DUBLIN

A LITTLE UNDERSTOOD by-product of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 was a secret protocol that said Atlantic storms which hit the Emerald Isle would be designated all-Ireland weather events.

This was later extended to the Irish Sea when the recent Brexit Agreement left Northern Ireland inside the European Union’s economic regime with a border in the Irish Sea.

Storm Darragh, which hit the island of Ireland this week, among other places, seems to have demonstrated the hidden Nationalist strength inherent in this unity of Irish weather, when it destroyed a Loyalist Wall Mural in Belfast.

Unionists are seeing it as yet another sign that power is shifting inexorably towards Nationalists and Irish Unity.

“The Fenians now control the weather too,” said a leading loyalist. “Storms are now well and truly Republican. What’s next? Loyalist Anger may yet be the only thing we are left in control of. “