From Unity, 4 July 2009

“Gaga, completely gaga” (allegedly)!

by W. Owl

The appointment of Nelson McCausland as Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure is probably akin to putting King Herod in charge of Mothercare. Shortly after his appointment, he nailed his colours to the mast when he declared that he would not attend any events held at GAA grounds that they were named after republicans.
     In its edition of the 23rd of January, the Irish News gave a potted history of McCausland’s political career, although after reading it you might think it was a potty history. It stretches over a twenty-year-period and starts with his election as an independent councillor for North Belfast in 1989. He was leader of the Ulster Clubs in the area that opposed the Anglo-Irish Agreement, and he was secretary of the Lord’s Day Observance Society for more than ten years. He is a former teacher who was and still is a “vocal” opponent of the Irish language and the GAA, which he accuses of having an “Irish republican political agenda.”
     In November 1984 he led a campaign against St Malachy’s Grammar School, which wanted to reopen playing pitches in a largely Protestant area of North Belfast, although he did qualify his position by stating that he would not be opposed to the plan if an Orange Hall was opened on the Andersonstown Road.
     On his religious side he claimed that the financial trouble of the jewellery chain Ratner’s might have been due to “divine judgement” because of their decision to trade on Sundays. The owner of Ratner’s was more realistic when he said it was probably because they sold a load of crap.
     In September 1993 he questioned plans to open a new university to be sited in West Belfast by stating it would be a “campus for Roman Catholics only.” To show how far off the wall he is, in April 1994 Ian Paisley Junior stated that McCausland was “gaga, completely gaga,” after McCausland had urged unionists to use the term “Ulster” instead of “Northern Ireland.” It would be interesting to know what Paisley Junior thinks of him now. Of course at that time he was not a member of the DUP.
     In September 1996 he criticised the GAA for naming the all-Ireland football trophy after Sam Maguire. He branded Maguire a “republican gunman.” (The GAA was founded 125 years ago.)
     Two years later he stood against the sitting Ulster Unionist MP, Cecil Walker, for the party’s North Belfast nomination. Walker accused McCausland of leading a “scaremongering right-wing faction” that should be treated with contempt. Not surprisingly, McCausland left the UUP for the DUP, citing David Trimble’s leadership as the reason.
     He has served as director of the Ulster-Scots Heritage Council and fervently believes Ulster-Scots is a language, on a par with Irish, rather than a dialect that in the main is made up as you go along. In September 2002 he defended a Belfast City Council decision not to fund a film festival because the title of the event contained the word “Celtic.”
     McCausland is not just against anything Irish, as he showed by some comments he made at Stormont some months ago. He criticised the nomination of certain women to a number of quangos wholly because of their political stance. You have probably guessed it: they were left-wing. He referred to the Women’s Rights Movement as being a creation of the Communist Party and named the party’s current chairperson, Lynda Walker, as being one of the chief architects. Thanks for the praise, Nelson.
     Only space restricts me from giving more insight into this man’s thoughts. Maybe Paisley Junior got it right for once: he is “gaga, completely gaga.”

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