Wonderful news; power-sharing in a devolved Northern Ireland administration will begin on 8 May. I’m rather surprised, as it looked to me as if the DUP would delay agreement at least for a few days. I suspect at least part of the reason the UK could make a credible ‘now or never’ threat was the fact that Gordon Brown was more than willing to cut the purse strings to the assembly. Bravo to one and all.
{ 19 comments }
Swan 03.26.07 at 5:37 pm
OT
What explains the failure of the mainstream media to cover the purge scandal for so long, and so many other scandals? Do you think somebody just set up newspaper editors to cheat on their wives, and threatened to tell if the editors wouldn’t play ball when they come back some day and ask for something?
It wouldn’t be that hard to do, when you think about it. People wouldn’t talk about it.
P O'Neill 03.26.07 at 8:23 pm
I share your surprise and now wonder if there was a bit more “choreography” in The ProcessTM (Slugger joke) from late last week than the real-time media reports would have indicated — in particular the apparently diffident initial reactions of SF and Bertie to the DUP counterproposal to delay the functioning of the executive until May. And Brown was also holding not only the purse strings of the Assembly, but a few hundred thousand water bills that were going to go out in the absence of an agreement. Nothing like common agreement on “free” water to concentrate minds.
Dale Sunning & Anne F.O'Blacht 03.26.07 at 8:26 pm
Well, isn’t it a good thing that the protagonists (SF and the DUP) took their strong stand against Gerry Fitt, the Stickies, Terence O’Neill, and Faulkner.
God only knows what disaster might have ensued.
Dale Sunning & Anne F.O'Blacht 03.26.07 at 8:29 pm
I’m having problems getting my post published. Can I claim sectarian discrimination?
Doug 03.26.07 at 9:21 pm
3 & 4, apparently not.
As for the topic of the post, let’s hope the deal holds…
Tom Doyle 03.27.07 at 1:22 am
“As for the topic of the post, let’s hope the deal holds…”
From your mouth to G-d’s ears!
as we Irish say.
Maria, thanks for the news. Reading it, I “came all over queer.” Goose bumps, verge of tears, etc. Heh Heh. It passed quickly, but still, I’m a third generation Irish-American, for goodness sake. Tom, you’re not right in the head!
Siochain
Mary Catherine Moran 03.27.07 at 4:10 am
It’s good news, yes. I’d hold off before calling it wonderful. I guess I don’t quite understand the long-term implications of devolution. What’s the end game? I am also thinking of Scotland (and would also be thinking of Wales, maybe, except that Emerson tells me the Welsh do not actually exist).
ejh 03.27.07 at 9:38 am
So does Simon Heffer.
dearieme 03.27.07 at 1:32 pm
Handed to a bigot and a murderer: which part of the USA would you like to visit with this fate?
EWI 03.27.07 at 1:46 pm
the Stickies
…ah, yes, that “most useful” group to the British during the Dirty War. And several now further to the right than even the “Lefty” Hitchens; Eoghan Harris (once he’d finished David Trimble off) has/is an advisor of some sorts to Adhmed Chalabi, if Phoenix Magazine is correct.
EWI 03.27.07 at 1:47 pm
the Stickies
…ah, yes, that “most useful” group to the British during the Dirty War. And several now further to the right than even the “Lefty” Hitchens; Eoghan Harris (once he’d finished David Trimble off) was/is an advisor of some sorts to Adhmed Chalabi, if Phoenix Magazine is correct.
Richard A 03.27.07 at 2:21 pm
The “peace process” – its way greased by government blackmail and lies – has marginalised moderate parties, delivered 1.5m people into the hands of fanatics, murderers and bigots, and opened the way to a Lebanese-style sectarian spoils system without any kind of genuine accountability.
It’s great that the bombings have stopped, but it’s nothing to cheer about.
Dale Sunning and Anne F.O'Blacht 03.27.07 at 2:45 pm
“ah, yes, that “most useful†group to the British during the Dirty War.”
