Identity fetishist of the worst kind

One of the most noxiously abhorrent Bloggers on Slugger O’Toole is Sinn Fein mouthpiece and separateness fetishist Chris Donnelly. His grasp of Byzantine Shinnerspeak constructions isn’t complete or cunning enough to distort the underlying poison they contain. Reading Mr Donnelly’s bigotry can provide a clear and undistorted picture amongst the cleverer republicans’ hall-of mirrors.

http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/a-november-night-revisited/

Under the guise of “equality rather than neutrality” it is Sinn Fein’s intention to advance a joint-sovereignty agenda under the disingenuous guise of parity for political symbols, thus undermining their rhetorical acceptance of the principle of consent.

This process basically involves accepting any un-inclusive aspects of nationalist culture without complaint, because they are legitimate “symbols” of that tradition whilst maintaining persistent attacks on unionist equivalents. So we have a defence of the GAA’s political constitution and an insistence that unionists accept the “symbols” of nationalism if they wish to play the sports, but equally we have constant and persistent attack on Orange marches as triumphalist, sectarian, irredeemable hatefests and a refusal to draw any distinction between an 11th night bonfire organised by local hoods (for example) and a family friendly march of mainly elderly-folks in a country village

Refusing (despite paying lip-service to the concept) to respect the Northern Irish people’s democratic right to determine their own constitutional arrangements we have the ludicrous argument that symbols from the Republic of Ireland be conferred equal official status in Northern Ireland. As ever SF’s strategy is invidious and devious in the extreme. Under sententious phrases lie an agenda which in no way seeks an “Ireland of equals”, rather it seeks to obliterate one identity and advance another.

Of course the real bile of Donnelly and republican columnist Brian Feeney is reserved for anything which might in any way constitute common ground between the two communities. Anything that in Feeney’s poisonous view smacks of an “Alliance mentality”.

http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/equality-must-replace-neutrality-feeney/

Hence the huge strides made by the Northern Ireland football team and the attendant efforts of the supporters to make supporting Northern Ireland a more inclusive experience drives Donnelly into paroxysms of fury and constitutes a failure to “recognise the two national identities in the North of Ireland” (I know, it sets the teeth on edge!). Note also the ire inspired when a great number of people here had the audacity to describe themselves primarily as Northern Irish (below).

Of course the DUP have only minor difficulties with such strategies but like their partners in nationalism, they have no interest in emphasising what people have in common, rather than what separates them either. Under the ascendant parties we are becoming accustomed to polarisation.