As ever, Derry Girls says it best. At the beginning of the latest — and last! —series, Michelle, the sex mad one, observes: “I am so f***ing fed up of peace. It’s all anyone ever talks about.”
But it’s the other boring P-word now: P for Protocol, that bit of the Brexit agreement that meant in terms of trade, Northern Ireland is treated as part of the EU. Remember Boris saying there would be a border down the Irish Sea “over my dead body”. That’s what happened and you know what? Boris didn’t follow through. Fancy!
The reason the issue has returned is that the election to the Northern Ireland Assembly has ended with a historically remarkable outcome: Sinn Fein — once billed as the political wing of the IRA — is the biggest party. It is led by Michelle O’Neill, a woman whose father and uncle were both IRA members and who, only three months ago, was pictured at the unveiling of a memorial to three IRA men which read: “In proud memory of Our Fallen Gael’s”. Shocking. I remember the time when republicans could punctuate.
That result raises pertinent questions. Does this bring a united Ireland closer? Does it mean that we’re back to the dreary old stalemate in Northern Ireland? And does it mean that the UK government is headed for its own Brexit showdown with the EU as Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, seems to intimate?The answer to all the above is: possibly. O’Neill campaigned on the cost of living, but when Mary Lou McDonald, the all-Ireland Sinn Fein leader, came north to congratulate her, almost the first thing she said was that there should be preparations for a poll on Irish unity.
Meanwhile Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the Democratic Unionist Party leader, said that he wasn’t returning to the Assembly until the Protocol was sorted out. Over to Boris and the EU then.
It’s not fashionable to suggest the EU is at fault here, but I’d say its intransigence on an issue that could easily be resolved by some practical concessions is just wrong. It should compromise.
As for Irish unity, it’s undeniably closer, but the remarkable thing is that Catholics can’t be assumed to be in favour of Irish unity, nor can Protestants be assumed to favour unionist parties. The world of Derry Girls has been upended. How about that, Michelle?
