At the time of writing, Newry is festooned in orange and white. Clanrye, the county river which divides Down from Armagh has been breached.
Everywhere there are ‘MAGA’ signs - perhaps confusing for American tourists but down here it stands for ‘Make Armagh Great Again’.
Whatever the outcome, Kieran McGeeney, his team and Armagh fans have endured their Gethsemane and have come through to both the agony and ecstasy of an All-Ireland final.
All-Ireland finals in hurling and football are passionate affairs and watching the hurling climax last week between Cork and Clare made the hairs on the back my neck bristle with excitement and pride.
Unfortunately, it would appear that all things associated with the GAA or anything remotely culturally Irish seems to make the hairs on some other necks, bristle with anger, hatred and bile.
The vocal opposition from certain sections of unionism towards the development of Casement Park and a new proposed Irish language primary school in east Belfast, is irrational, ill founded and worse still, irresponsible.
The redevelopment of Casement Park was part of an overall deal. The unionist parties in the executive signed up too. The costs have spiralled. The stadium will be built, however loud the baying hyenas of loyalism howl. Whether or not that’s in time for the Euros remains to be seen.
Loyalist opposition to Casement has little to do with the costs. It has much to do with a losers’ psyche, the walls of which were self built by successive leaders of unionism.
Working class loyalist communities have, for the best part of 100 years, been spoon-fed a diet of sectarianism which drove a false sense superiority. This has led some to believe that the creation of an equal, fairer and more just society in Northern Ireland has somehow diminished their own rights. It has not.
Political unionism - until David Trimble’s late but meaningful conversion - denied equal rights to Northern Ireland citizens which were freely available in other parts of the United Kingdom. This was their folly. But it created a misleading view that the granting of such civil liberties were in the gift of political unionism. They were not.
There were ample opportunities for political unionism to show generosity of spirit. They chose not to. The late Harold Wilson said: “He who rejects change is the architect of decay.”
Unionism can’t concede what it never owned. The attitudes of the bitter old curmudgeons who led Craigavon Council’s steadfast and stubbornly sectarian refusal in the 1980s to provide GAA pitches in Lurgan still persist in parts of east Belfast. Old mindsets are hard to shift. Yet, as the Bob Dylan song goes, “The Times, They Are A-Changin’”.
The case for a new Irish language school in east Belfast will stand or fall on its business case and demand. It won’t fail or be stalled by the antagonistic language of some village idiots trying to stump up imaginary fears or fuel resentment against the Irish language.
There’s a need for some soul searching within the nationalist community as to what a new inclusive, pluralist and diverse modern Ireland looks like. At the moment, the surface has hardly been scratched
In 2024, it’s almost unimaginable that individuals would gather to oppose the creation of an educational facility but it speak volumes to the failure of an education system which allows those same people to wallow in such ignorance and prejudice.
Sectarianism in Northern Ireland isn’t a one-way street. There are elements in both communities which can’t help but keep alive the stench of sectarianism from straying too far from their nostrils.
There’s a need for some soul searching within the nationalist community as to what a new inclusive, pluralist and diverse modern Ireland looks like. At the moment, the surface has hardly been scratched. It’s certainly not solely about changing demographics.
That said, the continued ventilation of unwashed vitriol spewed out by certain loyalist spokespeople against all things Irish will spectacularly backfire.
As the Dylan lyrics go: “Don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall, for he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled.”
