Sometimes I’m glad I’m not living in the twenty-six- county state to the south. Not because their health service is an obscenity, not because of the grossly uneven distribution of wealth (although both would be good reasons in themselves) but because I’d be in serious danger of buying a fake version of northern politics.
There’s a fine example of the misleading southern media in The Irish Times this morning. In fact it’s their editorial.
It speaks of the “politics of division” here. I thought political parties represented divided political positions in any state. But as you’ve probably guessed, the IT is talking about the “separate enclaves” housing Catholics and Protestants here. And it goes on to lament the peace walls which “advertise the bitter divisions that still prevail in a dysfunctional society.” The implication is that where the peace walls are, that’s where there’s division. What makes that a bit less helpful is when middle-class areas like Malone Road are considered. In the past couple of decades there has been an influx of the rising Catholic middle class into Malone – and a corresponding movement of Malone Road Protestants into North Down. It’s not just the working class that don’t like living near the other lot.
It then considers those who have attempted to step outside the “tribal” divisions and cites – wait for it – Mike Nesbitt. “It was sad that Mike Nesbitt, the Ulster Unionist Party leader, who stuck his neck out by asking his party supporters to transfer to the SDLP, was the major casualty of the election.”
In fact Mike Nesbitt, as he repeatedly said, did not ask his party supporters to transfer to the SDLP. He urged them to transfer to the next candidate they figured would best represent the interests of Northern Ireland. He said he himself would give second preference in his constituency to an SDLP candidate, but stressed that said candidate had no chance of winning a seat. He effectively told his party members to give their second preference to whoever they liked. Rather a different matter from asking them to transfer to the SDLP.
As always happens with these lazy and misleading sketches of political life here, we have the one-side-as-bad-as-other analysis:
“The two parties [ DUP and SF) have built and maintained their electoral base by focusing on the issues that divide the two communities rather than trying to build common ground between them.” Odd thing to say. I was under the impression Martin McGuinness, the SF leader in Stormont, spent the last ten years of his life trying to find common ground and reconciliation with unionism.
The ironic thing is that the IT is a major newspaper in a twenty-six-county state that has been dominated for nearly 100 years by the two parties which fought the Civil War.
About that civil war thing, the two parties still can’t form a formal coalition relying instead on an ad hoc sort of a nod and a wink.
With regard the non integrated living; I have argued for years that integrated education will not be a society changer here because we don’t have integrated housing. Children may be educated together on a campus but it doesn’t mean there aren’t sectarian divisions at play there.
Just to finish on that point, Lagan College has been in existence for two generations now and several other integrated colleges have been going for more than one.
It would be interesting to see how many mixed religious marriages that have resulted from this movement and also here the resultant pairings now live. (Out of NI, in Protestant/catholic estates)
It was the s-word which features in the first and last paragraph of today’s hand-wringing homily in The Unionist Times, Esteemed Blogmeister, which caught the eye. That would be the s for sectarian word.
A word pilfered from the shelves of the Marks and Spensers Megastore of the Military Mindset on the Mainland. As if on cue the homily concludes with this dispelling of any doubt that the British Presence is anything other than of the benign variety:
‘In the longer term, a serious reduction in the €10 billion subsidy from the British exchequer looks inevitable. Northern Ireland is ill equipped to deal with the inevitable pressures on social cohesion that will impose’.
Hard to know though which editor actually cobbled the homily together : yesterday’s or today’s ? For overnight there has been a Changing of the Guard: this morning the world woke up to discover a new configuration of plaid-clad buttocks in the editorial faux leather chair.
Thankfully though, some things remain the same. And with the day that is in it, The Man who is Thursday is just the L. L. J. (see below) to provide us all with a hoot.
Badly needed to, given that the bloody circulation of The Unionist Times today hovers at and around 60,000 which is (gulp) roughly (very) half the figure of ten years ago. Indeed, such are the gloomy forecasts that the day may not be that far off when the weakly daily may be compelled to publish as a (gasp) Weeekly.
But, enough of the gloom, Let us make room for Newton Emerson (for it is he!).
Here’s what Newt the Hoot has to tap oot today:
‘Unionists might be complaining about the cost of an Irish language Act, proposals for which envisage a bilingual public sector. But the DUP has offered to compromise if it can spend the same on Ulster-Scots’.
Hmmm
In the absence of any hint of a suggestion of a tsk, tsk, tsk, one can only conlude that Newt considers this a perfect quid pro quid.
I bhfocail eile, the maestro of the German Queen’s English equates a dirk-doon- the- stocking dialect of his favourite language with an actual language. Maybe now he’ll draw a rave parity of esteem in the matter of nomenclature (a daarlin’ word, Joxer).
The Newt gets a great kick out of using Gaeilgeoir which in the laptop of a loyalist (including Yunes, South and North) is the equivalent of the N-word in non-Harlem circles.
So, what term will he use to describe those what speak, or at least want to fork-lift a slew of moola into the coffers of Ulster Scots?
Hmmm.
Larne Lough Jocks, perhaps?
Curiously enough, today is a Red Top Letter Day for another publication on Loyal Liffieyside:
-The 40th Birthday of Hotpress.
For those who haven’t had the pleasure of deliberately avoiding this radical radioactive ( its contributors are never off the radi0) fortright forntighly consider it a ragged-trousered equivalent of The Unionist Times.
So, no surprise to find here today none other than that Jolly Good Fellow himself, The Man who was Thursday !
Eamonn McCann (for it is he !):
-The Point the Media Missed About Martin McGuinness
Ok, Eamo, down on one knee, take aim and fire:
– the fact that the coffin was draped in a Tricolour as it lay before the altar.
Wow ! Wouldn’t have noticed that. GRMA, Eamo.
‘ In other words, it was decided that, for all intents and purposes, Martin was to be given a State funeral. The question of whether the Sinn Fein leader “deserved” this recognition is beside the point. As well him as any other. The point is that this could be taken by those so inclined as acknowledgement if not acceptance of the status which Republicans have traditionally ascribed to the IRA, as a legitimate force representing the people of Ireland. The sense of satisfaction among Republicans on the ground has been immense’.
Hmmmm.
Could it be that the reason Eamo lost / failed to regain his posish as The Man who is Thursday in The Unionist Times is on account of the factoid that he did a similar type hack-attack number on the Union Jackery on Display (permanent) in the National Cathedral:
-St. Patrick’s Church of (gulp) Ireland?
Memo to Self: must consult the back numbers while the Organ of Rex Accord is still in pulse mode.