Is there extradition from the South to the North? Yes? Oh , good to know. Because when they send that jeep round to Michelle O’Neill for breaking the law by standimg in solidarity with the people of Garvaghy Road,they’ll have to send another jeep at least as far as the border into which they can bundle Mary Lou McDonald.
Will the DUP, Jamie et al see that as a win? Well yes – they’ve recommended it. Punish the lawbreakers. Sock it to the Shinners.
Will it happen? Will Michelle and Mary Lou be sharing a cell for their sins? None of us can say for certain, any more than any of us can say for certain the Orange Order is feeling that they’re suddenly in the role of nay-sayers, since they won’t accept Chris Bryant, British Secretary of State’s proposal, and the Garvaghy Road representative Breandán Mac Cionnaith has said he’ll accept it.
But back to Michelle and Mary Lou in that cell. If the PSNI punishes ANYONE for having organised and/or participated in a line of resistance to Orange marchers, two things will happen. The PSNI’s stock will hit rock bottom with nationalists and republicans and will stay there. Second thing that’ll happen is Sinn Féin will head into next May’s elections with a huge positive in their arms. “We’re the people who stood up against Orange Order arrogance against the Garvaghy Road people”. Every vote on Garvaghy Road and further afield will be theirs.
It’s a sort of a win-win situation. Amazing how quickly things can turn around, isn’t it? From legitimate march expressing age-old culture to sick as a parrot and stymied as a stunned bull.
It would certainly be a great boost to SF’s election result, nothing irritates us more than the orange institution and the crown forces acting the maggot. Mind you the DUP would also benefit, unionists need the raw meat provided by the daily diet of lock her up coming from the sort of jokers we saw on the Nolan Show last night. A win win situation all round.
Very good jude
All very depressing if the Drumcree debacle means more votes for the more extreme parties – the DUP and Sinn Féin.
When the Belfast Agreement was signed 28 years ago, the more moderate parties, the UUP and the SDLP had a combined vote share of 56.8%. Now their vote share is 23.3%.
The Good Friday Agreement may have brought peace, but it has greatly exacerbated the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland politics. In part, due to the “d’Hondt method” in the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
Listening to Unionsts losing their collective cool over O’Neill et al blocking roads and attending illegal protests is hypocrisy personified. Blocking roads and protesting (illegally) is something Unionism has plenty of experience of. The Workers Strike, Drumcree, and the flag protests are still fresh in the memory of most – if not the media.
The murders of 21 people is also fresh in the memory of Nationalists – if not the media.
Also, the pathetic attempt to sully the name of Gerry Carroll MLA, live on tv last night was disgraceful and Stephen Nolan should be asked to apologise for insinuating that Mr Carroll is linked to/supports paramilitaries.
Gerry Carroll was treated in a disgraceful manner on Nolan. Beg. to think panels are rigged to ensure dominance of one view point.
The BBC (like UTV) always seem to load their panels with unionists. They will have someone on who could be described as a non unionist but that is not the same as being a Republican. Maybe the editor of a nationalist newspaper, or an academic or a crime reporter. Certainly not a Republican, and they would never argue from a strong Republican viewpoint the way the likes of Ben Lowry argue the loyalist cause. You would never know that Sinn Féin was the largest party in Ireland, north and south. When was the last time the lesser spotted Feeney was on? I won’t even mention the cancelling of our esteemed host.
Mention away by all means. It’s too long to go into here, but I remain convinced my departure directly related to the BBC yielding to unionist pressure…And you are so right about the notable absence of republican representation on BBC panels. It’s so everyday an occurrence, we tend to think it’s normal. It’s not. It’s the B(ritish)BC doing what the B(ritish)BC does…