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NORTHERN IRELAND HEADS to the polls tomorrow for its second assembly elections in less than a year.
Politicians have been going door-to-door to drum up votes ahead of the ballot, amid not-insignificant public frustration with the current political system.
Many voters, asked for their opinions in radio and TV vox-pops in recent weeks, have questioned why the scandal that brought the latest power-sharing administration down couldn’t have been resolved without the need for an election.
If you haven’t been keeping track of what’s been happening, here’s a quick run-down of the lie of the land, and the controversies that have been hitting the headlines.
The controversy that brought the whole house of cards down in the first place…
Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness resigned in protest over the botched green heating scheme at the start of the year, following weeks of tensions with the DUP.
The Renewable Heat Incentive scheme was instigated by First Minister and DUP leader Arlene Foster when she was economy minister.
She repeatedly refused to step aside temporarily to allow an investigation into a scheme which could cost Northern Ireland taxpayers up to £490 million (€560 million euros).
McGuinness accusing Foster of “deep-seated arrogance” over the move. The two parties – who have held the co-equal First Minister and Deputy First Minister posts since power-sharing was restored in 2007 – have each accused the other of bringing down the administration.
He effectively put Foster out of office with his resignation, and set in train a sequence of events that meant an election was inevitable unless the DUP made a significant move on Cash for Ash.
The RHI aimed to encourage businesses (and later individuals) to switch to more environmentally-friendly heating methods. Subsidies paid to companies were not capped and the more heat a business generated, the higher the subsidy it received.
“I think we will take hits in middle-class areas where there is anger over the RHI scheme and our defence of it. But I still think we will get ahead of Sinn Féin and return as the largest party,” a DUP source told the Guardian this week.
Foster declined to take questions on the RHI (or anything else for that matter) at the launch of the DUP manifesto last month, citing ‘man flu’.
Foster came in for criticism for saying her party would never agree to an Irish language act in the North. Referring to Sinn Féin’s calls for more supports for the language, she told supporters, “If you feed a crocodile it will keep coming back for more”.
Support for the Irish language (or rather, the lack of it) had become a bone of contention between the DUP and Sinn Féin in the lead up to the political breakdown at the start of the year. It was one of the background factors that lead to McGuinness effectively pulling the plug.
Up until the latest Stormont Assembly with Foster and McGuinness at the helm, discussions and policies around Irish language policies had been stagnant at best – with talk around the implementation of an Irish language act rumbling on (commitment to preserve, develop and promote Irish is part of the Good Friday Agreement).
But recently DUP members had begun to implement more regressive policies with regard to the Irish language – such as the new Agriculture Minister renaming a boat from the Irish ‘Banraíon Uladh’ to ‘Queen of Ulster’ at a cost of £302.
In December, the Assembly’s Communities Minister Paul Givan withdrew funding for the Líofa Irish language bursary fund, which was worth about £50,000 per year (the funding cut was later reversed).
Political commentators have suggested that Sinn Féín is under pressure from its support base to stop compromising with the DUP on core issues – which led to poor nationalist turn-outs in the last election.
The issue of the Irish language has raised its head more than once on the campaign trail. Naomi Long, leader of the smaller Alliance party, was forced to defend her use of Irish on planned election posters, after online criticism.
The fortunes of the more-centrist UUP and SDLP have been fading in the North ever since the days of David Trimble and John Hume.
Last year, the two parties formed the first official opposition in the assembly and the two leaders, the UUP’s Mike Nesbitt and the SDLP’s Colum Eastwood, have said they’ll work together if necessary if their parties are returned as the two largest.
Nesbitt said he was telling voters to “vote Ulster Unionist and then vote for any candidate that you trust will deliver for your community, for your constituency and for this country”.
However, he went too far for some supporters when he said he would select the SDLP as his second preference on his ballot paper when he cast his vote. (It’s not party policy, it should be pointed out - he just said he planned to do it in his area).
“The ethos of our party is destroyed,” UUP councillor Carol Black said, as she quit the party in disgust, the Belfast Telegraph reported.
The DUP and SDLP are lagging well behind their rivals in their respective communities, based on last year’s election results. The number of seats in the assembly drops from 108 to 90 this year. The change was decided on last year as a cost-saving measure.
Here’s the breakdown of seats, based on last May’s vote:
Michelle O’Neill, who was selected as Sinn Féin’s leader in the North in the wake of McGuinness’s resignation due to ill health, spoke at an event last month honouring four IRA men shot dead by the British Army in 1992. The IRA men had earlier mounted an attack at an RUC station.
