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No Pope In Our Town
When I initially read the headline "Unionists Against Papal Visit" I was disappointed and confused. Frankly if the Pope wants to come to Northern Ireland why shouldn't he? It's a free country.
But having read two "reports" on this story, I've been unable to determine exactly what the problem was. Speaking about the idea of a joint visit by the Queen and the Pope, Gregory Campbell said he thought it was a politically motivated idea, symbolically, to promote whatever deal might emerge from the current situation.
What I don't understand is how Gregory Campbell saying it's unrealistic suddenly equals being against the visit. Either the journalists are inventing a particularly cynical story or they're being careless and lazy; not including enough relevant quotes. For once in the case of a DUP statement, I actually suspect one of the former. The question is why? Is it to fill column-inches on a slow news day, or is it an attempt to re-enforce the image of unionists as dinosaurs?
Look at this story from BreakingNews.ie. After running with the headline "DUP's Campbell against visit to [Northern Ireland] by Pope" their basis for saying so seems to be that he "said the idea of the Pope and Queen Elizabeth visiting together, to put a seal on a new political agreement, was unrealistic."
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4 comments
"Either the journalists are inventing a particularly cynical story or they’re being careless and lazy; not including enough relevant quotes."
The DUP do enough to deserve a lot of criticism, but I'd hardly be surprised it does seem like the media were hamming it up with this one and making. What Campbell said is that it was unrealistic which, given his parties assessment of the likelihood of a deal, was probably correct. How does this imply the DUP as a party would be against it? It's either bad, lazy journalism or cynical, irresponsible journalism or both.
"Would it please you to see the Pope in NI being welcomed by the first minister?"
It wouldn't displease me, but I couldn't care less.
Well why do you think people would think that now? It is hard to blame anyone for jumping to that conclusion given the DUP's track record. What you are attempting to do is divert the focus onto the media and away from the inherently sectarian nature of the DUP. The day the DUP say that they would not oppose a visit to NI by the pope would be a public committment to ending their sectarianism of the past.
In the meantime, the media and most other observers will rightly conclude that the DUP are, as you said, dinosaurs. A corrrect label for that party in relation to modern Europe. Their seating position in Brussels should give you some indication as to how the other countries in Europe identify with their ethos.
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