FROM BELFAST

“THEY VOTED PARTITION IN, they enforced it, they have always secretly supported it. Northern Ireland is their victory. So they should cough up for the damn stone.”

So say Sinn Fein supporters, who insist that Irish Government party Fine Gael, whose predecessors founded the 26-county Irish Free State in 1922, leaving the six counties of Northern Ireland behind, still inside the United Kingdom, are obviously in the frame for a contribution to the monument celebrating their achievement.

Fine Gael begs to differ.

“Sod that, we’re not the ones who sit in Government in Stormont, working the bloody union, attending coronations, taking the King’s shilling,” replied a senior Fine Gael donor. “No one’s calling us traitors on the walls of West Belfast. No, Sinn Fein have to contribute something, They have more money than us anyway. And if we’re going to contribute anything, then it’ll be in euros. Tell Donaldson that!”

Ireland’s other Government party, Fianna Fail, whose predecessors fought against the Treaty that led to the partition of Ireland, would only say that they spent all the money they are ever going to on Northern Ireland back in 1970 buying weapons for the IRA. “Pound for pound, we gave more money than Gaddafi,” said an insider. “And if you’re to believe some, we actually ran the Provisional IRA while MacStiofain was in charge. That campaign brought down the old Stormont. And now we’re skint. And no one votes for us anyway. Our people have all gone over to Sinn Fein. So the Shinners should pay our contribution. If we decide to contribute.”