Big Ulsterman

Nothing matters, Mary, when you're free

2009-10-03T23:38:00.004+01:00

The words of a touching Irish folk song come to mind this evening as the Republic of Ireland has voted, by a majority of 2:1, to cede sovereignty issues to people they can't elect.

Only 59% of the Irish electorate even bothered to turn out to the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

Having, as oft portrayed, shaken off the 'English jackboot' with arms, at great cost not least to my people, they've now embraced the German jackboot with arms wider than Dublin Bay.

In many years' time, when I'm dead and gone and this blog has been wiped from disks that don't yet exist, history books will have exposed the true extent of the treachery of Ireland's political élite in dressing up a referendum about the mechanics of power as a referendum on whether or not Ireland wants to be friends.

Truly to blame, however, are the people of Ireland who failed to peek under the pretty clothes, who simply swallowed the smokescreen and who, ultimately, put these dubious patriots in power in the first place.

Now the EU, and political manipulators everywhere, know beyond doubt: in a post-democratic world, surface can win over substance.

The mortal remains of many lovers of Irish freedom - of all backgrounds - will be spinning tonight.

Say NO to Lisbon

2009-10-01T13:05:00.003+01:00

I'm coming out of semi-retirement today because democracy is at risk in the other part of the Irish nation, the Republic of Ireland, a country that has long prided itself on independence.

The Lisbon Treaty is the subject of my fellow Irishmen's referendum tomorrow. Not "do we like Europe?", not "do we want to be nice to the Germans?", not "should we be grateful for the past funding?"

The Lisbon Treaty is a 95%-unchanged version of the draft EU constitution resoundingly kicked out by the French and the Dutch because it cedes key sovereignty issues to the unelected grey suits of Brussels. So the euro-élite repackaged it as something they could pass themselves, unhindered: the Lisbon Treaty, now sycophantically ratified by most parliaments of the big nations who don't have to ask their people. Why, out of good manners, have France and the Netherlands not been asked to vote on the Lisbon Treaty? Because it's being railroaded.

The plush corridors of Brussels are a guaranteed final resting place for failed national politicians. They want them. They need them. Their countries, however DO NOT. It's been said elsewhere that Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who drafted the constitution, warned that no citizens should be asked to vote on it. I bet he did.

Three countries have voted on the constitution/Lisbon Treaty, and all three have rejected it.

The Republic of Ireland is the only EU country whose constitution demands that national soverign power may not be ceded without a referendum. Thank God for Bunreacht na hÉireann. It's the only document in the entire EU able to stop the grey men in their treacherous tracks.

But now, with Ireland in dire economic straits, the euro-élite have piled the pressure on the Irish political classes. "Aw, go on, ask them again. And make sure you get a 'yes'."

I'm a committed supporter of free trade and political cooperation by independent governments in Europe. If you're voting in the Republic's referendum tomorrow, please vote NO to the Lisbon Treaty. That way, you'll be voting 'yes' to Europe by retaining democratic control and saving it from the euro-élite. You're the only ones that can.

Many died for your independence. Don't piss it away.

Ali G in da (cold) house (for Catholics)?

2009-04-20T12:04:00.000+01:00

I was reminded of this great piece of broadcasting in a call with a friend today.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCNG5UeKMZw

You gotta love it.

Policing, Justice & the "Army Council"

2008-09-25T09:49:00.000+01:00

While I've been away over the summer the NI Executive has ground to a halt over the transfer of policing and justice powers from Westminster to Stormont.

I'm sure the two facts aren't linked.

This is ridiculous. Full responsibility for policing and justice should've been transferred ages ago. The result of not doing it is obvious: political stalemate and hundreds of highly-paid people sitting round doing diddly-squat.

Ex-taoiseach Bertie Ahern has spoken up today, expressing understanding for the unionist need for "certainty" that the IRA "Army Council" would remain inactive.

The truth is that the IRA is, and always was, an illegal organisation under every sovereign jurisdiction in Ireland. It's an outlawed bunch of terrorist killers running a private army in competition to the Irish Defence Forces, the real Óglaich na hÉireann, who are accountable to the national parliament under the Irish constitution.

How about Bertie calling for swift, full and final disbandment of the entire IRA organisation - "army council" and all?

Paisley bows out

2008-06-04T10:16:00.000+01:00

It's surely no coincidence that Ian Paisley's final act as First Minister is to open the new Belfast ferry terminal - enhancing the physical link between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

I wish him well. He read the political runes right two years back and performed a quiet, dignified adaptation of his Unionist stance which made the tail-end of his long career the most productive for everyone in Ulster.

Ironically, his guest of honour today is his separatist Scots counterpart, Alex Salmond, who, as he looks across the 20-mile stretch to the Galloway coast, probably wishes the Romans had had the presence of mind to build a supersized Hadrian's Trench.

Cobblers to squabblers

2008-06-03T15:51:00.000+01:00

I've long held the view, reluctantly, that Northern Irish politicians crave outside attention. Not one key political moment in the last 5 years has been handled without intervention of the British and Éire governments.

Small-time local boys-made-good can really only feel somebody if they can control the agendas of bigger players, and as children use tantrums to gain concessions from parental government, so at every political turn our elected reps seem pethologically unable to solve their own probelms - often of their own making - without going crying to whichever political mama they aspire to.

Right now, it's about whether Peter Robinson will be nominated as First Minister. Sinn Féin - ever on the grab, this time for immediate devolution of justice powers - is posturing to de-rail the FM/DFM appointments by a process of hari-kiri involving a refusal to nominate their own man, Martin McGuinness, as DFM.

Now Gordon Brown finds himself, for the first time, in the role of master liaison officer, trying to persuade Gerry Adams not to poop on Peter's party. If he fails, there'll be tears all round.

Like Miss Jean Brodie, let's hope he's in his prime (minister).

As welcome as the flowers in May

2008-05-06T18:46:00.000+01:00

Great BBC headline today: Queen visit 'may depend on IRA'. Ian Paisley has mooted that she mightn't visit the Republic of Ireland until the IRA 'Army Council' disbands.

Let's be clear: there is no morally defensible reason for the IRA or its 'Army Council' to exist in 2008. It is an illegal organisation in both the UK and the Republic of Ireland and, along with all loyalist and republican terrorists, should hang its head in shame for what it's inflicted on the people of Ireland.

Just as no government should ever bow to terrorists, neither should the Northern Irish head of state make her widely expected first state visit to the Republic of Ireland dependent on what the minds of gangsters deem appropriate. This is democracy; let the people express their views through their legitimately elected representatives, and let the governments - and the ladies themselves - decide how and when.

There is, between the UK and Ireland, the greatest potential for friendship in Europe - one which should be sealed soon at the highest level. For a British head of state to be received by her equal in peace, in style, in friendship and in the great city of Dublin will be a joy to behold.

The days of the IRA are over; the future belongs to the open-minded.

Republican double standards

2008-05-01T11:18:00.000+01:00

So the IMC is expected to say the IRA wasn't behind Paul Quinn's murder last year. Quelle surprise. Although the murder wasn't ordered down the IRA chain of command, apparently the IMC believes (former) IRA members carried out the murder - which, let's not forget, was meticulously planned and surgically executed by up to 20 men in forensic suits.

Within hours, while the rest of us were reeling in horror, Sinn Féin was able to state confidently that the IRA was innocent. The speed of that announcement always smelt funny.

The Republican double standards are this: murders committed by IRA men not acting under IRA instruction inflict no disrepute on the IRA, whereas they brand the British army auxiliary force UDR a terrorist group because a handful of rogue squaddies were implicated and charged with terrorist offences as heinous as the Quinn butchering.

Such double standards are see-through political posturing, nothing more.

I spill all

2008-04-29T22:48:00.002+01:00

Following John Prescott's shock admission last week that he use to suffer from bulimia (I still can't believe it), it seems like every celeb in Christendom is trying to follow suit. Only today we have TV presenter John Stapleton saying he was also once a serial hurler.

Not one to be left out, I freely admit that I chucked my guts up spectacularly once after 5 pints too many in 1984. Can I be famous? Please?

Expect the unexpected

2008-04-22T00:02:00.000+01:00

I've been stunned into silence by two news items that have frankly been making me question the way we're programmed.

It's weird: when forming a view on what's possible/likely/probable/improbable in the future we all fall back on years of what's happened in the past. And yet life has a growing habit of throwing up surprises.

An intentional pun which brings me to Item 1. If you'd asked me last month what was more likely ...

A: a flying saucer hovering over Ballinamallard while Sinn Féin paraded down Main Street to commemorate the 1981 hunger strikes, or

B: Ian Paisley caught french-kissing Mary Lou MacDonald in a layby near Drogheda, or

C: John Prescott suffering from bulimia

... I'd have blown a fuse deciding between the first two.

I mean, that's so way off the scale of unexpected it's unreal. But it pales into insignificance compared to Item 2 which is Bertie Ahern announcing that the members of his cabinet all burst into tears when he told them he was resigning.

Sorry. I can picture Ian and Mary Lou shielding their eyes from a garda's flashlight, but Biffo Brian blubbering bye-bye Bertie is just too awful to imagine.

Seriously, what does he take us for? A tear or two quietly shed by his more shockable colleagues may be expected, but Éire's entire collection of government ministers inconsolable with grief because the teflon taoiseach has finally realised he can't explain away all that dodgy donation income is stretching imagination too far.

But then we said the IRA wouldn't disarm and that Paisley would never stop saying never. Be surprised. Be very surprised.

Faith alone is useless

2008-04-03T15:07:00.000+01:00

Tony Blair's in the headlines again, this time urging people to put faith in a central position in solving the world's problems. He's half right. Good to see him urging people to look to matters spiritual, because our rudderless world is crying out for a moral datum, but the truth is: faith cannot feed Somalis, faith cannot disempower Belfast drug barons, faith cannot stop social decay.

Only God can.

Tony Blair speaks of the role his faith played in his premiership and says he didn't like to talk about it because, "frankly, people do think you're a nutter". Lots of room for cheap asides there, but he's right of course: talk about God and people look for a straightjacket or, at best, a hidden agenda.

And in this statement too, Blair doesn't mention God once. He talks about the virtues of faith. But faith, without highlighting the object of faith, is dull theory. When thrilling audiences of potential travellers, which airline explains the laws of aerodynamics? No one buys theory, but people everywhere hunger for God's loving care.

Wouldn't it be great for a Christian leader of 'world' proportions to stand up and tell us how brilliant, how utterly fantastic, God is; how, even though we're endemically nowhere near up to the job of pleasing him for anything more than fleeting instants, he reached into our world with the answer to the human dilemma which millennia's worth of our best philosophers have failed to find an answer to: himself in human form.

Imagine a world, or even a bit of it, transformed by the liberating realisation that, even though we're the scum of the earth, God has chosen to love us.

Makes lectures on faith sound a bit limp, eh?

Bertie goes, but who comes?

2008-04-02T19:44:00.003+01:00

So an taoiseach has jumped on his sword as the Mahongate noose tightened.

The bit I loved was not the way he glorified all his political achievements, nor was it the way all the Fianna Fáil leaders-in-waiting crowded in round him to ward off any last-minute change of heart - the bit I loved was the way Brian Cowen shouldered Dermot Ahern out of the way for a front row position as the party lined up for the cameras. Tongue out, shimmy to the right and then whoomph, dead meat. Ah well, he is the tánaiste after all.

Democracy at its finest?

The GFA's been signed ...

2008-03-28T09:26:00.010Z

... get out of jail free.

Oh joy. There's to be a new Belfast edition of the famous board game Monopoly.

Like other special editions in recent years, it'll have local place names, but this time interestingly they're going to include special Northern Irish banknotes (funny, I wondered where they all went, obviously they were stolen by the Irish Recycling Authority).

Suits from Monopoly HQ will be canvassing public opinion in the city on what placenames to include. Obvious candidates there, but what about the Chance cards? I have a few ideas.

Community Chest: You get stuck in a revolving door at Stormont. Go back to Castlereagh.

Chance: You get a job with the Shoukri brothers. Collect 200 pounds from each player.

Any offers?

Poacher turned gamekeeper

2008-03-27T23:15:00.002Z

In 40+ years I've never discovered how "brouhaha" is pronounced, but whatever way there's spade-loads of it in Fermanagh this week with the news that Seán Lynch is to join the District Policing Partnership.

Sinn Féin support policing and are joining the DPPs, which is good, and Lynch is the Chairman of Sinn Féin in Fermanagh, so no surprise that he's joining. Trouble is: he served 12 years in jail for terrorist offences and was the IRA's so-called Officer Commanding while he was there. And now he'll be policing the police.

Tom Elliott, our MLA and local councillor, is asking pointedly whether Lynch is still in the IRA. Good question. Aren't they still an illegal organisation? Amazingly, Bert Johnston of the DUP is taking an easier view of it, welcoming SF's involvement. I never thought I'd see the day those roles were reversed, but we've come a long way.

There's a harsh irony in this, difficult to swallow and obvious to any observer, but my take is simple. It's right to grit our teeth and accept it, encourage it even. I'd rather have Lynch ensuring our policemen did their jobs than ensuring they met early deaths.

This is democracy, folks. Lynch is elected to office, and whatever you think of his past you have to respect the votes of those who put him there. He's accountable to them, so "game on", I say.

I would really welcome it if Seán Lynch were to come out and say he'd left the IRA for good. Or if the IRA disbanded, as I think they should. And they should. But we have to believe people can change and encourage them to do so, not beat them with nasty words when they try to do something honorable.

