WELL, that’s that, then. Sinn Féin may be the second biggest party in the South,but that doesn’t mean  they’ll get to play with the Big Boys in government.  Both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have made it clear they will not serve in a coalition that includes Sinn Féin.

Have they given a reason? Well, yes and no. They’ve said why, but the reasons they give  have more holes in them than a sieve.

Simon Harris figures it’s a matter of “core principles”: "We will not go into government with Sinn Féin. It's not a personal thing, Mary Lou McDonald is a passionate advocate for her policies, we just have very different views."

In other words, just because. However, his predecessor Leo Varadkar, was more precise in 2022. Mary Lou for Taoiseach?

“I don't think we can have a Taoiseach in this country who is unable to say that the killing of innocent children, guards, prison officers, members of Defence Forces, is not a crime.”

This of course echoes the views of Maggie Thatcher on the IRA: “Crime is crime is crime. It is not political, it is crime.”

Given this Thatcher/Varadkar stand, it’s fair to wonder what Varadkar thought of his party’s great hero, Michael Collins, whose portrait hung for years in the office of FG Taoiseach Enda Kenny. 

In August 1920, under direct orders from Collins, Detective Inspector Oswald Ross Swanzy was shot dead as he left a service in the Cathedral in Lisburn.

On the morning of November 20, 1920, Collins sent his Squad of men to different parts of Dublin City, where at 9am exactly, they shot dead 14 British agents, some of them in their beds. 

At Ballyseedy in Kerry in 1923, the Free State National Army took nine republicans from their prison in Tralee, where they had been beaten with a hammer, tied them around a landmine and exploded the landmine. Eight were blown to bits, one survived.

Does Leo Varadkar, does Simon Harris, consider Michael Collins a mass murderer?

As for Micheál Martin, the Fianna Fáil leader said his party had made “ a policy decision” not to share power with Sinn Féin. He figures “Sinn Fein’s housing policy would mean delay, disruption and higher prices at the end of the day." It’s reasonable that Micheál would favour his own party’s housing plans, although he doesn’t explain why his would be better than Sinn Féin’s. And of course he doesn’t explain why he didn’t put into action his cunning housing plan during his five years in government with Fine Gael. 

But it’s not just housing. Here’s Micheál again: "My focus is on uniting people, Protestant, Catholic and dissenter, and that's always been my creed... Let's build reconciliation.”

Hard to argue with such resounding republican sentiments. Except that Micheál is effectively saying that we must have reconciliation among all parties before we can move towards national unity.

For the love of God, Micheál, would you take out your tattered copy of the Good Friday Agreement and have a read? When a majority of people North and South vote for a reunified Ireland it will happen. We don’t  have to wait, and we’d be fools to wait, until every last unionist was converted to reunification. 

If we did that, we’d be handing  a veto to a hardcore minority in the North (and maybe in the South as well). All such a minority would have to do is keep repeating “No, we don’t want Irish unity!” and reunification plans would have to be tossed in the rubbish bin. 

So God help us if we’re waiting for Micheál Martin to follow Leo Varadkar’s advice and plan for a border poll. As long as there’s a Sammy Wilson or an Ian Paisley or a Jim Allister, Micheál will shirk his duty and insist on their conversion before a reunited Ireland can be planned for, let alone happen.