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Worrying times for Northern Ireland unionists

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The British government is under pressure from the EU to implement a key component of the Northern Ireland Protocol in full by the start of July. For unionists in Northern Ireland, the coming weeks could see a return to violence in the Province or an Assembly election that could mark the beginning of the end of traditional regional politics as Ken Murray reports from Dublin.

It’s been a turbulent few months in Northern Ireland. The First Minister and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party Arlene Foster (pictured) was shafted last month in a humiliating coup by right-wing colleagues who felt she wasn’t tough enough with PM Boris Johnson whose administration agreed the Northern Ireland Protocol with the EU last December.

Foster was succeeded as Party Leader by the God-loving right winger Edwin Poots.

A gracious but clearly hurt Arlene Foster entertained amused journalists at a meeting of the British-Irish Council in County Fermanagh last week when she summed up her bruising experience by breaking in to a Frank Sinatra song and singing “That’s life. That’s what all the people say. You’re riding high in April, shot down in May…”

The Protocol, which is part of the British Exit Withdrawal Agreement from the EU, has resulted in long port checks on goods and pets entering Northern Ireland from GB.

As pro-British unionists in Northern Ireland see it, the trading Protocol creates an imaginary border in the Irish Sea and psychologically moves the province a step closer towards an economic united Ireland and isolates it even further from Great Britain!

Angry British unionists from working class areas of Northern Ireland, commonly known as loyalists, have been out on the streets protesting every other night objecting to the Protocol as they feel London is selling them out for an eventual united Ireland, a prospect they totally object to.

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With Arlene Foster formally stepping down this week, the regional Parliament at Stormont in Belfast, will seek to appoint a new First Minister.

The dominant DUP will nominate Paul Givan but under the rules in Northern Ireland, the pro-Irish Sinn Féin will have seven days to nominate a Deputy First Minister, who, in this case, will be the incumbent Michelle O’Neill.

Givan can’t have the job unless Michelle O’Neill gets the backing of her side. This is where things could get difficult for all sides.

In late 2006, the then DUP Leader the Reverend Ian Paisley agreed with Sinn Féin, amongst other things as part of the price for entering power in 2007, to introduce an Irish Language Act.

15 years on, the DUP has put every metaphorical road block in place to stop the Act from being introduced so as to ensure Northern Ireland isn’t overcome with gaelic words.

As the DUP see it, the introduction of such an Act would make Northern Ireland a little more Irish, a little less British and would be seen by unionists as yet another incremental step towards a united Ireland.

At issue this week will be Sinn Féin seeking a guaranteed time-line from the DUP for the introduction of the Act otherwise it is unlikely to endorse Paul Givan for the top job.

Unionists may insist on a Cultural Act which would give legal promotion to the obscure Ulster-Scots language which has no profile at all!

A DUP source told the Irish Sunday Times at the weekend that “Either Sinn Féin softens its position [on the Act], which I doubt will happen, or else there will be no nomination for First Minister.”

Should the DUP reject the call to introduce the Irish Language Act only, the Northern Ireland Parliament or Assembly will be suspended for the sixth time since 2000 with an election being the likely outcome.

If an election take place, it is highly likely that Sinn Féin will emerge with the highest number of seats for the first time since the British partitioned Ireland in 1921 but subsequent negotiations on forming a successive new parliament would likely be bogged down on resolving the very issue that forced it to collapse in the first place!

In 2017, the pro-British DUP won 28 seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly election while the pro-Irish Sinn Féin won 27.

A LucidTalk opinion Poll published in the The Belfast Telegraph last month revealed that Sinn Féin had 25% of the popular support while the DUP had slipped to 16%, a startling revelation that suggests the dominant days of unionism in Northern Ireland are all but over!

Elsewhere, next month will see Northern Ireland reach the peak of the 2021 Marching Season when Orange Order flute bands parade down the streets of the Province’s cities, towns and villages to celebrate the symbolic victory of the protestant King William over the Catholic King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

If street marches in recent months are anything to go by, these Orange Order parades could be exploited to the point of violence in order to send a hostile message to London that loyalists and unionists will not accept the Northern Ireland Protocol which, they say, isolates them from GB and threatens their British identity.

In the meantime, the so-called ‘grace period’ on the importation of some chilled meats in to Northern Ireland from GB, comes to an end on June 30th, a development that could have serious implications for food supplies and business operations!

The ending of this grace period has seen the EU indicate it will not row back on the movement of chilled meats from GB to NI with the only possible compromise being one where the British Government agrees to climb down and re-align its food production standards to the same level as the European Union as was the case pre-Brexit.

Speaking to Sky News, PM Boris Johnson said: “If the protocol continues to be applied in this way, then we will obviously not hesitate to invoke article 16, as I have said before”, a move which could see the British Government unilaterally suspend its operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol and would likely be met by a reciprocal measure from Brussels!"

Such a move, would provoke outrage in Brussels, Dublin and Washington where latterly, Joe Biden’s support for Ireland is well documented.

With the DUP under pressure to introduce the Irish Language Act or face electoral consequences, loyalists threatening violence and Boris Johnson being told that certain chilled meats can not enter the EU from the UK on July 1st, all eyes will be on Belfast, Brussels and London in the coming weeks to see who concedes first.

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