“Little darling, its been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like yeas since it’s been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right”
That Beatles’s song seems to have been the theme for Arlene Foster’s visit to Killarney yesterday. In what was described as “a major speech”, she signaled the end of frosty relationships between north and south, and hailed the rising of a new day.
So what ground-breaking words did she utter? Lots.
For example:
“I appreciate that nowhere will be more impacted by the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union than Ireland.”
And while her stunned audience was trying to absorb that, she went on:
“In terms of Brexit, the focus needs to be on very practical and constructive engagement to mitigate the damage Brexit will do to jobs, North and South, and East and West.”
Then a profound revelation: “Those ties [between north and south] have strengthened since the Troubles ended to the extent that in recent times we have enjoyed an extraordinarily, unimaginably positive relations between our two states” .
Let’s look at the massive impact of these words. In the first quotation, she says she realises that Brexit will really hit Ireland hard. You hadn’t heard about that? Well now you know.
In the second, she says that we’ve got to work hard to try to limit the destructive impact of Brexit (which she declares herself very much in favour of) on jobs throughout Ireland.No, please – don’t say things might be better if her party abandoned its dumb Brexit position. That’d only confuse things.
In the third quotation, she reveals that in recent times north and south have worked really well together. You don’t need to live on the border to know that. Just take the Enterprise from Belfast to Dublin any day. Stuffed with busienssmen.
So while it saddens me to say it and while I’d rather join the Beatles’ optimistic hailing of the sun, there really doesn’t seem to have been any substance at all to Arlene’s speech. More frozen chunk after frozen chunk of the bleeding obvious.
But as we limp away despondent, wondering was Arlene’s Killarney journey really necessary, the DUP leader leaves us with a final revealing image of her granny on a bike.:
“My own grandmother used to travel back and forward across the Border on a bicycle to sell Irish lace in Clones.”
Right. Nice one, Granny. But how will that keep us warm from the biting Brexit wind?
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