It’s a strange thing that it is all going a bit wrong at the moment because clearly the two tribes….the sectarian nasty people….who are very different from me….have not read the script.
The Loyalists….who are out on the streets rioting think they are losing.
The Republicans who are smirking at their TV sets think they are winning.
They are of course…idiots. I am a letsgetalongerist and therefore more intelligent and morally superior to sectarian bigots.
The Good Friday Agreement…lets start there. Creative Ambiguity. Everybody thought they had won. Of course it was all wishful thinking. Everybody knew it was all a Big Lie. They went into the polling stations knowing that…but wishful thinking that it was all about Peace. But also a hope that the politicians had got it right. That it was all better for R-wuns than it was for Themmuns.
Of course it actually helped that nothing actually happened since the Good Friday Agreement. No Irish Language Act…well that doesn’t affect me cos I am a letsgetalongerists. And obviously there has been nothing done about Victims….so I am obviously far too posh to know any poor people who actually died…and even more obviously don’t know any police victims….and do I look like the kinda person who would know anybody in the Ulster Defence Regiment in County Armagh. Of course I am not completely insensitive…I love hearing stories from victims. I am a passionate believer in giving a voice to victims. Indeed I would like to be part of a highly paid group of people who sit around listening to victims.
But the past couple of months I seem to have lost …control. The Republicans are sucked into the process but have absolutely nothing to show for it..except of course some chauffeur driven Skodas. The Belfast Telegraph has been assuring me that everything was going in my direction. The Alliance Party is on a roll and the DUP and UUP are reaching out to Catholics and the Census has been brilliant.
The Republicans are not punching their weight in terms of votes or even in terms of designating themselves as IRISH. But something has gone wrong.
All the Republicans had left to them was to haul down the Flagg at the City Hall. and my friends in the Alliance Party got involved. The way I see it, that was purely symbolic because that was actually a sign of republican impotency but the loyalists who are equally stupid and actually thought it was a sign of power. And bizarrely the Alliance Party didn’t get any credit at all….in fact they got the blame. Which is of course very unfair because the Alliance Party are exactly like me…and obviously don’t deserve to get bricks thru their windows. That’s the kinda thing that happens to sectarian householders in the Short Strand…I have passed the Short Strand a few times on the bus to Holywood.
But let’s be frank here…nobody I know joined the Alliance Party in the expectation of getting a brick thru the front window.
So how exactly do we get back to the situation that puts me back on top. After all the Meek shall inherit the Earth…or at least Norn Iron.
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 
I did laugh and like this post a lot FJH.
Now that we are some 6 weeks into this debacle and the dust is somewhat settling on where everyone stands how do you see the lay of the land (I know, a post all of its own, right?)? Winners, losers, what does it hold for the future seeing as we have St Patricks day and the marching season coming up.
To be honest…I don’t know.
And I think nobody else really knows.
There is certainly paranoia in the loyalist world.
There is Hysteria in letsgetalongerists/liberal unionist circles.
And maybe nationalists are complacent.
It is bizarre how the narrative has changed so dramatically in just a few weeks.
It could change again.
When the dust settles, I will try and post something.
I think you are right re Nats. SDLP and SF played it right at the beginning by keeping the head below the parapet and letting unionism tear itself apart, now I think they need to pop the head up and steer this in such a way where we let unionism know this is how it is and there is no going back to what has passed.
I noted Gerry Adams’ piece on his own blog and in the Guardian and tbh, I thought it was frank and rational without resorting to polemics as seems to be the case with so many others. Time for Nationalism to come out and be heard (I know, a cliche) in a constructive way, highlighting how this decision is in fact a compromise, highlight the hypocrisy of the unionist position in light of the flying over Stormont or in Lisburn (the micro) and then we need to deal with the macro, how unionism and letsgetalongerism is suffering from buyers remorse and how they haven’t read the fine print of the GFA and where we will be going with regards to parity of esteem, something unionism has signed up to but never enacted or wanted.
I don’t think that it is the right time for Nationalists to say anything.
when SDLP and Sinn Fein both speak, there is an element of nuance.
for example Alex Maskey is already being criticised for saying that if he lived in the Short Strand and his house was attacked, he would defend it.
Few people would really disagree with that but I think he was unwise to say it as it opened up a line of attack that is actually a diversion from what is ACTTUALLY happening.
