Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Who'd make a better Deputy First Minister - an ex IRA commander or an ex British spy?

Even by the standards of Northern Ireland, this story is seriously bizarre. Newspapers have alleged that Martin McGuinness was a British spy, claims which he vehemently denies. Whether they're true or not remain to be seen, but let's not forget that Sean O'Callaghan and Denis Donaldson were no minor figure but senior Republicans. (Indeed Donaldson posed with Bobby Sands in this picture from which the famous mural on the side of Sinn Féin's headquarters in West Belfast is taken). However these claims are so bizarre it is hard to swallow them.

McGuinness claims that the DUP are behind them, but they claim they have nothing to gain. And yet... the DUP is vehemently opposed to sharing power with Sinn Féin, not least because it would mean Martin McGuinness serving in a senior role in a restored Executive. (Despite this, they still served in an Executive with him between 1999 and 2002 but consistency has never been their strongest forte.) Would making McGuinness out to be a British agent make it somehow more acceptable for them to enter government with them? Okay it's one of the more bizarre conspiracy theories but nothing about this story makes much sense at all.

In other news a visitor to my blog was searching on Google for progressive unionist party homophobia. What have they been saying about Paul Berry?

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