Shrines and Junkets
I've just interviewed Edwin Poots for tomorrow's Inside Politics. I caught up with the Culture Minister before he headed for a plane to Washington D.C. to open a Titanic Exhibition linked to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Seven ministers are heading out to America for the Festival which features the culture of NI alongside the Mekong Delta. Edwin denied the trips were a junket, although come to think of it he only came up with reasons why four of the seven ministers ought to be there. Would there have been such an uptake on the trip if the Festival had not been taking place in the US capital, but in the Mekong Delta circa 1963?
I couldn't let the programme go without exploring Edwin's reaction to Nigel Dodds' criticism that developing the Maze stadium would depend on unionists acceding to the creation of a shrine to IRA hunger strikers. The minister argues that the preservation order already placed on an H block and the medical wing where Bobby Sands died invalidates his party colleague's argument.
We also get the minister's frank reaction to a hint from the dissident former DUP councillor Robin Stirling that a new anti-deal unionist party could be formed in the next 6 months.
Sadly a statement from Alliance's Kieran McCarthy noting the Culture Minister's reluctance to attend GAA matches came in too late for our recording. Kieran said that as Opposition Culture spokesman and a keen GAA fan he would be only too happy to attend matches in the Minister's place in order to ensure that GAA is given fair treatment by the Assembly.
If I had been aware of this I could not only have cross questioned the minister on this point, but also touched him for any tickets going begging.... GAA, Soccer, Cricket...I'm not fussy...
P.S. My producer Robin Sheeran noted that the Minister was wearing a pair of tartan socks. The interview was conducted in the studio normally used by Stephen Nolan. Robin wondered whether this might be the first time a pair of jock socks had been worn in the home of the shock jock...
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It would appear from your interview with the Culure Minister that the 'H' Block shrine is politically bolted on to the sports stadium. Who said politics and sport don't go together?
Surely the only consideration for the location of a sports stadium must be a favourable environmental impact assessment (EIA), not on political geography. Nigel Dodds has a point.
There is growing evidence that a sports stadium would be better sited somewhere within the 2,000 acre Port of Belfast Harbour Estate. With a little imagination, the development could include an underground metro linking the overall Harbour Estate complex to Central Station which could be used by all commuters, and relieving the congestion of road traffic, thus reducing Minister Poot's carbon footprint - after all, along with his MLA colleagues, he doesn't seem to mind the tons of carbon dioxide necessary to ferry him to Washington and back! (More hot air for carbon credits!)