DURING the latest period of upheaval at Stormont, one of the key questions has been whether the priority for some prominent unionists is either actively pursuing the constitutional debate with nationalists or enthusiastically taking lumps out of each other.
After the events of recent days, there can be little doubt that the latter is firmly the case, and we can expect the exchanges to intensify even further in the approach to an Assembly election, which is still seven months away.
Many people will have watched The View on BBC1 last Thursday with incredulity over the level of animosity which was on display during a rare engagement involving the leaders of all three main unionist parties, as Jim Allister of the TUV vehemently went after the DUP’s Gavin Robinson in the studio, leaving Jon Burrows of the Ulster Unionists struggling to make an impact on a video link from Taiwan.
I happened to be a matter of yards away, on a panel of commentators who were struck by the intensity of it all, and, while I’m sure that the three gentlemen, unlike very occasionally your columnist, do not frequent licenced premises, it felt close to the verbal equivalent of a brawl at closing time.
An old friend who has been a political insider on both sides of the Atlantic texted to suggest that I had a front row seat in a theatre of the absurd, and he had a point as it actually became something of an uncomfortable experience towards the end.
Allister has had a well-deserved reputation for pugnaciousness over the years, and an unmatched ability to contemptuously curl his lip, but, even if it may not sway many undecided voters, his attitude towards the softly spoken Robinson was ferocious.
We had to keep reminding ourselves that it was not a familiar orange v green contest, but instead a contretemps involving the heads of parties supposedly committed to an aim of unionist unity which is disappearing rapidly into the ether.
It was probably the logical conclusion of the culture wars which senior politicians largely failed to challenge effectively after they were deliberately instigated by unelected figures, and now appear to be virtually out of control, with massively negative consequences for unionism.
Drumcree is plainly at the centre of it, and it is reasonable to conclude that, if the extraordinary meltdown within the Parades Commission had happened last year rather than this summer, it might well have been handled in a more measured way across the board.
The Orange Order could have accepted a symbolic victory, to polite applause from the DUP, without ever allowing the always implausible notion of again marching along the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown for the first time in almost three decades to take hold.
Instead, in an increasingly fractious atmosphere, the most militant sections of Orangeism joined forces with the Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart, from the TUV wing of the DUP, to convince themselves that they would soon be replicating the triumphalist 1995 hands-aloft arrival of Ian Paisley and David Trimble at the institution’s Carleton Street hall in the Co Armagh town.
Any remote prospect of what was described as a “one and done” solution was blown out of the water when the cheerleaders made clear in a strategically bizarre move that they also wanted bigger and better Drumcree marches to follow, as well as the loyal orders returning to the full length of Belfast’s Ormeau Road and a range of other nationalist areas.
Nationalism was immediately galvanised, creating considerable implications for next year’s Assembly poll and beyond, with the supreme irony being that the initial cause was an issue in which the vast majority of ordinary unionists outside of the Portadown Orange district had displayed little real interest.
Robinson must have hoped that the spotlight could move on from a confrontation which has proved disastrous for his party, but, if a seemingly endless series of related court actions play out as has been threatened, he will be disappointed.
I made a slightly weak joke on air about his admission that he is partial to Haribo being an indication that he shared a packet of sweets with Lockhart but little else, which has been reflected in numerous dubious memes, and it would be for the best if both the punchlines and the legal hearings quietly fade away.
He cannot be blamed for the various calamities involving the DUP before he became leader, including the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal, Arlene Foster’s notorious crocodile comments and the entire Brexit debacle.
Robinson may however look back on those moments, as well as Drumcree, and feel that the various self-inflicted blows, accompanied by Allister’s onslaughts, have done much more damage to unionism than the best efforts of nationalism for quite some time.
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