Your Republic, you pay for it!

Right....

The Treasury should guarantee some financial support over the next 25 years even if Ireland is united, the SDLP said.

Why?
If the majority within Northern Ireland and the Republic were to vote for "Unity", then then they should take the financial consequences of that decision. The day after that vote our financial welfare would no longer be the concern, legally or morally of the British taxpayer...

Meanwhile, in probably completely unrelated news:

The Republic of Ireland's credit rating has been cut yet again in a sign of fading belief that it will repay idebt.

The credit rating agency Moody's has marked the country down two notches on the scale to a status just one notch from "junk".

For any Dubliners reading...

And I know that I do have at least a couple!

This will be open to the public:

The Future of the Seanad - North & South

Time19 April · 19:00 - 21:00

LocationGeorgian Suite, Buswells Hotel, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2

An evening of discussion on Irish politics, North South relations, the future of the Seanad and the need for dissent with Jeffrey Dudgeon (Unionist TCD Seanad candidate) and Eoin O Broin (Sinn Fein NUI Seanad candidate)

Jeffrey Dudgeon is a liberal unionist and the successful plaintiff at the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg whose judgment relating to the right to a private life led to the passing of the 1982 law decriminalising male homosexual behaviour in Northern Ireland. This was a European first. He is the author of Roger Casement: The Black Diaries - With a Study of his Background, Sexuality, and Irish Political Life. He is standing for the Seanad to be an alternative voice from Northern Ireland, reflecting our agreement to differ on the island. For more information go to www.jeffreydudgeon.com

Eoin Ó Broin is a Sinn Fein activist and Ard Comhairle from Clondalkin, Dublin. A former Belfast City Councilor he currently works as a policy analyst for a housing charity. Eoin holds an MA in Irish Politics from Queens University Belfast for which he was awarded the John Whyte Memorial Prize. Eoin is also the author of Matxinada – Basque Nationalism and Radical Basque Youth Movements (2003) and Sinn Fein and the Politics of Left Republicanism (2009). A Better Ireland – Arguments for a new republic will be published later this year. For more information go to www.eoinobroin.ie

So, why exactly is a Unionist running for the Irish Senate?

This is Jeff Dudgeon's platform piece, explaining why a N.Irish Unionist is running for a seat in the Republic's Senate:

Keep an eye on Finland...

Can things get any worse economically for the Republic?

With the CDU in trouble in Germany and a Finnish general election two weeks away, I think they might- read here on Slugger why.

Ethnicity is "broadly equivalent, only differing" in Scotland and England

More Census ethnicity nonsense (thanks to JD!).

To ask Her Majesty's Government why the 2011 census question on ethnic group in England and Wales had five options for "White" when the Scottish version had nine options which included Polish, and has a different wording for Gypsy or Irish Traveller which excludes the word "Irish"; and how overall United Kingdom figures will be calculated and displayed given those differences.[HL7713]

A  very good question, not very adequately answered:

In England and Wales the form and content of the ethnicity questions have resulted from extensive consultation with users and other key stakeholders as part of a formal consultation exercise on census topics....blah, blah, blah.

Whereas:

In Scotland, a wide-ranging review of the way that ethnicity was classified was undertaken following the 2001 census, to ensure the development of a classification for use in Scottish surveys that reflected modern circumstances, met users' information needs and had broad community support... blah, blah, blah

So, to summarise: in both cases, extensive research into the issue was apparently done.

The "White" categories are broadly equivalent, only differing, in Scotland, in the addition of a "Polish" category-where this group form a significantly larger proportion of the ethnic minority population than in England and Wales, justifying a separate tick box-and a separate category for "Scottish" to provide consistency with the 2001 question. The omission of "Irish" from the title of the new "Gypsy/Traveller" group reflected particular sensitivities to the wording of this category in Scotland.

So, to summarise: whereas it is possible to define yourself as a "white Pole" in Scotland you are simply, I guess, "white" in England because there is proportionally less of you there.
You also may not be an Irish Traveller in Scotland as the word "Irish" is more sensitive north of Hadrian's Wall than in England. Have I got it right?
 
