The DUP has marched to the top of a hill and been left there by the Apprentice Boys of Derry (ABOD), over the display of Parachute Regiment and ‘F’ insignia by a Larne flute band.
Within hours of DUP leader Arlene Foster making a high-profile statement defending the “right to support Soldier F”, ABOD governor Graeme Stenhouse issued a statement saying “we recognise this may have caused upset to many... in a shared city”.
Stenhouse was flanked by former DUP speaker Willie Hay and Derry MLA Gary Middleton, who looked particularly sheepish, having been at Foster’s statement and had his photo taken with DUP colleagues on the day of the parade with a Parachute Regiment banner.
Ian Paisley snr was notorious among loyalists for his ‘Grand Old Duke of York’ tendency to abandon them on hilltops, most notably the hill at Drumcree. The Apprentice Boys are clearly not about to make the same mistake.
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The DUP has called for police and council investigations after the West Belfast Festival ended in pro-IRA chanting, due once again to the Wolfe Tones and their moronic dirge ‘Celtic Symphony’.
“Glorifying terror can’t be allowed, especially with public money,” said DUP councillor Dale Pankhurst. In that case, the DUP should not have joined Sinn Féin at Belfast City Council in furtively voting through an extra £200,000 for this year’s West Belfast Festival, in return for matching funds for festivals in unionist areas, in what other parties denounced as a “carve-up”.
Responding to the latest row, West Belfast Festival director Kevin Gamble said “we are not in the business of censoring any act.”
It was presumably not censorship when Celtic Symphony was banned from the festival’s radio station, Feile FM.
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DUP Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson says the threat of tariffs against Ireland could secure a Brexit deal.
“We’ve been encouraging the government to make it quite clear to the Irish Republic that if they leave without a deal and there’s no arrangement to avoid tariffs we should impose the full tariff on their products,” he told the Belfast Telegraph.
That should be quite clear already. Under World Trade Organisation rules the UK must impose the same tariffs on all countries, except where it has a free trade agreement. In the case of Ireland, that agreement would be with the whole EU and would therefore be the very deal Wilson is seeking.
Shouldn’t a Brexit spokesman know this?
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Veteran BBC journalist Peter Taylor has claimed the SAS killed its own informant during the Loughgall ambush, although not intentionally.
This has been an open secret for years. The real mystery is which one of the eight IRA men it was - the republican movement has genuinely never known. A lot of republican politics west of the Bann has been driven by the resulting suspicions and attempts to find out.
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Around 100 people attended a dissident republican protest outside Belfast City Hall against ‘internment by remand’. This was all the crowd that could be mustered for what was briefly the most dangerous event of the marching season, leading to major riots in 2013.
Reporting this year’s protest, the Press Association revealed some interesting statistics. Of the 41 prisoners held in separated accommodation in Northern Ireland, 15 are in the dissident block and 26 in the loyalist block. Of those in the dissident block, five are on remand. Of those in the loyalist block, two are on remand.
When a number equal to five per cent of your movement is in custody awaiting trial, perhaps it really does feel like internment.
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SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone has questioned Union flag branding on boxes of British strawberries in his local Tesco, asking if it was Brexit-related and suggesting the “head of marketing needs a revision class”.
It is tempting to compare this to Sinn Féin MLA Mairtin O Muilleoir’s legendary blogging a decade ago against Union flag packaging in his local Sainsburys, which met universal ridicule. However, better would be expected of McGlone, who is tipped for assembly speaker should Stormont be restored.
If Brexit can drive even him to flegfoolery, nobody is safe.
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Sinn Féin has been accused of cynicism and self-interest over an internal party notice for a leaflet drop and vigil in the New Lodge, opposing the disorder at last week’s bonfire, which said: “We need to be seen being proactive in this case, if not, it could cost us votes.”
What is wrong with a political party linking activity to votes?
