We’ve a referendum to win

Sinn Féin Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile has this evening welcomed the approval by the Cabinet on a bill to hold a referendum on extending the right to vote in Presidential elections to citizens outside of the 26 Counties.

Seanadóir Ó Donnghaile said:

“The upcoming referendum on extending votes in presidential elections will be a positive opportunity to affirm the Irish government’s commitment to never again leave citizens in the north behind. 

“I look forward to hearing Government outline plans on how this vote will work in practice and I look forward to support from all parties in the Oireachtas for the right to vote for president being extended to all citizens, no matter where they reside.

“Sinn Féin have been relentless in pursuing this referendum in the Oireachtas and will play a positive and collaborative role with all stakeholders who value citizenship and the achievement of the full and equal participation of all citizens in Irish life.

“It is crucially important that Irish political, community, civic and cultural organisations here and overseas are engaged and prepared for this momentous vote and ensure that October’s referendum is won in the most collaborative, positive and decisive way possible.”

Martina for Europe – Martina for Ireland!

Thursday see’s people in the Six Counties return to the polls; this time for an election the British Government never really wanted to happen.

The European Parliament election offers citizens here a tangible way to express their further dissatisfaction with our being taken out of the EU against our already expressed democratic will to stay.

While people, in growing numbers, are frustrated at the imposition of a British (primarily English) Brexit being forced upon us – Thursday’s election does offer a small and all too important glimmer of opportunity that shouldn’t pass you by.

It affords us an opportunity to send Dublin, London and Brussels a sure and certain message that we want the entirety of Ireland to remain in the EU, we demand that our rights be unhindered and we will not allow any further devaluation of our democratically endorsed Good Friday Agreement.

Luckily for voters, come Thursday we have a chance to return ‘Remain’s’ established voice in Europe, Martina Anderson.

Martina has a proven track record, second to none, in asserting, defending and fighting Ireland’s corner. Her fingerprints (and her clearly asserted positions) are across many of the now accepted positions of both the EU27 and the Irish Government in particular.

All of this has been in between her many constituency visits, meetings and events; her rapporteur work on a range of global issues, her steadfast and compassionate solidarity for Palestine and her hosting of countless delegations from home, giving further voice to Ireland at the heart of the European institutions.

This modest list merely scratches the surfaces of Martina’s work as a Sinn Féin MEP, it’s but a cursory glance at the contribution a life in struggle has made within her latest site of struggle – no matter where she goes she brings the same zeal, ability and assertiveness to her work on our behalf.

We are lucky to have her there, fighting our fight, championing our causes and delivering on all our behalves.

On Thursday I’m voting for Martina Anderson – if you believe in a progressive, diverse, confident and just Ireland within a better Europe, a Europe of equals then you should too.

Colum condemns his bedfellows to Hell?

For some time now, Sinn Féin in Leinster House have been championing the idea that we establish a joint-Oireachtas Committee on Reunification; to plan, to engage, to research, to inform, to prepare.

For reasons that I can’t get my head around, parties like Fianna Fáil (“The Republican Party”) have actively opposed this most sensible and indeed pretty modest proposal.

They’ve said weird things like “it’s not the time”, “we aren’t ready”, “we don’t want to unsettle people”. They ignore growing political and societal realities – they ignore the Good Friday Agreement which has at its heart the ability to achieve Irish unity peacefully. (Their leader told ‘The Week In Politics’ on Sunday morning that they built the GFA so there’s another stark inconsistency for you!)

At the last All-Ireland Civic Dialogue on Brexit in Dublin Castle, Mary Lou McDonald called for the convening of a similar forum to, in that instance, discuss and plan for unity.

Fianna Fáil still say “nay”.

At last Thursday’s GFA Committee I again put it to Tánaiste Simon Coveney that we establish such a forum as a logical, prudent, responsible and necessary response to the growing demand for Irish Unity.

Fianna Fáil still say “nay”.

So that’s why I found it particularly strange that Colum used his “special place in hell” line at the weekends Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis.