Ten years on

2008-03-20T15:57:00.001Z

It's 10 years since the Belfast Agreement was signed. Remember those stiff speeches as each leader tried to apply his own spin? That day, apparently, the union was never safer, while the Brits were a step further towards going. Funny thing, compromise, but welcome all the same.

Reflecting on those days, Seamus Mallon offers an interesting perspective on the future too, in a piece by the BBC's Martina Purdy, daring to utter some thoughts I touched on a few posts ago. Martina writes, he suggested there may be federal or confederal arrangements in future. (Mallon verbatim: "I believe Britain will go, they will leave. I don't think that will result in a 32 county political arrangement."

Indeed, looking back twenty years from now, it may well be black-and-white politics which are confounded. Under 20th century Ulster logic, a British Northern Ireland or usurption into a 32-county republic were the only options. Still are for most people. And in a world of antithesis, such as prevailed until - arguably - the 1998 Belfast Agreement, such black-and-white views were logical and defensible. But all of Ireland has changed since then, and so have the UK and Europe too.

A third way? Gotta be. An independent Norn Iron or joint protectorate would be unworkable, but maybe a semi-detached Northern Ireland leading to a federal borderless Ireland would be a model worth exploring, but only only political hemp-smokers would suggest we're ready for that now.

Happy Easter to all.

True Grit

2008-03-17T11:19:00.002Z

Strong-muscled, healthy and with a lifetime of service before them, young men make the best slaves.

Snatched by Irish raiders to his home town on the Cumbrian coast, the preacher's boy learnt the strange Ulster dialect of his Celtic mother-tongue whilst looking after animals in the hills of what we call County Antrim. After a few years he escaped and did what we'd all do. He went home.

Later, with renewed Christian faith and a vision that the Irish needed to hear the great news about God, Jesus, forgiveness and new life, Patrick again set his eyes westward and cast off into the unsure.

To us, the details of Patrick's life are a mix of debated record and myth. But the result of his life is indisputed: the birth of faith in Jesus in the hearts of our forebears, a legacy for countless generations whose importance transcends ethnicity, politics and our ideas on theology.

As we raise our glasses of Guinness today to a chorus of "cheers" or "sláinte", let us pause and reflect - as the cool pride of Ireland guilds our throats - how much courage must it have taken to leave, this time willingly, and return across the Irish Sea.

Given the dangers, Patrick must have been a man transformed, on fire with conviction! May that passion for Christ grip us all.

On Paisley and the Union

2008-03-06T15:46:00.006Z

It'll be the end of an era when Ian Paisley retires in May as First Minister, but more importantly as leader of the DUP - the party he founded when traditional Unionists were getting too cosy with Catholics.

Although Protestant, most of my family and friends viewed Paisley as a bigot and an embarrassment, but he was a useful embarrassment when the IRA was shooting Fermanagh farmers like dogs in their tractor cabs. Like him or loathe him, though, you have to admire a man who held so much public goodwill for so long.

In Ireland, where church leaders are often political as well as pastoral, Paisley pointed the way to Heaven and provided an almost physical guarantee of constitutional rule. He was, in short, the Planters' Pope.

Yet he was not unassailable. His church's right wing rejected him as leader when he shared power with Sinn Féin, and many press reports claim his party rejected him for nepotistic employment practices and for failing to criticise his son's dubious property dealings. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

The fact that Paisley lasted so long at the top of British-Irish politics may, however, be less down to his undoubted political ability and more a function of the utter hopelessness of the Unionist prospect. He was a strong, loud, uncompromising voice during an era when the tide finally turned and Irish Unionism found itself, ultimately, isolated by Downing Street. He did what he prevented Trimble doing ten years before because he had one big advantage over all previous Unionist leaders - he didn't have Ian Paisley standing in the wings shouting "sell-out!".

To that extent Paisley was personally responsible for slowing down the normalisation of Ulster society. Seamus Mallon was right when he labelled the GFA "Sunningdale for slow learners". I go further. If Terence O'Neill had shared power with Gerry Fitt in the 60's we'd have been spared 30 years of terrorist genocide, the DUP would be the TUV, England wouldn't have tired of us and the Union would be no less (or more) secure than it is with Scotland. The phrase "armalite and ballot box" would never have been coined, people would wonder who Bobby Sands was, the Miami Showband would still be playing, Sinn Féin would be a benevolent association for ageing anti-partitionists and, much more importantly, social division in Northern Ireland would by now have experienced the first forty years of healing instead of merely the birth pangs of an uncertain future.

However, we are where we are and must deal with present realities. Paisley's late-career realpolitik was unavoidable and, in the end, the right thing to do. It was right to recognise Sinn Féin's electoral mandate, and it was right, for Unionists, to get the best possible deal while still able to negotiate.

You see, the writing's been on the wall for Unionism for forty years, indeed arguably for 100 years. The following statement may surprise those aggravated by my rejection of Irish terrorism, but partition is neither natural nor sustainable in the long term. Even die-hard Unionists know this to be true and waste no effort on optimistic thoughts of the future. They know there's nothing to gain, only things to give up. Indeed "siege unionism" is now the norm, especially in the West, where every dagger-blow hurts and the golden age is a feature of fading memories, not future dreams. Young Unionists, especially, find this atmosphere so depressing whereas, in the mind of Shinners, the golden age is still to come, bringing a dynamism Unionists find so perplexing and so threatening.

In 50 years' time, Paisley's retirement will be seen as the end of popular Unionism - not because of weak successors but because the job of Unionism was largely completed. Unionism may have served the Irish Protestant during the dark days of the birth and establishment of the Irish Republic, but now that it has matured as a democratic state largely free of the influence of Roman Catholicism and the Gaelic ascendancy we may well see that Ulster Protestants find themselves increasingly attracted to the idea of a borderless Ireland, albeit - I stress - under the right political and social circumstances and in an atmosphere of growing friendship between Ireland and the UK.

That's a transition I've made in my own political outlook, and it's one worth exploring. Our grandchildren may thank us for it.

Bye, young Ian

2008-02-26T14:15:00.000Z

As Ian Paisley Junior takes his hat and bows out of ministerial office my advice to him is: go and do something else.

He should live his own life and go off and do something completely different. As long as he remains in politics he'll never be his own man, he'll always be in his dad's shadow. That may have been helpful in securing an electoral mandate - and indeed ministerial office - but he'll never be able to be his own man politically. Even after the old man passes into the hereafter, I predict his political shadow will loom large over Irish politics for a century.

No, Ian Jr should plough his own furrow. Maybe a spot of property speculation might be in order (ooh, did I really say that?).

Tit for tat

2008-02-25T08:23:00.011Z

At first sight, the DUP's booking of a Stormont function room to celebrate the role of the SAS in defending the peace in NI seems reasonably OK. They went undercover to counter the threat from various undercover terrorist groups and were undoubtedly very effective in thwarting terrorist acts and unearthing the machinations of dark figures.

At first sight only, though. The news comes a few days after Sinn Féin was planning a similar event at the same venue to celebrate the life of the IRA bomber Mairéad Farrell.

I agree with Jeffrey Donaldson when he says the SF event should not go ahead. I mean, using government premises to laud terrorist acts is perverse in the extreme. Sinn Féin's Jennifer McCann says "Stormont is a shared space". Exactly! In shared spaces people are expected to behave non-offensively. This Republican urge to rub their terrorists in the faces of those who have also come a long way down the political road is distasteful and not worthy of Ireland.

Sinn Féin and the IRA say they are totally committed to the democratic path and have turned their backs on terrorism. That indicates more than just saying they're not going to do it any more. It implies a rejection of past activities now deemed inappropriate, indeed wrongful. And let's not hear any weasely words trying to wriggle through semantics here. There's a clear logical tie-in, and any attempt to re-cast it will eat away at SF's credibility among the electorate.

To say both "we're committed to constitutional peace" and "weren't them the days" would be hypocrisy.

The DUP, though, are also behaving wrongly. To flaunt a celebration of the SAS in the faces of Sinn Féin at Stormont is equally unbefitting of the peace process because it opens up wounds, re-creating division where a healing process appeared to be setting in. There's no point retaliating, using the SAS to counter the SF initiative. That initiative should be countered with words carefully chosen to inflict political damage instead of using the SAS, who killed Mairéad Farrell, in an effort to humiliate.

No war

2008-02-18T22:01:00.000Z

Thankfully the Assembly has voted clearly for what all democrats know to be true: that the racist terrorism which plagued our country for 30 years was not war. The motion to reject reclassification was passed by a decisive 46 votes to 20. I rarely agree with the DUP, but Mervyn Storey put it so well when he said the IRA "fought a seedy, grubby, sectarian terrorist campaign - nothing more and nothing less".

Many of the 20 votes against the motion (and perhaps some of the "yes" votes too) were cast by former terrorists. Fair enough, I'm just glad they're engaged in playing out democracy for real in northern Ireland. The people who perpetrated the terror are not beyond forgiveness, and forgiving them will demand from the Protestant community equal courage and purpose as demonstrated by Republicans in recent years.

We must find it in our hearts to do so, and I hope patience will prevail as we work through what is probably our Biggest challenge.

One rule for Ahmed, another for the Archdruid

2008-02-08T22:10:00.000Z

What a sad day for Rowan Williams. The Welsh head of the Church of England and fully sworn-up member of the pagan Gorsedd of Bards has contended that Islamic "Sharia" law should supersede national law in the UK.

And - incredibly - he is in a state of shock at the outrage in his church and right across the UK!

How can the leader of a Christian church be the one to suggest the British throw away centuries of laws born of its Christian heritage and quite fitting and correct for Western Europeans? Him of all people!

Well, whether you agree with him or not, you have to agree he is a fool. He was a fool to think it, he was a fool to say it and he was a fool to expect anything other than the national uproar he has rightly reaped.

As my Welsh teacher used to say, "Mae eisiau berwi dy ben, Rhywyn!" (You need your head boiled). And the CofE needs a Christian leader. You wouldn't catch Éire's RC hierarchy calling for Sharia! They have more sense.

Bugging me

2008-02-07T09:13:00.000Z

Is it just me, or does Clostridium difficile sound more like a particularly heated Vatican Council?

Don't miss it

2008-02-06T22:52:00.000Z

Every now and then Hollywood reaches into its dodgy bag of feelgood froth and pulls out a film you know you'll still love in 2020. I'm talking about The Bucket List.

I went because it double-bills two of the best actors of our age, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. There are no car chases, no aliens, no licentious sex. It's all about how they find enjoyment and, eventually, fulfilment facing life's final curtain. And yes, there are laughs too. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, they set off on the trip of a lifetime to work their way through a list of things they want to do before they - you've guessed it - kick the bucket.

The characters are tailor-made. Nicholson is an endearing billionaire loner with four divorces and an attitude problem. Freeman plays a decent, thoughtful working man with a lovely wife who fought hard to bring up a fine family but feels life could have offered more.

Like all good films it'll make you laugh and it'll make you cry. Despite the death sentence, which neither escapes, humour strikes unannounced. Expect to spit at least one mouthful of popcorn into the next row (don't worry, you'll get some back from the guy behind). And only the hardest soul won't gulp on a tear when Nicholson crosses off what he wanted to do to the most beautiful girl in the world.

This film will leave you with a philosophical sense of wonder at God's world and our place in it. You'll see sadness and beauty go hand in hand, and you'll be uplifted by how adaptable - and how kindly - ordinary people can be in death's dark vale.

It's just a story, but if you need your faith in humanity restoring, or if you just want to soar the skies for a few hours, The Bucket List will deliver.

Wee patriots?

2008-02-01T10:46:00.000Z

The British government wants patriotism taught as a subject at school! Can you believe it?

Yet it's understandable since Britsh patriotism isn't something that comes naturally to anyone across the water. Most Scots, English and Welsh would never introduce themselves to holiday acquaintances as "British", and yet they're passionate patriots of their respective nations.

The only people whose chests swell at the thought of Britishness are Irish Unionists, the last bastion of the British empire, for whom the concept of Irishness has - sadly but wrongly - been usurped by Republicanism. To them, Irishness is a dirty word associated with terrorists, Catholic supremacy and state-tolerated lawlessness. So, unlike John Bull, Jock and Taff, Britishness is all they've left to cling to.

That's sad and needs to be changed. Dublin-born Edward Carson - to many the father of Irish Unionism - would have been proud to call himself Irish. As were Oscar Wilde, W B Yeats, Jonathan Swift, Henry Francis Lyte and Douglas Hyde, to name just some. We need to rediscover our Irishness because it's a heritage to treasure, not ignore. More of that later some time.

Right now, though, the idea that children should be given Patriotism lessons in schools is, at best, ridiculous and, at worst, a totalitarian hark-back to 1930's Germany. If a country has to resort to brainwashing children in order to command love and respect, it has no place in the third millennium.

This initiative proves Britain is an artificial political entity with a place in some people's heads, but not their hearts.

Dog gone

2008-01-23T15:27:00.000Z

You gotta love it! A bloke called Dani Graves leads his girlfriend around on a doggy lead, but that's not the funny bit. The joke is: bus operator Arriva says they can't use the bus 'cos it'd be dangerous. Dangerous!

Apparently, if she wants to ride on their buses, Tasha Maltby (oh, come on, let's call her Bonzo) will have to take the lead off. A corporate spokesperson said (through his nether regions, I think) ...

"Our primary concern is passenger safety and while the couple are very welcome to travel on our buses, we are asking that Miss Maltby remove her dog lead before boarding the bus"

Surely anything that stops her plunging through windows in the event of a crash is a safety enhancement! Anyway, I guess this is great news for Pit Bulls everywhere. But no: Arriva's divine edict only applies to humans on leashes.