“It is dancing on the graves of the innocent victims of the IRA campaign by a Sinn Féin leader and glorifying those terrorists who met their just desserts at the hands of the SAS in 1992,” Jim Allister of the Traditional Unionist Voice said. Jeffrey Donaldson of the DUP later called on O’Neill’s party to consider its ”deeply sectarian attitude”.
The whole affair is typical of the sort of tit-for-tat political attacks now commonplace in peacetime Northern Ireland. Addressing a commemorative event for IRA volunteers is hardly out-of-the ordinary for a Sinn Féin leader, and only serves as a further signal to the party’s nationalist base.
Similarly, the response from the unionist side is to be expected. Arlene Foster has repeatedly mentioned Gerry Adams in speeches and interviews recently – appealing to her own base with reminders of their old foe.
DUP MP Sammy Wilson sparked criticism at the weekend when he said he agreed with a Belfast mural comparing Sinn Féin to Isis.
“There has always been an affiliation between Irish republicans and terrorist groups, especially in the Middle East,” Wilson claimed in an interview with a US broadcaster, before he was pushed on whether he agreed with the message of the mural.
“Yes I do,” he responded.
Wilson’s comments, like those of his DUP’s colleague and the TUV’s Jim Allister, are another example of the unionists playing to their base.
Foster mentioned Adams – who, of course, doesn’t hold a seat in the North – 12 times at her manifesto launch, according to one report.
Recent polling, she said, “confirms that this election will be neck and neck between Gerry Adams’ Sinn Féin and the DUP. The other parties are trailing far behind.”
Sinn Féin would use election success to justify a border poll, Foster insisted (the decision to grant a border poll is in the gift of the Secretary of State. You can read more about the process here).
Polls open at 7am across the North’s 18 constituencies tomorrow, with each area returning five MLAs. The polls close at 10pm.
- With reporting from AFP and Gráinne Ní Aodha
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Disgraceful behavior.
The orders should be asked for nothing, all properties should be confiscated and sold with proceeds going to the slaves, because that’s exactly what they were.
Where’s Kenny with his tears now?
Sorry, can’t do it. Bertie let them all off the hook, in writing, about ten years ago. You can easily check the records of that. I believe that has cost us about 1.3 billion so far. Good old Bertie, goes to mass every day does Bertie.
Bingo,the man with the ash on his forehead,i bet even that was paid for by the taxpayers.
Sorry, we can do it.
Emergency legislation.
That can be done overnight.
Give them a TD’s salary and pension. They were forced to do more work than any of our dear politicians ever have.
The church needs to step up to the mark and pay its share, but you just know this wont happen even if it is overwhelmingly obvious that its the morally correct thing to do. Plus they can well afford it.
In my opinion the catholic church should have their tax exemption revoked and all the money that is collected as tax is used to pay for all the atrocities committed by the church and facilitated by the state.
Amazing how the struggle for justice seems to be transforming into the pursuit of money now.
So Egg Mcmuffin, you’d be content with just an apology???
These women were locked away for years for doing nothing, forced to work against their will, made huge profits for the so called religious orders & didn’t see a f**king red cent of it after all their hard work.
These women deserve a hell of a lot more than this pathetic shower of sh!te in Government have offered them.
I heard on Rte radio one woman say “I’ve been offered 30,000 but what can you do with 30,000 these days” I couldn’t believe it !
@ Paul – Compare that 30k with the 450k Mary Harney was awarded for the trauma suffered by an inference that she “maybe” an alcoholic by a media outlet to see the injustice of the offer/insult. In the eyes of the establishment normal people are virtually worthless. This appalling attitude has to change.
Seems the higher amounts will be paid off as a monthly pension rather then a lump sum. Seems the state is hoping to save some money.
Powerful and peaceful protest is what gets things done. These women have come so far on their own, they need our support. It does work!
Want to see people power and peaceful protest in action, not lying down and taking their beating.
Yesterday a group of Ogra FF’ers tried to hijack the SNA protest. Banners and T-shirts for a photo opportunity.
The parents saw right through it and ran them off, not before several party activists got in to shouting matches with the mothers.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=689393737752688&set=vb.100000462053828&type=2&theater
These people are standing up to the worst in our society in a very small way. Holding and forcing people to respect others, respect the Irish people, respect our children rather than force them to emigrate as all my own had to.
Look at the arrogance and contempt on their faces as they look at the parents.
What will you do to day or will you lie back and let people like that rule and ruin your future as they have our past and the lives of these women or will you wait your turn.
