NYT: Ulster Vote Seen as a Victory for Hard-Liners on Both Sides

Ulster Vote Seen as a Victory for Hard-Liners on Both Sides
By BRIAN LAVERY
Published: May 6, 2005


BELFAST, Northern Ireland, May 6 - Northern Irish voters delivered convincing victories to hard-line parties here in Britain's parliamentary elections this week, almost eliminating the moderates who had negotiated the landmark Belfast peace accord, and highlighting the province's sectarian divisions.

The results stoked fears that a resumption of Ulster's suspended local legislature - which is intended to share power between Roman Catholic and Protestant groups - would become impossible.

The votes, which took nearly 24 hours to be counted, cemented a dominant two-party system in Ulster after decades in which voters could choose from a broad spectrum of opinion.

This time, the moderates faired poorly against Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, and the Democratic Unionists, a working-class party led by the Rev. Ian Paisley, the firebrand Protestant preacher and longtime supporter of the British presence.

The Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams, easily won re-election in the predominantly Catholic neighborhood of West Belfast. His party was expected to win 5 of the 18 available seats, up from 4 in the last elections in 2001....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/06/international/europe/06cnd-ulster.html?

The world is becoming more and more polarized. And Ulster is still a vulnerable place.

but the tough questions were always going to have to be faced.

hip hip hooray

BOO to rationality, hooray for bigotry

God how depressing

The new DUP member for South Antrim, the Rev Willie McCrea, is a fundie preacher and also a very saccharine Country and western singer.

I was once listening to local radio, when the host read out a request for a hymn from the Rev's latest album to be played for a friend who was in hospital. The host read out the request and then said "No! I couldn't do that to someone who's sick!"

:P

is that all the lies and resentments remaining will be brought to the light of day, where they will rage and die. Screaming and demonstrations rather than bombs and thuggery, I hope.