MR JUSTICE RICHARD HUMPHREYS • ANNA MCHUGH • PROFESSOR COLIN HARVEY BERNARDINE QUINN • PATRICIA MACBRIDE • EMMA DE SOUZA • SENATOR FRANCES BLACK DANIEL HOLDER • SENATOR IAN MARSHALL • PADDY TIERNEY • MARTINA DEVLIN • NIALL MURPHY 18 OPINION WEDNESDAY JANUARY 30 2019 Pro fide et patria Irish passport office needed VIDENCE, if it were needed, of the in- creased demand for Irish passports Eahead of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU can be found in the fact that some post offices in Northern Ireland have run out of application forms. A number of post offices put up signs saying it could be the end of February be- fore they receive new stock, which cannot be viewed as an acceptable situation. Among the outlets affected is the main Belfast city centre post office on Bridge Street. Printing additional forms should not be an insurmountable problem and yester- day the Republic’s department of foreign affairs confirmed that new forms have been dispatched and stocks should be re- plenished within days. However, the fact that there are short- ages at all will reinforce calls for the Irish government to open an office in the north to deal with the number of people apply- ing for an Irish passport. n Prints of Ian Knox cartoons are available to buy from £15 at shop.irishnews.com The demand is clearly there. Irish gov- ernment figures show nearly 85,000 peo- ple from Northern Ireland applied for passports in 2018, a 2 per cent increase on the previous year. The number of applications has grown since the Brexit referendum result in June Ignorance of Irish 2016 and demand is likely to intensify as the deadline approaches for withdrawal on March 29. The absence of an agreed arrangement for dealing with the immediate aftermath of Brexit and fears of a no-deal will add to the sense of concern many people have government plain about the months ahead. While the Irish government has correctly ATURDAY’S Waterfront Hall the false equivalence peddled by the Irish pointed out that anyone wishing to renew conference on ‘Beyond Brexit’ was government. How about telling the truth their passport can do so online, there are not only the biggest political event Brian for a change? plainly large numbers of people applying in the north this century, it was the The reason there’s no executive is because Sbiggest political event for more than a of the DUP and the British government. for the first time for whom additional sup- Feeney port would be appreciated. generation. Sinn Féin wanted an executive and agreed Around 1,600 people from all nationalist a bad deal with the DUP to get into one As well as a practical purpose, a passport parties on the island, many from no party and the DUP ratted on it. Sinn Féin leaked office would have a symbolic role, sending and some unionists, gave up their Saturday the deal and when nationalists saw how out an important message from the Irish at three weeks notice or less, to listen to bad it was Sinn Féin realised only then the government to Irish citizens in the north speeches and diverse panels discussing Gael to exclude Sinn Féin? nationalist electorate was ahead of them in in what are uncertain political times. the Ireland of the future. Many others Cutting through their platitudes and rejection of the notion of an executive run watched the live stream on Periscope and padding, they both said the priority is to on the basis of a DUP veto on progress on thousands watched the replays. get an executive up and running and that human rights and nationalist aspirations. Sadly, analysis of such a huge, visual there can’t be a border poll. Gutless, futile, The British government, supposed to be Preserve castle media-friendly event on local TV was infuriating. A merry-go-round with the ‘rigorously impartial’, backs the DUP to the meagre, about two minutes on Sunday’s same cheap, run of the mill musak playing hilt in this denial of rights and progress. Politics Show and thereafter nothing; what endlessly. The speakers from the south Here’s the most telling point. The Irish link to our past coverage there was, framed in negative were addressing the wrong conference. government doesn’t know it was a bad deal terms. They would have been applauded at the and when told, doesn’t understand why it OLONEL Edward Saunderson, a That’s a pity because there were was bad. prominent political figure who died two important messages to take Worse, northern nationalists aren’t in 1906, was at the heart of what away from the Waterfront Hall. The allowed to propose a border poll if C first is the complete disconnect It has not penetrated the there’s a no-deal Brexit despite that was once a strong unionist tradition in Co of the Irish government from the being the only guaranteed route back Cavan. reality of northern nationalism miasma of complacency in into the EU. It’s also, as Professor Colin As a leading Orangeman, a staunch