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| And you expect me to believe that storey? |
Storey, by no means a God, perhaps immoral more so than immortal, has been resurrected by the grace of the arch-angel Hamilton, who prior to this, ‘mistakenly’ condemned him to hell ..... well, Antrim interrogation centre.
During his detention and whilst lingering between interrogations in his holding cell, he was able to read of a list of names carved in to the walls by Republicans who had previously and like himself involuntarily shared the same humble abode – people with the surname of Duffy or Wooton - and not wishing to pass up an opportunity to extend his list of Republican titles, and after seeking advice from his solicitor on the correct spelling of his signature and the implications of this being used as evidence, more wrote than carved his name with a well-chosen Crayola and joined the list to which I have no doubt on being informed who these people on the list were, he now regrets and unlike he, they have gone away or more precise, been put away.
The PSNI decided that a charge of defacing a public building wasn’t worth pursuing and wouldn’t exactly account with the initial reason for his arrest!
Speaking of which, Storey, after his release in a well-choreographed media event and co-joined by Messrs Adams and McGuinness and a token dark haired woman who remains unnamed or wasn’t important enough to warrant a mention by the media but who’s presence was there to solely imply there was no misogynists in SF ... try telling that to Ms Cahill, and armed with a statement written by someone else no doubt and still smarting from his mistreatment by the PSNI, he announced to world that he was suing the PSNI for wrongful arrest as they presented absolutely no evidence to him of his involvement in the McGuigan murder and that it was all a ‘conspiracy’ of some sort to undermine Sinn Fein and the Peace Process.
A peace process that really isn’t a peace process especially when people are being murdered, which in turn, Storey’s cry of a ‘hidden agenda’ was re-iterated by McGuinness who alluded to some kind of ‘agent’ being responsible for McGuigan’s murder .... to be fair, the PSNI didn’t produce any evidence or are they ever likely too.
But Storey, did repeat his full backing of the PSNI to arrest him, or not to arrest him, especially not him, but arrest everyone else or not to arrest anyone at all without due cause, or may be to arrest only those who walk in through the front door of their local police station, if they can find one that is open, and admit to a crime. Or maybe he was simply giving his backing to their investigation in to McGuigan’s murder as long as the lead suspects are not arrested. Who knows and in the middle of all this debate on who the PSNI can and cannot arrest and quite clearly deviating from the well-rehearsed script he veered off on a tangent and spluttered something about a grub and a butterfly and the IRA .... maybe a late bout of Post-Traumatic Stress ..... there was much fumbling of papers and looks of bewilderment by his erstwhile colleagues after that one!
While Bobby was incarcerated, Unionist in-house bickering continued, with the DUP following hotly on the heels of Nesbitt and the UUP and extremely angry at Nesbitt’s pandering to SF by not voting the way the DUP wanted. And hoping to claw back some of their lost support, threatened a return to Westminster Rule for 10 years and decided enough was enough. You can’t have those who support murder in government. It wasn’t going to be business as usual, by God it wasn’t, and so resigned their posts from the Stormont Executive en masse. Well, not quite en masse, as Arlene Foster, was selected by her party leader Robinson to stay put and hold the fort against those "rogue Sinn Féin or renegade SDLP ministers" – Foster’s words: words which G Kelly felt echoed of a throw-back to the past which in fact is actually the present.
Words that quite clearly show the contempt that Unionism holds for Irish Nationalists and completely calls into question the concept of parity of esteem. Foster’s words in a word saved Sinn Fein by reinforcing Nationalism’s historical view of Unionism as a bunch of vile disgusting sectarian racist bigots and irrespective of who shot McGuigan, or if the PIRA exists or not, (which truth be told not many Nationalists are upset about that) have fully got behind SF ... the poles have never been further apart!
The usual relatives of the victims of IRA violence were wheeled out again to voice their disgust at Storey’s butterfly metaphor and to once again remind the public that the IRA were responsible for all of Ireland’s ailments – not a thing to do with Britain’s occupation and which of course never gets a mention.
Villiers and Cameron, failed to be persuaded to suspend Stormont, have called for talks with above other things on the agenda, the Welfare Reform Bill which only goes to show where Cameron’s priorities lie where murder is concerned.
An item that Nesbitt was disgusted with when the initial itinerary for prior proposed meetings had it as the number one topic for discussion. The existence of the IRA was further down the list with McGuigan’s murder even further.
The Murder of a Catholic working class man and a republican didn’t merit the top position to the Unionism nor why should it when we consider Foster’s remarks.
But with itinerary re-adjusted, and with the demands by Unionism to have the IRA completely annihilated as a pre-condition to entering the talks and this being given due consideration by Cameron and Villiers, the DUP blustering away on what they will do and what they won’t do, will enter talks co-joined by the UUP having giving it their blessing. Nesbitt has decided that they will participate in the talks after all as the prospect of Stormont elections is not as prosperous or opportune as it was last week. The DUP have regained much lost ground. SF’s response is that they want the talks to succeed but if they don’t then it’s down to new elections which they aren’t afraid of nor why should they be as their standing within Nationalism has grown due to the retrospective sectarian attitude of Unionism that has re-manifested itself ... not that it ever had gone away!
And now that all have signed up for the talks there is very little chance, not that there was ever any to begin with, of Stormont collapsing and elections being called.
Elections that could see SF returned as the largest party!
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