The troubles ended well before 9/11 - the peace process progressed through the 1990s, with the IRA on permanent ceasefire from 1997 and the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 concluded in April 1998.
“The Troubles” were over earlier on but some things rumbled on.
It’s probably correct to say that 9/11 severely dampened what was left of the willingness of Irish-Americans to fund unsavory activities by their preferred partisan militias in NI, but the Omagh bombing in 1998 had a much bigger effect in NI itself.
Well, yes. But it would be a mistake to think of this as something driven primarily by funding concerns. That was comparatively minor; there were many more significant factors driving the peace process.
As to lack of trading history, it’s not a big deal if the people behind the venture know what they are doing. I don’t know much about it but my quick google suggests the fellows behind it had the sort of experience that I would expect people running this sort of thing to have.
I know some of the insurers who were considering insuring the venture. They tend to be cautious as you can imagine. From my brief conversations with them, they did not have concerns that the venture was being run by numpties who didn’t know what they were doing. To be clear, the whole thing fell over before they seriously considered the matter - but they knew the people involved and their immediate reaction was “sounds OK, on the face of it”. Make of that what you will.
As to the cobbled together website - shrug. It sounds like the whole thing was rushed. Ultimately, their insurers would have insisted on proper T&C’s and I suspect the pizza delivery T&C’s were the equivalent of ipsum lorem placeholder text.
Overall, it sounds like the awarding of the ferry contract was a complete fucking shambles and possibly corrupt.
The only reason I commented is that so often I have heard cheap shots being made about Grayling based around the “appointed a ferry company that has no ferries what a dumbass, hurr hurr hurr” line and it sets my teeth on edge because of what I know about the shipping business. The entire thing may well have been a balls-up from start to finish, but not for that particular reason.
This. You can argue May’s strategy was incorrect but it wasn’t inherently stupid IMHO
Here’s a 2-year-old article about Grayling.
Yes, I know it’s The Guardian.
Yes, I know the reporter is called Katy Balls.
I will survive: how Failing Grayling made himself unsackable | Katy Balls | The Guardian
“Most recently, Grayling made the news for a ferry fiasco, when he awarded a no-deal ferry contract to a company with no ferries and then had to pay out £33m to Eurotunnel over the decision.”
“The truth is that for all of Grayling’s failings, he has one very important special talent: working out how to make himself unsackable.”
It’s also worth reading Wikipedia on Grayling’s career.
Meanwhile, trouble in the Unionist camp:
So, here we go:
There is an opinion piece in the NY Times today titled “Northern Ireland is Coming to an End.” (probably paywalled)
The writer, Susan McKay, argues:
The writing is on the wall. While the process by which Ireland could become unified is complicated and fraught, one thing seems certain: There isn’t going to be a second centenary for Northern Ireland. It might not even last another decade.
She argues that demographics, rising secularism among younger people, and the customs border b/w the UK created by Brexit are leading to an inevitable reunification with the Republic, similar to the OP of this thread.
I fully expect Ireland to be unified in my lifetime and I think it would be a good thing. I fear the violence that will occur along the way.
There is a certain, sad irony in the way the DUP allowed themselves to be manipulated during the Brexit negotiations and that this (probable) outcome was obvious to everyone except the DUP.
<digression>
I was thinking “Katy Balls…really?” so I did a quick Google search and she apparently did some Facebook show with a woman named Isabel Hardman. They can’t help their names so maybe I should just let it pass but I can’t escape the sneaking suspicion that they’re trolling us.
<\digression>
Elton John continues to rail against the damage Brexit has done to musicians whose livelihoods rely on the ability to tour without onerous restrictions.
Lord Frost, the UK Brexit Minister, hits back by being an dick.
No, what’s “at play” is what’s always been at play. Elton is pretty clear that he’s not personally going to be inconvenienced much by the new situation, but all the young musicians who don’t have staff to deal with paperwork and costs are going to take a hit.
On another topic, since we’re discussing the DUP and funny names meet Edwin Poots, short-lived successor to Arlene Foster. Despite having all the appropriate religious troglodyte credentials required (Poots is a YEC) he did not endear himself to the party faithful, failing to demonstrate sufficient unreasonable intransigence to progress and stability to meet DUP standards. I believe he’s due to be replaced tonight by Jeffrey Donaldson.
An interesting survey result this week about the NI Protocol:
86% of voters distrust Boris Johnson
78% distrust the DUP
But only 56% distrust Sinn Féin - still a majority, but amazing for NI.
And 48% distrust the EU