I was on Thursday’s Evening Extra with my dear friend Nelson McCausland, discussing the need for Acht na Gaeilge. I’ll put the link up below, but after we’d shaken hands and man-hugged in the Green Room before the show, Nelson told me some really interesting thing I didn’t know.
- Sinn Féin will never get as many seats as they did last time out. This is their high-water mark.
- Sinn Féin were determined to have an election: all the talk of advising Arlene to stand aside while the RHI investigation was held had nothing to do with it.
- There were a couple of hundred postal and proxy votes East of the Bann. Down Fermanagh way, there were over two thousand. Nelson reckons this was ‘some people’ pressuring the many immigrants down there, with hints of their being deported if they didn’t co-operate. He didn’t say but I got the impression he wasn’t referring to the DUP. He indicated he’d had this information from some SDLP people.
- Michelle O’Neill is little more than a glove-puppet.
- The talks are going nowhere because Sinn Féin don’t want devolved government. That way, they can blame austerity on Westminster and the Brits. Protestations to the contrary by SF are so much guff.
At least, that’s what I thought he said. I may have been distracted as he spoke, as I was trying to gauge his height, so I could verify or discredit his description of me as a “nasty little man.”
Here’s the recording of our chin-wag – it starts around 23′ 30″ into the programme. Eistigi!
How would this “vote or be deported ” thing work?
Sounds like he’s been listening to Willie Frazer.
I thought Nelson was actually calling for an Irish an Acht na Gaeilge and that he had been friendly. I thought maybe he wasn’t bitter and thathis bitterness had just been a front when he was an MP. Now I think I missed the sarcastic tone.
I would love to give this response to him below- but I think Nelson is so stuck in his ways he could never really be in touch with reality.
1. He may be right Sinn Fein may never get as many seats (more probable that they will though) but it is less likely the DUP will ever get more seats especially if Arlene is at the helm. I have always said this- but nationalists are better off with Arlene at the helm of the DUP. Arlene is the gift that keeps giving and unionist won’t remove her because Catholics said she should go.
2. Even if Sinn Fein wanted an election desperately, was Nelson proposing ignoring the will of the people (the result showed that most people were not happy with how things were going). I think Nelson is going nowhere with democracy bashing.
3. People deported by Sinn Fein?? I am not surprised by that accusation though elements of the SDLP have always complained about Sinn Fein somehow committing electoral fraud, especially when they had an upset. Even if it was true it would not have made any difference to the DUP or SDLPs poor election result.
4. I want my political leaders to be ‘glove puppets’- that infers that people are influencing them from the party. The party should represent the people therefore a good leader should not be acting like a dictator.
5. Sinn Fein want direct rule, I wouldn’t even respond to that one lol.
“… as I was trying to gauge his height, so I could verify or discredit his description of me as a “nasty little man.”” Jude you kill me sometimes, I genuinely laugh tout loud at this! Brilliant.
Thank you, Kieran – you are very kind. If I can scatter the bright rays of laughter as I move through this gloomy world/NEN….
Of the the two parties, I’d be confident it is the DUP that has seen its high water mark.
Nelson bocht…
The only winning move remaining to Unionism is to restart the Troubles and hope that herds the lundies back into the tent and alienates the 26 counties.
They did it before in the mid-60s when their paranoia at the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Rising sent them over the edge. This time they know the demographic tide is upon them, that without a game changer re-unification is just around the corner.
They will harken back to Molyneaux’s statements that the IRA ceasefire was the greatest threat to the continuance of the union. Guaranteed that right now the modern day David Ervine’s are learning the colour of the wallpaper in the sitting rooms of leading DUP politicians. I wonder if Monteith or his progeny have been recalled to provide legal advice and defense counsel.
Tragedy and then farce. And it will be utterly farcical except for those maimed and murdered.
Dr C
If whenever you et flabbergasted by Hawf-Nelson simply go to the Census data site for 1911; http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?searchMoreVisible=true&census_year=1911&surname=McCausland&firstname=&county19011911=&county1821=&county1831=&county1841=&county1851=&barony=&parish=&ward=&townland=&houseNumber=&familyId=&ded=&age=&sex=&ageInMonths=&relationToHead=&religion=&education=&occupation=&marriageStatus=&yearsMarried=&birthplace=&nativeCountry=&language=Irish&deafdumb=&causeOfDeath=&yearOfDeath=&familiesNumber=&malesNumber=&femalesNumber=&maleServNumber=&femaleServNumber=&estChurchNumber=&romanCatNumber=&presbNumber=&protNumber=&marriageYears=&childrenBorn=&childrenLiving=&search=Search
Type in McCausland in the search engine and select ‘Irish’ from the language tab in the ‘More search options’ tab’ and search.
OK, it’s just a small cluster in Belfast, but…
Jude, if you ever feel the need to wind Nelson up just ask him whether he was named after the late Nelson Mandela.