So Arriva is discriminating in favour of dogs and against humans. In the event of a sudden application of Arriva brakes, dogs get to stay in the bus whereas women get a free journey through reinforced glass and into rush-hour traffic.

Talk about political correctness and corporate PR gone crazy.

In truth, of course, Arriva is using weasel words to discriminate against this couple because it judges their chosen sub-culture to be undesirable. Cowering behind the mantle of political correctness, it is setting itself up as judge and jury over them.

I agree they look out-of-the-ordinary. I agree the leash may be construed by some as demeaning. But it's no more dangerous than holding hands. So thank you, Dani and Tasha, for giving us a laugh and showing these corporate dipsticks up for a bunch of bigoted busdrivers.

Lost in the crap

2008-01-23T13:16:00.000Z

Great article by John Cooney in today's Irish Indo on a recent RTÉ radio phone-in where Wallace Thompson, chief aide to Nigel Dodds - but demeaning Ulster Prods purely in a personal capacity - called the Pope the anti-Christ.

<shaking head> Another blow for Jesus, eh? </shaking head>

I suggest Mr Wallace re-reads the book of Revelation! The Roman church may have bent some aspects of Biblical theology - and invented others - but that doesn't make its members unchristian, or its figurehead the anti-Christ.

Wallace slams the Church of Ireland for selling rosaries in St Patrick's cathedral. There's nothing unbibical about the idea of running beads through your fingers to help you remember what to pray for!

Just when he's getting right up our noses, though, Wallace - by now in full fury - says Catholics are wrong to pray to the Virgin Mary. Er, wait up!. Actually that's quite true by Biblical standards, and quite a few Anglicans - especially in England - should take note too. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that Mary was anything other than a woman who found God's favour. She was not divine, she had no superhuman powers, and the idea - as put about by the Roman Catholic church - that she ascended into heaven like Jesus is not supported anywhere in scripture. She was a sinner loved and blessed by God, but nothing more, and praying to her is as pointless as praying to me will be in 100 years' time.

Being pointless, though, doesn't make something wrong. What makes praying to Mary or other saints wrong is that it takes our focus away from God - the one with the power, and to whom Jesus died to give us direct, unhindered access.

So praying to a dead human is (a) pointless, (b) unglorifying of God and (c) demeaning Jesus' ultimate sacrifice.

Excuse the blunt comparison, but when it comes to your life insurance would you not call the company direct rather than talk to a dead insurance broker with no qualifications other than being pally with the CEO?

Anyway, back to the subject. Whatever theological differences Protestants may have with RC doctrine, this Wally's outburst is just embarrassing because in an era where the Catholic church's vice-like grip on Éire politics has loosened and continues to slide into irrelevance, Protestants across Ireland need to be building bridges and seeking to influence, not repel.

We need to be conduits of God's love, gently pointing out the joys of Reformation theology (much of which mainland European Catholicism has now adopted anyway) rather than being some self-appointed punishment squad. Surely that's the work of the anti-Christ.

A planned trick?

2008-01-21T10:20:00.000Z

Shock horror! Ian Paisley, the guy who had all of western Europe's MEPs cringing when he stood up in Strasbourg and called Pope John Paul II an antichrist, has taken part in an Christian service led by a Roman Catholic priest.

It was a scouting service, and the prayers were led by Fr Paul Symonds. Paisley gave the address.

We shouldn't be surprised. This is just another milestone in the transformation of Ian Paisley from bigoted zealot to inclusive man of God. Five years back he'd never have believed he could have enjoyed working with Martin McGuinness, and I'd say five days ago he'd never have thought he could survive an ecumenical service. He's still breathing.

After the event he said he'd not been told it would happen, and that if he'd been told he'd have refused to take part. I wonder. Paisley - like Trimble before him - is leading his voters from the front, i.e. doing more realpolitik than they would dare wish to be seen asking him to do. It's an interesting set of dynamics, and exciting too. Was it planned? Or, as Norn Iron usage has it, choreographed?

One clue will be in today's reactions of his party's frontmen. There will be at least one dissenting voice - hey, who wants it to be too obvious! - but if the majority feeling is behind Paisley ("and wasn't it a mean trick"), I think we'll have our answer because such non-commitment will allow face to be saved if the party grassroots revolt (unlikely IMHO). On the other hand, if the frontmen play it down we'll know it wasn't orchestrated because that'll be plain old-fashioned embarrassment.

There may be a bit of reverse logic in there, but such is life in NI.

On the other hand, maybe this was just octogenarian Ian wanting to meet a few RCs before he gets to Heaven, 'cos there's sure to be some waiting to greet him - including JP2 who, I don't doubt it for a moment, will be wearing that same puzzled but loving expression I like to call the "Strasbourg Smile".

Murder is murder

2008-01-09T11:45:00.000Z

I'm all for a Truth & Reconciliation Commission here, à la South Africa, but the body that may be a pre-cursor to it - the Robin Eames and Denis Bradley roadshow - has got off to a moral bad start by suggesting the IRA's campaign of murder was war. It was not.

In war, both sides attack non-defensively. The RUC did not do that, despite what Republican propaganda would have us believe. The UDR did not do that. With the inexcusable exception of Bloody Sunday, neither did the British Army. Nor did the civilians who bore the brunt of terrorist evil. Who did ambulance driver Kit Johnston and his wife shoot at in 1987 before dying in the rubble at the Enniskillen war memorial? Who did my 16-year-old schoolfriend Paul Maxwell shoot at before being blown to smithereens piloting Lord Mountbatten's boat out of Mullaghmore harbour in August 1979? No one, ever. Innocents may die in war too, but these attacks were deliberately undertaken against innocents, and such attacks were the backbone of spineless Irish terrorism.

I strongly support the inclusion of Sinn Féin in government because of its clear electoral mandate. Some may say that terrorism got them there, but if Unionists hadn't disenfranchised Roman Catholics consistently in the 50 years of shame following partition, the IRA wouldn't have had a bed of discontent to feed off. Democracy is the key to a long-term balanced society, and we've finally got there.

The "Troubles", however, were a sustained campaign of utter terror, the like of which is hard for most to imagine now. The English were rightly outraged at the London tube bombings. Imagine that scene every fortnight, interspersed with shoot-and-run murders of farmers' eldest sons or part-time policemen gunned down at the breakfast table in front of their children. That was not war. It was a concerted, professionally executed campaign of racist murder by my fellow-countrymen against their fellow-countrymen.

Re-defining the past may fit some weak people's concept of reconciliation, but lasting respect cannot be built on a lie. We must confront the past together for what it was. It cannot be undone, it cannot be changed,it cannot be forgotten; but it can be acknowledged, regretted and left in peace while we move on to brighter days together.

Looking ahead

2007-12-22T11:22:00.001Z

A very Merry Christmas to all my readers, and I hope 2008 is good to you.

I'll be back in January, and I'd like to start the year with something a bit different by moving away from 100% reactionary content, i.e. "Look what happened today. Is't it great/crap ...", etc.

I'd like to give you my views on subjects you want to hear about - bigger issues which transcend the daily newsflow. If you've ever thought I've been vague on where I stand on an issue, now's your chance to give me a subject, and I'll post my thoughts on it. The only limitation is that it should bear relevance to political or cultural life on the Emerald Isle. Over to you!

I'll collate the comments from this post in January and get my thinking cap on. Leaves time for a Guinness or two over the festive season. Have a good one!

Treason

2007-12-13T09:39:00.000Z

What's the difference between William Joyce, alias Lord Haw-Haw, and Gordon Brown, British prime minister? Today Brown will do it whereas Joyce only talked about it.

Before the sun sets today, the EU heads of government will have signed away much of their nations' sovereignty in the so-called Treaty of Lisbon, a document retaining over 90% of the text of the failed EU Constitution so roundly rejected by France and the Netherlands, the only two nations asked.

When we joined the European Economic Community we voted for free movement of goods, capital and people between member states, not for political union. And as successive governments have been pissing ever-increasing volumes of national sovereignty up the grey concrete walls of Brussels the British people weren't consulted once.

Thank God for Éire. Its constitution demands that all matters of national sovereignty be put before the people, and so it will (I think) be the only EU state to hold a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon. And if Éire rejects it, the treaty is null and void.

In fact, Bunreacht na hÉireann (text here) is one of the finest national constitutions I've read, well structured and with specific guarantees of religious and social freedoms - the kind of constitution I could live under and feel very protected. So much better than the UK where there's no written constitution, just hazy thoughts about Magna Carta and Habeus Corpus. Of course, the absence of a written constitution is just what corrupt politicians want.

So I'm counting on the people of Éire to kick this Lisbon thing into touch. When they do, no Euro-trash politician in his/her right mind will try to resurrect an issue trounced by three independent nations on three separate occasions.

They haven't gone away, you know

2007-12-11T15:16:00.000Z

Gerry Adams' famous words some years ago, and they're still true. Although the weapons are gone (or most of them, in my opinion), the Provisional IRA's command structures are still firmly in place, and it exists ready for action.

When is the IRA not the IRA? Answer: when its members kill without being asked. The PSNI Chief Constable has now confirmed that IRA members were involved in the killing of Paul Quinn, but he sees no indication that it was authorised by the IRA leadership. Whether it's Robert McCartney, hacked to a lingering death in Belfast, or Paul Quinn who was beaten to a pulp by 20 men and took 30 long minutes to go screaming, then whimpering, into a death that must have seemed so welcoming, the Republican terrorists are still at large and are a massive threat to democracy and, hence, our newly-won devolved government.

If there was ever any justification for the IRA fighting against a repressive Dublin Castle régime a hundred years ago, that has long evaporated. Across the western world blind nationalism has given way to inclusive democracy, and the only suppressed people in Ireland today are the victims of paramilitaries in the hardline parts of South Armagh, Belfast and East Antrim.

The next step in the "peace process" is for the IRA to disband. It has no more reason to exist, and while it remains in place it's a threat to democracy, weakening Sinn Féin's credibility north and south.

Democracies have no place for private armies.

It's my party ...

2007-12-07T14:49:00.001Z

I see disaffected ex-DUP man Jim Allister is to launch his very own new party aimed at those few unionists still stuck in the 1950s who think our Catholic neighbours should be denied a say in how the joint is run. Apparently the party is to be called the "Traditional Unionist Moan" or something.

As much as I criticise Sinn Féin (and others) when I think they deserve it, it's right and proper that they should hold some of the reins of power, because that's what democracy is about, duh. And let them stand or fall on their actions in the eyes of their electorate.

For too long, Unionists ruled the roost here in an unaccountable manner during days that are, thank God, long behind us. Some people will always want to turn the clock back for their own selfish ends, but what interest could Jim or anyone else have in disaffecting 20+% of our electorate by denying them a say in government? What does he want to do? Drive them to the arms of the Real IRA? And, yes, the pun is intended.

One size fits awl

2007-12-04T23:02:00.000Z

So Caitríona Ruane, a minister for education whose accent isn't even Northern Irish (although she sends her kids across the border to our schools here), reckons all kids should go to grammar schools. Or to "secondary moderns". Whatever. Main thing is: everybody's the same in Sinn Féin's Leninist world, so we should be putting tomorrow's master cabinetmakers in the same classrooms as budding astrophysicists and cardinals: one type of post-primary school only. But what type? And how? She published a 7-page wonder today, but it's handsomely devoid of specifics.

I'm shocked but not surprised. For decades Ruane and Sinn Féin have had the luxury of not having to create anything, just shoot it down. She and her party colleagues in the Exec are going to have it tough now because it's no longer enough just to moan, they have to get on and create something. And that something has to be better than what we've got. Sure it can be improved on, but if she wants to bin everything and start from a clean sheet of paper she's got her work cut out, and in my mind this paper shows she's nowhere near up to the job.

Whatever kind of school she went to isn't the kind she should be advocating for the rest of us. She's written seven pages of rhetoric with transfixing helium like "My intention is to mobilise and co-ordinate the resources at my disposal to build a modern and flexible education system" and the prize-winning non-statement "I am an advocate for dynamic and effective change" Goodness, what a wonderful person you think you are! And, by the way, it's an advocate of, Caitríona, not "for". Get some English lessons.

A propos, she seems to have a great penchant for an Gaeilge though. Loves rubbing in it. Get this (one of several token nods): "Tá an Dréacht Clár Rialtais soiléir sa mhéid seo i ndearbhú go mbeidh na focail 'cothroime' 'cuimsiú' agus 'comhionannas' mar focail in ag an fheidhmeannas i solathrú polasaithe agus clár an fheidhmeannas". I, a mere subhuman Protestant, get the odd word, but they're bullshit words as well. Can any of my Gaeltacht readers tell me if this statement contains any specifics of which she's deliberately starving the English-speaking majority? (By which I mean people who can speak proper English, had she but deigned to use such).

She goes on to decry "an unequal two-tier system that was borne sixty years ago". Good Lord. Where? Whither was it so carried? To where was it thus transported? BORN, Caitríona. Like children. Gimme strength.

It goes on. "We now have an opportunity to truly transform our system into a world class system fit for the 21st century". Oh dear, Caitríona. A split infinitive and a missing hyphen all in one sentence. I could laugh, but it'd be cruel.

Knock me for being a pedantic fart if you will, but - my - she's easy meat. Laugh and mock, but it still leaves us with a hot-air, post-modernist PR merchant at the head of our education system who managed to dominate today's news with no news at all.

Some Minister for Education. Some advertisement for unitary schooling. Some class.

A bigger Ulsterman

2007-11-24T17:49:00.001Z

Although I'm a Protestant, I'm delighted to see the Roman Catholic Irish Primate, Dr Seán Brady, elevated to the position of cardinal today. It's a big honour within his church, and it's well deserved.

