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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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Only 5? You could include NAMA, Red Sky, SIF funding of loyalist “community groups, slashing the Arts Council grants to directly fund the kick-the-pope marching bands, granting bursaries to bonfire builders, creating a fund that almost exclusively deals with orange lodges, the leader of the UDA openly telling his merry band of murderers and drug dealers to vote DUP….. There’s probably more but I haven’t had my morning coffee yet.
My thoughts exactly. DUP behaviour has brought this election. Thought they could do as they like without being brought to account. It’s called power sharing. The DUP would do well to remember that.
The €500000 received by the dup by a Scottish conservative to place pro-brexit adds in gb media
The sooner the people of NI turn their back on the bigoted extremists currently in power, the better.
Diarmuid you become what you think.
The DUP are a bunch of dinosaurs!
There are dinosaurs on both sides. Both parties have one eye firmly on the past. Much like the Republic they are getting the governance they are voting for and if most people continue to vote for the extreme on either side the unrest will continue.
Is there not a Moratorium in place,
@Peadar Ó Gréacháin:
Not yet. The election isn’t until tomorrow.
It’s put in place 24 hours before the polls open….
@Peadar Ó Gréacháin:
Not so Peadar a chara. In the six counties, the moritorium will begin at half past midnight tonight. In the 26 counties, it begins on 2pm the day before polls open at an election.
@Gearoid Mag Leannáin: Yes and hypocrites as well. While they rant about SF’s past, the DUP, supports and has the full support of UDA terrorists as shown in the following article in the Belfast Telegraph:
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/uda-begs-voters-to-back-dup-in-northern-ireland-assembly-vote-35486168.html
The DUP has also been awarding large grants of tax payers money to community groups controlled by the UDA in Belfast
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/northern-ireland-first-minister-arlene-foster-refuses-to-back-calls-for-uda-boss-dee-stitt-to-quit-charter-ni-35223489.html
and to refurbish Orange halls while withdrawing funding from Irish language projects and those involved in integrated education. On Sammy Wilson’s comparison of SF to ISIS, the DUP is the political wing of the UDA, which used the exact same murderous tactics as ISIS did in Paris by going into crowed bars in the North (with AK47s supplied by British intelligence) and spraying all innocent men, women and children with gunfire. Not much difference there from ISIS, Sammy, but they are your bed-fellows. Look up Greysteel massacre, Sean Graham bookmakers’ shooting and Annies bar and many, many, many more.
@ Tir Eoghain Gael commented: I stand corrected……
Will Gorry’s Puppet become Arlene’s deputy, or give power back to the Tories in London?
Decisions decisions.
Quick, just go to another Provo terrorist rally!!
@Gearoid Mag Leannáin: Tey mightt be but they will tell you theEarth is 6000 years old all the same and the Pope is the Anti Christ bt if tereaeirBibles as the ayywould kw thhBie never says that???
But if they read their Bibles then they would know the Bible never says that, bloody wifi keyboards?
The DUP, a great bunch of LADs ☺ https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=596319620572993&id=167750270096599
Be good to see what the SDLP and UUP could do together.
It would stop a lot the bigotry and hatred that DUP and SF members and supporters have. The north would be a lot more pleasant.
Any centrist party is good for a country when you remove the extremes of hard left and hard right
@Charlie Wrex: chas did you miss the bit were your mates in the uda threaten people to vote for the DUP.
@charles wrex; yeah the UUP/SDLP opposition is working so well that the first ‘opposition paper’ presented to last assembly was a wholly UUP paper written WITHOUT any input or even knowledge of SDLP. So much for joint responsibility in opposition.
Joe, why belch an informal fallacy? Its like being in junior infants again. Heres some lego you big baby, go amuse yourself -or better still try adding something that sounds even vaguely intelligent for a change.
Sorry Joe, an informal fallacy is a strawman argument. Thought id save you the confusion. You’re welcome.
@Charlie Wrex: I suppose anything with sticky back plastic???
