Opinion

SQUINTER: Will City Hall show its UVF wreath teeth?

BELFAST City Council says its officials will meet with party group leaders this week to discuss the placing of a UVF wreath at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday. And quite a wreath it was, too, now being one of the only three things on Earth visible from the moon, alongside the Great Wall of China and Jamie Bryson’s bald spot. Of course it’s right that moves are made to ensure that there’s no repeat next year and it is to be hoped that the promised discussions will ensure that that’s the case. But Squinter doesn’t think it’s a done deal by any means, because, let’s see now, what’s the best way to put this?... Well, unionism wasn’t a bit bothered by the wreath. There wasn’t a single person who advocates Our Precious Union® who spoke out to say that a tribute to an illegal loyalist paramilitary organisation has no place at official poppy commemorations. Far from it. When the story went up online the stock response from the loyal side of the aisle is that the Ulster Volunteer Force fought in World War I and UVF members died in their thousands. That claim is what is known in Ulster-Scots as complete balls. UVF members who fought in the war signed up to the 36th (Ulster) Division and died as British soldiers in a British regiment. Same happened with the Irish Volunteers who, at the urging of John Redmond, flocked to their death by joining the 10th (Irish) Division and the 16th (Irish) Division. Which means that the UVF wreath should read 36th (Ulster) Division, which would not only be accurate, but would be much less offensive to the families of the many Catholics who were killed by the, ah, UVF. One bloke got back to Squinter and observed: “Basic knowledge of history would know the correlation between the UVF and WWI. Putting the words ‘36th Ulster Division’ on the wreath is just a waste of money. Everyone knows which division is being remembered.”

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SHAKESPEARE never hesitated to contradict himself. In Macbeth he has King Duncan declare: “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face” – there’s no way of gauging a person by just looking at them. In Julius Caesar he has Caesar declare: “Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look /He thinks too much; such men are dangerous” – he distrusts skinny, intense Cassius for being a thinker and thus dangerous. Could there be a better description of Dominic Cummings than that second one? The appalling clothes, the thin, hungry face, the eyes swivelling above a tight, determined mouth – you could see that he not only wanted to win the Brexit vote, he wanted to kick over the tables of British institutions in general. Not the kind of man you’d want to meet in a dark alley without a hurley stick in your hand.

GRÁINNE NÍ GHILÍN: SEAS agus slán le MTS

Tá súile cearnógacha ar na stocairí stuama a chaith lá iomlán os comhair an scáileáin i gcruinnithe Zoom an tseachtain seo ag iarraidh a chur ina luí ar pholaiteoirí gur gá gníomhú go gasta lena chinntiú go mbeidh cearta teanga á gcosaint agus seirbhísí poiblí ar fáil i nGaeilge don phobal sna sé chontae. Is é Conradh na Gaeilge a d’eagraigh an lá stocaireachta fíorúil, SEAS, agus ba shnasta, dhea-eagraithe mar oibríocht é. Cuireadh tús le sraith de chruinnithe Zoom ar a hocht ar maidin agus lean siad ar aghaidh go dtí beagnach a sé a chlog tráthnóna. Ar an drochuair, chaill Comhaltaí Tionóil aontachtacha amach ar an deis tuiscint níos fearr a chur ar riachtanais phobal na Gaeilge nuair nár ghlac siad páirt in imeachtaí an lae, ach bhí Claire Sugden, Comhalta neamhspleách toilteanach bualadh linn.

ELLY ODHIAMBO: Lorry driver John provides a different view of the migrant crisis

PRESIDENT Donald Trump is continuing to undermine the confidence of Americans in their electoral democracy. He has refused to accept defeat, he and the millions who voted for Trump believe that Joe Biden did not win fair and square. Is Donald Trump preparing America and the world for a US civil war? If this was an African country, journalists would be nodding their heads in admission that another bloody conflict is in the offing and thousands of refugees will be streaming to the global south. Conflict is a push factor of migration and right now many parts of Africa are receiving African Americans who are settling in Africa. They have been returning to their original homeland where their ancestors came from in unprecedented scale during the slave trade. But if the current trend of American trauma continues, if the racial conflict goes on, there will be killing fields that have been sparked off by the 2020 election: the powder keg election.

REV KAREN: Kamala’s victory has sent a message of hope

THE sound of the glass ceiling smashing echoed around the world as Kamala Harris was elected Vice President of the United States. We watched as the first bi-racial, multi-ethnic woman announced: “While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last, because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.” Whether we agree with her politics or not, no-one can deny it was an historic moment. Historic for every female.Historic for every leader.Historic for every race.Historic for every little girl who dreams about her future.Historic for America. Historic for the world. I don’t know about you, but I want Ireland to be a country of possibilities. Not least because I am married to a Malaysian-Indian. We have three children, two of them girls. We sat up late to watch Kamala’s speech, during which I looked at my girls and said: “She is paving the way for you. Don’t let anything or anyone ever hold you back.” With the recent remarks made by Lord Kilclooney, after which he was accused of racism, we were once again hurled into the cold stark reminder that the problem is alive and well.

