These are not good days to be a unionist. If you’re a supporter of the UUP, you’ve just seen your leader commit hara-kiri and your party representation reduced to a doleful rump. If you’re a supporter of the DUP, you’ve just watched your number of seats plummet, your main rival come within one seat and less than 2,000 votes of you. Apart from teeth-gnashing and calling on your Maker to explain himself, what can you do?
If you’re a UUP supporter, not a lot. You could elect Steve Aiken as your new leader. He’s a pretty formidable debater, informed and intelligent – but then he declared emphatically during the campaign that the UUP would win more seats than the DUP – or was it Sinn Féin? Either way, a not too-impressive forecast. Then add to that the problem of what the UUP is for. The DUP are again making sounds about one big unionist party, but the UUP have always clung onto their identity, even when making electoral pacts. The UUP as a cross-community party? Mmm. That worked out well in the recent election, didn’t it? OK guys – back to the teeth-gnashing.
If you’re a DUP supporter, you’re possibly still wondering what hit you. The DUP has always prided itself on being top dog (including former leader Ian Paisley, who liked to talk about “my deputy” when referring to Martin McGuinness). Can they change? Eamonn Mallie has suggested that if Arlene Foster were to agree to an Irish Language Act, change the names at the top to Joint First Ministers and provide the funding requested by the Lord Chief Justice for investigation of Legacy cases, it could melt the wrath of nationalism/republicanism.
Running counter to the moves Mallie suggests is the stubbornness of Arlene and many in the DUP. They don’t want to show themselves as being pressured into changes by Sinn Féin (even though pressure of one kind or another is the only way that things change in politics).
So enlightened, more liberal unionism or not-an-inch and We-Are-Still-The-Largest-Party-And-Arlene- Is-Our-Leader? It looks like a lose-lose choice. If the DUP concedes to Sinn Féin’s requests, they’re showing themselves as vulnerable to republican pressure, plus when a right-wing regime opts to slacken its grip and go from Bad Cop to Kinda-Reasonable Cop, that’s usually the beginning of the end of that regime. If the DUP stands fast and refuses to budge, they’re going to fuel the flames (if that’s the proper image) of nationalist/republican wrath. Having discovered what an energized nationalist/republican electorate can achieve, feeding that energy by displaying continued obduracy would not be very wise.
Lordy, Lordy. Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman. Especially if you’re leading the DUP.
I can recall, away back in them ‘mist’s of time’ the, then, curious, leader of the OUP, James Molyneaux being interviewed on Radio Éireann one Sunday. I think it was during the Hunger Strikes, the second one, and Bobby Sands had just been elected as Deputy for Fermanagh South Tyrone, strangely then wee Arlene Kelly’s Deputy.
Molyneaux made the point that nationalism, or was it Catholics, made up only thirty per cent of the six county population, the journalist with the national broadcaster asked him, what if there were a Catholic majority? The response of the, then, leader of unionism changed my thinking forever, he stated, ‘even were there a Catholic majority, they would vote to remain in the United Kingdom since their benefit’s are better here than in the Republic’.
The reason this was telling is, it shows how out of touch unionism, in particularly official unionism, the old established church and all, were with reality. Giving up on the opportunity of equal right to employment, housing, education and other opportunities, denied for centuries was not sufficiently important to Catholics thought the Huguenot leader of Irish unionism and that we’d all prefer to live on a few bob a week.
This party, as I’ve said before, were the bowsies whom discriminated wholesale against not only Catholics but working class Protestants also. Time for peace, time to go.
Jude
That is not a picture of a crossroads.
No but, the road on the left takes you to the docks.
Mark
Two roads diverged in a wood,
Why don’t you take the one less traveled by,
And take your bitterness with you.
Gio, read below first please.
Aw gio .. c’mon now …such pedantry from you..it’s not like you at all… …dear, dear….Maybe one of the roads is a bit slightly overgrown, eh? Now there’s a thought… ha ha !
Quite right, Gio. I noticed that but was too lazy to replace it. You’ve goaded me into response (why does that sound familiar??) . Grma…
Always happy to help.
Maybe he meant cross in the sense of angry?
Or a staggered cross roads? Or maybe the fourth road is the way of peace and good sense and equality and has been overgrown?
Sorry Gio, I said I was going off winding people up for Lent. Here’s another Hail Mary.
Was there ever a good time to be a Unionist? Unionism seems to have been on the back foot since the coming to being of the Act of Union some 216 years ago. It tried to justify the unjustifiable British rule in Ireland and later partition against the will of the people. In that 216 year period we have had massacres, discrimination, disease, workhouses, language loss, slaughter, famine, rebellion, war, forced immigration. Unionism from its inception has been reactionary in its attempt to stop Catholic emanciption, land reform, home rule, and of latter years reunification.
ime sure their feeling of self importance is deflated with thresa may snubbing them,telling them brokenshire will deal with them.lol.stopping the wages,few years of direct rule seems the only sensible option now.
The DUP will have to first tackle the Protestant Bible wielding fundamentalists within the party before any attempt at a single unionist party could even be discussed. Good luck with that, Arlene…
But yes, a single unionist party is exactly how a lot of us suspected unionism would react to minority status.
Jude, the attempts by Unionists to de-humanise the nationalist Republican community has continued this morning with David Mc Narry referring to us as ‘bears’ who have come out of our cage to vote in large numbers. This is just another animal reference to add the collection. I wonder how unionists would feel if the shoe was on the other foot and I wonder would William Crawley be so lenient to Republicans if they were to use such terms.
Still, it’s great to see Unionism squirming and reeling from such a bruising election.
