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Fianna Fail in the North Will Not Succumb to Narrow Nationalism - Ahern
Read more about: Fianna Fail, Government, Irish Election, Irish Politics, Nationalism, Northern Ireland, Republicanism, Sinn Féin, Unionism
Bertie gave the Bodenstown oration today and used it as an opportunity to return to the legacy issue theme of turning Fianna Fail into a 32-county party. He sought to reassure unionists that Fianna Fail will not be a sectarian influence of proponent of narrow nationalism as it seeks to move North.
Why are they needed then? Does Ahern see the soldiers as some last bastion of secular politics that might be able to transcend the divides of northern society and return the ‘moderates’ to the heart of the political system? Or does it really irk him that Sinn Fein have currently got the ‘all-Ireland Party’ thing cornered?
There are all sorts of questions raised by this move to expand into the north, not least the dynamic of a relationship between an FF Taoiseach and a DUP/UUP First Minister when they are competing for seats and not just partners across borders.
Anyhow, the Northern Strategy Committee will also be considering the submissions which Bertie wants from all 3,000-odd Cumainn across the country, which are due in by Easter-naturally.
Mr Ahern said that each of the party’s 3,000 cumann around the State had been asked to hold a special meeting between now and Easter to discuss the possibility of becoming a 32-county organisation.
It reads me to either as just a move to irritate SF or else a product of deep delusion. The details of Bertie’s speech don’t come across as a real olive branch to Unionism, leaving aside the last few month’s evidence of photo-op love-ins with Big Ian. Little things like the fact the deadline for the consultation process is Easter Sunday (geddit?), the attempt to bracket 1916 as part of an all-Ireland tradition, and in turn trying to place Dev as the anchor of a modern all-Ireland. It’s a very narrow reading of history that ignores the whole context of 1916, not least its World War I backdrop (which is where militant unionism had put its energy at the time, along of course with many nationalists) and then Dev’s role in creating “a catholic state for a catholic people” — not least via a constitution that we’ve spent the last 20 years re-amending. Perhaps the real agenda is an alliance with the SDLP, but among the many things presumed by that is that British parties won’t also try to organise in NI.