A Tangled Web

Feeney Watch - 12.08.04



This week marks the final stage of Bigoted Bri's (BB) transformation from SDLP councillor to Sinn Fein supermouth. He commences his weekly drivel with a comment about Gerry Adams and his so-called pledge to remove the IRA to prevent the Unionists 'refusing to negotiate of work the institutions of the Good Friday (sic) Agreement.' And there's me thinking the IRA should be removed from the equation as a central demand of all those who believe in true democracy. Then again, I am not encumbered by the hallmark of most republicans - namely a twisted mind.



Bigoted Bri gives an almost commendatory analysis of Pat Doherty's enunciated codswallop at the Conference of National Self-Determination. BB omits to mention Doherty's piss-poor grasp of international law, or the issue of Doherty's position on the IRA Army Council. Mind you, as a Sinn Fein supermouth, I rather suspect BB would be loath to highlight the alter-egos of characters he assiduously defends at every given opportunity.



After the initial journalistic backslapping, BB turns his attention to Doherty's aspiration for the pro-Union people to 'seek an accommodation with the rest of the people of Ireland, etc, etc.' Let me stress, at this juncture, that neither Don Doherty or BB really seek an 'accommodation' in the purist sense of the word. One could argue - plausibly - that the outline of an accommodation was agreed a long time ago: i.e. nationalists would agree to make Northern Ireland a stable entity whilst Unionists would seek cooperation with the Republic on the same terms of commonality existing between neighbouring states. Given that Irish separatism did not come up to the mark, why should Unionists show any reciprocation?





No, in BB's lexicon, 'accommodation' means the same as it does with all the exponents of Irish nationalism - the absorption (contrary to popular will and legal protocol) of the Northern state into a 'united Ireland.' For nationalists, the conceptualisation of constitutional debate occurs within the attenuated geographical parameters of 'an island state of pure Irishness, enveloped by a cordon sanitaire of sea water protecting this Hibernian Valhalla from the neighbouring nefariousness of John Bull'. Republicans are incapable of living according to the democratic wishes of a clear majority of Northern Ireland's population. Instead, they expect Unionists to indulge in the wholesale surrender of their birthright and national residency.



Thus, in the bigots gospel according to BB, Unionism is all about supremacy and imperialism. It could not possibly have anything to do with the same nationalistic badge of identity which affects the emotions of just about every human being on the planet. Because, to admit as much, would be tantamount to acknowledging the Britishness of Unionists and their constitutionally legitimate, recognisable desires - the central tenet of the same Belfast Agreement Irish nationalism rushes to defend. And, as we all know, nationalism is only capable of taking concessions; it will not give them.