Could it be the DUP’s New Year resolution is to get the Assembly back before the next Westminster General Election?
The bottom line is that every Unionist of whatever shade knows if Sir Jeffrey Donaldson cannot deliver the DUP in one piece politically, then there’s not a snowball’s chance in the flames of hell of the party marching up the steps of Parliament Buildings and into the benches of the Assembly Chamber.
Indeed, the most likely outcome will be some form of Joint Authority, but not the old-style Direct Rule which was implemented by Westminster in the wake of the original Stormont Parliament being prorogued in 1972.
You can put whatever fancy festive wrapping on it as you like, Dublin will have an even greater say in the running of Northern Ireland which will make the arrangements under the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement look like a Sunday school picnic politically.
I’ve already warned in September that Unionism needs a Plan B if the British Government cannot deliver a formula or package which politically neuters the Windsor Framework.
Basically, Unionism needs to play the Pan Nationalist Front of Sinn Fein, Dublin, the SDLP and Alliance at its own game.
Take the republican movement. With the Provos’ East Tyrone, South Armagh and South Derry brigades firmly in their kennels in terms of terrorist activity, the late former Derry IRA commander Martin McGuinness’s peace strategy in now in full swing.
Essentially, the republican movement is pushing Irish Unity from inside Stormont using Sinn Fein rather than bombing and shooting it from the outside using the IRA.
And if the opinion polls are correct, Southern Sinn Fein has successfully re-written the history of the Troubles and the Irish Civil War to convince a generation of new and first-time voters to give the party a crack at real government in Republic after the next Dail General Election.
There’s an old saying, ‘if you’re not in, you can’t win.’ Dublin played this game effectively after the 1985 Hillsborough Accord which established the Maryfield Secretariat located just outside Belfast.
While Unionism preferred to tramp the cold, wet streets of Northern Ireland during the icy winter of 1985 and 1986 with the failed Ulster Says No and Ulster Still Says No campaigns, Dublin worked away behind the scenes setting up the foundations of its first major role in running the six Northern counties since partition in the 1920s.
In reality, Unionism should have returned Tory PM Maggie Thatcher’s betrayal by setting up a so-called Unionist Embassy in Dublin’s Leinster House and demanding a real say in the running of the ‘Occupied 26 Counties’.
The last thing Dublin would have wanted was a bunch of hardline, Right-wing Unionists pontificating about how the South should be run. Had Unionism adopted this pro-active policy, the Anglo-Irish Agreement would have been dumped within months.
While Dublin warmly loves liberal Unionists, civic Unionism, and any type of Unionism which is concessionary or apologetic, the Leinster House administration cannot stand the thought of Right-wing Unionists poking their noses into the running of the 26 counties.
If Sinn Fein gets its hands on government after the next Southern General Election, be it as a majority government or a coalition administration, stand by for the republican movement seeking out a bunch of liberal Unionists and ecumenical Protestants it can parade as part of the plot to show that Sinn Fein really cares about the future of Unionism!
Plan B for Unionism is to wreck Irish Unity from the inside. Instead of boycotting all the so-called forums to discuss reunification of the island of Ireland, Unionists should be attending such functions and selling the idea of the 26 Counties rejoining a new Union of the British Isles and especially becoming an associate member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA).
It’s no use Unionism waiting to see if Sinn Fein’s looney left-wing agenda on social housing will bankrupt the Irish Republic. Unionism should have the courage of its convictions to promote itself in any political forum.
By all means, Unionists should attend, for example, any conferences hosted by the Shared Island Forum, and stress the Two States Strategy for the geographical island of Ireland - Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland - until the time comes that Southern Ireland needs to join the New Union of the British Isles.
Unionism refusing to attend such forums only fuels the perception that it is an ideology purely on the defensive and in retreat after past council and Assembly election outcomes in Northern Ireland.
What Unionism needs is a new breed of ideological thinkers who can competently espouse a Unionist long-term agenda for this entire island.
Just as republicans look to the failed 1916 Easter Rising and the Presbyterian-driven United Irishmen’s campaign of 1798 as the historical foundation for their so-called democratic socialist 32-county ‘modern’ republic, so too, Unionism needs a fresh-thinking ideology with the long-term aim of getting Southern Ireland to firstly follow the UK out of the European Union, secondly to join the New Union of the British Isles, and thirdly become a full member of the CPA, a body which represents more than 50 national and regional parliaments across the globe.
If modern-day republicanism can re-write Irish history so that Southern voters can conveniently forget about the slaughter of the IRA during the Troubles and Irish Civil War, then Unionism must ideologically return the serve whereby a New Ireland is created as part of an expanded United Kingdom.
Scottish nationalism is now a busted flush; Welsh nationalism will never even leave the runway and Sir Keir Starmer will stamp out the republican anti-monarchist faction in British Labour.
In the early Eighties, folk laughed at the notion of Sinn Fein taking seats in the Dail or a Northern Assembly, or the notion of the DUP working with Sinn Fein in a power-sharing Executive at Stormont. Both are now a reality.
So don’t laugh at the notion that some day Southern Ireland will have no other option but to join the New Union of the British Isles. Unionist thinkers, get your pens out and begin now!