Tá ár lá tagtha
“Jude, the attempts by Unionists to de-humanise the nationalist Republican community has continued this morning with David Mc Narry referring to us as ‘bears’ who have come out of our cage to vote in large numbers. This is just another animal reference to add the collection. ”
These are metaphors. They’re not actually calling nationalist animals.
Gerry wasn’t calling unionists bastards. It was a metaphor for *****
Fiosrach – no abuse, please…
My sister is a cow. I know she won’t mind me saying that – it’s a metaphor….
You should have said she acted like a cow – not that she was a cow.
fiosrach
That would be a simile!
“My sister is a cow. I know she won’t mind me saying that – it’s a metaphor….”
Calling a woman a cow isn’t a metaphor.
Let us be carebears and listen to the suffering of the poor Unionists. What happened last Thursday has got to really hurt.
http://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/backlash-against-times-columnist-claiming-ireland-has-tenuous-claim-to-nationhood-and-ni-unionists-not-british-35509762.html
Hilarious… You couldn’t find any more thing artificial than Britain. It’s really just English supremacy dressed up as a Union.
Pathetic attempt at trollling by this person.
Unionism certainly is at a crossroads. In ten years Nationalists will hold 50 of the 90 MLAs, 10 of the 17 MPs and will be a majority on a majority of councils, including Belfast. This trend will continue unabated as the sea of green west of the Bann slowly laps eastward.
The differential in political allegiance between those turning 18 every year and those who die every year dooms Unionism because they will continue to lose voters each election.
The crossroads is an ever greening Northern Ireland outside the EU, with a hard border with the 26 counties and no EU payments for agriculture, dominated by Sinn Fein. Or re-unification with the 26 counties and rejoining the EU.
There is no future where Unionism controls anything but a few councils in the east.
None of this matters anymore, more than enough Unionists want to remain in the EU right now to win a border poll. Give them a year or two to let the reality set in and we will win. So lay down yer imbibments now friends 🙂
Arlene yesterday went a little bit soft by saying she “wants to work for all the people of Northern Ireland”. Of course Republicans believe that just as much as we believe that the Moon is made of Cheese.
Its clear poor Arlene has been told to reinvent herself and her image. I believe that’s far too late now, everyone knows that would be false and only because she took a hammering at the Election and also to stop another surge in the Republican vote. I think that Republican vote is roused and is not going back to sleep.
The DUP are even calling this a GOOD election for them. They are displaying one of the most common traits within Unionism: Being in Denial.
Deeds not words DUP. Renaming that boat to Irish would be an easy, goodwill gesture or bringing Linda Ervine and few other Protestant Irish speakers to have an Irish debate with Nationalists. If the DUP were serious there are literally a million trivial displays of goodwill they could perform to signal their intent but that is never going to happen because we are dealing with the hate-all-things-Irish chunk of Unionism lining up behind Foster. They will never agree to a deal that cedes ground to Sinn Fein.
Does anyone really see them signing up for all or most of these- ILA, Maze, legacy funding, NI bill of rights, border poll, justice ministry in d’Hondt? And ask yourself who needs Stormont more? Nationalism or Unionism and why? Because I think Nationalism just showed that after 20 years of peace you just can’t work with the majority of Unionism, that Northern Ireland is a failed statelet and the only solution remaining is to wind it up and re-unite with the 26.
Churchill said that the Americans always do the right thing. After they have tried everything else. It also applies to the British in Ireland.
your forgetting the south will be in bits in twenty years time with their open border policy.the housing crisis at the minute in dublin is down to migrants,numbers like the population of cork are migrants in dublin alone some tds are raising it now but nobodys listening.who will want to join with a place like that.picture it in twenty yrs time as hundreds of thousands more arrive,
I will have to go by the last 100 years of evidence to the contrary over your foetid imagination of failure.
Ryan – I don’t think because Arlene has a past she can’t have a future. People change, sometimes by force of circumstance, but that’s OK. Cf Ian Paisley Sr (and Jr)…
If the results of the first border poll is 51 to 49 in favour of the Irish, I think no move should be made. Just point it out to the unionists and say this is what we can do. Now do you want to talk to us about future settlements.
there would be no need for any settlements with a win.
That’s the time to be generous,Billy
But fiosrach the only cure is re-unification.
I understand your impulse, and I agree with it. But, here is the problem, every single previous gesture of goodwill by Nationalism has been rejected, denounced and ineffectual. Trinity college still played GStQ until the early 70s. The Unionists of south Dublin never wavered unto their deaths. They will never compromise. That is ok, the southern state succeeded without internal violence.
Re-unificaiton means no more British army, PSNI, military installations, border, gerrymandering. The Gardaí will be in the north, as will the civil service. That goes a tremendous way to draining the swamp and getting all 32 counties pulling together.
Still lots of problems – parading, UDA/UVF. There will be bodies, innocent Catholics will be murdered, there may even be another Shankill Butchers. That will happen no matter when re-unification occurs, but certainly the number will vary based on how we handle it.
I half agree Dr C.
It’s potentially a brilliant time for unionism or the pulling of the plug on the life support machine.
Either the DUP wise up or its the beginning of the end and if it is to be that end then the sooner the better.
If i were nationalist i’d be praying for a single unionist party; political manna.
I kinda hope that nationalism keeps up the pressure, the WORST thing that could happen unionism is that they rally at the next election as this would encourage the delusion.
No, another kick to the teeth will have them realise that it’s not the fault of lundies, libtards, immigrants or themuns but the fault of the unionist leadership by appeasing the mob instead of leading them.
If not then the game is up.