Dr Brady has said that, no matter what else he achieves, his most important goal is to help people know Jesus better. Now, as a good Prod, how can I argue with that?! He's quite right, and it warms my heart.

I'm sure he and I could crack open a bottle of Tullamore and have a brave evening discussing some differences on the finer points of theology, but I think we'd be doing it as brothers in Christ, and at the end of the day we'd probably both not be 100% on-target on many unfathomable things of God.

Any reader of Romans chapter 4 to 8 will discover that it's not the right theology that gets us our place at the big table, but rather a spirit renewed by a living faith in God. I can see that spirit in Dr Brady, and I find it quite inspiring.

Plus he's an Ulsterman ('nuff said).

Really, Darling!

2007-11-21T10:07:00.001Z

Two CDs have gone missing while being couriered to London. Oops. Apparently these CDs contained the names, addresses, dates of birth and bank details of child benefit recipients, so naturally there's a public outcry. But get Alistair Darling's advice to Joe and Josephine Public:

1. The details will not be enough to enable fraudsters to access their accounts.

2. People should check their accounts for irregular activity.

Great logic! If fraudsters can't access my account why would any irregular activity be possible? But what Darling's doublespeak is saying, of course, is that fraudsters won't be able to call my bank up and find out my balance. But he's NOT saying fraudsters can't buy stuff and make me pay. Subtle difference there.

So thank God for people like Alistair Darling. I may have to pick up the tab for a load of consumer electronics from Amazon, but no one but me will ever know I'm two grand in the red.

Stone the crows

2007-11-13T14:46:00.000Z

I can scarcely believe Gerry Adams' words today. More and more youths are getting their kicks by bombarding the emergency services with rocks, and Adams says it "underscores the need for effective engagement between statutory agencies and local communities".

Bollocks. It underscores the need for parents to start being proper parents who exercise control over what their youngsters get up to. It underscores the need for public figures like Adams to have the balls to tell these people their behaviour is unacceptable. It underscores the need for more discipline including judicious use of community service punishments and, for re-offenders, the birch.

To imply that a fire crew is to blame for this by not stopping to suck up to the hooligans who ignited the bus they're hurrying to put out is just spineless.

We are the Red, White and Blue?

2007-11-12T11:16:00.001Z

As expected, the UDA used yesterday - Remembrance Day - to say part of its organisation, the so-called Ulster Freedom Fighters (God help us), no longer exists. But the UDA remains intact. And its guns remain intact.

"We are the Red, White and Blue", said Jackie McDonald with an arrogance he should be ashamed of. They represent the UK as much as the IRA represents the Irish nation, i.e. in their minds only.

If the UDA is, as it has claimed, an armed vigilante force to protect Belfast's Protestant working classes against IRA attacks the police was powerless to stop - then its raison d'être has certainly now vanished.

It's ironic that the Irish Republicans among us now seem to respect the law of the land more than people who claim to represent the politcal status quo, but in truth of course the UDA represents nothing but its own suppressive regime of intimidation and drug-dealing in Protestant ghettoes of Belfast and South-East Antrim.

It's time people there stood up to them and told them in no uncertain terms: disarm and disband.

Lest we forget ...

2007-11-11T18:44:00.001Z

Interesting article by Kevin Myers in yesterday's Irish Independent (here) in which he berates successive Éire governments for not crushing the IRA, in particular in the wake of the Enniskillen massacre.

I doubt whether that would have been possible, but I'd love to have seen it done - especially if the British government had routed the so-called Protestant terrorists too. And, together, cleansed the RUC and An Garda Síochána of the minority of colluders who tarnished their reputations.

As Soren Kierkegaard observed, life has to be lived forwards but can only be understood backwards. Because we can't alter history let's just be thankful there's peace now. Let's hope the UDA and the rest of them also disarm, and while we're at it let's hear Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness make personal apologies for the IRA's campaign of terror on their fellow Irishmen.

We will remember them

2007-11-08T10:04:00.000Z

8th November 1987 - twenty years ago - was Remembrance Sunday in the UK and Ireland, a day for ordinary people to remember ordinary soldiers from all religions and political persuasions who died, inter alia, to stop these islands becoming the outer reaches of the Third Reich.

That day, about 100 people gathered near Paddy McNulty's bike shop in Enniskillen to wait for the wreath-laying, oblivious to the fact that the night before two IRA terrorists had planted a home-made bomb in the building behind them. It exploded and the wall collapsed on them, killing 11 and injuring 63 (the High School headmaster, too, died of his injuries after years in coma). It was an act of mindless terrorism against ordinary Protestant people, nothing more and nothing less, and it shocked the world.

Years later, when my travels took me across Europe, eyes would light up with recognition at the mention of my home town, then dull with sadness and disgust.

With a 10,000 population, everyone knew people among the dead. For me, they included a distant cousin, the man who built my dad's trailer and the daughter-in-law of my granddad's best friend. Not saints, just ordinary Irish folk murdered by their fellow Irishmen for the sake of Ireland. Pointless and pathetic.

Yet good things transpired. With tear-filled eyes the next day, Gordon Wilson told how he had held the hand of his young daughter as she died, and publicly forgave her killers in front of the world's media in the most touching act of Christian forgiveness I've ever seen. Ordinary Catholics, most of whom here have Republican sympathies, were utterly shocked to see the town's Protestant community blown apart in what might be seen as their name. When Gordon, a Methodist, walked into the town's Catholic church to attend a memorial service, the congregation spontaneously stood as a mark of respect and solidarity. And although political differences persist, Catholic tears will also be shed today.

Looking back, the Enniskillen Remembrance Day bombing was the beginning of the end of the Troubles. Enniskillen could not be seen as part of an "armed struggle". A struggle against ordinary civilians like a nurse, a teacher, an ambulance driver and several housewives was a ridiculous notion and showed the IRA for what it had become - brutal, mindless butchers. Support for terrorism outside the hardline heartlands began to falter, and Sinn Féin's political and electoral efforts were redoubled and, ultimately, rewarded.

Last week saw an ecumenical remembrance service in Dublin at which the Irish Tricolour and the British Union Flag were lowered to the floor side by side to honour the same soldiers honoured every year in Enniskillen. Sinn Féin and the DUP are now governing Northern Ireland in partnership with the UUP and the SDLP. Gerry Adams has apologised for the atrocity in Enniskillen. Cross-border relations are more cordial and cooperative as each day passes, and the days of the IRA are over.

As the great and the good, the pompous and the non-pompous, gather today in a necessary and proper act of remembrance, let us - in the spirit of Gordon Wilson - not bear ill will but be thankful for the brighter days that now persist, remembering the tragic role our loved ones had in the terrible process of bringing us thus far.

A bit longer ...

2007-09-02T23:59:00.000+01:00

Hope you're all having a good summer. I deliberately use the present tense as I'm sure there's some good weather in there somewhere to be had between now and Christmas. But then I always was an optimist.

I've decided to extend my break due to other commitments I have over the next six weeks or so, so please expect posting to resume here on 10th October. Bye till then.

A-maze-ing

2007-07-07T10:46:00.000+01:00

OK, I know I said I was off for a bit, but if you'd said 10 years ago that an ex IRA commander would be calling for the Maze Prison not to be torn down but to be pickled, you'd have been put in a nice room with soft walls.

Just a thought. Bye.

Pause for thought

2007-07-03T13:27:00.000+01:00

Next month this blog will have been running for 2 years, but it doesn't seem like it. I started it the day the Provisional IRA said it would disarm totally and for good, and in those two years we've seen the payoff: Paisley sharing power with Sinn Féin! If I'd predicted that two years ago you'd have rightly called me bonkers, but two years are a long time in politics.

Regulars know I don't beat any party's drum because none of them offers the kind of British-friendly-but-distinctly-Irish-ness I espouse. I'm no raving Unionist, but I think Great Britain's a fine country and value the British aspect of our heritage. I'm no raving Nationalist, but I'm a big fan of Éire and would feel optimistic enough if NI were to join it in a suitable new all-Ireland state, at the right time and with the right levels of support.

I hope my moderate approach has offered an alternative to some of the bitter blogs because I believe passionately that, in whatever direction the political status of NI is to develop, it has to be inclusive enough to command the support - active or passive - of what I call the "middle 80%", and that's not achievable in an atmosphere of diatribe and alienation.

The devolution milestone means we've entered a new phase, and I'm going to use the summer break to lie down with pina coladas and think through what I can usefully do with this blog. And a few other things as well of course.

So have a good summer, and I'll be back on 3rd September. Go well.

The great EU deception

2007-06-23T11:14:00.000+01:00

Put 27 prime ministers in a room, add expensive mineral water and a lot of hot air, and what do you get? A treaty featuring much of what the French and Dutch told them to swivel on two years ago.

I'm no hater of mainland Europe, in fact I've spent a large part of my life there. Free trade, the single currency and freedom of movement of people and capital between EU member states is brilliant. But the people don't want political power going to Brussels. Read the papers, listen to the media. The Germans don't. The Spanish don't. The French don't. The Dutch don't. The British don't, and the people of Éire don't. Harmonisation, yes. Federalisation, no.

The British and Irish people voted to join the European Economic Community, not the EU superstate our political élite have been turning it into by stages over the last 20 years. And we, the people, have let them do it. We've turned a blind eye, treating it all as "something over there" that doesn't affect us. Well, wake up: it does.

If the latest treaty is ratified by national parliaments it'll be the last one that is. Under its terms, all future EU constitutional changes - and this is a constitution by the back door - will need but a "double majority": 55% of states representing 65% of the total population. National vetoes will all but disappear, and the EU will have a long-term president à la USA and a bod called the High Representative for Foreign Affairs (an EU foreign minister in all but name).

Have you been consulted on this? No. The French and Dutch were consulted, and they slammed the constitution out of court more decisively than anything else since the war.

Despite this, these heads of government have decided to go ahead with a Constitution Lite without consulting anyone this time, proving that they've become a law unto themselves, beyond accountability. Yes, they are elected by the people, but the people vote on domestic issues, and frankly whatever major party is elected they all go off to Brussels and get bitten by the EU bug. We elect these guys to represent our national interests, yet they're intent on ceding matters of national sovereignty to the grey men of Europe's greyest national capital. Did you know that no one in Brussels is elected by the people?

It's time the people spoke. We must demand national referenda and hold these runaway politicians to account.

Some like it hot

2007-06-11T19:37:00.000+01:00

I see on BBC man Mark Devenport's excellent blog today that the Assembly has declared what we at school used to call "shirt-sleeve order". Once declared, the freedom gene kicked into overdrive as we threw off jackets, blazers and ties and rolled our sleeves up.

But that was school. Why on earth do people supposed to be responsible enough to lead the state need someone to tell them when they may, or may not, throw off their jackets? Am I just stupid or something, or is it not a simple enough thing to think, "Hey it's hot", and take your jacket off? Or worse: is there someone deep in Stormont who dictates what these MLAs wear? Do they, on pain of death, have to wear suits and ties? And skirts (women and Ulster-Scots only)? I mean, come on! Why be straightjacketed? I'd regard it as a sign of maturity if one of the under-50s attended a debate in polo shirt and chinos. And why not?

The truth is, though, NI is - in so many ways - still in the 1950s. Why can't the fresh thinking I try to put out through this blog translate itself into MLAs dressing like real people - especially on a hot summer's day?

UPDATE: It really is a rule, God help us. Listen to this from Ulster Unionist Ken Robinson, "I spotted this guy ... in the Assembly in the morning with his jacket over his arm, very improperly dressed I thought. By question time his conscience must have pricked him because he had the suit on at that stage and he was the perfect picture of sartorial elegance".

Well, dear readers, when nominations go in for Stormont Dickbrain of 2007 I think we all know who to vote for.

Mind your language

2007-06-11T11:02:00.000+01:00

Language popped its head up in a couple of interesting news items recently. On the one hand we had an "Irish Language" march in Belfast calling for legislation to protect it and give it status. On the other, we have Unionist bloke Willie Hay insisting on speaking "Ulster-Scots" in the Assembly.

I have a couple of issues with all this.

First off, it's "Irish Gaelic", "Gaelic" or "Gaelige", not the "Irish Language". I thank you. Thousands of Irish people were speaking Pictish (sometimes called Cruthin), a "P-Gaelic" language akin to Welsh, Breton and Cornish) long before the Gaels invaded Ireland. It was the Gaels' political, military and economic superiority which ensured Irish Gaelic became the dominant grassroots lingua franca before the English got here. But the "Irish language" it's not.

As a Protestant I didn't get the opportunity to learn Irish Gaelic at school, and I regret that because it cuts me off from a large part of the common Irish heritage. I'm working on it.

Secondly, Ulster-Scots is not a language. God bless us. At best it's a dialect of English, at worst it's bad pronunciation. I nearly fell over when the new Waterways Ireland boards went up along the lough shore in Enniskillen sporting their text in English, Irish Gaelic and "Ulster-Scots", to wit:

Waterways Ireland
Uiscebhealaí Éireann
(wait for it ...)
Watterweys Airlann.

That's just some bloke from Ahoghill taking the piss.

In truth Ulster-Scots is, like Flemish or Swiss-German, simply a regional dialect of the language used by a large neighbour. It doesn't compare with Irish Gaelic for uniqueness or cultural richness. It may seem like "language lite" for people who see Irish Gaelic exclusively as a medium for anti-British hatred, but that's changing. It's time we took the politics out of language. It'd sure save space on valuable notice boards.

