Twitter, Tweets and Historical Similarities – by Michael Lagan

How many times have nationalists and Republicans and indeed ‘other’ and none asked Unionism in NEI to respect our rights both within and without the GFA? An underestimation would be thousands of times over decades on many and varied issues ranging from housing rights and identity to the right not to be tortured during interrogation, even if one was thought to be guilty.

So I’m sure you’ll understand my shock when while scrolling through the tweets on Twitter I came upon the ramblings and concerns of the Donaghadee Balloon.  Owing to the recent events surrounding the celebration of the GFA by many a respected personality, Mr. JB (not to be confused with Mr. BJ) took it upon himself to inadvertently force Unionism to look in the mirror.  However, clearly, Mr. JB didn’t quite pick up the sheer irony and hypocrisy of his Twitter tweet. 

His tweet went as follows – “Power sharing must respect the rights, identities & aspirations of both communities.  A situation whereby nationalists benefit from supremacy whilst unionists are under the jackboot of subjugation is not a stable basis for peace & political progress.”

It’s funny how all of a sudden “rights identities & aspirations” are so important to Unionism in NEI, how all of a sudden both communities must have a say and have their rights protected after the very same vessel of hot air and possibly methane (we don’t actually know at this point) spent weeks talking about how Ireland’s Future was a front for the IRA and Sinn Fein and of course the ‘Pan Nationalist Front’ simply because it dared to ask the question – what if?  He claimed that if someone had an Irish passport, whether they thought they were Irish or not they were still British.  I believe Gavin Robinson of the DUP claimed the same completely ignoring the part in the GFA which states a person can be Irish, Northern Irish, British, or a wee bit o’both.

The biggest irony in all of this is that the GFA didn’t work because of Unionism.  Unionism, especially the DUP didn’t want to work with Sinn Fein, in fact, it didn’t want to work with nationalists full stop, but had to because of the word ‘sharing’ within the agreement.  Really what JB is complaining about here is that their Protocol protest has run out of steam and leverage.  Unionism may think it still has leverage by staying out of Stormont but the fact is, its protest has run its course and would have been more fruitful had it gone back into Stormont after the past election.  

Now their protest has run out of steam and their only option other than direct rule, which the British government doesn’t even want, is to go back into Stormont.  We have the likes of aul JB starting the conversation of parity of esteem, which nationalists have been complaining about for 25 years.  He talks about supremacy…I mean, really?  He is literally equating nationalist positivity and forward-looking mindset to supremacy meanwhile we have the 12^th of July parades all over the North literally throwing a sectarian battle in our faces every year and continuing with the sectarian celebration of it every year. 

JB doesn’t do irony, but nationalists, Catholics, and Republicans will most certainly see the obvious similarities in his Twitter tweet to what they have been complaining about since powersharing was established.  Those complaints were ignored.  Should we treat Unionists in the same way they treated Catholics and nationalists for generations? Of course we don’t but in the same breath, I’ll say this – from now on we shouldn’t give any of our rights away.  The rights Catholics and nationalists gained through the GFA were gained to bring them equality.  That Unionists complain that they lost something shows just how ignorant they were of just how good they had it.  What they’re really complaining about is that Catholics and nationalists now have a semblance of the same rights Unionists have.