A Right Old Irish Constitutional Cock-up

A right old Irish Constitutional Cock-up

There is a saying in Ulster that the butter will always come through the bruitin where bruitin is the Irish for mashed potatoes. This means that the true nature of something will always assert itself. Watching the news on T.V. it would seem that in the assembly the butter is coming through the bruitin in the row over a document about Our Future. The document is the responsibility of Connor Murphy of Late Sinn Fein. The language of this document is being severely criticized by Geoffrey Donaldson of Right wing Union Jack unionism for the use of such expressions as – in the north and the north of Ireland—instead of the constitutionally correct – Northern Ireland..

All of that brings us back to the central thesis of Federal Unionism—Early Sinn Fein that at the heart of the Irish Problem lies the constitution. In my writing I usually call the six counties the six counties. I have a logical reason for doing that. If I call the six counties N. Ireland what does that make Innisowen and Mallin Town? Are they southern Ireland? There is also the attempt by some to make themselves constitutionally correct by calling themselves Northern Irish but the logical difficulty remains. If the people of the six counties are Northern Irish are the people of Mallin Town Southern Irish? All of this points up the logical cock-up that the island is in. I also call the twenty-six counties the twenty-six counties, which they logically are. As a former teacher of mathematics I am nothing if not logical.

Some years ago when writing for another journal I was taken to task by a T.D. in the Dail for calling the twenty six counties the twenty six counties. He insisted I call the twenty-six counties, the mature sovereign nation of the Republic of Ireland. I in turn insisted that neither the six counties nor the twenty-six counties were nations but were two sectarian statlets the one foreign to the other. I noted to him that the six counties were clearly sectarian. On the other hand I noted also that the Dail was in practice a catholic parliament for a catholic people. De Valera wrote its constitution with the Irish cardinal holding his elbow and whispering in his ear. I also pointed that if the twenty-six counties were now a mature sovereign nation then why hasn’t Emmet’s epitaph been written in Dublin years ago? However if the National Government of Ireland Act were in place in Ireland then Emmet’s epitaph could safely and finally be written.

The obvious illogical and divisive constitutional cock-up that is Ireland spreads out among the people of Derry. I have a very good friend who goes shopping in Dublin. When she does she says: -
“I am going to Dublin in the Free State”
This is a common usage in Derry in both communities. A gardener says to me: -
“ I was born in Donegal in the Free State”
In Derry the constitutional problem is got around by various circumlocutions: -
“I come from across the border in Donegal”
“I was on holiday in Kerry in the Free State”
“He’s from the south in Buncrana”
Seamus Mallon invariably refers to the six counties as ---the north or—the north of Ireland. So Connor Murphy in calling the six counties – the north or the north of Ireland is mirroring the constitutional confusion that exists in the minds of the people. So Geoffrey Donaldson before getting tough with Connor and straightening him out constitutionally should come to Derry first and straighten the people of Derry out constitutionally. However Connor could have avoided the difficulty by not buying into the 1801 Act of Union and in so doing prop up a Right Wing Union Jack Unionist state at Stormont by being in the pay of the British Exchequer. Federal Unionism Early Sinn Fein can clear up this constitutional mess by saying to the assembly ---- A Republic/United Kingdom out---A Federal Kingdom in.


Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist – Early Sinn Fein