I still can’t rid myself of the suspicion that Sinn Féin don’t really want to go back to Stormont. They’re no doubt genuine when they say they want people in our Green Tormented Corner to have the best services possible, and are opposed to direct rule from Westminster (I mean, hey, who would choose to be governed directly by B Johnson when instead they could stick needles in their own eyes?), but they must know that the Next Big Thing is the border poll.
It’s tricky, that border poll thing. For some true-blue unionists – and true blueshirt southerners – the advocacy of Sinn Féin is enough in itself for them to fight it tooth and boot. So I suspect Sinn Féin are not being overly loud in their advocacy for that reason. At the same time, it’s the core political objective of the party, and they must feel – I know I feel – that like the Irish language, anyone who shies away because Sinn Féin are involved are clearly people who can’t think straight. But then our GTC wouldn’t exist if a lot of people had been able to think straight 100 years ago.
But hanging back a bit and letting civic nationalism make the running probably makes sense. That said, civic nationalism’s running is a bit like my own running – maddeningly slow. A citizens’ assembly sort of thing should be established asap, with a warm welcome for all and any unionists. If they choose to attend, it’d be a really valuable presence at the assembly. If they choose not to, they might want to get on board further down the line, when they realise they do need to make that journey too. Because one way or another, this train needs to start stoking the boiler blowing the whistle and yelling “All aboard!” any day now.
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