THE refusal of the DUP to send a representative to the inauguration of President Catherine Connolly came as no surprise to observers of the party. And make no mistake – a refusal it was, risible claims of diary clashes notwithstanding.
The DUP has generally earned its title of ‘the Nasty Party’ down through the years. But it can and does do outreach when the occasion demands. Arlene Foster – remembered now as an arch-regressive and a brake on political progress here – attended GAA and LGBTQ events, for instance, even if she signally lacked the will to kick on and build on those positive gestures. Education Minister Paul Givan has been more than willing to engage with the GAA, taking his outreach to a new level by actually participating in football and hurling for the cameras. His smiles and enthusiasm seemed distinctly natural and unforced.
But now Mr Givan has embroiled himself in an extraordinarily damaging political row over his visit to a school in the Palestinian occupied territories and his decision to get Department of Education staff involved in publicising it. Throw in the gasp-inducing decision of party leader Gavin Robinson to tweet a Parachute Regiment logo on the day of the Soldier F acquittal and Mr Robinson’s endorsement of a petition calling for the mass deportation of illegal immigrants and we can see that inter-unionist scrapping for the ultra-loyal vote has begun, even though the next Assembly election is 18 months away.
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said she was unable to attend because she had Remembrance Day commitments here and in England. And even as we of course accept that she had, we know that the Remembrance period stretches over the best part of a month and Remembrance Sunday is the key event – not November 11. If the will was there to be represented at the inauguration, the DUP would have had somebody present. The will was not there, so the seat was left empty.
The glaring DUP absence from the Dublin ceremony was in stark contrast to the decision by First Minister Michelle O’Neill to lay a wreath at the City Hall Cenotaph on Sunday.
There are, needless to say, many reading this who are utterly unaware of what Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph is like, simply because they haven’t been there.
But it is much more than a collection of red-suited aldermen and women bowing their heads while the Last Post is played. It is a full-on British military parade, complete with marching, drilling and shouted orders. In other words, it is a place where a woman from a deeply republican Tyrone background is going to feel intensely uncomfortable.
Michelle O’Neill pushed beyond her discomfort to send a message beyond her own political community in Belfast and beyond.
The truth is that it suits the DUP as a party to be seen as indifferent or even hostile to the idea of rapprochement. For now. There will come a time, though, when it’s all they have to hope for.