What kind of political leader takes his party into bed with the very same people who he insists there’s a special place in hell for?

Hopefully he’s working hard on getting them to change their minds so we can collectively get on with the important and much needed work of planning for unity.

So, what exactly are our rights as Irish Citizens?

The Irish Government must help legislate for the rights of their citizens living in the North.

Last week’s meeting of the Joint-Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality heard stark reminder after stark reminder, of the failure by government to effectively and tangibly legislate for the rights and entitlements of those of us who are Irish citizens resident in the Six Counties. 

The eminent figures from within academia, the legal profession and human rights sectors who presented to our Committee, all pointed to the very obvious and all too real “crisis” for rights and equality as a result of this failure to legislate. We will publish a report of the committee’s view on this issue in the coming period.

That crisis is only exacerbated and brought into sharper focus as a result of the calamitous fallout of Brexit.

The fears expressed by our committee contributors and all too acutely felt by the broader community here in the north, found unprecedented expression at last Saturday’s “Future Ireland” conference in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall. 

Speaker after speaker at the historic Waterfront gathering outlined the rights deficit which exists here as a result of both governments failure to fully realise and implement the Good Friday Agreement. 

We all know at this stage that the GFA extends Irish citizenship, as of birth right, to everyone born here – but in practice, in the reality of day to day life, beyond the modest, albeit important, ability to hold an Irish passport (when Post Offices aren’t running out of application forms that is!) what rights do we actually have?

An Taoiseach agus An Tánaiste have both steadfastly committed to “protecting” our rights as Irish citizens yet time after time in the Seanad, I have asked them to outline to me what our rights as citizens actually are.

Thus far they’ve been unable to clarify. 

Further assurances given to the Seanad and Dáil that our rights as EU citizens will be upheld by Guy Verhofstaft of the EU Parliament also appear to have been built on legislatively shaky ground.

The opaque approach by Government is no longer tenable nor is it acceptable to the ever growing number of Irish citizens in the North who are asserting their citizenship, thus demanding equality of treatment and the associated protections afforded to our fellow Irish/EU citizens in the South.

I have proposed that the Justice Committee meet in joint-session with the Oireachtas Committee on ‘the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement’ to hear further evidence of these justified concerns and extend a further platform to those voices pleading with government to act and act now.

At a time when the British Home Office are dragging citizens in the North who assert their GFA  rights as Irish citizens through the courts and imposes upon them (and by extension every last one of us) an automatic and often unwanted British citizenship then it is time we all defended the GFA, defended our rights and defended our futures.

The Irish government must lead in this regard. They must ensure we are not left behind. 

So, what exactly are our rights as Irish citizens?

Until they are legislated for will we even know?

Until they are legislated for, do we even have any?

Those are the questions you should ask yourself, but more importantly, ask the Irish Government and the EU.

When democracy sends out an SOS

This article first appeared in the Andersontown News 1/11/18

I was in London last week for the latest plenary of the “British-Irish Inter-parliamentary Assembly”.

This biannual gathering brings parliamentarians from the House of the Oireachtas and the northern Assembly together with their counterparts in the Welsh, Scottish and English Parliaments; members also come from Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Mann.

Given the climate we are in much focus turned to what would be said at this event, not least given the fact that we were to be addressed by Britain’s Secretary of State for the North Karen Bradley.

During her remarks Ms Bradley took the opportunity to remind us of the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and to laud it’s many achievements. Fair enough.

A packed press gallery heard speaker after speaker from Ireland flag up their concerns around Brexit.

I took the opportunity to remind Karen Bradley that while praising the GFA she is held to ransom by a party who opposed it at the time and remain opposed to it still. I reminded her that many aspects of that and other agreements remain unfulfilled by her government; a Bill of Rights, Acht na Gaeilge, access to legacy mechanisms.

I also stressed the point that the majority of voters in an area she, (even still) lamely professes to in some way represent, (yet clearly from her contribution at this event and many more) in no way understands. I reminded her that the majority of people in the North voted to remain inside the EU and are increasingly opposed to a Tory Brexit being forced upon us.

