Scottish First Minister John Swinney has copied Sinn Fein by using the phrase “north of Ireland” instead of Northern Ireland to signal he backs Irish reunification after signing a pact with Sinn Fein and Plaid Cymru to break up the UK. The Telegraph has the story.
The memorandum of understanding between the three parties also referred to the “North of Ireland” rather than “Northern Ireland”.
Northern Ireland is the official name for the six counties that form part of the United Kingdom.
However, Sinn Fein uses “north of Ireland” to emphasise that it rejects the legitimacy of partition and to claim the province is part of one [Irish] nation.
The Tories said that Swinney’s language showed his “friends in Sinn Fein have already been in his ear” after the signing of the pact in Cardiff on Monday.
Speaking at First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood, the SNP leader was forced to make clear that he opposed terrorism.
Sinn Fein was widely regarded as the political wing of the IRA during the Troubles, in which more than 3,600 people were killed, including Scottish soldiers.
Russell Findlay, the Scottish Tory leader, said that Sinn Fein had never condemned the atrocities carried out by the IRA.
But Swinney said he had “always expressed my sympathy” to the victims of terrorist atrocities, and “unreservedly” condemned such acts.
He argued that voters would be “surprised if I didn’t stick to the principal reason why I entered politics” – to gain Scottish independence.
The SNP, Sinn Fein and Plaid Cymru are all in power simultaneously for the first time in the UK’s devolved nations after May’s elections.
Worth reading in full.
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Speaking as a Northern Irish non church going Protestant living in Northern Ireland after spending half my adult life in England, it’s only a matter of time before Ireland is reunited. The demographics driven by birth rates are inevitable, and it would appear that we (Northern Ireland) didn’t actually leave the EU during the deliberately/ maliciously fudged non exit containing mis named Brexit. Sinn Fein are also supporters of uncontrolled immigration, The bigger issue is what happens when the newly invited crocodile decides to eat the host. Mary Lou what’s her name and her roly poly fake blonde buddy will soon find themselves surplus to requirements. Better stand by your beds with your jizya tax, they’ll be coming for it.
I like the idea of self determination but the devil is in the detail here – which “self” are we talking about. Should the large minority of Protestant people in Northern Ireland have a right to a homeland in the lands they have lived in for centuries, where they are the majority and shall forever remain so? Lots of people think Palestinians have that right, and lots of people think that Jews do too.
Geographically correct statement.
Perhaps but it’s also a shibboleth designed to smoke out United Kingdom loyalists. That combination of words means more than just geography.
If the 100-year-old democratic nation of Protestant Northern Ireland is to be handed to Catholic Southern Ireland, then Muslim Pakistan & Bangladesh must also be handed back to Hindu India, from whose territory those two Muslim nations were carved 70 years ago.
Alternatively, if Northern Ireland votes to be glued onto the South, All Protestants in Northern Ireland must be welcomed into Britain as REFUGEES,
and All Irish Catholics in Britain must return to the newly glued Ireland, to occupy the former homes of the Protestants. Then both Ireland and Britain shall have peace at last.