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Why Sinn Fein's Day Isn't Coming
CulzieDate: Monday, 2009-06-22, 10:41 PM | Message # 1
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From today's N.L. 22nd June 2009

Why Sinn Fein's day isn't coming
By ALEX KANE

SHORTLY after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's death, in July 1930, about 1,000 spiritualists gathered at a hall in central London. Doyle, an international celebrity thanks to the success of Sherlock Holmes, had devoted the latter years of his career to promoting his belief in the afterlife. He had promised that if he could, he would find a 'way back' after death, or, failing that, send a signal that all was well.
Something similar happened last week, when another 1,000 people gathered at a conference centre in New York. They were there to get a signal from the 'other side', in their case an indication that Irish unity, presumed dead after the 1998 referenda, still had some form and shape to it.
But make no mistake about it: a united Ireland is dead, killed off the moment Sinn Fein entered a power-sharing Executive in 1999 and began co-governing this part of the United Kingdom. And this isn't a Bobby Ewing-in-the-shower sort of death, or even a Sherlock Holmes-over-the-Reichenback Falls death. This is a stone cold, beyond resuscitation or resurrection death.

The problem for Sinn Fein is that it can't be seen in the role of undertaker for its own aspiration. It can't admit that 30 years of terror delivered nothing; or that its vote south of the border is negligible; or that it speaks for barely a quarter of the electorate in Northern Ireland. Yet it needs something to distract attention from the spectacle of a huddle of the IRA's former senior command sitting around a table at Stormont discussing roads, rates, planning applications and free transport for the elderly.

The IRA dedicated itself to the overthrow of the British presence in the 'six counties' and the demolition and demoralising of the pro-Union majority. Last week its alleged former commander-in-chief scuttled off to Downing Street with the DUP leader to see if they could get a rescue package for the investors in the Presbyterian Mutual Society. Even the most weak-minded members of the IRA's grassroots would be hard pushed to see the connection between that activity and the 'Brits Out' strategy which was once the mantra of republicanism!

So having failed to bully or bomb unionists out of their beliefs, Gerry Adams has come up with another wheeze – boring us out of them. Now, while there are few things as mind-numbingly dull as one of Adams' ramblings, even he must realise that he has absolutely nothing new to say. A single transferable monotone myth may suit his gombeen diehards, but it certainly won't convert any unionists.

"I believe the political and economic dynamics in Ireland today make a united Ireland a realisable and realistic objective in a reasonable period of time." Yep, that's right Gerry! That's certainly radical and revolutionary language. The Irish economy is down the toilet and you are regarded as an electoral liability. Anyway, since you have waited 800 years for unity on your terms, I'm sure that 'reasonable period' is a deliberately flexible phrase.

"A united Ireland will require thoughtful strategies, huge outreach to our unionist brothers and sisters and a patient process of nation-building to unite orange and green." So why did you justify an 'armed struggle' for so long and why do IRA members never admit that bombing and murder was morally unjustified?

The brutal truth for Adams is that the Union is stronger today than it was when the Provisionals were formed almost 40 years ago. The north-south structures may make some republicans think they have a blueprint for unity – but unionists know different. The key decisions are still made in Belfast and London, both of which are in the United Kingdom.

Similarly, while St Andrews may have given them a mutual veto, co-equal status and even the prospect of the First Minister's post if unionism remains divided, that doesn't come close to fulfilling their ultimate political ambition. Baiting Peter Robinson may provide some entertainment for Martin McGuinness, but the fact that Adams is still 'selling the dream' in America means that Sinn Fein recognises they remain in the same trap sprung for them in 1998.

Worse still, from the Sinn Fein perspective, is that rather than the British presence diminishing, it has actually expanded. The new relationship between the UUP and Conservatives is forging a pan-UK unionist counterbalance to the disintegrating pan-nationalist front which dominated the political agenda in the 1980s. In truth, the extraordinarily hostile reaction to the 'Conservatives and Unionists' from columnists and editorials in the Irish News, Irish Times, Irish Independent and a wide variety of pro-unity bloggers, suggests that they, too, now understand the increasingly delusion-driven nature of the united Ireland project and, consequently, also understand the real threat posed by a unionism which spreads from Northern Ireland and across the entire United Kingdom.

Sinn Fein lost the terrorist war and it lost the propaganda war. It may talk of a 'unionist outreach' programme, but that will only appeal to that insignificant minority of so-called unionists who seem keener to accommodate the 'Oirish' side rather than the British side of their constitutional identity.

Unionism has no purpose higher than that of promoting the benefits of the Union and the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom. Yes, I can accept the need for good neighbourliness with the Republic, for that doesn't threaten my identity. But what I find much more difficult is a 'shared future' doctrine which argues that we work from the premise that unionism and Irish republicanism should be regarded equally.

But they aren't equal. The United Kingdom is a political reality. A United Ireland is a mere dream. To treat them equally – as all nationalists/republicans and that handful of Irish News-reading 'unionists' want us to do – is merely to diminish and undervalue UK unionism.

Gerry Adams and the resurrectionist wing of Irish unity based in the United States have nothing to offer real unionists. They never did. The terror campaign was one manifestation of that lack of anything. The talk of 'unionist outreach' and rolling conferences is just another manifestation. So at what point, guys, are you going to face a centuries' old truth? Tiocfaidh ar la! No, chuck it in a south Armagh bog and forget all about it. It isn't happening. It isn't coming.

The full article contains 1070 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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