For the Census to have any meaningful value whatsover, shouldn't there be a "consistency" between the different parts of the UK as well as with the previous local versions?

Marty doesn't exactly give the Queen his blessing but still...

Another one of those "huh?" moments:

There should be no protests against the Queen’s forthcoming visit to Dublin, Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has said.

For his part, he believes people should respect the fact that Irish President Mary McAleese has invited the Queen to Dublin as part of her policy of reconciliation.

“While people have the right to protest, I think protest would be a mistake. Particularly protests that could turn violent. It would be a huge mistake,”

The churlish would point out that the threat of violence is not usually a determining factor in Sinn Fein's attitude to protest... but in this case, I think it would be churlish to ignore the gesture McGuinness has made here.

An inappropriate intervention?

The Republic's Seanad campaign is, from a N.Irish point of view anyroads, more interesting than usual this year.

First up, we've got the Unionist, Jeff Dudgeon, attempting to grab one of Trinity's four seats; next we have the Chief Commissioner of a UK tax-payer funded,  non-departmental public body throwing her weight behind one of the candidates for the National University of Ireland's seats.

Yes, one of this blog's regular heroines, Professor Monica McWilliams, "Chief Commissioner of Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and founder of Women's Coalition (NI)", has decided to back Donncha O'Connell's campaign.

Mr O'Connell is one of the "explicit recognition of socio-economic rights with a strengthened constitutional right to equality" brigade, so it's perfectly understandable why Prof. McWilliams feels such an affinity with him, but I do wonder that while she is still the head of a (theoretically) apolitical body such a public declaration of support is appropriate?

Quote of the day

Oh dear, Kevin....

St Patrick's Day, for all the "sophistication" of the Dublin parade, has thus become the one-day distillation of a ghastly year-long caricature. If the BBC were to offer comparable stereotypes of such paddy-whackery, our embassy in London would be howling about the racist portrayals of the Irish. Indeed, when the mayor of New York made some perfectly accurate observations about Irish behaviour there on St Patrick's Day, the 'Irish Voice' predictably shrieked: "Mayor Bloomberg outrages Irish Americans with 'people that are totally inebriated hanging out windows' comments."


I'm sure lots of people were outraged, indignation/anger/ offendedness being the default mode of the Irish. The point is: was Bloomberg right? If he was, what's the problem? Do Italians or Swedes or Spanish hang drunkenly out of windows on their national days?

A Unionist voice in the Seanad?

The Seanad Éireann ("Senate of Ireland")) is the upper house of the Irish parliament, performing a similar, although more restricted, role as the UK's House of Lords.The system by which Senators are selected/elected verges on the Byzantine, although several worthy people fron Northern Ireland, including Gordon Wilson and Seamus Mallon, have been chosen by the Taoiseach over the years. None (as far as I'm aware) have been elected...so far:

A MEMBER of the Ulster Unionist Party has announced his intention to run for the Irish senate, the News Letter can reveal.

Quote of the day

Last one on the Republic's election:

Good day for Sinn Fein. Quite a few people will be rolling over in their unmarked graves #GE11

Damien Owens on Twitter.

Quote of the day

Lucky old Louth:

As the dust settled last night, there were whispers that Dundalk would once again be known as Little Belfast.

Their loss is most certainly our gain...

Gerry struggles on the credibility count

Someone once said (was it Anthony McIntyre?) that the typical Sinn Fein voter would "happily assemble at Dunville Park for the three o'clock spacecraft to take them to a united Ireland" simply because Gerry Adams had told them it would be soon arriving...

He'll probably pull through in Louth but still, it's good to see that even Sinn Fein voters in the Republic are not quite so sheep-like  in their allegiance as their Northern counterparts:

Only 35pc of Sinn Fein supporters believe he was not a member of the IRA

... which is actually not far off the rest of the population's percentage (27%) who think Grizzly doesn't speak with forked tongue.

