Good post. Developing it further, there will be a vacuum created and why not try and constructively fill it.
Its a bit of a stretch to claim letting lads march down a road to have a sing song in the name of triumphalism is 'appeasing to terrorists'. Its only an ego trip. Let them have it. What do terrorists have to gain from a march?
Or am I missing something here!
You are missing something menace.
But for the sake of the constructive debate ................
Firstly the premise that any gesture needs to come from SF is a false premise.
Secondly there are 2 equal but clearly opposite set of rights in the North.
Right now the focus is on unionism because it is in the middle of an existential crisis. Since 98 and the GFA everything was muddling along. The lack of a border meant nationalists felt like they were in their country. The GFA said the 6 counties was British until a majority said otherwise. Hunky dory, all ok, Stormont up and running, peace tourism, all good.
Brexit happens. The DUP who do not support the GFA see an opportunity to put a hard border back especially when they held the balance of power in Westminster by backing Brexit. They could have had a backstop, which incidentally would have set a BP back decades because of the benefits it would have brought economically to the North but no, DUP wanted to squeeze and put the hard border back. However, Boris wanted to be PM and for that he needed Brexit and Brexit had to be agreed and so the WA and the protocol are Vauxhall Conference level equivalents of the backstop.
Voted for in the parliament that the DUP take their seats in. By democratic vote.
Now what you have happening is the outworking of the very Brexit they championed have come back to bite them. This is the DUP Brexit, their WA and their protocol. They could have had the backstop but they pulled Theresa May out of a council of Europe meeting to tell her to say No.
SO you end up with an Irish sea border, which incidentally does nothing to the North constitutionally because only a BP and a referendum down here can change its status, and what are the ramifications of that? Well, increased port inspections. What are the ramifications of that? Well now you have the EU overseeing the traffic at ports and the ramifications of that? Drug supply is shut down.
And in the best bit yet, the DUP then meet with the UVF, openly as does Brandon Lewis, not their political leaders, the UVF themselves and within 36 hours - the DUP minister shuts down inspections, claims staff at ports are being threatened (which they weren't), Westminster unilaterally extends the grace period and the UVF withdraw support for the GFA.
Egged on by Gregory and Arlene and Jim Allister and Stephen Nolan and Ben Lowry and Sam McBride, the PUL community goes into overdrive. Because of the Storey funeral? No. Because of the Irish sea border? No. Because the UVF in their strongholds get their teenagers out to cause aggro and then deman 10 million in Sterling to call it all off. As if 10 million in sterling can be equated to the Irish Sea border? No - because 10 million in sterling equates to their lack of earnings on their drug racket.
Why is this relevant to your marching season suggestion?
Because the riots are artificial. Because they are being indulged by hardline politicans and shock jock media in the North because it serves the narrative they want to spin. It also feeds the narrative down here that unionism is under siege and needs to be coddled as evidence by O'Hanlon's article yesterday.
When the time comes, in advance of a BP, there will need to be some accommodations arrived at with unionism. I am all for those accommodations. But Orange marches in interface areas and nationalist areas serve one purpose, it is a projection of perceived power, a power that in a society where there is equality and parity of esteem, no longer exists.
I am waiting for the day someone asks Jeffrey Donaldson to defend the UVF going about requiring catholic families to be removed from their homes in Carrickfergus. The same Jeffrey who routinely talks about republican terrorists and there being no place, rightly so, for them in a democracy -but will quite happily sit down openly with the UVF while they instigate riots, evict catholics and demand hush money from the Stormont executive.
Yes we need an outreach programme to unionism, yes we will enshrine their rights in a new constitution when the time comes. But we should not expect the 48% nationalist community whose identity is equal and whose rights are equal to go back to the days of having to leave their homes in July for fear of retribution.
Those days are long gone. These riots are a power play by terrorists. If we are to shun terrorists and we are to shun them, that must include loyalist terrorists and they cannot force a return to the bad old days just because their racketeering and drug business has been jeopardised by the hard line Brexit stance of the DUP.
