A Tangled Web

Pan-Nationalism Resurrected



At the time of writing I am listening to a telephone link-up with Alistair McDonnell of the SDLP on RTE's Saturday View radio programme. In McDonnell's view, all the blame for lack of agreement at Leeds Castle must be laid at the door of the DUP. Despite seeing the majority community continually shafted over the last six years in the name of deal conceived by his ex-party leader, any effort to reintroduce some ingredients of democracy back into the 'peace process' is met with the utmost ire from this representative of nationalist Ireland.



If the DUP went to Leeds to avoid being the victims of the blame game, they were wasting their time. For this process, nothing short of a catalyst capable of delivering outright nationalist constitutional victory would suffice. To avoid blame, Ulster Unionism must continuously acquiesce in its own destruction. For Sinn Fein/IRA and their 'maids and butlers' in the SDLP, only the sight of Dr Paisley leading the entire Unionist population over the Gobbins on Islandmagee would satisfy their desires. Unionists can never win in a peace process wholly tailored to meet the demands of Irish nationalism. That is why the DUP and the Ulster Unionists should not only resist attempts to entice them back into this charade, but additionally ignore the gnarled finger of blame emanating from pure Irish vitriol.