The Worst Nightmare

Matt Treacey writing @ Brocaire Books feels that Sinn Fein's nuts are now in the hellfire of the DUP. Matt Treacy is author of the recently published A Tunnel To The Moon. Add caption
Party like it’s 1922, as Prince said.

After all the brouhaha of being on the verge of a united Ireland, what do we have?

Potentially the most right wing pro Unionist government since Lord Birkenhead was shooting grouse and boasting about putting the Zulus and miners and the Paddies back into their box.

Electoral facts are that the combined unionist v nationalist votes are more or less the same as they have ever been;: Between them, Sinn Féin and the SDLP took 41.1% and the unionist parties – and yes the Alliance Party are unionists – took 54.2%.

So what possesses anyone to believe that a border poll would be in favour of a united Ireland? In 1998 the combined Sinn Féin/SDLP vote was 38.7%. By such an exponential rate of progress, nationalist parties will have a majority in 2107. And that is assuming Catholics remain virile and fertile and that all the babies vote the right way.

The fact is that this is a beaten flush. Much as the shinners may celebrate the defeat of Corbyn, yes he lost,  the fact is that this is worst electoral outcome for Irish nationalism in a century.

Perhaps the proxy vote operation needs to be finessed.

In the meantime, the DUP are in their grannies, as Dubs say. It is the perfect storm for them. They don’t even need to go back into Stormont although the logistics of maintaining a party and its finances and workers probably means that they will.

For the shinners, do they bite the pillow again and return to Lord Carson, or do they tough it out and refuse to engage?

My money is on the pillow biting.