Drive me crazy

2007-06-08T21:17:00.000+01:00

I'd no idea this was going on, but Sinn Féin ministers haven't been using the Stormont chauffeur pool - they've been getting the government to pay for their own outside drivers while pool drivers are being paid to twiddle their car keys and drink tea.

Thanks goodness Finance Minister Peter Robinson has latched onto this and stopped the funding. Quite right too.

No apology necessary

2007-05-30T22:22:00.000+01:00

Sinn Féin is demanding an apology from Ian Paisley Jnr for saying he is repulsed by homosexuals. That's a bit rich coming from a party that supported terrorist murder.

[ Update: Martin McGuinness has weighed in, saying "Gay rights are enshrined in legislation ..." . Legislation outlaws murder, Martin. When can we expect your statement expressing true remorse for the genocide wrought by the IRA of whom you said you were proud to be a member? ]

So what if Ian thinks that? He says he doesn't hate them, but he's describing the feeling he gets when considers the issue of gay people and, presumably, lesbians too.

I've known a few gay men in my time, though not in the Biblical sense. By and large they were pretty nice guys, but I too am repulsed by the thought of one man putting his penis in another man's bum. I make no apology for that. I don't think God designed us to have sex that way.

Friendship: yes. Brotherly love: yes. Buggery: no.

Sinn Féin - what went wrong?

2007-05-29T00:34:00.000+01:00

Plenty. They only had five seats in the 30th Dáil. Now, after the Éire elections, that's down to four. Four out of 166. So much for the self-proclaimed "only all-Ireland party". SF will now be navel-gazing like never before, and its critics are having a field day. For my money, there are three huge reasons Sinn Féin barely got half the number of seats it was shooting for.

1. Its brand of Marxist socialism was consigned to the dustbin of European politics fifteen years ago. Connolly's socialist ideals had popular relevance when Ireland was under the English economic boot in 1916, but modern Éire is enjoying a burgeoning neo-capitalist existence as an equal on the world economic stage, making Sinn Féin's economic dogma appear backward and, at best, irrelevant.

2. It's a reactionary movement which thrives on confrontation whereas Éire politics have grown to be consensual. It may see merit in upholding dated political ideologies, but the Éire people see it as a one-issue party: Brits out. Again, Éire has moved on, and I think Sinn Féin failed to judge that properly. Éire has a new-found confidence - well deserved and too long in the coming - and it's too busy with its role on the European and the world stage to worry about its nearest neighbours who are respected friends now anyway.

3. It is, at present, a constitutional party in name only. After almost a century supporting terrorism across Ireland and claiming the IRA to be the true government of Ireland, it'll take quite some time to build up trust enabling the electorate to accept Sinn Féin's full commitment to democracy and to the constitutional legitimacy of both Irish jurisdictions. The continued existence of a private army which needs to acquire but a handful of weapons to unleash terrorist hell again does nothing to endear Sinn Féin's brand of reactionary republicanism to the hearts of a mature, discerning Irish electorate.

It's been said on at least one blog recently that anyone in a tricolour could win elections in West Belfast or South Armagh. That's true, and with respect maybe it's been happening. And maybe the corollary is also true of unionism. Maybe the key players in Ulster's parties aren't yet perceived as up to the job of running a nation state as opposed to a regional assembly.

In Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin is seen by most ardent nationalists as, currently, the only local party that stands a chance of delivering Irish unification before 2016, and that is the mainstay of its popularity. A single-issue party in our single-issue adolescent political universe. In a world where unification had happened, or where Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael competed in NI elections, that popularity might come under major pressure in Ulster too.

So what would I be advising Sinn Féin to do? Easy. Disband the IRA immediately, shift economic policy into the 21st century, live out commitment to constitutional politics and to both Irish jurisdictions and develop detailed policies which the electorate really desires. Not rocket science, but acceptance may be a long, slow process.

Things that don't happen in Garvary, Part [I've lost count]

2007-05-18T12:16:00.000+01:00

Many moons ago I used to highlight the odd quirky news item under this heading predicated on the fact that, to my knowledge, the good burghers of said village outside Enniskillen were fine upstanding lot but perhaps no strangers to 'the quiet life'.

Now then, to business. Picture the scene: he and she live together and plan to marry. They book an expensive honeymoon. 24 hours later he says he'd like to stay on in the pub a while longer. She says she wants to go home. Now. He lets her. She does.

Exciting, eh? It goes on ...

She takes the keys to his employer's transit and transfers to its capacious interior every last item of his possessions - clothes, personal effects, Phil Collins CDs, the lot. Capitalising on the fact that they live by the sea - you've guessed it - she drives the van to Whitehaven harbour and pushes it into the water. The first thing he knows is he gets rung up by his boss asking why the van is bobbing around and smelling of fish.

Of his girlfriend our hero apparently said, "I haven't told her yet that the wedding is off, but I think she can put two and two together." Eeek.

Watch him

2007-05-17T19:01:00.000+01:00

Gordon Brown, I wouldn't trust him an inch. He says he's "truly humbled" by the level of apparent support amongst Labour MPs at Westminster.

I've known a lot of Ameicans down the years and have never failed to be underwhelmed when hearing how "truly" this and "truly" that they are. No offence, that's just the way they speak (ah reckon).

But when a politician says he or she is "humbled" by something, well it's just un-politician-like to be humbled. Vanity's part of the make-up of an ambitious politician, and they don't come more ambitious than Gordon Brown, the man who's going to become Prime Minister by the back door.

Call me a cynic (time will tell), but I'm reminded of the Dickens character Uriah Heap who was "ever so 'umble". Not.

NI more democratic than England

2007-05-16T23:15:00.000+01:00

At least our First and Deputy First Ministers were elected on their respective tickets, but not Gordon Brown. The news tonight is that he is going to succeed to the Blair throne unopposed. How democratic is that? (Not one bit).

The Sands that shake the barley?

2007-05-16T19:42:00.000+01:00

Steve McQueen, no less, is to make a film about Bobby Sands (or, more accurately, his hunger-strike death - some would say suicide - in 1981).

Sands, an active member of the IRA, was serving time for terrorist offences he didn't deny, and aim of the hunger strike was to persuade Margaret Thatcher's government to give convicted IRA offenders the status of "political prisoners", i.e. those imprisoned for their political beliefs, not their crimes. Tragically for them and their friends and families, he and ten colleagues died in this effort which did not succeed in its aims.

Like the IRA's many victims, the film will be shot in Northern Ireland.

Women

2007-05-16T12:31:00.000+01:00

I see the first days of the NI Assembly are being put to good use (not). I've lost the story link, but some Sinn Féin lass is asking for an in-depth study into why there aren't more female MLAs and, worse, oodles of cash for encouraging more women into politics. I wonder if that includes Unionist women.

What a load of old tosh. The reason there aren't more female MLAs is exactly the same as why there aren't more male MLAs, to wit:

(a) because they didn't stand for election;
(b) because the electorate didn't think they were good enough.

Why should a second-rate woman be preferred over a first-rate man? Or the other way about? If it were the other way around there'd be a revolution.

When will people wake up to the fact that all this feminism stuff is actually sexism dressed up as an equality struggle. Men and women already ARE equal! But we're not identical.

I'm all for bringing women out of the kitchen, if that's what they need and want. They should have equal opportunities, and if they run for office they should be judged on their merits, not their chromosomes.

Commonwealth

2007-05-14T17:48:00.000+01:00

I have to take my hat off to Sinn Féin on this one. The Ulster Unionists want the NI Assembly to rejoin the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. It sounds a pretty toothless forum, but it's bound to be more than a mite distasteful to militant Republicans. Nonetheless, SF's Mitchel McLaughlin has said his party will not oppose the idea because it recognises membership is important to Unionists.

At one level this is no big deal. Some MLAs will now be able to talk shop with people from Canada and New Zealand. Yawn. But it's far more than that. Unionists may have a right to talk and associate with others who value the British elements in their cultures, but the SF of the bad old days would have just sneered as they got on with it. Mitchel's open acknowledgement of this Unionist 'need' pays greater tribute than I could to where his party has got to and it's the kind of tolerance we're going to have to see from both sides.

Well done, Mitchel. Big move.

Brown-nosing MSM

2007-05-13T20:19:00.000+01:00

The mainstream media has been running story after story on Gordon Brown over the last couple of days, quite obviously a managed campaign to get Joe and Josephine Soap foursquare behind this unelected dullard.

Tony Blair's grip on the Labour party has been legendary, but how democratic is it for the elected prime minister to abdicate (!) and hand over to someone of his choosing? Not a lot. If Gordon Brown becomes prime minister by default it'll be because the UK electorate wasn't consulted and because, er, the Conservatives are so unelectable. God help us.

But what really annoys me is the sheer patronising manner in which the British public is being manipulated. Yesterday's big story was how great a family man Gordon is. Today - guess what? - Gordon really wants to build five eco-towns. Gimme a break.

Make no mistake: the Labour luvvies and the MSM are in serious cahoots, and the British public is being manipulated so heavily it would make Alistair Campbell blush.

Democracy at last

2007-05-08T17:26:00.000+01:00

There were no Stones blocking the door to progress today. The new First Minister and Deputy First Minister are in place, oaths sworn, and the ministerial team chosen. For the first time in at least 500 years - maybe ever - all of Ireland is governed by inclusive administrations elected by the people without outside interference, so this is a happy day for Irish people everywhere.

To those Protestants disaffected by power-sharing I say we have to respect Sinn Féin's electoral mandate; whether we like it or not it's a reality, and Republican voters have as much right to self-determination as anyone. I'm delighted especially for my Catholic fellow-countrymen who've waited a long time for this. Personally, I disagree with much of Sinn Féin's socialist aspirations and every attempt to glorify past terrorist acts, but I believe in democracy as a means of channelling and distilling varying opinions into workable policies for daily life, and now it's time to see that played out to the benefit of all.

It won't be easy. It'll be a rocky - not Stoney - path, but one worth treading together.

A BIT of a miracle?

2007-05-04T12:15:00.000+01:00

Éire President, Mary McAleese, has described the Ulster power-sharing deal as containing a "hint of the miraculous". Er, just a little! In an age where the influence of post-Christian individualism is exerting itself even in Éire (although thankfully less so than in the UK), I'm just glad the President has the guts to say it at all. Well done.

Thirty years ago Northern Ireland was being ripped apart every week by bombs, beatings and cold-blooded, calculated murders - often in front of children and spouses. Even 10 years ago Ulster was a hopeless basket case. Five years ago the Assembly fell apart amid a spy scandal and, though the political process was in motion, the acrimony and back-biting offered no hope of what we have today.

Today the Provisional IRA, the greatest perpetrators of terrorist death, have disarmed and turned (they say) permanently away from violence. Soon, I hope, it may cease to exist altogether by its own choice. The UVF, lawless murderers and extortionists, yesterday ceased to exist as a paramilitary force. Soon, I hope, they will destroy those weapons and disband. Sinn Féin and the DUP - politically poles apart - are about to lead us forward together into a future thousands, maybe millions, of us have been praying that God would give us. He has.

That's a Big miracle. Let's be really thankful to him and show it. Have a great weekend.

For God and Ulster - NOT

2007-05-03T11:52:00.000+01:00

I used to think Gusty Spence's first name paid tribute to some monumental farting ability, then someone told me his parents had named him Augustus, and the bottom fell out of my world like the day I found out about Santa.

I jest, but the hot air and disappointment meted out by today's (non)-disarmament by the "UVF" and the "Red Hand Commando" is similar. We all thought they'd go down the same road as the IRA, but they've only gone half way. In their so-called peace statement they say their weapons have been put "out of reach" by members. What's that supposed to mean? Look through the hype of a supposedly ground-breaking statement - made by the most media-unfriendly man they could find - and the paramilitary organisations still possess guns, bullets and bomb-making materials like those they've used to kill of 500 people. Not a bullet, not an ounce has been destroyed. It's a scandal, and the public mustn't let them away with it.

Not only that but they haven't gone away, you know. The organisation still exists with its command structures. They could have set a law-abiding example for the Provisional IRA, but they failed to do so.

Don't tell me this is for God or Ulster. God hates murder and violence, and you need to hand your weapons in to the police, disband and get on your knees before Him somewhere quiet. Our ancient province of Ulster doesn't need attitudes like yours.

No handshake?

2007-05-01T09:48:00.000+01:00

So Ian Paisley won't be shaking Martin McGuinness' hand as they swear the joint oath on 8th May. Given that he's undoubtedly already done so several times in the negotiations and joint meetings that led up to this power-sharing deal you might say, why?

Because Paisley's a master strategist, that's why. Imagine the scene. Paisley and McGuinness standing in front of Madam Speaker at the focal point of the Assembly chamber like in a wedding. Vows said, then a handshake. If it's a handshake without smiles, it'll appear awkward, forced and doomed to failure like when Trimble and Hume posed in Oslo looking like statues forced to be there. But if there are smiles, it'll look like a sell-out, with Paisley risking even more marginalisation from his right-wingers.

No. The handshake, if Paisley has his way, will take the press by surprise. It'll be at some semi-mundane gathering in the summer - the opening of a call centre perhaps.

Unless, of course, Máirtin decides to put the old man on the spot by standing square-on to him, oaths still echoing round the chamber, and offering his hand with a modest smile and the words, loud enough to be picked up by the mikes, "Looking forward to working together". Sinn Féin are nothing if not brilliant tacticians. What choice would Paisley have then? Just remember - you heard it here first.

Real royals

2007-05-01T09:00:00.000+01:00

I love the Netherlands and go there as often as I can. The Dutch are a great people - happy, socially responsible, industrious and good fun.