The bottom line is that every Unionist of whatever shade knows if Sir Jeffrey Donaldson cannot deliver the DUP in one piece politically, then there’s not a snowball’s chance in the flames of hell of the party marching up the steps of Parliament Buildings and into the benches of the Assembly Chamber.
Indeed, the most likely outcome will be some form of Joint Authority, but not the old-style Direct Rule which was implemented by Westminster in the wake of the original Stormont Parliament being prorogued in 1972.
You can put whatever fancy festive wrapping on it as you like, Dublin will have an even greater say in the running of Northern Ireland which will make the arrangements under the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement look like a Sunday school picnic politically.
I’ve already warned in September that Unionism needs a Plan B if the British Government cannot deliver a formula or package which politically neuters the Windsor Framework.
Basically, Unionism needs to play the Pan Nationalist Front of Sinn Fein, Dublin, the SDLP and Alliance at its own game.
Take the republican movement. With the Provos’ East Tyrone, South Armagh and South Derry brigades firmly in their kennels in terms of terrorist activity, the late former Derry IRA commander Martin McGuinness’s peace strategy in now in full swing.
Essentially, the republican movement is pushing Irish Unity from inside Stormont using Sinn Fein rather than bombing and shooting it from the outside using the IRA.
And if the opinion polls are correct, Southern Sinn Fein has successfully re-written the history of the Troubles and the Irish Civil War to convince a generation of new and first-time voters to give the party a crack at real government in Republic after the next Dail General Election.
There’s an old saying, ‘if you’re not in, you can’t win.’ Dublin played this game effectively after the 1985 Hillsborough Accord which established the Maryfield Secretariat located just outside Belfast.
While Unionism preferred to tramp the cold, wet streets of Northern Ireland during the icy winter of 1985 and 1986 with the failed Ulster Says No and Ulster Still Says No campaigns, Dublin worked away behind the scenes setting up the foundations of its first major role in running the six Northern counties since partition in the 1920s.
In reality, Unionism should have returned Tory PM Maggie Thatcher’s betrayal by setting up a so-called Unionist Embassy in Dublin’s Leinster House and demanding a real say in the running of the ‘Occupied 26 Counties’.
The last thing Dublin would have wanted was a bunch of hardline, Right-wing Unionists pontificating about how the South should be run. Had Unionism adopted this pro-active policy, the Anglo-Irish Agreement would have been dumped within months.
While Dublin warmly loves liberal Unionists, civic Unionism, and any type of Unionism which is concessionary or apologetic, the Leinster House administration cannot stand the thought of Right-wing Unionists poking their noses into the running of the 26 counties.
If Sinn Fein gets its hands on government after the next Southern General Election, be it as a majority government or a coalition administration, stand by for the republican movement seeking out a bunch of liberal Unionists and ecumenical Protestants it can parade as part of the plot to show that Sinn Fein really cares about the future of Unionism!
Plan B for Unionism is to wreck Irish Unity from the inside. Instead of boycotting all the so-called forums to discuss reunification of the island of Ireland, Unionists should be attending such functions and selling the idea of the 26 Counties rejoining a new Union of the British Isles and especially becoming an associate member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA).
It’s no use Unionism waiting to see if Sinn Fein’s looney left-wing agenda on social housing will bankrupt the Irish Republic. Unionism should have the courage of its convictions to promote itself in any political forum.
By all means, Unionists should attend, for example, any conferences hosted by the Shared Island Forum, and stress the Two States Strategy for the geographical island of Ireland - Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland - until the time comes that Southern Ireland needs to join the New Union of the British Isles.
Unionism refusing to attend such forums only fuels the perception that it is an ideology purely on the defensive and in retreat after past council and Assembly election outcomes in Northern Ireland.
What Unionism needs is a new breed of ideological thinkers who can competently espouse a Unionist long-term agenda for this entire island.
Just as republicans look to the failed 1916 Easter Rising and the Presbyterian-driven United Irishmen’s campaign of 1798 as the historical foundation for their so-called democratic socialist 32-county ‘modern’ republic, so too, Unionism needs a fresh-thinking ideology with the long-term aim of getting Southern Ireland to firstly follow the UK out of the European Union, secondly to join the New Union of the British Isles, and thirdly become a full member of the CPA, a body which represents more than 50 national and regional parliaments across the globe.
If modern-day republicanism can re-write Irish history so that Southern voters can conveniently forget about the slaughter of the IRA during the Troubles and Irish Civil War, then Unionism must ideologically return the serve whereby a New Ireland is created as part of an expanded United Kingdom.
Scottish nationalism is now a busted flush; Welsh nationalism will never even leave the runway and Sir Keir Starmer will stamp out the republican anti-monarchist faction in British Labour.
In the early Eighties, folk laughed at the notion of Sinn Fein taking seats in the Dail or a Northern Assembly, or the notion of the DUP working with Sinn Fein in a power-sharing Executive at Stormont. Both are now a reality.
So don’t laugh at the notion that some day Southern Ireland will have no other option but to join the New Union of the British Isles. Unionist thinkers, get your pens out and begin now!
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I'm beginning to suspect that John is the greatest troll of Unionism the Island has ever seen.
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