Surprise, surprise. Peter Robinson has been to his first gaelic match, Martin McGuinness is heading for Windsor Park and the Ulster Unionists have scored another own goal.
Ed Curran writes in The Belfast telegraph: What a shame that attending a sports event in the 21st century should require any religious, political or cultural heart-searching; that a First Minister taking his seat in the stands should still be considered historically ground-breaking and talked about as if he had embarked on a trip to the Moon and back.
Life is changing in Northern Ireland – and for the better. Not so long ago, any unionist leader who dared to enter a GAA turnstile would have been orange-carded out of his party before he could say Mickey Harte. The big winners in Armagh nine days ago were Peter Robinson, Martin McGuinness and community relations.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch at Stormont, all is not well yet again with another shade of unionism. But do we really want to see the end of the Ulster Unionist party?
Do we really want Northern Ireland dominated by two monolithic power-blocks, the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein?
As the battering-rams of the media attack the gates of the Ulster Unionists, we should not forget one thing: Northern Ireland would not be the place it is today if it were not for the UUP and the SDLP.
We are in danger now of talking ourselves into a two-party state – unionist and nationalist with a small, ineffective and compliant group squeezed in the middle. Surely, the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP have played too significant a part in the development of the new Northern Ireland to allow that to happen?
Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness are transforming themselves into latter-day moderates, but is it not time that the UUP and SDLP began to fight back and re-assert their important alternative voices in our society?
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