Yesterday was Koninginnedag - Queen Beatrix's official birthday and the country's great annual bank holiday. The nearest they get to St Paddy's day.

The Dutch royal family (Unionists will be pleased to hear they're still called Oranje ;-) contrast so sharply with the UK royals. They're an easy-going lot, much loved and greatly revered, not because they have political power, because they don't, but because they're informal and approachable, embodying all that's good in the nation. There are a few diehard communists who want rid, but not many. Just look at some of the photos of Beatrix (as the people call her) and her son Willem-Allexander at yesterday's celebrations. I wish Lizzie and Chuck would take a leaf out of the Dutch book.

Latin Mass

2007-04-27T11:36:00.000+01:00

When I heard some Jews were up in arms at a suggestion that the Pope is considering re-introducing a Mass service in Latin, my first reaction was "What's it got to go with them?". I mean, if I heard that Buddhists were going to start making clicking noises instead of chanting it wouldn't really ruin my day.

Apparently the problem is, the Tridentine Mass - which incidentally is not a lump of dried-in toothpaste on your bathroom carpet - includes prayers for the conversion of Jews to the Christian faith, and that's what these guys are up in arms about.

I have to say, this one's fairly close to my heart because I've prayed quite a few times that Jewish people - and some friends in particular - come to understand Jesus as he really is, the only route to God. I think the Jews are a wonderful race, but I've never understood how they can read and believe their 'Old Testament' scriptures yet fail to recognise that Jesus was the Messiah. Hey guys, like how many clues, predictions and promises do you need? Anyway, that's a decision for each individual, and God draws each member of his Kingdom in his own good time.

My objection to Mass in Latin in simple: because people don't understand it. Latin was perhaps the first Christian mega-language, but there's nothing holy about it. Jesus spoke Aramaic and (probably) vernacular Greek, but to our knowledge not Latin. Certainly, the local Roman soldiers wouldn't have spoken pure Latin, so at best Jesus may have had a smattering of Vulgar Latin, but that's the height of it. So any desire to re-introduce a Latin Mass is more about academic snobbery and self-indulgence than pleasing God.

The Roman Catholic church has a great role to play in evangelising the world, and I have a lot of time for Josef Ratzinger as a man as well as respect for the office of Pope, leading his part of God's church on earth. But one of the great errors of Roman Catholicism until the last hundred years or so was deliberately positioning the church hierarchy between God and his people, and the Latin language was one of the tools used to do that. Wycliffe and Cranmer were burned at the stake for translating the Bible into a language the common man could understand.

Catholic Mass, to the credit of the Roman Catholic church, is now said in modern languages churchgoers can identify with and use to communicate directly with God's spirit. And that's brilliant. This Latin business is simply symbolic of, literally, a dark age. Don't do it.

The opener

2007-04-23T22:32:00.000+01:00

Looks like all's on track for a May 8 opening at Stormont. Old hands around here know this is what this blog's been looking forward to for nearly two years, so I'm going to be raising a glass that day as we finally get democratic power-sharing. Boy, it's been a long time coming.

Apparently Tony Blur and Bertie Ahem plan to be there to soak up some of the glory. Aye well, they'll be welcome enough, but I reckon this is something for heads of state. It's a huge moment in Ulster history, and I want to see it presided over by the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Uachtarán na hÉireann. What a day it would be for us all. What a uniter.

And afterwards they could go to Dublin for the Queen's first state visit to Éire, cementing the modern-day friendship between the two states brought together, in no small part, by the enfant terrible that is Norn Iron. As a dual passport holder and a fan of things British and things Irish, I'd be overjoyed. A Big day. Hope it happens.

Wanted: One Ombudsperson

2007-04-19T12:39:00.000+01:00

So it's time for a new Police Ombudsman, apparently, now that Nuala O'Loan's term is up. She a difficult job fairly well, but she's a funny old fish, don't you think? That accent takes ages to tune in to. Whoever they appoint, I hope it's someone with either an Irish accent or an English accent, but not a hybrid that sounds "fit on", as we say in Fermanagh.

More important, though, is the substance. Whoever takes over will have the job of investigating the police when major complaints are lodged. The ombudsman has to have serious credibility with the UK government, (increasingly) the Éire government, local politicians across the spectrum and - I think importantly at this stage in our democratic development - mainstream Republicans.

Therein may lie the rub. Whereas most Unionists would probably acknowledge that a Unionist (or English) jobholder would not enjoy the level of Gaelic favour we need to make further socio-political progress, few of them will tolerate anyone with the slightest connection or sympathies with the IRA, and quite rightly. So the challenge is to identify a politically neutral figure - probably a Roman Catholic - acceptable to people in both Ballinamallard and Belleek.

It doesn't have to be someone they like, just someone they feel will be even-handed. Any suggestions?

Blogger problems

2007-04-16T17:37:00.000+01:00

Am I the only one having problems with Blogger now that they demand you set up a Google account? I've done all they asked and I still can't post comments.

Anyway, the drummer is ... Ian Paice (he of Deep Purple fame and the most talented rock drummer in the world IMHO).

Trivia

2007-04-13T22:34:00.000+01:00

A few years back I used to play in a cover band, and this one always went down a storm (it's the original, we didn't do vids!).

For trivia maniacs, recognise the drummer?

Coalitions 'n stuff

2007-04-13T10:11:00.000+01:00

How far we've come in the last five years, politically at any rate. If you'd told me back then that by 2007 the IRA would have disarmed, that Sinn Féin had openly started backing the police and justice authorities and that Ian Paisley had decided to share power with Gerry Adams I'd have said you were a few pancakes short of an Ulster Fry.

But strange things happen in our part of the world, and I'm glad they do.

The UK is not used to coalitions, the last one having been the rather limp "Lib-Lab pact" 30 years ago. Coalitions are often seen as sell-outs - after all no one votes for a coalition - but if you have a free press, open reporting and proper personal accountability they offer a reliable way of arriving at policies the electorate can broadly get behind. A necessary evil, if you like.

The DUP's disaffected are quick to accuse Paisley of cozying up to Sinn Féin, describing them as his "new bestest friends", when in fact they're no such thing. A coalition is a marriage of convenience, not of love. It's a practical, grown-up step when the only alternative is ongoing stalemate where nothing gets done.

As Ulster's parties prepare to share power properly for the first time, let's remember - as I've said here before - that they don't have to see eye-to-eye on any one matter: they just have to agree what they're going to do. There's a difference because each policy will be the product of compromise, with individual policies either honed to ensure wider acceptability or traded off unaltered against something the other side wants. Either way the result is progress and the beginning of a shared future.

This is going to be a delicate process because it's the first time, and the two main players occupy the extremes of the political spectrum. Let's expect some people to reach for their toys and make out like they're off home. There will be play-acting, gambits, the lot - all a necessary, if tiresome, part of the democratic process and I wish them well with it.

Time to stay Big and keep our eyes on the horizon.

Back after Easter

2007-04-01T21:13:00.000+01:00

I'm tripping off for a week's rest and recreation. Be good till I get back!

A truly historic hotel bill

2007-03-30T09:36:00.001+01:00

£391,783 for St Andrews, says the NIO.

I know everything costs, but should the taxpayer really be buying £7,506.13 worth of food for journalists? And how the heck do you spend 85 grand on just travelling to the event?

The St Andrews conference was necessary, sure, but these guys really vamped it up. I can hear it now. More greens, Gerry? And Ian, how's yer duck à l'orange, big mon?

Yesterday's game

2007-03-30T09:36:00.000+01:00

The IRA should be disbanded pronto because, in the new Republican world, it serves no purpose. Republicans say they've turned away from violence for good, and retaining the IRA structures and potential capability is nothing but a large flappy albatros around Sinn Féin's neck as it enters government.

In short, put it in the museum. My Big challenge to the SF leadership: start by disbanding the Army Council before 8th May. It'd be a big reconciliation move at no cost to your cause and it makes perfect sense. May the UVF, LVF, UDA, INLA, CIRA, RIRA and all the other private armies then do likewise.

Well would you believe it?

2007-03-29T21:49:00.000+01:00

Not four weeks after I suggested it would be pretty far-out to have someone called "Sir Bono", guess what's happened? Yep, the U2 frontman has gone and been done-to at the British embassy in Dublin. Still, we can't call him "Sir Bono" of course because he's not a UK citizen, but what of it?

He said something I've been thinking for a few months now: "It does feel like this country and Great Britain are closer than they have ever been". If you live south of the border, do you agree?

"I wasn't even going to have a bit of a do ... but when I saw Big Ian sitting down there with Gerry Adams I just thought this is the end of an era, but the beginning of a much better one".

Well said.

Steady as he goes

2007-03-28T10:13:00.000+01:00

As predicted, Jim Allister has resigned from the DUP over its decision to share power with Sinn Féin. This sort of thing is normal and natural. As any party with over 20% of the electorate's votes commits to any major political line there will be disaffected who reach for their coats. But the broad - worldwide - applause Ian and Gerry have had has been unmistakeable, and it's time to keep the ship on an even keel and press on through the waves.

As Monday's political frenzy gives way to specific coalition talks, let's remember that coalitions are marriages of convenience, not meeting of minds. This is especially so of two parties on opposite sides of, well, everything really. As coalition experience shows in Germany, Italy and most recently the Netherlands which has three parties in government, you don't have to agree on what you believe, you have to agree on what you're going to do.

The coalition talks are going to be the toughest imaginable at a time when neither party has any real experience in government. But if God has brought us this far he'll take us the rest of the way. The Big Thing is to trust and move on with a spring in our step.

Hope

2007-03-27T10:34:00.000+01:00

A good decision

2007-03-26T16:33:00.000+01:00

Well, there we have it. For the first time ever, the DUP and Sinn Féin have held a joint press conference, actually it's the first time there's been a joint anything.

The agreement to go into devolved government on a joint, equitable basis is a really Big decision, and I congratulate Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams on the success of the work they and their people have done to bring us this far. Well done, and may it herald a new era in Irish politics.

The terrorism I saw on the news as a young lad destroyed thousands of families. While it's partly true that IRA terror helped get Sinn Féin to the top table, it's unseemly for anyone to revel in it. Let's remember all our dead with honour and thank God with bowed heads for the political progress both communities will now benefit from. Only with His blessing will we muster the compassion and courage to make it.

As Paisley said, we may "loathe the hurts of the past", but we mustn't allow them to stop us building a great future together. Let's go for it.

Weak leadership

2007-03-26T10:39:00.000+01:00

The UK government has said all along that unless power-sharing is agreed locally TODAY Stormont will be suspended, MLA pay stopped and joint authority imposed. Paisley stalls until May but prepares to meet Sinn Féin this morning, and what does Peter Hain say?

"I am not worried about a deadline going over a few weeks, if we have something that has never happened before".

But the deadline's set in UK legislation, isn't it? Isn't it?

Hain is a weak appeaser, and the sooner we have Ulstermen running their country the better.

Insane or just plain stupid?

2007-03-25T23:13:00.000+01:00

What a dipstick Ian Paisley can be. We know he likes running things right up to the wire - no surprises there - as I predicted last year when the March 26 deadline was set. But he's displaying little short of clinical madness today, saying he's prepared to share power with Sinn Féin in 6 weeks' time but not now because exra time is needed to "instil a positive attitude towards devolution and local control". Tripe. The citizens of Northern Ireland have just voted overwhelmingly in favour of devolution and local control!

This is brazen delay tactics without one shred of political justification. And the only reason for the delay is, I believe, to provide a six-week window for the DUP to find Sinn Féin lacking in some form of active support for policing and justice, thus giving them a good excuse for "told you so", running off into the wilderness with their electoral mandate and scuppering devolution for another five years. Which means five more years for direct rule, five more years of sponging and five more years of toffee-nosed English accents in Stormont.

I really hope all this is wrong. But I'm not a Unionist insider, and I'm guessing. Ulster has voted for devolution, we've voted for power-sharing, we've voted for a new future together, and it'll be a sad day tomorrow if Ian Paisley uses it to pervert the course of democracy here. Hasta mañana.

Bob Kerr

2007-03-22T13:59:00.000Z

I see Bob Kerr (r.), the former chairman of the Irish Cricket Union and founder of the North Fermanagh Cricket Club, has died suddenly in Jamaica while accompanying the Irish team on its successful tour.

Bob will be remembered by a lot of Co Fermanagh folk as ex-headmaster of Jones Memorial Primary School in Enniskillen, but my memories are of the indoor cricket practice he used to organise for young lads from both communities in the 1970's. Much as I enjoyed messing around in the nets at Enniskillen High School, the combined efforts of Bob and Frank Day never managed to make a cricketer out of me though.

Bob was a really nice man who'll be remembered kindly.

Technoballs

2007-03-20T13:12:00.000Z

Spent a great hour in front of the TV this morning catching up on all the latest gismotronics being touted at CeBIT, the big hi-tech trade fair in Hanover, Germany. Hard to believe CeBIT started as an office automation show with stuff like tabulators - remember those? Even in the early 80's, most companies still had at least one old fart nestling in the depths of the accounts department, hands poised above a strange keyboard and jabbing down urgently on selected keys with 8 fingers all at once. I never figured out how they worked, but they must've done some good. Mind you, that was in the days before we discovered shareholder value.

Today's CeBIT is about mobile communications, miniaturisation and something called convergence. Heavy! And there I am using my mobile phone for, according to my latest bill, 14 minutes of phone calls and 22 text messages per month, wilfully eschewing the benefits of downloading Hollywood blockbusters, taking photos, checking emails, surfing the web or GPS-ing my way around strange out-of-town business parks. My ears began to bleed this morning as they filled with weird TLAs (three-letter acronyms) and longer stuff like UMTS, GPRSS and others I can't remember.

