It is quite extraordinary for a political party leader to last less than three weeks in office, unless the party in question is UKIP, of course. But that is what Edwin Poots of the DUP has managed.
Let us leave aside how hopelessly ill-qualified Poots was for the task of leading any significant political party. Let's instead note the consequences of his having first ousted Arlene Foster as First Minister of Northern Ireland and as DUP leader, and then note his own refusal to replace her himself, before then noting that he and his nominee to that post have now alienated DUP opinion by tacitly accepting that Westminster has out-manoeuvred them by agreeing a Westminster legislative route to delivering an Irish language bill for Northern Ireland, which has long been a Sinn Fein demand.
I support Sinn Fein in its demand for this bill. The suppression of the Irish language has long been a mechanism for the imposition of colonial power. My own name is, after all, an Anglicised and imposed version of the proper Irish, which in older Irish was O'Murchadha or more recently O'Murchu (and I am aware I am using male forms, because I am male). Why should that have been tolerated?
The issue may seem obscure, but it is at the core of the Unionist issue. The DUP wish to deny a right to those of Irish origin in the North - who may now be a majority of its population. They do so to support their view of the right of other countries in the United Kingdom to rule the six counties of Northern Ireland in a partisan fashion.
That last phrase is key. I am not going to discuss the rights and wrongs of the partition of Ireland here. I am going to say that the mood of most now is that partisanship around issues relating to the rule of any place with a profoundly colonial past is deeply divisive. The DUP know that. And they know that they are inciting partisan division as a consequence.
Poots, for all his very obvious failings, compromised. The DUP is having none of it. He is already being consigned to history.
The question is, what next? To the surprise of Tories, Northern Ireland votes on partisan lines. That may be to be regretted, but it has also been true. Until recently, that is. The increasingly unreasonable lines from the DUP, and its total incompetence on Brexit, has made it hard for an increasing number to tolerate. Sinn Fein, with all the stigma of its past still apparent to many, has moved in the opposite direction, cementing itself in political processes. And in between the Alliance Party has made gains.
What would happen if an election has to be called now in Northern Ireland, with Brexit inflaming tensions and the DUP in chaos? It is very hard to predict. I will not do so. But what seems clear is that Unionism is in a cul-de-sac of its own making from which the exit is not clear, whilst nationalists offer solutions in a way that few ever thought possible, and all because the Conservatives abandoned Northern Ireland in a way many could never have imagined.
This is a nightmare scenario when we have a UK government perpetually spinning lies about its own position on Northern Ireland in the context of Brexit. The prospects for stability do not look good. This should be of concern to us all.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
It’s potentially awful isn’t it?
In one way you want something to kick off that will reify the Tories swivel eyed stupidity for us and to really get the U.S. upset.
But on the other hand it will be the innocents and real people who will actually come to harm – not the rich liars who created this situation.
It cannot be reconciled on that basis and hope it isn’t.
Excellent analysis of the current situation here Richard.
Growing up in Northern Ireland made me realise that Democracy was not enough without a moral framework. In Northern Ireland the majority simply exercised their democratic right to discriminate against a minority.
What is saddest to me is that after the miracle of the Good Friday agreement, the men of vision who created it were swept aside by the rabble rousers and bigots. It has only been used as a ceasefire, never as a foundation.
I look now at Northern Ireland as the early warning of how things go wrong. Unionists have found that the Britain to which they gave unthinking loyalty did not care in the least about them. What we see happening is not that they accept the reality, but that they thrash around wildly and destructively. I fear that the same will happen in England, when people discover that they have made the wrong choices, they will not learn, but will just retreat further into unreason and hate.
This is well above my pay grade, but it a great disappointment that the spirit of rapprochement between David Trimble’s UUP and John Hume’s SLDP in the first Northern Ireland Assembly collapsed in 2002, and when the assembly resumed in 2007 the political positions had polarised around the DUP and SF instead. And now there are people – some not even born in 1998 – who openly say they may resort to violence.
A generation after a border poll passes, people may wonder why it was so contentious.
But I will note the irony of a DUP peer finding it easier to obtain an Irish passport than a UK one. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/14/irish-born-dup-peer-willie-hay-criticises-rules-for-obtaining-british-passport
It really is quite amazing that the UK is a supposedly united country of four nations and yet I have met many people in England who didn’t know “what part of Ireland belongs to us”… jaw-dropping ignorance and clunky framing.
It’s hardly a surprise then that they care so little about anything going on there.
People tend to poke fun at Americans for being inward-looking and myopic, but at least all of them could rattle off the names of all the states which comprise their nation.
At one school I went to there was an individual whose technique was to create as much chaos as possible, because this destroyed any potential alliances and improved potential for personal power. As an adult, one is aware of the power of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) in any organisation in achieving a specific goal.
The school acquaintance is I am glad to say in prison in South America, for a staggering list of offences.
I agree with every word you say. One way out is to have a referendum on whether to have a referendum on the 6 counties rejoining Eire. Presumably Eire will have one too to check the majority there are happy to accept their brethren should they choose to join them. It would be nice if everyone could be grown up about it and accept the results whatever it is. Since the Irish are more experienced in referenda I suggest we leave it to them to organise it.
There is no such place as Eire by the way – it is Ireland
You would know better than me, but I thought the state was called “Éire” in Irish, as shown on the stamps and coins? Or the state could be described as “the Republic of Ireland”, to distinguish the island of Ireland from the nation state of Ireland. (E.g. the six counties are on the island of Ireland, but not part of the Republic of Ireland. Not yet anyway.)
