Emperor
Robbo has successfully rebranded the DUP as a Protestant party for a Catholic
people.
Old
Brookeborough must be spinning in his grave with rage at the fate of his famous
Unionist battle cry: "A Protestant Parliament for a Protestant
People."
That
maxim has been usurped by a former East Belfast loyalist who once bathed in the
political sunshine of his 'commando' raid on the border bastion of Clontibret
and the red-bereted rallies of Ulster Resistance.
No one
should underestimate the imagery of influential Catholic priest, Fr Tim
Bartlett, the secretary of the Northern Bishops, speaking at the annual DUP shindig
in the La Mon hotel, scene of one of the Provos' most notorious atrocities.
That
would have been unthinkable a few decades ago. Thirty years ago, a DUP
politician would have been severely disciplined for even daring to cross the
border to the priest-ridden Republic.
Twenty
years ago, the DUP's ruling fundamentalist wing championed public opposition to
the Evangelical Prayer Breakfast Movement because Orangemen from the rival UUP
dared to have an Ulster Fry with Catholic priests.
The
anti-Catholicism Caleb Foundation, set up in 1998 by leading DUP activists to
combat the Breakfast movement, has been tactically castrated and previous
boasts that it represented 200,000 Protestants are now empty rhetoric.
Robbo's
raid into the electorally lucrative Catholic middle class, sometimes dubbed the
Castle Catholics, or Garden Centre Catholics, should not be dismissed as a last
ditch bid to combat voter apathy among working class loyalists.
Rather,
it should be viewed as one of Robbo's greatest tactical achievements alongside
his St Andrews Agreement and surviving the Irisgate scandal.
Robbo has
recognised that both the Stoops and the Shinners have shot themselves in the
foot over issues such as abortion, gay marriage and gay adoption.
The SDLP
and Sinn Féin in trying to win over the trendy Leftie pluralist nationalist
vote have sacrificed their traditional Catholic Mass-going legions.
Just
because the Irish Catholic Church has taken a pounding over clerical abuse
scandals does not mean that many Catholics have totally abandoned their faith.
A huge
silent majority still cling passionately to a personal Catholic faith, but seek
a party which will remain true to basic Catholic doctrine.
Alliance
has also disastrously stepped on theological landmines by backing gay marriage
and abortion.
And the
same millstones now hang around the necks of the supposedly liberal NI21 party
of the so-called McUnionists of Bazza McCrea and Wee Johnny McCallister, both
of whom have openly backed gay rights.
But Robbo
has managed to muzzle the old-style Paisley fundamentalists who branded the
Pope as the Biblical Anti-Christ. No longer need religious Catholics fear
sermons about being damned to Hell in Robbo's religious version of the DUP.
The UDA
has imploded, its leadership being deposed in hopefully bloodless coups, and
the organisation reverting to its roots as localised defence associations.
Apathy is
widespread among the Protestant working class, and its political base is
heavily fragmented.
Only one
element can derail Robbo's Protestant Party for a Catholic People concept – if
UUP boss Mike Nesbitt swings his party to the Radical Right and becomes the
champion of loyalist civil rights.
If
Nesbitt ignores this party-saving move, in the 2014 elections, we could hear
another of the great impossibles of Irish politics – Catholic priests using
their pulpits to urge their flocks to vote DUP!
Many a true word...
ReplyDeleteA spade is a spade irrespective what way you dress it up!
ReplyDeleteThere was an uproar in Fermanagh last year when a priest advised such as above.
ReplyDeleteThe Free Presy crew with bigot pastor Ivan Black were not impressed with proposal at first but Bert John-stone supported the move.
Id say some may have sneaked through.
There are many devout Catholics but that doesnt make them support abuse or church action.
Faith is Personal and The Catholic faith held the people together as in Poland,Croatia.