SDLP #1 , UUP #2
“we made a break through in 1998 (& then again in 2005) when all sides (incl both governments) shared the one agenda and wanted to achieve the same goal”
Again, with respect Shane, that is a seriously naive analysis. Or should I say factually inaccurate, given that the DUP, the largest party in the assembly campaigned to reject the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and have made no secret of the fact that they are in a power sharing arrangement because they have to be, not because they want to be.
“This involved all sides showing a real respect for the view of others”
All sides showed respect?? Are you actually for real?? Was Arlene showing respect when she refuted Martin McGuinness’ suggestion that they both go together to a north & a republic game at the Euros, and let him go to the republic game by himself? Was Gregory showing respect when he stood in the assembly and mocked the Irish language by sneering “curry my yogurt”? Were his colleagues showing respect when they roared in approval at his “joke”? Was he showing respect a few months later when he appeared at the DUP conference holding a pot of yogurt and repeating his “joke”? Was Arlene showing respect when she described Irish Language activists as “crocodiles”? Was Paul Givan showing respect when he scrapped an children’s Gaeltacht grant just to have a pop at SF at the start of the RHI crisis? Was Paul Givan showing respect when he awarded over 90% of the ‘Community Halls’ scheme grants to Orange Halls/Protestant Church Halls? Are the DUP showing respect by campaigning for state uniformed murderers to be granted immunity from prosecution? Are they respecting the will of the electorate across the six counties by going against their expressed wishes in the Brexit vote?
“(& then again in 2005)”
At the St Andrew’s Agreement? The “agreement” where the DUP have refused to fully implement the bits that they don’t like? And you say that it was everyone wanting the same thing??
“12 yrs on- SF still won’t fully acknowledge the desperate impact of the armed struggle (ref: Ms O’Neill’s honouring the IRA)”
They have repeatedly acknowledged the hurt caused. To date, the IRA are the only group in the conflict to have issued an apology to the families of all non-combatants it killed. In terms of prosecutions, there have been over 25,000 republicans who spend over an accumulated 100,000 years in prison during the conflict. I assume you don’t need reminding that the number of state forces prosecuted for their murders stands to date at 4? Yes 4. Each of whom was released in under 5 years (beore any GFA early release agreement) and yet the DUP are now claiming that the state forces are the ones being treated unfairly and should be legally immune from prosecution (even though they essentially have been throughout anyway). And yet you say SF are the ones not acknowledging the past wrongs? Michelle O’Neill is a republican. She, like anyone, is perfectly entitled to remember the dead. You can’t on one hand complain about people not being tolerant of others views, and on the other, admonish someone for choosing to remember her deceased neighbours in her own way.
“and the DUP (who’s participation was always begrudging)”
I thought you said that all sides shared the one agenda and wanted to achieve the same goal? Fact is, they don’t and didn’t. Unionists do not do power sharing happily.
Alot more scandals in that dump
It would seem the courage/leadership and generosity that got us out of the Troubles onto the road of peace and progress has been totally eroded and we are back to the sectarian pandering and political bickering of yesteryear- all that is different from then to now is that people are not voting with bombs and killings in the news.
This entrenchment by all parties into mutually irreconcilable self interested positions (with both Governments too self absorbed to really care) leaves the people of NI exposed to the risk of a resurgence of violence on our streets- as Gerry Adams famously said of the IRA, ‘we haven’t gone away, you know.’
All it will take for the downward spiral to gain momentum is for a Republican inspired atrocity to be met by British arrogance (or ignorance- take your pick), spurred on by Unionist intransigence and the whole enterprise could unravel.
The failure of all sides to use the opportunity of peace on the streets to develop policies and strategies that would nurture mutual understanding and reconciliation is an utter shame.
