President Michael Higgins pulls out of 1916 Belfast event

Long story short, there was an agreement by all parties that there'd be three dinners for three events - Ulster Covenant, Easter Rising, and Battle of the Somme.

DUP have boycotted the Easter Rising one, breaking said agreement, and forcing the Irish President to pull out. Now saying they never agreed to attend at all.

Rather embarrassing for Belfast and NI for this to have happened.

http://www.u.tv/News/2016/03/31/Irish-President-pulls-out-of-1916-Belfast-event-56633

DrumSteve

Painfully predictable.

Conall Cernach

Deleted User wrote: »

Long story short, there was an agreement by all parties that there'd be three dinners for three events - Ulster Covenant, Easter Rising, and Battle of the Somme.

DUP have boycotted the Easter Rising one, breaking said agreement, and forcing the Irish President to pull out. Now saying they never agreed to attend at all.

Rather embarrassing for Belfast and NI for this to have happened.

http://www.u.tv/News/2016/03/31/Irish-President-pulls-out-of-1916-Belfast-event-56633

Have you ever met a Unionist? This won't embarrass them at all, just the opposite.

The Backwards Man

I am completely gobsmacked by this sucker punch of a development.

LDN_Irish

Mickey D should go to all 3 all the same. Mainly to not be petty but I'd go solely for the free dinners.

rafatoni

They will NEVERRRRRR NEVERRRRR......

joeysoap

LDN_Irish wrote: »

Mickey D should go to all 3 all the same. Mainly to not be petty but I'd go solely for the free dinners.

I think he might have had enough dinners .....:)

bilston

Conall Cernach wrote: »

Have you ever met a Unionist? This won't embarrass them at all, just the opposite.

How many Unionists have you met?

BalcombeSt4

Deleted User wrote: »

Long story short, there was an agreement by all parties that there'd be three dinners for three events - Ulster Covenant, Easter Rising, and Battle of the Somme.

DUP have boycotted the Easter Rising one, breaking said agreement, and forcing the Irish President to pull out. Now saying they never agreed to attend at all.

Rather embarrassing for Belfast and NI for this to have happened.

http://www.u.tv/News/2016/03/31/Irish-President-pulls-out-of-1916-Belfast-event-56633

The DUP? get out of here, I don't believe they'd boycott a Nationalist event, bet the TUV will be there tho in all t's glory.

bilston

Actually having just read the BBC report it says that while no one from the DUP will be attending they have no problem with the Irish President attending. Seems to me he should have attended anyway. The only person making a headline out of this story is Michael D Higgins, or at least those advising him.

Chijj

I actually feel sorry for the average nordie who has politicians who purely amount to petulant children over non-issues.

Both sides of the divide.

BalcombeSt4

bilston wrote: »

How many Unionists have you met?

I don't think I have, I'm sure your average joe Unionist is grand but they seem to be the exception tho it's thosse women who wear UJ dresses & fellas who dance on police vans & shout at Nolan on the Nolan show about trivel things who are the norm & tell George Galloway to go back to Britain, the irony seemed to be lost on the Loyalists & his mates, maybe they Ulster Nationalists.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Elessar

Time for the vote methinks. Don't catholics/republicans outnumber protestants/loyalists now in NI anyway?

BalcombeSt4

Chijj wrote: »

I actually feel sorry for the average nordie who has politicians who purely amount to petulant children over non-issues.

Both sides of the divide.

I think it would have been a lot easier for Sinn Fein to have worked wit the PUP instead of the DUP. SF & PUP are both leftys and are bound to agree on some issues, the DUP seem so righ-wing on nearlly every social issue it would be impossible for SF to agree with them.

Badly Drunk Boy

bilston wrote: »

Actually having just read the BBC report it says that while no one from the DUP will be attending they have no problem with the Irish President attending. Seems to me he should have attended anyway. The only person making a headline out of this story is Michael D Higgins, or at least those advising him.

It doesn't matter whether the DUP objected to him being there or not. They decided they weren't going. Did you read his reason for withdrawing?

"The President accepted the invitation to the civic dinner on the basis that there was cross-party support for the invitation," he said.

"This now is no longer the case, leaving the President with no other option but to withdraw as he does not want to become embroiled in matters of political controversy."

bucketybuck

Same old same old from the unionists. It amazes me that they never realise how stupid they look pretty much all the time.

magma69

bucketybuck wrote: »

Same old same old from the unionists. It amazes me that they never realise how stupid they look pretty much all the time.

They manage to make Sinn Fein look like a reasonable party. That's quite an achievement tbf.

bilston

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

It doesn't matter whether the DUP objected to him being there or not. They decided they weren't going. Did you read his reason for withdrawing?

Yes I did. I'm saying he still should have gone.

karma_

The absolute funniest quote I stumbled upon was this belter from Arlene, (whilst talking about all the dead of '16 being remembered) “and at least that was progress”.

bilston

I'm interested to know why anyone would think the DUP should attend anyway?

CrowdedHouse

He'll be able to go to Rovers v Galway in Tallaght now instead

MacauDragon

rafatoni wrote: »

They will NEVERRRRRR NEVERRRRR......

Neither will rick astley.

DrumSteve

MacauDragon wrote: »

Neither will rick astley.

Surrender to us Taigs?

jojofizzio

rafatoni wrote: »

They will NEVERRRRRR NEVERRRRR......

Get back together???

iDave

Arlene showing herself to be as scummy as her predecessors.

Clonmel1000

Makes you wish we had a 32 county Ireland doesn't it.....

Red Kev

Elessar wrote: »

Time for the vote methinks. Don't catholics/republicans outnumber protestants/loyalists now in NI anyway?

Firstly, it's about 60%-40% population in favour of "protestant/unionist".

Secondly, about half the "nationalist" population of NI want to remain with the UK.

Thirdly, you would need a referendum in the RoI. I think if you honestly gave the people the choice here, faced with the rising security issues and costs of that, then a lot of people would be against it.

Fourthly, you need some form of international agreement to allow all this to happen, the UK would need to agree to this.

To my knowledge no party has proposed a referendum on the issue in the Dail, I'd like to see it happen so we can put the issue to bed for at least another generation.

It's that exact kind of petulant crap in the OP that turns me fully off a united Ireland, we have enough issues of our own without taking on more problems. NI needs to sort itself out, drop the sectarianism and try to reconcile itself in the long run.

I'm up in North Antrim several times a year for work, most people don't give a crap about who their work colleagues/neighbours are, but a significant number of politicians on both sides use it to flame votes for themselves rather than having the populace think along more regular voting lines like the rest of Europe such as voting left, right, liberal, green etc.

Shame, as it's a lovely place with great people.

bilston

bilston wrote: »

I'm interested to know why anyone would think the DUP should attend anyway?

Because politicians are supposed to represent all the people, not just their "side" - so if this event means a lot to many people in the North then they should go.

It doesn't mean they have to support the Rising. It's called diplomacy.

The Randy Riverbeast

Deleted User wrote: »

Because politicians are supposed to represent all the people, not just their "side" - so if this event means a lot to many people in the North then they should go.

It doesn't mean they have to support the Rising. It's called diplomacy.

They're the DUP, acting in such a manner is beyond them.

enzo roco

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

He'll be able to go to Rovers v Galway in Tallaght now instead

That sounds terrible. To sit and watch that match, he doesnt deserve it.