Over two thousand people watched the first live Belfast City Council meeting on the Internet last night. Sinn Féin were probably a bit nervous about it as the Mayor Niall Ó Donnghaile (26) was going to be roasted over his refusal to meet a 14 years old member of the (British) Cadet Force.

A willing mob resembling the mob from the American cartoon show “The Simpsons” descended on Springfield City Hall to protest Mayor Quimby……oops I mean Belfast City Hall to protest Mayor Ó Donnghaile.

As it turned out, inside the City Hall it was all very civil. Niall was indeed roasted by the unionist parties and protected (like kindly uncles) by his Sinn Féin colleagues. But he had apologised for causing offence and everybody wanted to move on……he did have to survive a lecture from his Deputy Mayor Ruth Patterson……who ironically on principle does not shake hands with her own Mayor or his Sinn Féin colleagues……..but even she said “he is young……and will learn from this”.

So we moved on……it’s Christmas after all. We have a great big sign on the City Hall wishing everyone a happy Christmas…….and seemingly An Cultúrlann (the Irish Language Centre in West Belfast) is offering a great big sign in Gaelic “Nollaig Shona Duit” to go in the City Hall grounds.  A lovely gesture…….and not costing the Council anything. Who could possibly object? ……..well Deputy Mayor Ruth Patterson and her DUP and UUP colleagues. In an act denounced as “bad faith”, the so called middle of the road Alliance Party (who hold the balance of power in the City Hall) sided with the republicans in Sinn Féin and SDLP. And as a consequence we will have a Gaelic “Nollaig Shona Duit”.

Yet this is typically Belfast. A week that began with an argument based on the Mayor’s inability or unwillingness to look a “foreign” (British) cadet force member…ended with an argument based on the Deputy Mayors inability or unwillingness to look at a sign in a “foreign” (Irish) language. The great difference is that the Mayor got it wrong and apologised. To quote Cllr Ruth Patterson again……..”he is young ……and will learn from this”. Or put it another way ………”Ruth Patterson is middle aged………and will not learn from this”.

The mob comprising Comic Book Guy, Ned Flanders and Krusty the Clown all returned home. But inside the City Hall their politicians had snatched Defeat from the Jaws of Victory.

Yet at Stormont, Sinn Féin and DUP and the other Parties) talk about our “Shared Future”…….a meaningless phrase as we have not had a shared past.

We really make too much of “Shared Future” as something that is defined for us by the “lets get alongerist” community. My future is shared……..with those that choose to share it. It is a micro thing. And if everybody did that…….would there really be a problem?

Yet a Shared Future is too often taken to mean that this is where History ends. The End of (Irish) History. We should, we are told accept that there is no History to be made in the Future. Just get on with it  and effectively stop working towards any Aspiration. As unionists have effectively attained their Aspiration in 1922, and nationalists have effectively been chipping away and undermining that aspiration for as long……then accepting that History has stopped is more suited to unionism…..lets be frank here the unionists saw the Good Friday Agreement as a barrier to a united Ireland. Nationalists see the opposite. The Good Friday Agreement is the bridge to a united Ireland. It follows that the outworking of that Agreement should be influenced by these different mindsets.

I dont think unionism has every really understood the full outworking of “parity of esteem”. Indeed as I said in 1998 when David Trimble signed up to Parity of Esteem……it was the great “Gotcha” moment. Unionism is not compatible with Parity. When Trimble signed up to Parity of Esteem, he signed away Unionism.There was no turning back from that……….eg Irish language, the full ramifications of Irishness, ……..a Shared Future has at times been seen by me at least as a unionist device to regulate, codify and limit Parity of Esteem.

At the beginning of this week, the Mayor of Belfast tried to impose a limit on Parity of Esteem and was loudly and rightly condemned. People marched to the City Hall to protest. Mayor apologises. He got it wrong (and thats the very best interpretation that can be put on it) Yet the week ended with unionists trying to limit Parity of Esteem with the Christmas message debacle.

Is that a Shared Future? A young Protestant/unionist woman can be marginalised in the City Hall. Seemingly thats put right. But Irish speaking citizens can be marginalised….they speak a “foreign language” after all (as one unionist councillor put it). If the Shared Future is one where the Mayor must put aside his position on a uniform he sees as foreign then it has to include one where unionists cant get worked up about a “foreign language”. To accept the first and reject the second would mean that the outworking of a Shared Future is indeed “unionist” in tone.