[Unpaywalled link](https://archive.ph/WtT8g) for Time Shipman’s insightful piece describing the rise of Sinn Fein across the island of Ireland
To be extremely clear, Sinn Fein want a United Ireland but like almost everyone else – excluding, for some reason, the DUP – they have agreed that’s up to the Northern Irish (and the Irish Irish if it comes to that) to decide democratically. It’s not some secret scheme and “nationalists winning elections” is exactly how the GFA imagined and demanded unification would happen if it ever does.
Edit: oh wait, maybe o do understand why the DUP wouldn’t sign it
It’s also not their only policy, in Ireland they’re just the only large Left party.
I’m just an old catholic woman. I see fear in the people of Northern Ireland. They don’t deserve it. The “man bites dog” journalism is alive and well. Let the people speak.
Sinn has topped the polls & won the most seats in an election with a lower voter turnout than before.
They symbolically won but the DUP are the real losers.
The DUP would have had more seats but their voting coalition broke up and went to other parties.
Nothing will change for years since Sinn has not gained more seats, will remain a minority and will need to power share to govern.
The media & politicians are spinning this because they love drama and the symbolic nature of Sinn taking the FM position.
Also, this is mainly driven by Brexit, so it is the Conservative Party and DUP doing. They were warned but continued to ignore people.
Let the people speak!
>Crucially, EU concessions on the protocol won’t satisfy Unionist hardliners. I meet Bryson in Bangor, half an hour out of Belfast, past the docks where lorries are subjected to the border checks. Bryson is a short, blond bundle of energy with a chiselled chin and hard eyes. Sipping a glass of Appletiser, he softly but urgently makes clear that his opposition to the protocol is more fundamental than whether it works economically: “The fundamental objection is the separation of Northern Ireland from the rest of Great Britain. The protocol must go in its entirety. There’s no middle path. A fudge is not going to do it.”
This guy has (I suspect) inadvertently said the quiet part loud about what the DUP wanted from Brexit.
They were hoping from the outset for a hard border on the island of Ireland, which would be a fundamental breach of the Good Friday Agreement (Belfast Agreement. If you’re posh ). Such a breach would end devolved government in Northern Ireland and return the system of direct rule from Westminster.
The DUP (and Unionists in general) have traditionally at least had far greater influence at Westminster than Sinn Fein who do not. Brexit was a power grab essentially and it never occurred to the idiots in the DUP that the UK Government would rather amputate Northern Ireland than risk disappointing English voters by delivering an incomplete or weak Brexit.
The DUP are the authors of all of their own problems and they deserve to fade into obscurity and be replaced.
If only the Times were as concerned about the stealth acts committed by the British government and the gangsters they funded in NI.
7 comments
[Unpaywalled link](https://archive.ph/WtT8g) for Time Shipman’s insightful piece describing the rise of Sinn Fein across the island of Ireland
To be extremely clear, Sinn Fein want a United Ireland but like almost everyone else – excluding, for some reason, the DUP – they have agreed that’s up to the Northern Irish (and the Irish Irish if it comes to that) to decide democratically. It’s not some secret scheme and “nationalists winning elections” is exactly how the GFA imagined and demanded unification would happen if it ever does.
Edit: oh wait, maybe o do understand why the DUP wouldn’t sign it
It’s also not their only policy, in Ireland they’re just the only large Left party.
I’m just an old catholic woman. I see fear in the people of Northern Ireland. They don’t deserve it. The “man bites dog” journalism is alive and well. Let the people speak.
Sinn has topped the polls & won the most seats in an election with a lower voter turnout than before.
They symbolically won but the DUP are the real losers.
The DUP would have had more seats but their voting coalition broke up and went to other parties.
Nothing will change for years since Sinn has not gained more seats, will remain a minority and will need to power share to govern.
The media & politicians are spinning this because they love drama and the symbolic nature of Sinn taking the FM position.
Also, this is mainly driven by Brexit, so it is the Conservative Party and DUP doing. They were warned but continued to ignore people.
Let the people speak!
>Crucially, EU concessions on the protocol won’t satisfy Unionist hardliners. I meet Bryson in Bangor, half an hour out of Belfast, past the docks where lorries are subjected to the border checks. Bryson is a short, blond bundle of energy with a chiselled chin and hard eyes. Sipping a glass of Appletiser, he softly but urgently makes clear that his opposition to the protocol is more fundamental than whether it works economically: “The fundamental objection is the separation of Northern Ireland from the rest of Great Britain. The protocol must go in its entirety. There’s no middle path. A fudge is not going to do it.”
This guy has (I suspect) inadvertently said the quiet part loud about what the DUP wanted from Brexit.
They were hoping from the outset for a hard border on the island of Ireland, which would be a fundamental breach of the Good Friday Agreement (Belfast Agreement. If you’re posh ). Such a breach would end devolved government in Northern Ireland and return the system of direct rule from Westminster.
The DUP (and Unionists in general) have traditionally at least had far greater influence at Westminster than Sinn Fein who do not. Brexit was a power grab essentially and it never occurred to the idiots in the DUP that the UK Government would rather amputate Northern Ireland than risk disappointing English voters by delivering an incomplete or weak Brexit.
The DUP are the authors of all of their own problems and they deserve to fade into obscurity and be replaced.
If only the Times were as concerned about the stealth acts committed by the British government and the gangsters they funded in NI.