Her response gained much media coverage and on a personal level left me scratching my head.

Karen Bradley said that because “sixty percent of unionists voted to leave” that that meant to suggest a majority here actually voted to remain was in some way contrary to the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.

The old DUP adage of “a majority of the majority” rang in my ears as I listened to her conclusion of this particular sentence, but even they had left such negative and inherently anti democratic rhetoric far behind. Had the Tories?

I asked Karen to cite her sources for this figure and her subsequent political assertion.

She didn’t bother. I don’t think the packed press gallery bothered to ask her either.

The following day I would again have the opportunity to question Ms Bradley when I paid a visit to 10 Downing Street for a reception marking the end of the BIPA Plenary.

On a personal level I was taken by the history of the street and the house, very conscious of it’s impact on Ireland and the many world figures of note and notoriety who passed through that famous door.

I thought back to the Sinn Féin delegation led by Michael Collins who signed the Treaty, which partitioned Ireland, led to Civil War and decades of armed conflict back at home.

I thought of more recent times, to sitting on our living room floor in the Strand and watching over many years as Martin, Martin and Gerry, Ferris, Siobhán, Michelle, Lucilita, Richard all made their way through that door in challenging times, striving to advance negotiations, dialogue, peace and Republican politics.

I was conscious of their, of our and indeed Ireland’s collective journey.

I was very glad I would head through the same door for the first time with Bellaghy’s own Ian Milne MLA, a comrade of the legendary Francis Hughes, a former political prisoner and Blanketman, held captive with my late Uncle Seany in the Blocks.

Ian and Sean Crowe TD from Dublin help me round up the Republican membership of BIPA and the three of us understood fully the footsteps we followed in.

So with all this in mind, even though it was a diplomatic reception of which the assembled civil servants could be happy with, I took another opportunity while there to raise Ireland’s concerns with Karen Bradley.

While it was clear she wasn’t minded to continue our engagement from the previous day, luckily a strategically placed table meant she didn’t get the chance to avoid me.

I said to Ms Bradley what I expect a clear majority of people, Unionist, Republican and other, would expect me to say. Her attempts at subverting the democratic will of the people will be seen clearly for what they are, yet another cynical attempt to sustain their toxic, symbiotic link to the DUP.

Democracy, Ireland and all of our people of no importance to them if Karen Bradley’s remarks are anything to go by.

I’m glad my visit to Downing Street afforded me the opportunity to make the case for Ireland.

I’m glad I made it there from the Strand.

Whether she got it or not there’s no doubting from our group, Karen Bradley heard the message.

BIPA meets in Dublin in the New Year. The message will be the same.

All eyes on the Áras

This article first appeared in the Andersontown News 4-10-18

So the bells have been rung, nominations have been lodged, debates are starting and campaigning is well underway. We have ourselves a Presidential election (well some of us will be electing our President this time around, but I’ll come to that later).

Sinn Fén’s nominee is current MEP and Gaeltacht native Liadh Ní Riada. 

The upcoming election gives us an ideal opportunity to discuss the immediate and the longer term hopes, aspirations and plans for the kind of Ireland we want to achieve, a new Ireland, an Ireland fit for the times in which we live and worthy of the people striving so hard to improve our lot.

We are an Ireland confidently rooted in our heritage, conscious and aware of our proud past; but we are an Ireland awoken in our live renewal, an Ireland where the values of compassion and understanding, not shame and isolation, bubble over with hopeful dynamism and confidence. 

We are an Ireland where our language is treasured, celebrated and looked upon as the youthful, hopeful and inclusive means of communication that it is by our people if not by the Government; a language still continuing to be transported to the four corners of the earth by a renewed interest in this most ancient yet trendy tongue. A language gaining an ever growing presence and appeal on global social media platforms. 

An Ireland where our united sporting endeavours shake the accepted norms. 

An Ireland where we see injustices and call them out. Where we cannot tolerate fellow citizens suffering the indignity of trolleys in hospital corridors, or no roof over their children’s heads.

