IT'S all up when you start telling people they have to attend a service of reconciliation and peace, or else.
President Michael D Higgins came under fire from the DUP for his decision not to attend an ecumenical service in Armagh to mark the centenary of Northern Ireland.
Party leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, wearing his favourite 'wounded choir-boy' face, expressed his sorrow at the President's refusal.
Yes, that's the same DUP who are currently boycotting north-south bodies and opposing Irish language legislation.
I've no doubt Archbishop Eamon Martin was sincere in his invitation to the President and the Queen, but heads of state are still political figures and he was already aware of the attitude of political nationalism to centenary events, which he roundly criticised at the start of the year.
At that time he said the division of the island 100 years ago had caused "a great amount of sadness: a sense of separation, a sense of loss" within the broader Catholic/nationalist community.
But at the same time, he said, it was for unionists and loyalist communities "a significant moment in the establishment of the Northern Ireland state".
And there you have it. Two diametrically opposed points of view. Both valid, both mutually exclusive.
Let unionists celebrate the centenary, like they celebrate 1690. Have an ecumenical service. Just don't drag political figures into it. The Queen can go if she wants, or Prince Charles can go. That's if he can spare the time from his day job meeting Saudi and Russian billionaires.
The whole sorry episode has dominated headlines at a time when there are surely more serious things to worry about, but then it gives the DUP something to take their minds off their own polling troubles.
And I'm as guilty as anyone. I have been that radio producer trying to find stories to fill two-hour programmes, delighted when a 'controversy' pops up from a statement by an 'outraged/disappointed' politician at one thing or another.
And indeed I was that renta-gob on a radio discussion on that very same topic earlier this week.
But I sometimes wonder how much it chimes with people outside the media bubble, who are more concerned about Covid, another potentially difficult winter ahead and a steadily rising cost of living.
In much the same way, the Zappone affair has been taking up an inordinate amount of attention in the southern media for the past month.
The appointment, under questionable circumstances, of a Fine Gael senator, Katherine Zappone to a nice number in New York, as a special UN envoy on freedom of speech has been blown up into a major controversy engulfing Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney, who offered her the job without telling the Taoiseach.
He survived a no-confidence vote eagerly sought by his political opponents, but the whole business, also known as Merriongate - since every political controversy has to have a 'gate' added to it - makes no difference at all to the average voter in the south who has more important things to worry about, like being able to afford a roof over their head.
The cronyism exposed by the saga has somewhat tarnished Coveney's reputation as a sure-footed politician and Varadkar's natural successor.
'Higgins-gate' though, has not affected the reputation of the President, who has genuine bona fides as a peace-maker. A recent poll suggested 81 per cent of respondents supported his decision not to attend.
Jeffrey must dream of such ratings.
****
WE used to entertain our children by recalling how weights and measures worked in the pre-decimal era. Sixteen ounces to a pound, 14 pounds in a stone, 12 inches in a foot, three foot to a yard etc etc.
"How did you ever remember such random numbers," they would ask when we told them there were 240 pennies in our pounds.
That was why we had those tables on the back of exercise books, setting out imperial measures.
Now it seems that Boris Johnson wants to bring them back as another 'up yours' to the EU.
Brexit minister Lord Frost says he'll review European laws that currently oblige British traders to use metric measurements when selling packaged or loose goods.
Frost said such "overbearing regulations" were often passed in Brussels with little consideration of UK interest. "We now have the opportunity to do things differently."
What a comfort that will be for the people who are going to lose the extra £20 a week in Universal Credit. They'll have less to spend every week as prices rise. But at least it'll be in old money.