With the greatest respect, Shane, that “sure both sides are as bad as each other” analysis is just plain lazy and plain wrong. The DUPs cv of recent years has included scandal after scandal, and controversy after controversy….RHI waste and blatantly obvious corruption in that scheme, Red Sky, Nama, shady donations for backing Brexit in England, Paul Givan using his authority as Communities minister to ensure that over 90% of applications to the “Community Halls” grant scheme were won by Orange Halls and Protestant Church halls, their use of almost 100 petitions of concern to veto marriage equality/motions of no confidence, Sammy Wilsons “ethnics out” remark caught on tape, their repeated descriptions of homosexuality as “an abomination” and “unnatural” and to breastfeeding as “voyeuristic”, that hurricames in the USA were caused by “homosexuals” and that homosexuality should be “criminalised”; Gregory’s (reapeated) “curry my yougurt” mocking of the Irish language, the sectarian removal of a minor Irish language scheme for helping children go to Gaeltacht courses, the spending of £7,000 to rename a fisheries protection vessel from Irish to English, Arlene Foster referring to Irish language activists as “crocodiles” who shouldn’t be fed, her refusal to accept Martin McGuinness’ suggestion that they go to the republics and the norths games at the Euros together (she only went to one of the norths games while Martin went to one of each on his own), their instigation of violent flag protests, their funding of £5m to UDA linked groups and subsequent declaration by the UDA that people should vote DUP on Thursday,, their current crusade in Westminster to ensure that members of the security forces involved in murder during the troubles should get total immunity from prosecution. I could go on all day. But for you to suggest that Sinn Féin are just as bad is just waffle. Martin McGuinness made constant efforts to reach out to unionism and those efforts were never recipricated or even acknowledged. After years of criticism from unionists for SF refusing to meet British monarchs, McGuinness went on to meet the queen many times and has repeatedly noted that no unionist has even once privately nor publically commended him for it. And as for your claim about a return to violence because Gerry Adams said of the IRA that “we haven’t gone away you know” – two things: he said “they”, not “we”. Secondly, he said that in 1995 (22 years ago) before disbandment and independently verified full decommissioning. You not think you’re maybe ready to let that one go? Lastly, you claim that “both sides” actions are self serving. Which again doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. SF before Christmas made several attempts to save Arlene Foster’s bacon and in doing so save the assembly. This despite the fact that over the last number of years their vote in tbe north has declined due to many in their own base accusimg them of being too soft with the DUP. So making weeks of intense efforts to dig Arlene out of a major hole in order to try save the institutions was anything but self serving.
@ Tir Eoghan Gael… I am not suggesting both sides are equally wrong but… we made a break through in 1998 (& then again in 2005) when all sides (incl both governments) shared the one agenda and wanted to achieve the same goal… This involved all sides showing a real respect for the view of others… 12 yrs on- SF still won’t fully acknowledge the desperate impact of the armed struggle (ref: Ms O’Neill’s honouring the IRA) and the DUP (who’s participation was always begrudging) are feeding on the fears of their supporters). It may not be the fault totally of the parties but their respective political bases seem entrenched in old tribalism and the Governments have turned a blind eye and so the generosity of the GFA and other agreements have been largely ignored.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: Wow, you seemed to leave out every atrocity that SF’s henchmen carried out to over the years, funny that. Revisionist much?
@Shane Bradley:
“we made a break through in 1998 (& then again in 2005) when all sides (incl both governments) shared the one agenda and wanted to achieve the same goal”
Again, with respect Shane, that is a seriously naive analysis. Or should I say factually inaccurate, given that the DUP, the largest party in the assembly campaigned to reject the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and have made no secret of the fact that they are in a power sharing arrangement because they have to be, not because they want to be.
“This involved all sides showing a real respect for the view of others”
All sides showed respect?? Are you actually for real?? Was Arlene showing respect when she refuted Martin McGuinness’ suggestion that they both go together to a north & a republic game at the Euros, and let him go to the republic game by himself? Was Gregory showing respect when he stood in the assembly and mocked the Irish language by sneering “curry my yogurt”? Were his colleagues showing respect when they roared in approval at his “joke”? Was he showing respect a few months later when he appeared at the DUP conference holding a pot of yogurt and repeating his “joke”? Was Arlene showing respect when she described Irish Language activists as “crocodiles”? Was Paul Givan showing respect when he scrapped an children’s Gaeltacht grant just to have a pop at SF at the start of the RHI crisis? Was Paul Givan showing respect when he awarded over 90% of the ‘Community Halls’ scheme grants to Orange Halls/Protestant Church Halls? Are the DUP showing respect by campaigning for state uniformed murderers to be granted immunity from prosecution? Are they respecting the will of the electorate across the six counties by going against their expressed wishes in the Brexit vote?