Then one of life's defining moments hit me. For the first time ever, watching the glittering phone displays with icons I've never seen and doing things I don't ever need, I knew in my heart that the world is now dictated, guided and destined by people forming the generation after mine. Yes, the people who grew up with Deep Purple and pubesced with the Bay City Rollers are now passé. I now know how my dad felt when he parked the car after a trip to Dungannon in 1977 and declared that he wasn't safe on the roads any more (something I'd known for years actually). Yup, in each life there comes a time.

And yet - technology is only useful if it enriches our lives, even in a small way. As the shiny mobile phones unleashed their seductive powers on me, I paused to wonder how one of them might make my life easier or more comfortable. Do I really want to receive Viagra ads "on the run" (excuse the phrase) or watch grainy TV on a bus? No! I'm Mr Boring of the has-been generation. I want to use my phone to talk to friends and send the odd text message to people I care about.

I'll tell you what my biggest technological life-enrichment in the last 12 months has been: a proper-sized coffee jar. I used to have one not quite big enough for a standard packet of ground coffee. I'd half-fill it, stamp it down with a glass and repeat a couple of times before pressing the lid on and wiping up all the stuff that went on the floor. Last month the Big Ulsterwoman blew in with a real, full-size coffee jar. All shiny and with a fancy metal clip. It really looks the biz. Now when it gets a bit low I just shake in the contents of a new pack. There's even an inch to spare at the top - pure decadence. And no bending over to sweep the floor either. As befits a modern-day old fart whose hands, as I write this, are poised over a keyboard my voice-activated grandchildren will probably laugh at.

Aye well, that's progress.

Is God a DUP member?

2007-03-16T16:29:00.000Z

There's a great letter in yesterday's edition of the world's greatest newspaper, Enniskillen's very own The Impartial Reporter, offering some sanity and perspective. Unfortunately the writer is anonymous. As it's in the public domain I include it in full here ...

"Dear Sir, I noticed DUP Assembly woman Iris Robinson was quick to thank God for the election results.

It is, of course, very laudable for Christians to thank God for any blessing they receive. But on this occasion, Iris certainly started me thinking about the role the Almighty plays in politics in Northern Ireland. The implication that God is so closely aligned to the DUP made me wonder about a lot of things.

I wonder, for example, how all the other Christians feel who voted for the other parties. I even wondered why God didn't go the whole way and smash Sinn Féin. Or did He deliver a massive vote to Sinn Féin and deliver their enemies, too?

I even wondered about all those evangelical Christians who couldn't bring themselves to vote for the DUP because they didn't see it as God's will that Ian Paisley will share power with Martin McGuinness.

As a matter of fact, I then got to wondering about much more; if God is prepared to intervene in a secular matter such as a Northern Ireland election, why doesn't He intervene in so many other things.

There are millions of people starving across the world; why would God allow that to happen while He ensures that Peter, Iris and 106 other MLAs get a nice little salary on top of what they already have.

God does, indeed, work in mysterious ways.

I thank God every day for the blessings He gives me and my family. I try to thank Him by living out a Christian life, thinking of others when I can. To my shame, I don't always succeed.

But I think when my life on this earth is over, I will be asked if I repented of my sins, if I followed Christ, if I fed the hungry, visited the prisoners, loved my neighbour as myself.

I don't think I'll be asked how many first preference votes I got."

Out of the darkness (nearly)

2007-03-15T18:53:00.000Z

Things are looking good for a devolved coalition government by 26th March. Ian Paisley Jnr is optimistic, Martin McGuinness is optimistic and so are the Taoiseach and the British PM. In politics you never celebrate until the ink is dry - and even then only moderately lest it appear you've had too many concessions - but maybe we should dream a little of what might be.

For the first time ever, all of Ireland would be self-governed by inclusive administrations. The two jurisdictions would continue, but real Irish unity is not about national borders, it's about our attitudes to one another - respecting the other tradition, celebrating the good bits of our heritages, eschewing the bad bits and agreeing that the best future is a shared one - without voluntary apartheid.

Here are nine sample photos from a current exhibtion on in Belfast. Whatever your tradition, see which one stirs you most. Union Jack or Tricolour, I know Number 9 is why I write this blog.

Polarisation

2007-03-10T11:06:00.000Z

"I believe that democracy and terrorism can never co-exist in government, but clearly the electorate takes a different view" ... the words yesterday of Robert McCartney, former MP for North Down and breakaway Unionist standing on a no-engagement-with-Sinn-Féin ticket, issued before (presumably) shuffling off to spend more time with his family.

Electoral choices forty years ago were easy: Unionist or Nationalist. Then the Nationalist Party gave way to the newly-formed SDLP, and the IRA hunger strikes attracted the more radical nationalists into Sinn Féin. Meanwhile, Unionists became ever-more distrustful of the Ulster Unionist Party and, latterly, have left it in droves for the more radical politics of Paisley's DUP. Politics polarised in the late nineties, and Wednesday's Assembly elections showed that this shift has continued.

Today's parties of choice are the DUP and Sinn Féin, occupying the very opposite ends of the political spectrum, and to many people a vote for anyone else is a vote wasted. For the teens and twentysomethings they're the sexy places to be, the parties with clear messages and burgeoning followings. Notably, the radicalism of each feeds the radicalism of the other.

As we move into the coalition-building process - assuming there will be one - the unhealthy nature of this tribalism will be put into sharp relief. Can the DUP and SF really be expected to work together, or are we going to have Italian-style coalition crises every six months? We'll see. Interesting how Ian Paisley mooted yet another power-sharing hurdle yesterday, saying that Sinn Féin now had to repent. (As a Christian I agree - Republicans have a history of murder and insurrection of which they should repent before God - who will forgive instantly - but Unionists also need to repent of the 50 years of subjugation of Roman Catholics here).

This polarisation feeds itself and is unhealthy. I'm hopeful, though, that by giving more political power than ever to the radical wings they will see the need for constructive dialogue - and for making concessions - and so, in the end, become less radical. Again, we'll see.

Is Sinn Féin backsliding?

2007-03-08T21:29:00.000Z

Gerry McGeough, and independent republican candidate in the Assembly elections and a self-confessed active member of the Provisional IRA was arrested by police today after leaving the Omagh count in connection with the attempted murder of a UDR soldier in 1981.

You can read Gerry McGeough's blog here. He did an interview on Slugger O'Toole a while back, and I have to say I enjoyed listening to him. He made a good case for his political goal of a united Ireland. He seemed a nice, personable guy, and I found it hard to imagine him aiming an AK47 at any children's daddies. Only he knows if he's ever done anything like that, but as a member of PIRA he would have been under oath to undertake any act of terrorism instructed by his 'superior officers'. He's certainly been on the run from the German, British and US authorities and has done time for terrorist offences. What a pity that a sociable guy like that, with political aspirations to which he's absolutely entitled, got caught up in the evil world of terrorism. Let's work to make sure coming generations don't.

Anyway, that's not the point of this post. The point is: the PSNI arrest him, and literally five minutes later Gerry Adams and Michelle Gildernew cry "political policing" and demand his immediate release.

What makes them so sure he wasn't involved in the alleged crimes? Cos if they aren't absolutely 100% sure, their duty as supporters and active shapers of police policy in Northern Ireland is to assist and support the PSNI in its work. They should welcome the arrest and interrogation of any crime suspects, and if they're sure a suspect is being wrongly suspected they must explain why and convince the policing and justice authorities of their view. That's politics. That's democracy.

The PSNI is now accountable to Sinn Féin, inter alia, and a consequence of this is that political policing is no longer possible. And if Gerry McGeough's innocent, there's a system in place to enable him to prove it.

The Big thing for Sinn Féin now that the Assembly elections are over is not to slide back onto the sidelines of democracy but to remain at its centre, joining the other main parties in assisting and shaping the fine work our police service needs to do for us.

Unbelievable

2007-03-07T13:11:00.000Z

Flicking around the BBC news website just now, trying to avoid election reports, and the best news item this year so far leapt from the screen and slugged me in the chops.

Apparently, a man called Robert Boyd (45) from Carrickfergus has been had up for robbing ladies' underwear from a shop in Belfast whilst disguised in a hat, wig and glasses.

It's his defence that's brilliant. He claims he was involved in a role-play game at the time and was in reality a female elf named Beho. He has denied robbery but admits it may be possible that Beho stole the lingerie. Pathetic, it would've been far too big for her.

Actually, before going into the slammer, this guy should be given a medal for brightening up the dull existence of court judges so used to fuel launderers and urban gangsters.

But it raises a worrying question. Whilst I'm fairly sure I'm not, in reality, a hermaphrodite hedgehog, what actually makes me so sure? Could it be that some of our top politicians are merely fronting up as humans? Any ideas?

Knight times

2007-03-02T14:44:00.000Z

Listen, just a quick observation on how things change down the years. (If you're of a Republican bent, forego the urge to score political and cultural points - please).

In the 70s and 80s British honorary titles were used only in conjunction with the most high-fallutin' - often ridiculous - names like Sir Marmaduke and Sir St John [sinjin]. Now, call me a snob, but Sir Terry, Sir Mick, Sir Bob and Sir Elton sound more like children's cartoon characters than knights of the realm. After all, would you follow a Sir Mick into battle or bend the knee for a Sir Elton?

You know what they say: if you want to see the future, look to the past.
Will this trend continue? Will we spend our twilight years, if God spares us, hearing TV reports on Sir Bono (assuming he has, or takes, UK citizenship) or, heaven forbid, Sir Snoop Dog?

Maybe "Sir Marmaduke" wasn't so bad after all. Have a good weekend.

Was Croker a turning point?

2007-02-26T17:39:00.000Z

I wish I'd been there. Not just to see Ireland hammer England at their first-ever encounter in Croke Park, but to hear the respectful silence as the British national anthem, the Éire national anthem and "Ireland's Call" were played.

There had been huge fears of hissing and boo-ing, but the crowd was statesmanlike. What a tribute to our nation - one spanning two jurisdictions and (at least) two mainstream cultures.

Ed Curran has written an inspiring account of how he experienced Saturday's political and cultural détente. Give it a read.

Away from election fever, the Big question Northern Protestants should be asking ourselves is: what can we do to show an equal amount of goodwill to our southern compatriots? The answer to this question will answer, in part, the question that is the title of today's post.

What a great age this is to be Irish.

Dinosaurs

2007-02-23T16:37:00.000Z

"Republican Sinn Féin" - the breakaway rebels for whom the Provisional IRA is just too cuddly - are going to demonstrate outside Croke Park tomorrow because they don't want the English rugby team to set foot in there. Let them demonstrate. It's a free country. Freer than they would make it if they had any political power.

They say the English team's presence in Croker represents an "unnacceptable normalisation of relations between England and Ireland". Surely everyone with two brain cells to rub together wants as much normalisation - on both sides - as we can get!

The truth is these guys are still fighting someone else's war. Do the Big thing. Don't join them. We've moved on.

A step in the right direction

2007-02-23T16:34:00.000Z

The UDA has been criticised heavily on some blogs for publishing a pamphlet in which is acknowledges the atrocities it committed were dreadful and suggests the IRA should admit that its campaign of terror "was not the pure and idealistic liberation struggle it was so often portrayed as being".

The UDA, the UVF, the LVF, the INLA and the other terror groups should disarm immediately and support the forces of law and order, and until they do so my enthusiasm for their words and actions will be muted, but even so I welcome the statement and agree with their words on the IRA. Republican paramilitaries murdering fellow Irishmen has always been hard for peace-loving Catholics in NI to swallow, and Republicans would add so much to what they've already done for peace and reconciliation if they were simply to say that, in retrospect, their campaigns of violence were wrong and are regretted.

I think we're five years away from that. The English are going to have to acknowledge their sins in Ireland as well, most of them pre-1922 (with some notable exceptions). But the day will come, and it'll be a Big day.

Tackling the anthem

2007-02-20T22:28:00.000Z

So the Six Nations championship returns to Dublin this Saturday when we host England at Croke Park. Ravenhill, the traditional national rugby ground, has been deemed too rickety, and the Gaelic Athletic Association - which normally regards rugby as a "garrison sport" - has, pretty magnanimously, consented to the use of its premier venue for this season's internationals.

In 1920, Croke Park saw the random murder of 14 people by British crown forces as retaliation for the murder, by the IRA, of 14 British soldiers in front of their families earlier the same day.

And so it is, 87 years later, that many dread the singing of Britain's national anthem "God save the Queen" at Croker this Saturday when the English players line up against the Irish team. Fair enough.

Interestingly, Northern Ireland's contribution of players to the Irish national team has been so big that it was deemed appropriate some time back to introduce a special anthem, "Ireland's Call" instead of the Éire national anthem "The Soldier's Song" which has fairly bloodthirsty, antagonistic lyrics. I saw this as a Big move - and also a logical one since the nation of Ireland is composed of two sovereign jurisdictions, and to use the national anthem of one is to alienate the other.

There are voices calling for the English to forego the singing of their anthem this week (see the public comments at the end of the Belfast Telgraph article linked above). As a Big move, I think England should sing another song, but for a different reason. That reason is this: "God save the Queen" is not the English national anthem; there is no English national anthem. GSTQ is the national anthem of the United Kingdom. The English have no right to hog it, and to sing it as they line up against the Scots and Welsh is as ridiculous as hearing France sing "Ode to Joy" as they prepare to hammer Germany.