More importantly:

By contrast (to Fine Gael), Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein are consistently rated as least trustworthy in their ability to deal with all issues.

While our back was turned, the UK has fallen

Can't imagine Alex Salmond (not to mention "I was never in the IRA, so I wasn't" Gerry Adams) would be too chuffed to find himself included alongside marching provos... but not to worry, if you like your fantasies er... raw and unsophisticated, great entertainment none the less:

Anyone but Adams

The topic  Sinn Fein would like the electorate of Louth to be voting on next week:

And this is the topic they should be voting on:

(Click to enlarge)

Quote of the day

From today's Economist:

Kevin Gardiner of Barclays Wealth, who coined the phrase “Celtic Tiger” in 1994, says that Celts have a nasty habit of extrapolating both good and bad times for ever (as a Welshman, he dares to make such generalisations). Just as the Irish suffered a bad bout of irrational exuberance in the boom years, they have now been overcome by excessive pessimism. Or, as Ms Enright puts it, “Ireland is a series of stories it tells itself. None of them are true.”

The rest of the article is an excellent read.

Adams (finally) on the run?

Grizzly's cage has been well and truly rattled:

GERRY Adams was today running scared after murdered Jean McConville's family accused him of dancing on their mother's grave.

For the first time, Adams has threatened to sue for defamation over claims of his IRA past.

The Sinn Fein leader has sent the threats of legal proceedings to the Herald after we highlighted the plight of the McConville family this week.

Today, Mrs Conville's family said they will not be silenced by his bully boy tactics.

Adams has been accused numerous times of being on the IRA army council and of being a senior Provo chief in the Belfast area.

But this is the first time he has threatened to sue journalists.

Interesting that last fact, especially when you consider the amount of "smears" and "lies" written about him previously. It certainly looks like the ROI's press are a lot less in awe of... no make that "a lot less frightened" to do their supposed job than their counterparts in Northern Ireland.

This is the original article upon which the "defamation" of character is alleged.

RTE causes outrage by comparing Sinn Fein to cheesy 80s teen flick

First time I've linked into the Inishowen News:

BUNCRANA Mayor Pádraig MacLochlainn has blasted as ‘silly’ an RTE sketch poking fun at Sinn Féin’s past by displaying images of guns and bombs.

The three-minute segment, aired on RTE’s 11th-hour programme on Tuesday night, showed images of SF general election candidates Pearse Doherty and MacLochlainn smiling to the sound of 1980s dance tune, 'Fame', with the words - ‘Remember our Name, Sinn Fein’.

Voters were urged to think before giving a first preference to Sinn Féin’s MacLochlainn or Doherty.

"When you're in the polling station, make sure you remember Sinn Féin,” the sketch said, before flashing up pictures of mortar bombs, Northern bank notes, a burnt-out car and automatic weapons.

Donegal North East candidate MacLochlainn said the sketch was a cheap attempt to undermine Sinn Féin.

“It is very clear that there is a huge swell of support for Sinn Féin and this sketch was a clumsy attempt to damage the party. It was plain stupid and will end up backfiring," said Cllr MacLochlainn.

Less of those "blasts" and "backfiring", Pádraig, people might get jumpy:

Pearse [Doherty] and I have articulated our policies clearly,” he added

Like this?:

“The IRA has been on a ceasefire since 1997.

Dunno, "ceasefire" seems kind of "temporary" to me, sure that's the policy you were wanting to articulate clearly? 

Delivering Irish "Unity" in 140 characters

Gerry Adams exhorts his sheep to adopt the wonderous constitutional status-changing power of the new media:

"Twitter for Irish freedom, text for Sinn Féin,"

The 32 County Nirvana is but a key-tap away...

The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Exp...

Any questions?

(and excuse my bad manners, Hattip to Our Kingdom for the alert)

William Wallace, the 1916 Connection

I've posted on Slugger O'Toole today a piece detailing the campaign to have "Celtic treasures" sent back to their original countries and regions.