A struggle in any language
Assembly member Mary Nellis casts an Irish eye over the first day
of the new Assembly
The first business of the day in the Assembly was described by
the media as historic, dull and boring.
It was indeed an historic day as the Good Friday Assembly got
down to the business of fundamentally changing the nature of
politics in Ireland. Parliamentary democracy, self determination,
whatever the way forward, Monday 14 September will reflect the
day when Republican Nationalists redeemed their rights and
ownership to a building whose ethos, from when the first stone
was laid, was to exclude them.
d indeed inclusion rather than exclusion was the first order of
the day when Alex Maskey informed the initial Presiding Officer
that forthwith Sinn Féin members would address him in Irish as
Cathaoirleach.
This was challenged by those on the Unionist benches where the
grunts and groans of its members seemed to indicate their
difficulty with the English language. Language became the first
issue of business. The unionists, obviously searching for an
identity, have come up with Ulster Scots as an alternative to
English and members were given an extensive list of Ulster Scots
Parliamentary phrases. ``Pree a haet fur wittens'', which
translated means, on a point of information. My uncle, who was an
Irish-speaking Ulster Scot, having emigrated from Donegal to
Scotland, returned with a healthy Ulster Scots dialect.
Francie Molloy welcomed the setting up of the Shadow Commission
to deal with equality of employment for both communities and
particularly the issue of fair employment in the staffing of the
Civil Service. The unionists, or as they now describe themselves,
The Claucht Pairties, commented that the Union Flag was not
flying on the building. Gerry Adams pointed out that many
citizens would put no value on the Union Flag.
The issue of language surfaced again when the rule ascribing
designation was raised. The fragmentation of Unionism was widened
in the announcement by the Trimble dissidents Agnew, Douglas and
Watson that they wished to form another unionist party, the
United Unionist Assembly Party, a party which Gerry Adams pointed
out cannot speak for itself and has appointed Peter Robinson to
be its Ulster Scots voice.
The unionists are now demanding that this party should have
representation on the Executive, which would in effect add up to
four Unionist blocks. They have not learned that the Good Friday
agreement makes no accommodation for gerrymandering and that Sinn
Féin will not be giving up any of its places on the Committee to
facilitate it.
The Women's Coalition, amid a chorus of grunts and cow calls from
the DUP and UK Unionists, announced they were protecting the Good
Friday Agreement. McCartney described the Women's Coalition as a
``curious phenomenon'' but the only curiosity in the building,
apart from Craig's statue, was the Gulpins - Ulster Scots for bad
mannered people on the DUP benches.
It is clear that the Unionist strategy is to stall the setting up
of the Executive and the various departments. Gerry Adams pointed
out that the Good Friday Agreement is very clear about all these
matters, including the timetable. He quoted from his speech of
two years previously when he said that Paisley and Trimble can
with the rest of us do a much better service of running the
economy, looking after the Health Service, the elderly, the young
and the rural. The people of this island have the right and
ability to govern themselves.
John Taylor thought the day's debate was reasoned and
level-headed, although his idea of cross border bodies was to
give greater priority to sports, ``Balls across the Border''.
As Paisley Junior said at the end of a long and tiring day,
things are not good for the Union, and so say all of us.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)