Paisley’s insult to the President had a calculated political objective
Thankfully, for the world at large, Muslim anger is not directed at Rev Ian Paisley because, in that event, we would have witnessed their wrath a long time ago.
He of the infamous not-an-inch mentality, who likes to be addressed by the title of the honorary doctorate granted by the illustrious Bob Jones University in South Carolina, is a past master at uttering an insult.
He was true to form at the DUP’s annual conference in saying that he did not “like the President of the Irish Republic” - a view he’s quite entitled to, but one he should have kept to himself. “She pretends to love this province, but she hates it,” he declared, showing his warped ability as a mind-reader.
Outside his bigoted world, the view of our Head of State is altogether different.
She will give the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame and will also receive an honorary doctorate of laws during the ceremony in South Bend, Indiana, a more prestigious institution than the Bob Jones University.
This is what the Rev John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s president, had to say about her in issuing the invitation:
“As an attorney, journalist, scholar and now president, Mary McAleese is an inspiring role model for women, a fierce champion for peace, and a passionate voice within the Catholic Church.”
The problem is that for more that three decades Ian Paisley could not keep anything to himself if it involved offence to any institution or individual identified with the South.
The same applied to the Catholic Church which he has always thought - or told his gullible supporters he thought - dictated how the South was run.
As far as Ian Richard Kyle Paisley was always concerned, the South and the Catholic church were two sides of the same coin. He chose to reopen an old sore because he had a captive audience of the gullible who would indulge his prejudices.
It was also on the eve of the two governments trying once again to get the political institutions in the North up and running - something Paisleyite unionists fervently do not want to happen.
The Sunday Times conducted a poll of 100 delegates at the DUP conference which showed that 39% of them believed that, in the right context, the party should share power with Sinn Féin and other parties.
It seemed rather hopeful that well over one-third of them would even consider sharing power with republicans, until I read the rest of the poll. Almost as many - 37% - were adamant that even if the IRA ended its criminality and destroyed every weapon, direct rule by British ministers would be infinitely preferable. Of the rest, an incredible 24% declared they had no opinion, or it might be more accurate to suggest they relied on their leader to tell them what opinion they held.
What did emerge was that an overwhelming majority of the DUP members polled did not believe decommissioning had been completed.
Only a meagre 4% of them obviously accepted the evidence of the De Chastelain commission without the need for the photographic evidence demanded by their favourite demagogue.
Describing the President in such derogatory terms was something Paisley calculated would lead to a row, and it did. He does this kind of thing exceptionally well because he has decades of practice at it, but it’s also something the rest of the world has come to expect from him.
A buffoon he may well be considered outside his own circle of bigotry, but buffoonery has served his own political ambition and agenda very well.
He has now become the leader of the majority unionist party while always remaining a negative influence on progress towards a lasting and meaningful peace in Northern Ireland.
HE doesn’t want to share power; neither does the 37% polled at the party’s conference and you can be quite sure that the 24% who played dumb would, at the end of the day, follow Paisley’s lead like sheep.
Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said he had a “robust” exchange with the DUP leader over the remarks about the President. Northern Secretary Peter Hain also was unimpressed, and said so. But Paisley succeeded in what he intended with the insult, which was to inject a sour note on the first day of the latest round of talks.
While he tries to undermine the return of democratic politics to the North with the restoration of the political institutions set up under the Good Friday Agreement, the redundant members of the suspended Assembly are still drawing their salaries and office expenses of about €124,609 each.
Or, as Peter Hain pointed out, it has cost Britain €113.34 million since the Assembly was established to keep it idle. That’s a joke which British ministers and the British taxpayer won’t tolerate much longer.
Now to matters south of the Border where the news agenda was topped again this week by the alarming and relentless rise in the road toll since the start of the year - at 52 as I write, and higher than for the same period last year.
The latest survey by the National Roads Authority showed that the number of drivers speeding on rural roads rose to 63% last year, compared to only 8% in 2003. In other words, the number of drivers ignoring the speed limit has increased practically eight times over in the short space of two years.
Still, this should not cause great surprise.
There is no great deterrent to encourage motorists to slow down, such as a visible presence of gardaí on the roads.
I had occasion to travel to Clonmel a couple of times during the week. In the course of the trip the only sighting of gardaí was a squad car parked outside a shop.
There was none to catch the driver in the white coupé who overtook four other cars while travelling at a high speed on the wrong side of a continuous white line.
It also means that the various campaigns to bring some semblance of sense onto our roads, primary and secondary, have been useless.
The Taoiseach’s response was to warn drivers they would face ‘inconvenience’ as a result of measures to enforce road safety.
Such ‘inconvenience’ - whatever that means - would not be before time.
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