An Ireland where we take to the streets, “dearg le fearg”, demanding our “right to water”, where we “take back the streets” and where this week we “raised the roof”.

An Ireland where still only some women are given the healthcare they choose, where people love unabashed the partner of their choosing and for some can choose to declare that love in marriage. In these instances the cry of “the North is next” rings so inevitably true.

An Ireland where the establishment class tells us €300k is an “affordable” home. 

An Ireland where in a corner of it the rights we champion, those our fellow citizens down the road take for granted, are denied, where mandates against Britain’s Brexit folly are ignored. 

An Ireland where everything is changing. An Ireland where accepted norms are no longer accepted norms. An Ireland who’s potential for further greatness is stunted still by the greatest injustice inflicted upon us all; partition. 

So let’s use the opportunity that’s afforded by the election of Ireland’s next first citizen to discuss citizenship, what it means to us, the values we want to see not only prevail but be implemented fully across the entirety of our nation. Let’s talk about next year’s referendum to give us all a vote in the presidential elections and importantly, how we’re gonna win it! Let’s talk about the disaster of Brexit and how best we resist it for all of our people.

Yes, for a new Ireland, truly we need a new Uachtarán, Liadh Ní Riada will be that President. 

— 

Laochra Loch Lao – building for the future

This article first appeared in ‘The Andersontown News’.

Laochra Loch Lao, Belfast’s Irish language GAA club, made a little bit of history recently.

With many other club supporters I attended the Laochra’s first championship match at Woodlands pitches; they were up against North Belfast’s ‘Na Piarsaigh’.

In a bruising game, Laochra were subjected to a heavy defeat. A player from each side, both friends of mine, had to come off with injuries, continuing their analysis of the match for a number of hours in A&E that evening.

The County Antrim Junior Championship ain’t for wallflowers!

Laochra Loch Lao have been in existence sine 2006, a mostly sporadic affair, emerging with guaranteed zeal and vigor every year to take part in Ireland’s annual Gaeltacht tournament. They immediately gained the notice of other clubs and Gaeltacht area from across Ireland when they descended on the tournaments in their hoards, with songs, supporters, banners and even sometimes impressive performances, setting the competition alight.

Beyond this annual and for lots of Gaels, all too fleeting appearance, the club, despite huge support and tremendous goodwill, weren’t doing much else.

That all began to change a few years ago. At a meeting in the Cultúrlann Gaels from across Belfast came together to discuss the future vision for the club. Many there were “aul hands” who’d been invested in the club and what it could achieve since day one. They played and endured, they had the future development of the club in their hearts but inevitably had the arduous challenge of loyalty to their own local clubs. To establish Laochra proper, as something more than what had gone before, would need big, bold decisions for those taking part.

But then again, when have Belfast Gaels ever shied away from the next big challenge?

So the decision was made, the club would be formally constituted and affiliated within the County. Senior and underage teams, for men and women, boys and girls, would be established. If this was to be done, those driving it would ensure it would be done right.

It was clear, at a very early stage, given the caliber of those giving of themselves to this endeavour, that it had a good and sure footing for moving forward. Fair play to them. They know who they are.

The club are now based at the £18.5m Spórtlann on the Coláiste Feirste site. Their physical proximity and obvious spiritual connection to the school makes it a natural well from which Laochra will continue to draw water. But they aren’t confined to the Gaeltacht Quarter either, they’ve attracted participation and support from all over Belfast and beyond.

So while the club’s historic first championship match was sadly a defeat, Laochra will continue to live and grow by their all too fitting club motto, “Lean Ar Aghaidh”, which can be translated as “carry on”, “keep going”, “continue”, “advance”, “prevail”.

The Irish language community in Belfast live by this motto too, it’s why Laochra and the broader GAA family in the city have a bright, exciting and sure future; it’s why Laochra and your own club need your continued support and individual investment, it’s why we owe it to the Gaels of the present and the future players to ensure they they have a place to aspire to, to dream of playing in, a place of asserting, enjoying and participating in their culture and national identity.