Freestater, I grew up in housing estates with three-foot high graffiti saying ‘informers will be shot’. I don’t need lectures from you.
“And several now further to the right than even the “Lefty†Hitchens; Eoghan Harris (once he’d finished David Trimble off)”
I guess the feud in the 1970s and the Provies’ armed campaign ’til the mid-1990s is OK then, ‘cos a Sindo editor went neocon.
Seeing as you have an article from Searchlight on your own blog about a neo-fascist, who was a member of the Sinn Fein executive as recently as *2003*, trying to infiltrate the AoH, I fail to see how Eoghan Harris’s random walks form a post-hoc justification for Ruairi O’Bradaigh and Joe Cahill forming the Provies.
Dale Sunning and Anne F.O'Blacht 03.27.07 at 3:20 pm
‘I suspect at least part of the reason the UK could make a credible ‘now or never’ threat was the fact that Gordon Brown was more than willing to cut the purse strings to the assembly. Bravo to one and all.’
Actually, it seemed the reverse to me: in the papers, both Paisley and Adams were making such similar comments to the press about Norn Iron needing more dough to make the settlement work and saying that NIO had given them assurances that Treasury would not stand in the way, that it felt almost choreographed. (Damn those Evil Brit Oppressors, with their enormous subsidies!)
Lee Brimmicombe-Wood 03.27.07 at 4:54 pm
(Damn those Evil Brit Oppressors, with their enormous subsidies!)
Speaking as an evil Brit oppressor, when can we stop paying for this?
Dale Sunning and Anne F.O'Blacht 03.27.07 at 6:22 pm
“Speaking as an evil Brit oppressor, when can we stop paying for this?”
Silence, colonialist! Don’t you feel any sensitivity to this historic occasion as Orange and Green settle their differences, moving on from horror and pain in a common goal of fleecing the UK Treasury.
The ghosts of the 1847 famine victims and republican martyrs like Wolfe Tone cry out for justice in the form of heroic blows against Imperialism by doing the double, selling red diesel with the dye removed, larger Sports Centers, and nice wee jobs in Stormont (whose cafeteria in the aim of sectarian unity should be called the Bobby Sands Memorial Dining Suite, with the George Seawright Memorial Hygenic Incinerator nearby for food waste).
And don’t you go trying collecting VAT in South Armagh, either.
P O'Neill 03.27.07 at 8:24 pm
Slugger has a nice on-point story for the last couple of comments. It’s from a Garrett Fitzgerald opinion piece in today’s Irish Times —
So, after signing the agreement with me on November 15th, 1985, when we went upstairs in Hillsborough Castle to celebrate our achievement with a glass of champagne, Thatcher reacted negatively to a reference I made to an arrangement by which our two permanent representatives to the EU were to propose to their colleagues that their states each make a substantial national contribution to a Northern Ireland peace fund, outside the framework of the EU budget.
I had personally secured the agreement of almost all other heads of government to this proposal. The instant reaction demonstrated how little unionist sentiment she shared: “What! More money for these people? Look at their roads! Look at their schools! I need that money for my people!â€
The approach in Brussels was instantly cancelled, and Northern Ireland lost what might have been several hundred million pounds in aid.
franck 03.28.07 at 1:28 pm
There is a time-honored way for a state to stop paying for an overseas province it finds intolerable. Give it independence (whether it wants it or not) and/or make sure it is subsumed in a neighboring state.
I’d suggest lee look into Irish nationalism as a convenient way to lessen the strain on his pocketbook.
Dale Sunning and Anne F.O'Blacht 03.28.07 at 2:35 pm
“There is a time-honored way for a state to stop paying for an overseas province it finds intolerable. Give it independence (whether it wants it or not) and/or make sure it is subsumed in a neighboring state.
I’d suggest lee look into Irish nationalism as a convenient way to lessen the strain on his pocketbook.”
I was sure I heard Gordon Brown whisper “Tiocfaidh a la” recently.
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