Hollywood (California) should never be allowed to re-make movies like Casablanca or Gone With The Wind.
In the 1970s they did re-make the classic John Ford western, Stagecoach, with Bing Crosby in the role of the boozy doctor.
Nor should Holywood (County Down) re-make classic Political Dramas from the 1960s like Unionist Outreach. I am old enough to remember Terence O’Neill talking patronisingly about Catholics and sipping tea while visiting convents. It was O’Neill’s defining role. He was never quite the same afterwards.
Of course Sean Lemass the Taoiseach made a cameo appearance in the 1960s production. I dont think Simon Coveney the Irish Agriculture Minister has quite the same star quality.
Of course Ian Paisley made an appearance in the 1960s and effectively upstaged everyone with that throwing snowballs at Stormont slapstick. In 2012, I would have liked to see the Paisley role go to Jim Allister.
Of course the Belfast Telegraph loved Terence O’Neill. Even producing helpful little cut out coupons where readers could show support for O’Neill. History does not record if Peter Robinson completed a coupon. I suspect he didn’t.
Can we be that long before the Tele is asking us all to show support for Robbo? Indeed can be far off that Robbo will gaze into TV cameras to ask us all “What kind of Ulster do YOU want”.
Indeed “Unionist Outreach” is only relevant if you re-make the sequel “Ulster at the Crossroads”.
Reviews have been mixed. Mick Fealty on Stratagem-O’Toole seems convinced. But Brian Walker (wonder if he is any relation to film critic Alastair Walker….also a Norn Iron journo who went to London) seems more suspicious. He likes his unionists to be a bit more “conservative” and doesnt seem to like the DUP very much.
Will this one run and run?
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 
The first time as tragedy, thesecond time as farce.
Well I miss the Paisley slap-stick.
I think Peter would be better tapping the heels of his ruby heels together 3 times and keep repeating, “there’s no place like Ulster”,
Im just amazed people take Robinson seriously.
FJH I suspect Robbo’s speech on Saturday about reachout will be self destruct next saturday as he back’s marching by Apprentice Boys past chapels. But he’ll keep quiet this time as it’s too close only a week after the conference. Arlene Foster cvan’t give a straight interview these days without turning it into a desperate clingy puff piece about her wee country. She was positively orgiastic lasyt weelk about the G8 .
Well, unlike the Fealty’s of this world, proper journalists like Fionuala O’ Connor don’t.
Robinson has not given a interview to the Irish News in his five years as First Minister. Would that newspaper not be the best place to reach out to Catholics?
I hope you are not inferring that the hall wasn’t coming down with “Roman Catholics”? 🙂
Should we have a collection to send Mssrs Fealty, Baker et al on a wee trip to Dungiven, Derry, West Belfast, Dungannon, Nationalist north Belfast etc. for a reality check.
It’s not that Robinson comes off with this delusion, it’s that eejits push it as if it is the truth. At least Walker has a bit more sense http://sluggerotoole.com/2012/11/26/spare-us-a-new-long-game-of-political-numbers/
Your’s sincerely; the illegal immigrant.
In fairness, our world isnt their world….
“Liberal unionists” (in so far as there is such a thing) have a distaste for the DUP. After all the DUP brought down O’Neill……..and actually in part responsible for what we have in 2012. For a “liberal unionist”, they would have preferred liberal reforms in the 1960s…..and they would happily be sitting now on a porch in the North West Frontier of their beloved “Londonderry” sipping Pimms and playing croquet.
So Robinson and the DUP are not supposed to steal the “liberal unionist” clothes.
This i s hardly going to be enough for those Catholics whom we are told cant wait to vote Conservative.
A lot of commentators seem to have missed the point that this has only driven a further wedge into “unionism”……..UUP, Alliance, “Conservative”.
I think it is the non voters that are the interesting ones. For whom would a left leaning unionist vote? Not one. But Alliance? Well, despite their lies, they are, as they have been for years, aligned to a party which is implementing the most right wing agenda for a century or more.
Today, Conal Mc Devitt basically put out the same view as mine, that what a new Ireland will be and what form transition will take has not been yet laid out and who knows how, for they do exist, those Protestant unicorns will see things.
See, Northern Ireland doesn’t as a concept, work. That’s not nationalism, that’s just reality. Today, Jeffrey Donaldson asked if Dublin could afford the subvention. What in the name of all that is holy? This is where Wilson’s famous quote on NI trump’s Thatcher’s.
Whilst it is in the Scottish nationalist’s favour to make Scotland great, it is in unionist’s favour to keep NI weak, dependent on the taxes of the poor gits in the home counties. Is it a legitimate argument against a united Ireland Dublin will/can not throw us the hard earned taxation that London can? For a few years now the Taxpayers Alliance have been asking a few awkward questions and they do so rightly. In a few months the armageddon of the full cuts will hit the place hard, as Salmond knew when setting the date for the referendum on Scotland, and the romance of the relationship between Belfast and London will be shown for what it is, a herpes infection from a long forgotten relationship.
I take a long view. Unionism and Nationalism ebb and flow. They have done it thru my lifetime.
Before my lifetime.
After my lifetime too
Catholic support for DUP
Monday, 26 November 2012
DUP leader Peter Robinson said he believes the majority of Catholics in Northern Ireland are happy to remain part of the UK. Do you see this transferring into more Catholic votes for the DUP?
Yes – Catholics who want to maintain the strong links to mainland GB will vote for the biggest pro-Union party in Northern Ireland
23 (15%)
No – Catholics may be happy for NI to remain part of the UK for now but it will take more work for the DUP to translate that view into votes for their party
60 (39%)
No – I disagree with Peter Robinson’s view entirely. I believe most Catholics are still nationalist and would vote for a united Ireland
72 (46%)
Poll taken from the Belfast Newsletter.
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