Cheers for the link, very interesting viewing. Should serve to burnish up the brass neck of the next generation of ffers, I’m sure they’ll get good use from them. Looks to me that they had no intention of moving until the guy in the shirt sleeves landed over, sure why would the opinions of the sheeple matter, right?
They told people to clear a space so that a photo could be taken when Micheal Martin came over.
If they even pretended that they were there for more than the photo shoot it would have been ok. They didn’t were rude to people and it turned in to a PR disaster.
What genius think that having a go at the mother of a Special Needs Kid, at an SNA cut is politically smart.
What’s the bottom line for these women? How much will be creamed off before they see a penny of this money?
This so called scheme pay victims in instalments. And therefore the Government will save money if they die. The average age of these abuse victims is 68yrs old, many ill and frail. This Government have No Morals or values. How low can they go???
Catholic Church and State hand in glove in acting the boxxocks. Is anyone really surprised?
If they got 100,000 each they still wouldnt be happy
And nor should they be as that only represents one years salary for a TD. Compensation has to hurt the offender to prevent future crimes. The equivalent of a TD’s salary per time served in these prisons would be fair.
Compo compo compo
Why should they be ‘happy’, if you were enslaved, tortured, abused and abandoned, by the people who were there to love and care for you how would you feel?
I do believe that many of these women had been misled into thinking that they were in for lottery type money. The overall compensation offered does not seem unreasonable and it should be about providing some physical comforts for the recipients in their least days rather than building a nest egg for a future generation as one of the women complained about.
I wonder if their deal is a good as the one the haemophiliacs got? Seems to be shaping up the same. Wait long enough and the problem goes away. Hard to be ‘proud to be irish’ when you see what the government does and the people think. Over and over and over again! I wonder whats next?
for many of ‘the haemophiliacs’ (nice) the ‘deal’ included a lonely, painful, untimely death. your comparison is simplistic and disrespectful to all parties.
for many of ‘the haemophiliacs’ (nice) the ‘deal’ included a lonely, painful, untimely death. your comparison is simplistic and disrespectful to all parties.
Firstly I was comparing the Tactic used not the suffering endured. But as you mentioned it, with the greatest respect to the Hemophiliacs, no-one has a monopoly on suffering. It is impossible to measure the impact of slavery, physical and mental abuse suffered by those young girls. How many suicides, broken homes, tragedies were as a consequence. And finally the pain inflict on hemophiliacs and there families was we are told accidental. The pain and suffering on the young girls was deliberate, intentional and supported by the state with the general approval of the church going god fearing population. I do not think my comparison is in any way disrespectful or simplistic.
Justice for the Magdalene Survivors , dont give up the fight for proper Justice . The decent people of Ireland are with you all the way , stay strong & never ever give up
Justice or money?
As Justice is unlikely given the governments complicity and the churches power. I think money is the better option. Don’t you?
Bailing out the banks bailing out the church it all lands on our shoulders and our children’s, ridiculous that with all the money of the Catholic Church the Vatican etc that they are not contributing to the hideous crimes committed against these poor women
Coming soon to a mass near you…a special collection for “The Magdalene fund”.
The proceeds of same would probably go towards the RCC’s legal costs in denying any financial or any other responsibility towards these women. A truly sick and twisted mentality is at the heart of the RCC.
The taxpayer is footing the bill here and they have their apology along with a staggered 100k, pensions from the state regardless of current financial status, medical card and extra medical services excetera. Time to get off the stage while sympathy still exists me thinks.
As sorry as I am for these women I can’t help thinking its money over justice they want.
Maybe People should protest at church gates about this ? They should be footing this bill ….
Applying a multiplier to the proses sum of 3.75 would not be generous but it would be getting into the right ball park.
Some of the survivers worked up to twenty years and are treated the same as ladies who worked ten years or less this seems unfair.
what about the women who have died, i have just recently found out my grandmother was in peacock lane laundry, cork all her life, she worked there for over 40 odd years, she died at the age of 81 in 1996, in the residential part.
my father did not know his mother, he was in artane from the age of 8 until his 16 birthday, before that he was in an orphanage and then fostered out. what kind of life did he have, NONE. His mother is now buried with four other magdalene laundry workers, . we cannot claim for her as there is a cut off date of 19 feb 2013.
I cant imagine what my dad and grandma went through, but any money given would help in giving my grandmother her grave and headstone somewhere my dad can finally call his family. one that he never new
Why is redress taking so long to sort it will be nearly a year soon. They seem to be keeping us
on a piece of string.
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