, so credit where its due.
Unionism can never produce a “De Klerk” they can only produce Lundy’s, no one can speak for Loyalists politically, their word isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.
Ian Paisley Snr was their De Klerk.
Ironically, he was betrayed by the sectarian bigotry he helped to create and it will be extremely difficult to undo that damage.
The republican movement have a 20 years head start on them, but I do think the unionist community have taken their first steps and we should always encourage and assist those that pursue that road.
Jessica, my ancestors were burnt out of their homes by peep ‘o day boy’s for being Catholic, my Grandfather had to escape from Harland and Wolf with the help of a Protestant colleague because he was a Catholic, was that big Ian’s doing as well? This ground on which we live is well and truly salted. That is not going to change.
Sorry to hear that, I wouldn’t have to go back so far with a good chunk of my family living overseas. Some burnt out for being catholic in the 60s who decided to get the hell out.
Others originally living in Ardoyne were later put out by the british army and ending up for a time with half of the kids in an Irish army hospital in Wicklow and the rest sent over to England.
Ian Paisley was the man most responsible for causing the conflict in the first place in my opinion, but he was also the best and most able to rebuild bridges he burned, had his own not turned on him.
He died a better man than he lived and I believe in spite of his past, it could well be considered the peace processes biggest loss when he was stood down.
It is easy to criticise Gerry Adams, but when he leaves the stage, who in Ireland is fit to lace his shoes or anywhere nearly as capable of keeping the lid down to prevent republican anger once more erupting into a fury of conflict.
God knows, both unionism, the southern establishment and british intelligence have tried their damndest to break us down.