Pól Ó Muirí: Look Peter, we could be sitting on a gold mine
Monday, 7 July 2008
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There's gold in them hills. The words 'Monaghan' and 'gold mine' don't usually appear together often. Surprising then to find that prospectors have actually found an untapped gold mine in Monaghan and, if the price of gold remains high, it will be well worth excavating.
Of course, Monaghan is in the Republic but, ironically, there is a local connection: the mine is not too far from Clontibret, a place our esteemed First Minister, Peter Robinson, once briefly visited.
If only he had known the significance of the place, he could have stayed put, planted the union flag and claimed the gold for Norn Iron.
Is it too late? Sinn Fein have made much of the 'greening of the west' and never tire of telling unionists just how much republicans dream of unification. Perhaps Peter Robinson has an opportunity to call Sinn Fein's bluff while also underpinning the North's finances.
My suggestion is that he gets on the telephone to an Taoiseach Brian Cowen and does the sort of deal that the DUP don't — ahem — do with Gordon Brown over votes for 42-day detention (and if some extra money to pay for water bills just happens to appear down the line, so much the better).
The scenario would be simple: Northern Ireland gets the Monaghan gold mine while the Republic gets — oh, I don't know — all of Fermanagh. That's a fair swap and it's a win-win situation all around for Robinson.
First, he can claim that he is not really selling out his principles but rather trying to re-integrate Monaghan loyalists who were so disgracefully abandoned by Big House Unionism at the time of Partition — and if there just happens to be a gold mine in Monaghan, so much the better.
In addition, if Robinson can get Fermanagh out of Ulster before July 20 and the Ulster Senior Football Final, there is many an Orange-wearing Armagh football fan who will happily give him a vote on the sly — even the ones from Crossmaglen.
Armagh fans don't need any reminding about Fermanagh ambushing them back in 2004 and would happily see those Fermanagh ones in hell or, just as preferable, in the Connacht senior championship.
Of course, Robinson may worry that many people would not take too kindly to this repartition.
However, once everyone gets their couple of ounces of Monaghan gold, I am sure that they would come around to the DUP way of doing business.