FROM GREKO LUNDYDERRY

IN A REMARKABLY frank declaration, once ultra-unionist Democratic Unionist politician Gregory Campbell appears to have swerved from the party line when he told Irish President Catherine O’Connell, on a visit to Derry, that, “you’re in our country”.

Stunned, it seems, at being reminded she was indeed in Ireland, President O’Connell retorted with a suitably self-contained effort to save Mr Campbell from what might be considered treachery by his DUP comrades, by discussing the need to listen, while he went on to call for a moratorium on future histories of Ireland.

“Listening is the default position for any President, but Greg’s on the mark there, there are enough bloody histories of Ireland to make another island out of, and most of them are just the rehashing of the previous stuff,” insists commentator Inis McInisorange, whose summer school “Re-Writing The Re-Write” won the prestigious *Section 32 Prize recently. “And, believe me, Gregory took a big risk saying out loud what a lot of unionists are beginning to accept if you sit beside them at an Irish rugby match. This really is our country. Like, you can walk from one end of it to the other without falling into the sea. Try that in the UK. But I think the President kinda knew she was in Ireland already. You could tell. It’s actually establishment party politicians in the Dublin parliament who have the most difficulty with the concept of the unity of Ireland.”

*Given to the Irish summer school that can arrange an historical narrative for Ireland that it closest to Irish Government policy – ED