The centenary church service in Armagh has passed off peacefully, to use an appropriately Northern Ireland expression. As church leaders delivered their thoughtful and respectful addresses, it became instantly clear that objections to the event have been absurd. What sort of ‘unity’ is imagined by people who think this row advanced the cause of a united Ireland?
Archbishop Eamon Martin and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood should be admired for standing up to the hysteria. Nationalists have a reasonable objection that unionists bank such outreach gestures without reciprocation - or that if you feed a crocodile it keeps coming back for more, to use an inappropriate expression,
But while unionist political leaders may fail to acknowledge the courage of the nationalist centre ground, the unionist centre ground is another matter. This whole episode has been closely watched from the garden centre, and carefully noted.
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The Strule shared education campus in Omagh was meant to save money by sharing sports facilities and making use of land gifted by the Ministry of Defence. It is now projected to run £60 million over its £170 million budget - twice the cost per pupil of building an integrated school, as Amnesty Northern Ireland director Patrick Corrigan has observed.
All six Catholic and state schools planned for the site were to be completed last year but due to the complexity of the project only one, Arvalee special school, has so far been built.
So what is the point of it, or of the entire concept of ‘shared education’? Omagh’s children are to be brought to one site, yet still separated, which can only underscore their separation. At least when children are on different sites they just assume other schools serve other areas - until their ‘shared education visits’ reveal the terrible truth.
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Sainsbury’s has caused some Brexit-related alarm by announcing the closure of its supermarket in Craigavon, putting 109 jobs at risk. Trade union Unite says the protocol may be responsible. That certainly sounds more plausible than Sainsbury’s explanation of “changing demographics”. However, no complex explanation is required: central Craigavon is over-provided with supermarkets, Sainsbury’s is the most tired offering among them and the chain is closing up to 80 such stores this year across the UK.
The real protocol issue is how many stores any British chain must have here to make sea border procedures worthwhile. Closing Craigavon takes Sainsbury’s down to 12. Tesco has 51, plus 152 in the Republic.
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New Decade, New Approach created an assembly committee to have another go at devising a bill of rights.
Sinn Féin’s Emma Sheerin has informed MLAs she is “frustrated at the failure to appoint the panel of experts” to advise the committee, on which she sits, adding “that blockage is not coming from the Sinn Féin side of the executive office.”
Deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill concurred, saying: “the blockage in progressing the appointments does not sit with me.”
However, DUP first minister Paul Givan then said expert panellists have been “identified” but Sinn Féin will not sign off on them. Sinn Féin did not dispute this.
So the ‘blockage’ appears to be Sinn Féin not liking the experts, or at the very least, others recommending experts Sinn Féin does not like.
This is all reminiscent of how the bill of rights project last fell apart, in 2009.
It is also the same language Sinn Féin has used to blame the DUP for blocking the report from the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition.
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The BBC news website used curious language in a report on the new northern edition of the Sunday Independent.
“Historically, many newspapers in Northern Ireland tended to have an editorial bias related to the political situation, catering for either a mainly unionist or mainly nationalist readership,” it wrote.
Most newspapers have editorial lines, which they declare openly. This is not ‘bias’. Believing you have no editorial line is what risks introducing bias to your reporting.
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Ballymena DUP councillor John Carson has accidentally revealed a party attempt at a coordinated social media attack.
Carson put up a Facebook post criticising TUV councillor Timothy Gaston, with an unattributed note at the top reading: “Please share on your social media or put your own out attacking Gaston.”
He soon deleted the note but the following questions remain: why is the DUP so bad at this? Why has it no equivalent of Sinn Féin’s online support? Why is what little effort it is making focused on the TUV? The last keyboard the typical TUV voter will have used will have been on the Bontempi organ in a gospel hall.
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It is too much to expect the Boundary Commission to balance the population of Westminster constituencies while still observing the ancient frontiers of ceremonial counties.
Nevertheless, its proposal to put Loughgall in Fermanagh and South Tyrone offends the order of nature. Loughgall is possibly the most Co Armagh place in Co Armagh, surrounded as it is by drumlins, orchards and the city of Armagh. Nudging it over the Blackwater is worse than putting Dunmurry in Lisburn.