Yeah, not his wisest comments in many ways, however, it let people on the ground know he supports their right to defend himself and I imagine it hasn’t hurt his electoral chances among those most likely to vote for him tbh.
Granted, it’s a diversion from what is really going on, but that’s all it is, more riots this weekend and it will be chip wrapping.
Never ever forget the numbers that the protests are getting and at the same time, recall those massive crowds of unionists that used to come out.
Jim wilson et all bang on about how the DUP and UUP have left them behind. I’d assert that both parties endlessly play to such extremists and its the unionists, with a small u, that have been left behind by both parties. As an example, would your average, small u unionist give a toss about a happy Christmas sign in Irish? It takes a certain brand of bigoted effort to object to such a thing.
In all this insanity, remember those, the vast majority of unionists, who have no part in the demonstrations, come riot warm-up
I think that there is at least three wedges. There is one between the DUP and the Mob. There is a wedge IN the mob….between “Ulster” thugs and BNP type thugs.
but there’s a third wedge.
the Alliance Party are she’ll-shocked but their broader LetsGetAlongerist-liberal unionist cheerleaders can’t understand that loyalists have taken this as a defeat.
People have said that there is crisis in nationalism.
people have said that there is a crisis in unionism.
But there is a very real crisis in letsgetalongerism.
Only one thing wrong with this. On the Bus to Holywood should read in my Volvo on the way to Holywood.
I disagree…I thought that our LetsGetAlongerist would be much too friendly to the environment to bring his Volvo to work. Besides parking fees in Belfat are “just ghastly” and his wife needs the Vovo to bring the girl child to ballet class and the boy child to golf lessons.
In a coincidental but laughable case of Life imitating Art, a former resident of Holywood who often champions LetsGetAlongerist agenda has just written a piece for Slugger entitled “why does it always flare up at Short Strand”. Maybe if he rented a house there for six months.
I’m tempted to say that you couldn’t make it up….except of course I DID make it up last night.
Hmm…is why do rape victims always invite unwanted, violent sex? Next could be, who do women seek out husbands they want to beat them?
Volvo? That’s soooo 1980s… It’s the train fer me, every time!!
Excellent stuff FJH. Have you sent it to Mr Fealty? I have a feeling a certain mainstay of that house may object
I noticed Life imitating Art on Slugger today….there is a post specifically about the Short Strand. I have indeed sent an email to Mick Fealty pointing out the coincidence and wondering if a hat tip to my tongue in cheek post last night.
Although I have commented on that Slugger thread I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to draw attention to my own post on my own blog. I am….as you know…far too modest for my own good.
Would you not try to “fit” the Slugger narrative better? Remember I suggested a conciliatory pint in Ned’s so that we could all getalong better 😉
I am the Seagreen Incorruptible!!!!
Great to see Carl Marks giving Mick a go. Mick seems to be pushing a loyalist agenda of late,rather than a letsgetalongerists one. What’s that about?
I would only go along with that to an extent.
Any neutral would reasonably conclude that the loyalists have been the aggressors over the past six weeks, especially in relation to Short Strand. I would not…in this case …think that Mick is following a loyalist agenda…but rather making an attempt at so called “balance”. Necessarily in a discussion board, two cases are presented….we have seen the same on TV in say relation to Drumcree…..there is always two sides but sometimes the judgement has to made that one side is more guilty than the other.
Sometimes….being balanced gives equal weight to RIGHT and WRONG and splitting the difference as Mick is trying to do is not the right thing to do.
More obviously I think Mick is pushing the notion that the City Hall decision was actually a victory for unionists and a defeat for nationalists and that narrative that …dare I say…letsgetalongerism is more clever than unionists (who see it as a defeat) and nationalists (who see it as a victory).
In a longer term way, there is a creeping feeling on Slugger that the GFA can be seen as setting up a system which institutionalised unionism as slightly but crucially more equal than nationalism.
I think there is more evidence for that “charge”
Good lord! fealty is pushing the CNN report. For those who have not seen it, it shows the unionists being blocked by the cops and then running towards the Markets and then Short Strand. The curiously helmeted reporter then blames nationalists, who came out to defend their area, rightly so given that the cops were caught flat footed.
It’s on YouTube, if you want a laugh.
Looks like the Short Strand thread has been pulled. Wonder why?