Shhh! Listen, can you hear that? It’s very faint, but it’s definitely there – the unmistakable sound of 10 squeaky bums, squirming on a green bench in Westminster. Oh yes, the penny has finally dropped, and the DUP MPs have just realised that they’re up a certain creek without a paddle between them. It’s worth reminding ourselves of the exact wording of the highly lauded Brady amendment that ‘mandated’ Wobbly May to head back to Brussels with the begging bowl. The critical exact words were “[this amendment] requires the NI backstop to be replaced with alternative arrangements” for the avoidance of a hard border.
This was Wobbly’s ‘instruction from parliament’, so enthusiastically embraced by the ERG and their DUP shotgun riders.
It’s only a matter of weeks ago that Foster, Dodds et al were loudly proclaiming that nothing less than the complete excision of the backstop from the Withdrawal Agreement would satisfy them, but now, hark, the mood music has changed somewhat. Suddenly, a more emollient tone has emerged from the Dupers and now it’s the case that (just) a legally binding change, (absolutely anything will do), might be enough to enable them to back the withdrawal deal after all. I wonder what has changed their minds?
Oh, all right, let’s have a guess. It transpires the EU really was serious after all – the backstop is not up for negotiation, no way, never. But how dare those accursed foreigners refuse to bend the knee to the will of the mother parliament. And how dare Dublin not bow to the ERG/DUP axis’s command. Yield, step aside there, I jolly well say, we must prevail. Uh-oh, DUP, didn’t see that one coming, did you? I’ve no idea why not, even the dogs and cats in my street were talking about it.
I hope the DUP is ready when the border poll is announced – yes, the now inevitable poll that they have single-handedly managed to engineer. Thanks.
Patrick Kielty was absolutely spot on (The Guardian, February 26). Any talk of a border poll could easily have been dampened if the blinkered DUP had not kept insisting that “Brexit is about proving they’re biologically British, not adopted. It means [they] will always order what Johnson and Farage are having but, unlike them, actually eat it”.
Belatedly, but still reluctantly, the DUP are preparing to back down and ‘allow’ May to get her deal through parliament. They can at last see that no deal is going to be a disaster all round, and they are scrambling to save their skins, avoid all blame and find a way out of the mess of their own making. They want now to be seen as reasonable people and appear to ride to the rescue at the 11th hour.
What a laugh – too late, too late, is the cry.
EO CASSIDY
Omagh, Co Tyrone
Time to start learning long-term benefits of integrated education
The recent spate of arranged sectarian fights in north Belfast – as if spontaneous ones were any better – highlights the depth of the problems this community is facing. More than 60 per cent of the electorate in north Belfast – the mothers, fathers and family members of the young people who confront each other on local waste ground and vacant sites – vote for parties which make no pretence of their tribal intentions.
The very structure of government in Northern Ireland is based on community difference. The Good Friday Agreement institutionalises the sectarianism that Sinn Féin and the DUP feed and fete on. Why should we be evenly remotely surprised, never mind outraged, when that sectarian mindset passes down yet another generation and ends up in confrontation on the streets?
North Belfast has the lowest proportion of school leavers achieving at least five high grade GCSEs. Sinn Féin and the DUP have provided another generation of young people with no hope and no future. They have given them no prospects, no options and very little in the way of a secure and productive future,
Are sectarian gang fights a good thing? Of course not. They terrorise communities, end in injury and hurt at best and they leave young people with criminal records. A number of young people have been referred to the juvenile justice system as a result of these sectarian confrontations.
This problem and its consequences are likely to be with us for some time to come, but a start can be made by changing the culture and the mindset that feeds and benefits from it.
If we educate children separately, make them live apart and divide them with imagined cultural differences, then what do we expect will happen?
If people vote for sectarian parties, if they turn a blind eye or if they just pretend it’s not happening then the outcomes will remain exactly the same.
But start challenging the sectarian basis of our society, start questioning the real purpose of ‘peace walls’ and ‘interfaces’ and start realising the short and long-term benefits of integrated education and then we can start looking forward to a different type of society – one where young people aren’t manipulated to beat each other up on waste ground.
CHRIS BAILIE
Workers Party, North Belfast
God’s love is a free choice
Ian Hoey (February 26) writes that “you either accept the love of Jesus/God or you burn in Hell for all eternity.”
I would say the opposite is true that you do not have to accept the love of God, it is a free choice. Every person is free to reject God and His Son Jesus if they wish, but don’t then expect to spend eternity in heaven with Him. Why should He let such a person in, while others suffer humiliation, ignominy and even death for their faith in Him? Even an earthly father will love his children no matter what they do, but God gave up His only Son to die for us. That is true love.
As the hymn based on a poem written by Rabbi Ben Isaac Nehorai in 1050 poignantly captures: “The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell. God’s love so sure shall still endure, all measureless and strong, redeeming grace to Adam’s race, the saints’ and angels’ song.”
In John 15:13 Jesus speaks of love, saying, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” This is what God demonstrated by sending His Son to die. We don’t have to love God, but in gratitude we should automatically want to in return.
COLIN NEVIN
Bangor, Co Down
Interface of religion and science
Professor John Lennox of Oxford University makes this statement in a recent article – “If science and God do not mix, there would be no Christian Nobel Prize winners.”
He goes on to say that more than 60 per cent of Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2000 were Christians. Figures of 72.5 per cent, 65.3 per cent and 62 per cent are cited for chemistry-physics-medicine respectively.
Daniel Treacy (February 27) might wish to purchase a copy of the latest paperback by Prof Lennox Can science Explain Everything?
Mr Treacy seems to be a strong advocate of exploring the evidence and following quality scholarship. Prof Lennox, who hails from Armagh, is a leading authority on the interface between religion and science. Many former atheists or agnostics have come to accept the Christian faith. Some come kicking and screaming, while others come peacefully. One of the more famous converts was our own CS Lewis who wrote: “How could an idiotic universe have produced creatures whose mere dreams are so much stronger, better, subtler than itself?”
THOMAS HARDY
Belfast BT5