op- and secondly, the complete Dublin that the executive has Harvey pointed out on Saturday, ‘the ponent of home rule and an MP who disenchantment of nationalists democratically endorsed constitutional played a key role in the events leading to with a Stormont assembly, or as been in crisis since 2012 with compromise intended to underpin the launch of the Ulster Unionist Party, his Allison Morris of this parish put it in interminable talks sessions relationships on this island…Are people thoughts on the subsequent partition of December, ‘Nationalists are so over supposed to pretend there is not an Ireland which left his native county on the Stormont, all the focus now is on a every autumn since, each anticipated and agreed solution to a New Ireland.’ leading nowhere hard border on this island?’ In Harvey’s southern side of the border would have The Irish government sent a words, ‘the solution that dare not speak been intriguing. minister to make a boilerplate its name?’ His family mansion on a 300-acre estate speech that was heard mainly in A border poll is ‘toxic’, ‘divisive’, near Belturbet is on the site of the 14th- polite silence because it was so far from Conservative party conference because ‘destabilising’ and worse, even though it’s century Breffni Castle, and by any stan- addressing the alienation of northern the NIO and British prime minister would enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement. dards, as we report today, is a building nationalists and their immediate concerns have been saying exactly the same. However, Brexit is OK to push through, of immense historical and architectural that it was a perfect illustration of the It has not penetrated the miasma of even though a majority here voted significance. problem in Dublin. Fianna Fáil’s deputy complacency in Dublin that the executive decisively against it. Is it not toxic, It is concerning that, after changing leader made the worst speech of the day; has been in crisis since 2012 with divisive, destabilising and worse? dire, droning on and on, boring, repetitive, interminable talks sessions every autumn The sad truth is that you’re not allowed hands on a number of occasions, it has addressing the same stale, obsolete points since, each leading nowhere. Look, there to suggest a border poll, even in the fallen into disrepair. It is essential that the as the government minister. Then of isn’t going to be an executive until there’s event of a no-deal Brexit, because the authorities find ways of preserving and course Fianna Fáil is in cahoots with the a new British government and probably Irish government would have a collective protecting an important link with our past. government isn’t it, conspiring with Fine not then either. The infuriating aspect is nervous breakdown. 2 IRELAND’S FUTURE OUR RIGHTS - OUR FUTURE THE FUTURE OF IRELAND Canal Court Hotel, Newry Niall Murphy Anna McHugh 7pm - 9:15pm Thursday 9th May Clár 19:00 Niall Murphy - Fáilte Emma de Souza Daniel Holder 19:15 Panel Discussion - Our Rights 19:45 Audience Q&A Chair Anna McHugh Panel Emma de Souza Daniel Holder Padraig Ó Tiarnaigh Bernardine Quinn Padraig Ó Tiarnaigh Bernardine Quinn 20:15 Panel Discussion - Our Future 20:45 Audience Q&A Chair Patricia MacBride Patricia MacBride Richard Humphreys Panel Mr Justice Richard Humphreys Professor Colin Harvey Senator Frances Black Senator Ian Marshall Martina Devlin Colin Harvey Senator Frances Black 21:15 Closing remarks Senator Ian Marshall Martina Devlin 3 IRELAND’S FUTURE 6 NEWS THURSDAY JANUARY 24 2019 BREXIT Play your part in helping to shape our country’s future HEN over 200 Irish citizens from the north PLATFORM signed an open letter to An Taoiseach Leo WVaradkar in December 2017 it came Niall at the end of a tumultuous and Murphy politically defining year. That January, the Good Friday Agreement political institutions This culmination of events and collapsed amidst the political and concerns motivated me and others financial scandal of RHI. to make the first direct public It served to confirm the growing appeal to Leo Varadkar to stand up view of northern nationalists and speak out in defence of Irish that political unionism was not citizens’ rights in the north. committed to proper power We were not surprised to discover sharing. that many from across all sectors The disrespect for the Irish in society had no national identity and repeated hesitation in adding mockery of the Irish language by their names to this DUP elected representatives, the initiative. Indeed, punitive scrapping of the Liofa in the aftermath of bursary scheme by a DUP minister, the publication of and then insults from that party’s the letter the only leader during the March assembly complaint received election mobilised the nationalist was from people and republican electorate: in turn annoyed that they the unionist political majority in the weren’t asked.