So let the English sing "Jerusalem" or some other quintessential dirge. Anything except GSTQ. Or "Greensleeves".

When good men do nothing

2007-02-13T10:01:00.000Z

To be legally binding, Portugese referenda require a 50% turnout. The country's abortion vote at the weekend drew a mere 40% to the polling booths, and of those 59.3% said they want to legalise unborn killings up to 24 weeks for any reason.

That's 23.7% of Portugal's voters, or - if you assume a normal distribution - 18% of the population.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Jose Socrates says he wants to press ahead with legislation to make non-medical abortion legal. If his people allow this, Poland, Éire, Spain and Malta will be the only EU states with such bans. I'm not the greatest fan of the Roman Catholic church (as an institution), but I applaud and support it for its rock-solid stand on convenience killings.

The villians in Portugal may turn out to be not Socrates or the 18% that were yes-voters, but the 60% who said nothing. Bit by ugly bit, Europe is casting off its Christian moral heritage and, as rudderless as it is faithless, enjoying its slide into a mudhole it mistakes for enlightenment.

In a society where the man on the street seems to have so little power, the Big thing is to remember that politicians are there to work for us, not the other way around. Silence lets them get away with murder.

Marching Orde-rs

2007-02-11T16:36:00.000Z

Apparently the PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde has been getting his end away with an English detective while his wife wasn't watching. We only know this because he's fathered a lovechild.

He's said it's a personal and private affair which doesn't affect his ability to do the job. But he's cheated on his wife - the woman he promised to "cleave to, forsaking all others". That's a more serious oath than any promise he's made the people of Northern Ireland, and he's broken it. How can we be expected to trust him?

Even more sickly, he says his family is supporting him. Sorry, but I don't swallow that one. Any wife would be boiling, surely. So is he a liar as well as a cheater?

Sorry, Hugh, but it's time for you to go. In the wonderful words of Douglas Adams' departing dolphins, "So long, and thanks for all the fish".

United we stand

2007-02-06T12:06:00.000Z

No - not politics, marriage. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams and usually not my greatest hero, has come out with strong stuff on Tony Blur and his government's weak views on marriage and family stability.

The Blur government's moral ethics in this arena are summed up well by the words of Education Secretary Alan Johnson (himself twice married), "We have to recognise that the modern family is not always a married family. Marriage can provide stability, but it's not for everyone" (well, not if you want to screw around, not if you can't commit, not if you want to be able to ditch someone when they hit a rough patch, and not if your self-discipline is flawed).

Rowan Williams says the chattering classes are "trading off the inherited capital" of previous generations who worked at marriage and stayed together. Dead right. Not all our parents' and grandparents' marriages survived, but the vast majority did whereas it's 50:50 now. Not all their marriages were happy, but they stuck with each other because they'd promised to, and that provided a rigid framework which benefitted their children, wider family circle and society in general. Of that I'm convinced.

Now the UK government is made up very extensively of divorcees (and in that sense representative of society), but that doesn't mean they have to disown the benefits and the very ideal of marriage.

I myself am divorced and suffer the unending pain it brings. Like all divorcees I share a part of the blame for the breakdown of my former marriage, but I also know I was let down badly by someone who'd said she'd always be there for me. This generation has the misfortune to live in a time of a consumerist approach to all things, including marriage, and - to most people - today's marriage vows are not "till death us do part" but "till one of us wants out".

At its heart, you see, marriage is not about feelings - which can yo-yo - but about commitment through thick and thin. Long live marriage, and may future generations rediscover its true meaning and benefits.

A Big milestone

2007-01-30T09:23:00.000Z

Much as I dislike the dramatic language used by Tony Blur's government to manipulate and cajole, Saturday's vote by the Sinn Féin conference to mandate its executive to declare full support for policing and justice really is a Big milestone, and I congratulate them for it.

It makes Northern Ireland a safer place and marks the coming-of-age of the Republican tradition which, when that mandate is implemented by the ard chomhairle, will - for the first time in its history - be a mainstream constitutional movement seeking to change from within by using, exclusively, the process of democratic politics. Although I detest terrorism and the active and complicit support so many Sinn Féin members gave it, I take my hat off to Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness for the success with which they've steered Republicanism firmly, and with a great deal of personal skill and strategic insight, into the very centre of constitutional politics.

I also agree with the DUP that there has to be delivery on the ground soon. Jeffrey Donaldson's response yesterday was the most magnanimous towards SF that I've yet heard from his party, acknowledging that it was a major step for them and an important shift. So often in the past, I've been frustrated at Unionism's lukewarm, grudging response to Republican moves, but I felt a sizeable amount of recognition and respect in Jeffrey's reaction yesterday. That said, I agree with him on delivery, because words mean nothing unless implemented. As he said, when - at some time over the next couple of weeks - a crime is committed in west Belfast or mid-Ulster we need to see Sinn Féin encourage their people to cooperate fully with the policing and justice authorities.

Milestones always point somewhere.

The Equality Act

2007-01-26T09:07:00.000Z

Good on the Roman Catholic church in England in making a stand against the scandalous "Equality Act" rushed through Westminster by Tony Blur and his gang of postmodernist do-gooders. And good on the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in supporting Cardinal Murphy O'Connor.

The "Equality Act" isn't about race or creed, it deals exclusively with the rights of gay and lesbian people to be treated as if they were heterosexuals. When, in most cases, they're not. When the act becomes law on 1st April - and they couldn't have chosen a better date - Roman Catholic adoption agencies will break the law if they refuse to place a child with a gay or lesbian couple. Tony Blur has said the Catholic agencies may be given a 'period of grace' during which they can choose to adapt or close.

God help us. The civilised society we have in Great Britain and Ireland was designed and built, largely, by the Christian vision and efforts of men and women transformed by God's grace and based on his morality as revealed in scripture. Like it or not, we're living in the first 50 years of Western post-Christianity, and most of us are doing nothing about it. The legislative sluice-gates are opening a chink at a time, and no one should be surprised at what's coming out.

For the record, all people are of equal value and equal potential. I'm not against gay people. I'm just against acts of gay sex because scripture tells me it offends God, and that's not the way to social betterment, happiness and personal fulfilment.

Fifty years ago, acts of buggery were imprisonable offences. After 1st April an English hotelier will face prison if he doesn't allow it on his premises. Is this what our generation will be remembered for?

The O'Loan Report

2007-01-26T08:32:00.000Z

In the heat of partisan Northern Ireland politics I wanted to take time to form an impartial view of the Police Ombudsman's report on RUC collusion with loyalist terrorists in North Belfast.

Not easy. Nearly all Unionist politicians are decrying it because of sparseness of supporting factual evidence, nearly all Nationalist politicians are aghast and every Republican's crying victim. However, my politics - like most of my life - have never fitted neatly into anyone else's box. I like to be free to form whatever opinion my conscience suggests, based on Biblical Christian morals and the belief that everyone deserves respect and a decent life.

Nuala O'Loan's report is 165 pages long, and the best reading is after the Executive Summary. For me, there are two damning revelations: that RUC and Special Branch officers deliberately failed on many occasions (including 10 murders) to prosecute a major North Belfast terrorist and his cronies because they were informers, and that many retired senior police officers refused to cooperate with the ombudsman's investigation.

For as long as I can remember, the Protestant community in Northern Ireland has trusted the police force implicitly as being even-handed and fair. We've put Nationalist and Republican allegations of impropriety down to political opportunism and, to be truthful, dishonesty because our experience of the RUC was almost always different. The report suggests that such trust was misplaced. If its conclusions are correct, Protestants must now call that trust into question - as a matter of principle, but also because most of the ten murder victims were from the Unionist community.

For the same reason Nationalists and, in particular, Republicans must also question their inherited view that the RUC was sectarian. What sectarian organisation suffers the murder of its own people?

Clearly, major elements of the RUC and Special Branch operated inefficiently, negligently and to their own agenda regardless of the true needs and requirements of the people. They considered themselves above the law, and by any moral, democratic or legal standards this was scandalous.

The report tables no specific evidence to support its conclusions, and this is what Unionists are moaning about. The ombudsman says the evidence cannot be allowed to enter the public domain as that could prejudice future criminal trials. There's an obvious answer: start the trials immediately. Try "Informant 1" & co. for murder, torture, extortion and drug-dealing, and try the individual police officers for perverting the course of justice. For those still in service, subject them to full internal disciplinary proceedings as well.

As a member of the Protestant community in Fermanagh, though, I do have to swallow hard when I see Martin McGuinness, the (ex-) IRA leader, pontificating about human rights, but the RUC should have been whiter than white and it wasn't.

Hugh Orde and the UK government are quick to highlight the PSNI reforms, but I want to see full implementation of Chris Patten's proposals. I also want to see the Sinn Féin ard fheis on Sunday come down strongly in favour of full commitment to policing and justice, including "policing the police" via the local policing boards. If we'd had full community accountability in the 90's, including the able involvement Sinn Féin's highly politicised members are able to provide, this collusion may well not have happened.

Police Ombudsman's report

2007-01-23T11:35:00.000Z

Going by the media reports and the governments' reactions, Nuala O'Loan's report is damning in the extreme, but I want to read it for myself. You can too.

I've reached Point 3 of the Executive Summary, and frankly I'm utterly appalled. The spelling is terrible: who ever heard of "anonomised"? It's "anonymised". And the plural of Assistant Chief Constable isn't Assistant Chief Constable's.

It's time to take the apostrophe out of Irish politics. More later.

Big foot

2007-01-20T14:32:00.000Z

I see Prince Charles has cancelled his ski-ing holiday in order to reduce his 'carbon footprint'. Why doesn't he just get wooden skis, and maybe make them a bit shorter?

Oh brother!

2007-01-18T10:36:00.000Z

All the media furore about racism on Big Brother make me retch, mainly because so much reporting of it includes quotes which actually aren't racist at all. Although there do seem to have been one or two remarks betraying a certain prejudice against non-Anglo-Saxons, a lot of the furore is over people being generally horrid to the poor girl. That said, calling someone a liar is not racist. Let's not get to the point where, à la Israel, you can't criticise non-European people without being branded a xenophobe.

Let me be up front: I've never watched Big Brother and I never want to. It's a stupid format designed to whip up publicity for its producers by exploiting and demeaning participants who, frankly, should have better things to do with their time (my view, and I'm entitled to it).

Adams at Ervine funeral

2007-01-18T10:25:00.000Z

Who would have thought it possible - even 2 years ago - that the Sinn Féin leader (and widely assumed former chief of staff of the Provisional IRA) would venture into arch-Loyalist east Belfast to sit in a Protestant mission church and commiserate with the widow of an ex-UVF terrorist turned visionary politician?

I've criticised Republicans (and others) here, but credit where it's due: Gerry Adams did a Big thing by attending David Ervine's funeral.

Do you or don't you?

2007-01-05T21:39:00.000Z

That was the message Martin McGuiness sent Ian Paisley this afternoon when he threw down the gauntlet. You could almost hear it. "So, Ian, what's it gonna be, boy?"

In the charade that is Northern Irish politics - at least among the party leaders - that great game of cat and mouse, of counter and counter-counter, what is the DUP's position? Let's remember: Paisley started this process off in Stormont with a speech that was as unequivocal as Paul Rankin is publicity-shy. Arguably, Blair has assembled all the hints, all the non-denials, and packaged them up into a statement which - I bet - was agreed with Sinn Féin from Florida as a straw man for Ian to be put under pressure to deny - or implicitly accept. Tactically, you gotta admire it.

Challenging Paisley to accept Blur's assessment or face the inconvenience of denying it, thereby implying duplicity in his own actions, also takes the heat off Sinn Féin and its undeniable difficulties in persuading its grass roots. So that too makes me smile a wry smile.

But, chess games apart, in truth I think we'd all like to know where the Doc stands. So, Ian: deal or no deal?

UPDATE: The DUP despatched Jeffrey Donaldson over the weekend to say that he reckons it's odds-on for a deal in 2007. I think we need to hear the Doc speak on this one, lest cynics see it as a watery placation by Mr Expendable.

Don't look back in anger

2007-01-05T10:15:00.000Z

Nothing can bring back those who died during the 'Troubles'. It's 31 years today since ten ordinary factory workers were shot to death in the back of a Ford Transit in an event later to be known as the Kingsmill Massacre.

They were killed simply because they were Protestants - no other reason - in retaliation for the deaths of five men the night before who happened to be Roman Catholic.

Watch the video linked off this BBC news page. It should be on the syllabus in every school in Ireland. Just like Greysteel, Kingsmill makes me angry because, despite what the IRA would have us believe, this aspect of the 'Troubles' wasn't war: it was the outright slaughter of innocents in an atmosphere of pure evil.

The job of our generation is to ensure we never again slide to those depths. Much as I detest what the IRA (and all terrorists) did, it's Bigger for Unionists now to listen and try to understand the Republican psyche than to alienate them once again. And it's Big to set an example. I trust there'll be now show of weapons in Bessbrook today.

No taunting

2007-01-04T16:38:00.000Z

No, I'm not on about Saddam's execution. The Sinn Féin leadership is clearly having difficulty marshalling its rank-and-file supporters behind St Andrews. This, as I say, will take time - in fact if it didn't it would lack credibility.

Ian Paisley Jnr is in the wings shouting, "I think you can smell the panic in Sinn Fein from this latest statement. They know what republicans have to do".

Look, son, if you want them to deliver stop taunting them like a spoilt schoolchild. Give them time and show a bit of restraint and mature understanding because, believe you me, the Hell scenario here is not continued English rule, it's Gerry, Martin and Gerry saying yes while half the Republican movement splinters off into active service units.

Grow up.