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ANDRÉE MURPHY: We were Dublin royalty in Mr Finnegan’s shop

IT would be mid-November when we would be got from school and she would bring us to get something for the dinner. You knew when she saw the turnips that we would be going to the pork shop. She got the pork chops with a bit of kidney in them. They were gorgeous with turnip. With them tucked into the bottom of the pram we went towards the dome of delights. I loved the hardware shop. Even the smell of it. A combination of leather from the straps, wood from the brooms we called twigs, and the different oils used to cut the keys and sharpen the knives. And there was everything in there. From the shelves that needed ladders to get near anything, to the floor filled with so many items from silver bins to cast iron fire buckets. My mam had to leave the pram outside. “Ah, you will want sugar soap, isn’t it that time again already, Mrs Murphy?” My mother was only in her early 20s and had had me when she was 16, so she was normally called by her first name by older people. But not in the hardware shop, whose owner Mr Finnegan treated everyone who walked through the door like an Egyptian princess purchasing emeralds.

GERRY ADAMS: Partition disasters to be exposed in unity benefits publication

IN four weeks we will mark 100 years since the Government of Ireland Act, which partitioned Ireland, was signed into law by an English King. Six years earlier James Connolly, writing in the Irish Worker in March 1914, warned that partition would mean “a carnival of reaction both north and south, would set back the wheels of progress, would destroy the oncoming unity of the Irish Labour movement and paralyse all advanced movements whilst it endured. To it Labour should give the bitterest opposition...” The northern state that emerged following partition delivered all that Connolly feared. Political unionism and its business class built an apartheid ‘Orange State’ on sectarian divisions. They turned worker against worker and introduced a system of structured political and economic discrimination which continues to impact on northern society today. Partition also inflicted great hurt on the southern economy. Places like Sligo and Monaghan and Derry, Dundalk and Newry were separated from their natural economic hinterland by an artificial border. Along the 300 miles of border farmers were cut off from their land; neighbours from neighbours; families from their relatives; businesses from their customers.

WE SAY: Short-termism a Covid disaster

THE deeply unsatisfactory compromise arrived at last Friday on Covid restrictions must qualify as one of the shortest distances a can has ever been kicked down any road. Even before the rancour has subsided, even as the blame is still being angrily apportioned, we are back at the point where another agreement must be reached, another deadline met. If anyone thought or hoped that the DUP would be chastened by an outraged public response to their decision to deploy a veto twice to block an agreement on restrictions by the other four parties, they were to be disappointed. Party leader Arlene Foster on Tuesday said she hoped that a decision on restrictions could be arrived at by Friday in a “collaborative, collegiate way” but refused to rule out the use of the veto mechanism for a third time. Last week four out of the five parties agreed to a restrictions template put forward by Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride and Health Minister Robin Swann; the DUP alone objected. It appears that unfortunately Mrs Foster is under the impression that a “collaborative and collegiate” process is the same as a unanimous one, which it is not.

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SQUINTER: Cowboys and Indians for the internet age

JOHN Taylor – Lord Kilclooney to the villagers and the help – is in familiarly hot water this week. Which is where he likes to spend his leisure time, seemingly, and given the frankly bonkers nature of his social media output, he most likely has a large brandy in his hand as he turns up the jacuzzi with the other. Cast your mind back to 2017 when Taylor tweeted of Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney after the Fine Gael man said he’d like to see a united Ireland: “Clearly hoping to undermine the Indian.” (The then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s father is Indian.) Around the same time he accused “Irekabd”, “Irekand” and “Southern Urekand” of “scheming” a united Ireland with the EU. Hic. Wha’? Taylor withdrew the “Indian” tweet, claiming he had only used the word as shorthand and had been misunderstood. Some people nodded gravely and accepted his reversal, but the vast majority settled back and waited for the next Alf Garnett moment.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Letter to Brussels is a welcome act of pragmatism

MICHELLE O’Neill’s and Arlene Foster’s extraordinary joint letter to Brussels on the application of the Withdrawal Agreement’s joint protocol to trade between Ireland and Britain should have stopped the political lights this week. The last time Brussels received such a letter it was co-signed by the late Martin McGuinness just after the 2016 Brexit vote. Since then, such has been the division between the parties that joint letters were impossible. However, circumstances are so severe that the two parties have now jointly expressed significant concern to Brussels. The letter, written under the terms of the joint protocol, addresses its current application and raises the real prospect that after Christmas trade between Britain and Ireland will be so severely impacted that basic day-to-day groceries will become unavailable and major supermarkets may pull out of the north altogether. This is a credible fear as Britain becomes a third country in international trade terms and food goods arriving on the island of Ireland, which will remain under EU regulations, from Britain will need complex and significant paperwork to ensure regulations are being met. That will cost those transporting the food so much that it may become cost ineffective and they will cease trade altogether. That is such a real prospect that it’s already being planned for by major supermarkets. Quite simply, the shelves may well become empty of goods and food we have become accustomed to. There are some who are very worried that the joint letter lets London off the hook in the trade negotiations. Right now, we know that London has been typically misbehaving in the negotiations and that substantive progress remains elusive. And right now, all blame for the madness is put squarely at the doors of Westminster and the DUP-Tory axis. So, the worry is that the joint ministers writing to Brussels eases the diplomatic pressure on Britain. That is fair analysis, but there are other factors to consider. London doesn’t care if English suppliers can or cannot trade to the north of Ireland, so that may not be a significant bargaining chip in the first place. The Tories don’t care if Marksies or Tesco continue in the north of Ireland.

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SQUINTER: Will City Hall show its UVF wreath teeth?

DR MICHAEL DONNELLY: Let's not see our relatives for Christmas only to bury them in the New Year

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