A voice to unite the country?

Sinn Féin has yet to make a decision on who it will back for the presidency, but the party could do worse than throw in its lot with national treasure Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh. The voice of the GAA was among speakers at a conference organised by the party in Cork last weekend on the theme of Irish unity.

The Sinn Féin leader, Gerry Adams, presented Micheál with a piece of Jack O’Patsy pottery from Youghal before remarking that he used to listen to Ó Muircheartaigh’s commentaries when he was in jail.

In the course of a sparkling contribution, the veteran broadcaster said that he had no doubt but that Irish unity was somewhere “on the horizon”. He was cheered to the rafters of City Hall when he cited Queen Elizabeth’s visits to Croke Park, the Garden of Remembrance and Cork’s English Market, along with the opening of Croke Park to sports other than Gaelic games, as signs that things are moving in the right direction.

Among the audience was a former senior member of the IRA, now a committed democrat, who was clearly full of admiration for Micheál. “Who else could do it but Ó Muircheartaigh?” he said. “The queen’s visit and the opening up of Croke Park – we’re supposed to be dead set against all that stuff, but he had everyone on their feet applauding.”

Meanwhile, it seems that the party leader is intent on doing a little empire building. The former MP for West Belfast issued a press release a little more than a week ago on nursing homes. It begins: “Sinn Féin TD for Louth and East Meath Gerry Adams . . .”

This expansion into East Meath by Adams is repeated on the Sinn Féin website. Has Big Phil Hogan redrawn the constituency boundaries already?