It’s for Laochra and every other club in Belfast and throughout Ulster that we need to build Casement.

Lean Ar Aghaidh.

Ballymurphy stands for Justice

Over the course of forty eight hours, following the introduction of Internment without Trial, the British Parachute Regiment gunned down eleven people, including a Catholic priest, on the streets of Ballymurphy. These wouldn’t be the only fatalities in the city over those two days.

A year later the same regiment was deployed to Derry City, where they murdered fourteen civilians on an anti-Internment march, the day became known as “Bloody Sunday”.

Also a year on from the slaughter in Ballymurphy, it’s neighboring area of Springhill would have a similar horror inflicted upon it after British troops shot a further five people, another Catholic priest among the dead.

Last Friday I joined survivors of the Ballymurphy Massacre and the families of those killed at Belfast’s High Court for a short hearing.

The families have been campaigning for inquests into the murders of the their loved ones for many years now. The story of their relatives deaths, its impact on them and indeed on the broader community, is finally coming to light, thanks to the strength, determination and dignity of these campaigning families, their legal representatives and that small band of investigative journalists pursuing the truth behind the headlines.

It was clear that Friday, with a commitment from Justice Keegan to start the process of laying out a clear timescale for the opening of the inquest, was an emotional experience for the families.

As I sat behind the families and their legal team the atmosphere was palpable; their overarching loss, their dogged focus on getting to the truth, their steadfastness is facing down attempts by the British MOD to, in all too typical fashion, obstruct, delay and potentially try and thwart the families mission all electrified the room.

Just a few months earlier, while also sitting in Belfast’s High Court, only this time with the equally determined and inspiring families of those killed in Loughinisland, I first heard the term “slow waltz”, used to describe the tactics employed by the British in relation to legacy cases; the deliberately slow, drip-feeding of sketchy and at times totally irrelevant information. I sensed this familiar obfuscation had been deployed in regards to this process.

On Friday I also go the sense that Judge Siobhán Keegan was all too alert to this particular British Government dance.

In the midst of the atmosphere, emotion, tension and expectation of Friday, what I found a strange but surprisingly positive contribution, was a Judge engaging directly with families, she wore her own clothes, not the familiar garb of the British Judiciary, she took questions from people who, although taking on the might of Britain’s military and political apparatus for years, aren’t lawyers themselves. It was a different experience.

I found Judge Keegan scathing in her criticism of the MOD’s familiar choreography, while inquests could not begin on the day, as hoped for by the families, Keegan was laying a marker in what I felt were absolutely no uncertain terms, they would be happening sooner rather than later and that the curtain was beginning to descend on the MOD’s latest dance.

That is the hope anyway, it remains to be seen.

The Ballymurphy Families will head back to the now familiar surroundings of the High Court later today for another preliminary hearing with Justice Keegan. They are hopeful more details about process and timelines for the inquests will emerge.

As we left the court on Friday the families were preparing for the screening of “Massacre at Ballymurphy” on Channel 4 that same weekend. A detailed investigation into the murder of their loved ones and a documentary that goes some way in exposing the British Army policy of victim blaming, facilitated by an all too compliant and partisan media. I have invited the makers of this film and the relatives to a host a dedicated screening for Deputies and Senators at Leinster House.

You should watch this film.

Just like with the Loughinisland case, the Ballymurphy Families know the tricks, they know the experiences of their own and other families campaigns, they are hopeful for a new light to be shone, not just on the past and the story of the Ballymurphy Massacre, but on the future, towards truth and justice for them and their loved ones and for the families they’ve inspired by their courageous and unwavering stand.

At 2:30pm today the families will walk from City Hall to Court.

You should walk with them.

“Black 47” helps shine a light on Ireland’s darkest days

It’s been a week since I had the opportunity to see an advanced screening of the movie “Black 47” at the Omniplex Cinema in Belfast’s Kennedy Centre.

In that week the film has played on my mind.