“(& then again in 2005)”
At the St Andrew’s Agreement? The “agreement” where the DUP have refused to fully implement the bits that they don’t like? And you say that it was everyone wanting the same thing??
“12 yrs on- SF still won’t fully acknowledge the desperate impact of the armed struggle (ref: Ms O’Neill’s honouring the IRA)”
They have repeatedly acknowledged the hurt caused. To date, the IRA are the only group in the conflict to have issued an apology to the families of all non-combatants it killed. In terms of prosecutions, there have been over 25,000 republicans who spend over an accumulated 100,000 years in prison during the conflict. I assume you don’t need reminding that the number of state forces prosecuted for their murders stands to date at 4? Yes 4. Each of whom was released in under 5 years (beore any GFA early release agreement) and yet the DUP are now claiming that the state forces are the ones being treated unfairly and should be legally immune from prosecution (even though they essentially have been throughout anyway). And yet you say SF are the ones not acknowledging the past wrongs? Michelle O’Neill is a republican. She, like anyone, is perfectly entitled to remember the dead. You can’t on one hand complain about people not being tolerant of others views, and on the other, admonish someone for choosing to remember her deceased neighbours in her own way.
“and the DUP (who’s participation was always begrudging)”
I thought you said that all sides shared the one agenda and wanted to achieve the same goal? Fact is, they don’t and didn’t. Unionists do not do power sharing happily.
@Scundered:
“Wow, you seemed to leave out every atrocity that SF’s henchmen carried out to over the years, funny that. Revisionist much?”
I was talking about the parties commitment to power sharing and behaviour towards the other party in the executive during that time. I didn’t mention any troubles atrocities committed by any side, you absolute dope.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: I suppose when trying to project an image of being a considerate peaceful sort, it’s best not to mention a history of extreme violence.
@Scundered:
There was extreme violence on all sides during the conflict. It’s been debated on this site ad nauseum. I didn’t mention atrocities committed by any side, and you are repeatedly bringing up atrocities committed by just one side. Says more about you than me. This discussion is about recent political developments. If you don’t want to involve yourself in that discussion, or are incapable of doing so, kindly clear off elsewhere.
@Scundered: likewise. You ignore the atrocities of the DUP/UDA who are supporting/funding each other today. The DUP is the political wing of the UDA, which used the exact same murderous tactics as ISIS did in Paris by going into crowed bars in the North (with AK47s supplied by British intelligence) and spraying all innocent men, women and children with gunfire. Not much difference there from ISIS, but they are the DUP’s bed-fellows. Look up Greysteel massacre, Sean Graham bookmakers’ shooting and Annies bar and many, many, many more. Anne Cadwallader’s book – Lethal Allies, a series of Ombudsman’s reports, etc.
Why does The Journal feels the need to explain issues in ‘Politics for Dummies’ idiots guide fashion? Rather patronising don’t you think? After all, it IS a part of our own Country going to the Polls. I’m sure vast majority of your readers are well aware of the issues involved.
Just stop voting for SF and DUP, these extremist parties don’t have the mindset required for considering other viewpoints. The younger generation are the only hope for change to steer away from extreme views, they are sick of it.
@Scundered:
Do me one favour. Quote from this document what you regard as Sinn Féin’s “extremist” policies?
https://www.sinnfein.ie/files/2017/MANIFESTO_ENGLISH.pdf
@Tír Eoghain Gael: There is a big difference between a wish list and the reality of what they done up north, google the troubles if you are in any doubt about the reality.
@Scundered:
Good man yourself…
-”SF are extreminst”
- “Why?”
- “Because….eh…because 40 years ago!”
Cop yourself on. If you’re happy to call them an extremist party in this election, then man up and quote their extremist policies from their manifesto.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: Let’s hope you never become an employer, where a candidate’s history is not important, sure let’s just ignore all that and listen to the bit about where they see themselves in ten years.
@Scundered:
In your own time there, scundered….
have your say