The President hates Northern Ireland?
Sunday, February 5th, 2006Iain Paisley has claimed that Mary McAleese, President of the Republic of Ireland, hates Northern Ireland.
‘I don’t like her because she is dishonest… She pretends to love this province and she hates it.’
The comments were made at the DUP conference yesterday and according to RTE were off-script.
Given the efforts made by McAleese in the past these are extremely harsh comments to make but are not to be unexpected from Paisley and the DUP at this time; their language has been increasingly strong in the days following the IMC report.
Put this together with the President’s impassioned speech regarding the 90th Anniversary commemorations of the 1916 Rising due to be held later this year and she is far from the poster girl of Unionism at present.
Will these comments have implications on future discussion? In the short term it seems certain that the DUP are not willing to talk to anyone; these words are probably being used to emphasize the split they see between their cause and the Irish Republic, which they believe to be greater than ever in recent years. It is likely that such comments will be forgotten before long and things will go on as normal; McAleese is not likely to get into a war of words and Bertie Ahern’s comments on the matter will probably be the closest thing to an official response.
The DUP are smart enough not to distance themselves from people who want a peaceful Northern Ireland, even if they are on the “other side”. The President, just like Bertie Ahern both know that a United Ireland is a pipe-dream and at present nothing more than a ‘what-if?’ situation; there is no ‘when’ involved. They are probably very able to understand why Republicans would want to celebrate the first battle of the War of Independence too; but showing public sympathy to anything Republican would be suicide in the volatile North.
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