As a stand-alone piece of cinema, it’s a wonderful revenge thriller and as has been said in any number of reviews the world over, it oozes with the strong feel of a traditional, credible and dramatic western.

I’m always immediately curious, excited and worried when films about Ireland and our history land in the pictures. We’ve been blessed with some absolute masterpieces but burdened with some terrible turkeys too.

From the minute Black 47 began trailing on internet platforms I hoped and if I’m honest, I probably sensed too, that we had the potential for a masterpiece on our hands.

At school I read “Under the Hawthorne Tree” and have memories of “The Hanging Gale”, a BBC production set during Ireland’s Great Hunger, that my parents sat us down to watch each Sunday night the series ran for. It was hard to believe, given the scale of its impact as well as its ongoing legacy on Irish life, that Black 47 would be the first time that the story of this most darkest of periods in Irish history would be brought to the big screen.

I’ve never really done film reviews on this blog before, I’m not really sure how to go about analysing the technical or indeed the totality of all the historical aspects of this particular movie; I’m reluctant to go too much into story telling about it for fear of spoilers, but that all being said, I do know what I enjoyed.

The first class acting from a diverse range of actors (some known and others less known, some Irish and some with no connections to the country at all, but all of them united in stellar, believable and deeply human performances), the credible political, social and devastating backdrop of British colonial policy in Ireland, the rugged beauty of the Irish countryside and the tense atmosphere generated by a man on a mission of vengeance for his family, his people and ultimately his country.

It also, although separate from the story, touches on the fact that even in the midst of this most desperate and terrible of times, there remained a flame of resistance to the evils of colonial occupation and the capitalist mechanics which brought a “Famine” to Ireland.

Above all, what impressed me and I believe added most to the film, was the authentic use of the Irish language.

Black 47’s characters speaking in Irish is of course natural, we are depicting the west of Ireland in the 1840’s after all.

As Irish speakers in an audience though, even when dealing with Irish cinema, we aren’t used to seeing the language given such natural prominence on the big screen; too often, for a range of reasons, directors and producers are all too willing to compromise on such a level of authenticity in order to appeal to a broader audience and generate more revenue for their work.

Black 47 puts it up to them and ultimately proves them wrong with it’s organic use of the language; Gaelic adds a greater depth to a visually and audibly luscious depiction of what is often considered the most tragic period in Irish history. From the scenery, to the dialogue, to the very clothes the characters are wearing, I don’t believe we’ve ever seen (or heard!) Irish history depicted on screen like this ever before.

*The* line of Black 47 for me is when our main protagonist tells a cruel, punitive local Judge,

“Ní hé an Bhéarla teanga na chúirte seo” – “English is not the language of this court”.

You’ll understand when you go see and you should go see.

Our history, not least in this era, is complex, at times it’s contested too; our main “hero” is a member of the Connaught Rangers having gone to Afghanistan, where he himself implemented what we are led to believe is equally violent and devastating colonial warfare and degradation against another indigenous population for the purposes of profit, dominance and military might – precisely what those who he was once fighting for are carrying out against his own people in Ireland. Our story IS complex, but what cannot be in doubt with the release of Black 47, is that it’s a history worthy of being told and told well, not just to an Irish but to a global audience too.

If you live in Ireland or Britain you should go see this movie and not wait for it to be released via online streaming platforms or lifted by RTÉ – by our deciding to go and purchase tickets we’ll help bolster this film beyond our own shores, we’ll help share it with our diaspora around the world, many of them directly descended from people forced from their homes as a result of the genocide depicted in this film. They have a stake in this story, they deserve to get seeing it in their new homeplace. They deserve an understanding and depiction of their story, of how they got to be where they are, how we Irish were once the immigrants seeking shelter, food and refuge.

Around the world, much still remains unknown about the causes and context of the Great Hunger and while this film can never tell that entire story, it’s setting and natural context and background goes some significant way in explaining a situation that many people believe they are familiar with but don’t fully understand……………..yet.