As I understand it, the terms of the Good Friday Agreement would require border polls in favour both in the north and the south, the former implemented in the UK through the Northern Ireland Act 1998, and the latter by amending the Constitution of Ireland to say “a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island”.
It’s true that in Irish the state is Eire
But when writing in English it is Ireland
Maybe I am being a pedant….
It’s literally printed on the passport of the country. You are an Eire passport holder from what you have said.
But as I did, that is in Irish
Éire / Ireland are the respective state names in Irish and English. But Ireland is actually Éireann in Irish. Éire is a name of a person from mythology and Éireann is the land of that person, to be quite pedantic.
The Republic of Ireland doesn’t exist, that is a British invention.
Ireland’s name purposely avoids the idea of division as the view at the time of its creation was that Ireland comprised of the whole island of Ireland, and nothing less.
British invention or not, I think you’ll find that section 2 of the (Irish) Republic of Ireland Act 1948 says: “It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland.”
The passport says plainly “Éire” and then “Ireland” on the front so I’m not sure what the problem is.
My point was that if writing in English it is Ireland
I admitted it was pedantic and I now regret raising it
Not to belabour the point too much longer – I understand the name of the state has been a matter of contention for some time, to the extent there is a very long Wikipedia article on the topic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Irish_state – but I suppose using Eire (without the accent) in English is a bit like archly writing Italia or Espana or Rossiya or Bharat or Nihon rather than Italy or Spain or Russia or India or Japan. The difference, I think, is that Ireland can refer to either the state or the island, so it can sometimes be useful to make the distinction.
The Irish state itself uses the terms Éire and Republic of Ireland.
As PSR says below, the core of it is being respectful. Apologies for any unintended offence.
BÃodh deireadh seachtaine deas agat!
🙂
Pedandry aside, I don’t think the impact of a dissenting unionist minority in a unified Ireland’s political make up has ever been considered in the south. Ireland’s politics is badly fractured at the moment without adding another isolated but numerically significant group to it. They would struggle to find common ground with anyone else. It could end up being a crippled political entity just like Italy.
There was an interesting speech by Leo Varadka outlining a possible path towards a united Ireland
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/16/uk-criticises-leo-varadkar-over-united-ireland-comments
He doesn’t have a finger on the pulse for that issue, he tried nearly the exact same line a year and a half ago and he got a really bad reaction across the board, even from within his own party. Just before an election too. It was one of the many reasons he is Deputy Prime Minister now and not Prime Minister anymore.
https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/taoiseach-believes-united-ireland-is-further-away-after-controversy-over-ric-commemoration-38845084.html
Ah come on, Deputy FM John Swinney said he hoped for an Independent nation in his lifetime he would only cop flack from us hard core yessers for not wanting it tomorrow. It would elicit no comment from WM because that is what they expect an SNP minister to say.
For an Irish politician to regret the partition of Ireland and want that mistake rectified democratically should not be a political problem. If the DUP cannot face up to Realpolitiks that is their lookout. If they aren’t careful history will roll right over them.
On ‘Eire v. Ireland’
Andrew – I too have come a cropper here calling Ireland ‘Eire’.
My two brothers live over there (getting on for nearly 30 years) and I have two nieces and nephew who have a wonderful Southern Irish accents and are familiar with ‘The Craic’. I’m so proud and pleased that they seem to have a cultural base that is not English. It’s so refreshing and new to have them around when they come over. I’d be just as happy if the spoke with a Scottish or Welsh accents. One of the nieces is learning Irish Celt BTW.
I still put ‘Eire’ on my letters and presents to my Irish relations because I always felt that it was respectful of their difference their culture and their State. Respect builds bridges. And gets the mail through.
Well, that’s what I thought – rightly or wrongly. So you’re not the only one.
The atmosphere in NI is febrile right now, the recent DUP circus is a manifestation of this and it’s potential demise as the dominant voice of Unionism is welcome.
Important to remember the DUP are not representative of all Unionists, although viewing through a Westminster lens you could be forgiven for thinking that. The dubious gifts of FPTP ensure their overrepresentation and so their voices are heard in the national media above all other NI ones, particularly other unionists.
Recent study shows 75% of those in NI who don’t bother to vote class themselves as (small-u) unionist and they are currently politically homeless. They are also indistinguishable in social attitudes to the vast bulk of the population across both islands but are enormously misrepresented.
One to watch is the new leader of the UUP, Doug Beattie, who sees clearly the future of Unionism is broad, progressive and tolerant, and is reshaping that party with a new, young progressive leadership team. Thats the way to engage that homeless bulk and ‘persuadable’ non-unionists.
Long way to travel on that road, but the prospect of a UUP-SDLP led Executive, like the Trimble-Mallon days is back on the horizon, and that would serve all the people of NI much better than the current SF-DUP stitch up.
You might be right but when major issues like reunification are on the table it is natural for things to polarise around the extremes and for those to do the deal. Remember McGuinness shaking Dr No’s hand? Remember South Africa.
I have to confess I am not sure of your logic
Interesting article in yesterday’s Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/19/brexit-purity-breaking-up-union-ask-people-of-belfast
This comment by columnist Nick Cohen is especially pertinent; “Now, sovereignty has become for Tories what Marxist-Leninism was for communists: a perfect theoretical idea that cannot be questioned, whatever the suffering or cost.”
Ai greed with Nock Cohen on that
He is a bit like Simon Jenkins, sometimes spot on and other times massively wide of the mark