This modest Irish production can help that process and in understanding the genocide inflicted on the Irish people, this film can, in its own unique way, help create big reverberations around the world, whether intentional or not.

That’s good art.

Taking Short Strand off the map……

This article first appeared in the Andersontown News 2/8/18

“Bus stops. Who knew they could prove so controversial?”

Well, that’s if you believe the issue of naming a bus stop after the area in which it’s located is the problem, rather than, actually, the issues some people have with the area itself.

The DUP’s South Belfast MP Emma Little-Pengelly came in for much criticism last week after details of a letter she distributed around constituents highlighting her “serious concerns” about the naming of a bus stop in the Short Strand, came to light on social media.

The criticism leveled at Emma came from a broad range of political representatives, commentators, newspaper satirists, joe public and many more in between. Reasonable and fair comment was fully warranted; Emma had given us a rather stark glimpse into a certainstandard of politics which we all know is there but don’t always talk about.

The issue wasn’t the bus stop, it was always called “Short Strand”, for god sake it’s immediately adjacent to homes in the Strand and literally nothing else. The real problem, which remains to be teased out, is the fact that certain people, perhaps even senior figures within political Unionism, cannot countenance a nationalist enclave in East Belfast even having its existence reflected on our shared city’s bus route!

I’m not entirely surprised by this attitude, in the Strand we’ve known and felt it for generations; what surprised me was that Emma appeared to be so silly that she allowed her apparent indulgence in it to be so publicly exposed.

What struck me about the letters revelation on social media was, amongst the vast array (and understandable) criticism of Emma, some tried to shift, change, warp the narrative into something entirely different.

Suddenly for some, the problem was no longer the intolerance of a bus stop named after the community in which it is located, but instead became more about “look at the DUP and Sinn Féin fighting again”, or sentiment to that effect.

Now, if my, or my party colleague and local Councillor Mairéad O’Donnell’s defence of the people in the Short Strand constitutes “fighting” with the DUP then that’s fair enough; but it immediately struck that this was a somewhat lazy, albeit predictable narrative beginning to emerge regarding this particular letter.

Neither Sinn Féin, Mairéad, nor I, were alone in our criticism of Emma, but the usual twitter faces, resorted to their usual twitter positions of blaming “both”; even though, only one was responsible for the nonsensical, prejudiced position. The same thing happened the DUP attacked the flying of the Rainbow flag over Craigavon Council, suddenly BBC’s daily radio phone-in show ‘Talkback’ invited me on to explicitly “not talk about bus stops” but instead to talk about “petty politics”.

I often wonder, when President Trump makes some of his more infamous outbursts, do the people pushing the “both as bad as each other” line, chastise in the same way, the people who offer criticism, satire or fair political retort of his remarks? Somehow I don’t think they do.

One well known broadcaster, and not alone amongst sections of the broadcasting community, lamented the weekend’s flooding, the blockage of drain pipes, and how in the midst of these problems Sinn Féin and the DUP were “fighting” over bus stops. Well of course this flags up a problem, the statements was as inaccurate an assertion as it was unimaginative, particularly given the fact Sinn Féin activists across the North were to the fore in supporting those effected by the weekend’s flooding (they must have missed the many photos and posts about this work all over social media). It’s also worth pointing out that no one was “fighting” with the DUP – pretty much everyone was lampooning a letter very worthy of being lampooned.

Sammy Wilson recently referred to remarks by his former Leader Peter Robinson concerning preparations for a border poll as “an invitation to republican arsonists to come in and burn our house down”. This remark is telling, perhaps it could apply also to even the mere reflection and acknowledgement of a nationalist community (one of Belfast’s oldest) in loyal East Belfast?

Is the inability to tolerate a bus stop in Short Strand being named Short Strand but a microcosm of Sammy’s misplaced and misguided insecurity?

If so, how sad. How very wrong; but how worthy of broad, legitimate and understandable political criticism – I hope that fair criticism doesn’t prove too much for some of Twitter’s commentariat?!

So yeah, bus stops it seems can prove controversial, but only when they carry the name Short Strand.