The debacle over this year's St Patrick's Day parade and carnival proved yet again that there can be no hope for Belfast City Council until we achieve a clear nationalist majority among the councillors.
No hope, no chance of arriving at a situation of parity of esteem and equality of treatment while the DUP, the UUP and their cohorts in the Alliance Party can club together and overrule everyone else.
St Patrick's Day is a simple affair, really.
St Patrick himself is quite a complicated character. Symbolic and metaphoric, modern scholars tend to the opinion that St Patrick as we view him today did not really exist. Rather, what we have as St Patrick is really an amalgamation of perhaps three characters, blended together to form our recognisable and revered patron saint.
This process has got a name as long as today and tomorrow and is quite common in the context of historical, mythical and deistic characters.
Scholars continue to investigate and conduct research. There will be further masters degrees and PHDs and many years of study at the highest level before the true story of the actual Saint Patrick will be known, and I wish the academics the very best of luck in their labours.
But St Patrick's Day is a different entity altogether. St Patrick's Day has in fact got very little to do with St Patrick, either as a historical character, a figure of mythology, or an amalgam of different strands of tradition, both oral and written. St Patrick's Day is all about celebrating Ireland and Irishness.
To suggest having St Patrick's Day without the Irish flag, the Irish language, Irish dancing, Irish games etc. is simply nonsense. St Patrick's Day is the day to turn the city centre into a sea of green, with a flurry of tri-colours, and Celtic shirts, and GAA tops, huge, green shamrocks and ridiculous green, white and orange top hats.
Now, it could well be that celebrating a sense of Irishness is not everyone's cup of tea. I am not suggesting that taking part in the St Patrick's Day parade and carnival should be made compulsory.
But Belfast City Council should provide financial support for those citizens – probably the majority of the denizens of Belfast – who think that celebrating Ireland and Irishness on the 17th of March is a good idea.
By and large, Unionism has not moved on since the days of the old Stormont regime. Former Unionist Lord Mayor of Belfast, Mr Jim Rogers, has said that last year the Saint Patrick's Day carnival brought the city into disrepute. And why? Because there were so many Irish flags to be seen.
It's an attitude that lies at the very heart of the problem of the Six Counties, the problem that has dogged society here since the very foundation of the state.
Unionism, by and large, has been unable to accept the fact that Irish, being Irish, a sense of Irishness and a celebration of all things Irish is legitimate, completely legitimate.
The Northern state should be celebrating its own sense of Irishness. We should have bi-lingual signage everywhere, and legislation in place to help protect and develop the Irish language in all walks of public life.
The state should be brimming over with examples of how to celebrate Ireland and our sense of Irishness – of course, the National flag should be flown from public buildings on designated days, of course the BBC should give us proper coverage of our national games... and of course, St Patrick's Day should be the special Irish day of the year.
Of course, as well, we should insist upon an inclusive view of Ireland and Irishness.
The tricolour, in fact, represents the peace between the orange and the green.
In these modern, multi-cultural times, we should emphasise the fact that all colours, all races, all languages are welcome in Ireland and, if you don't mind the weather, we are glad to have you.
But Irishness should not have to be forced to include those who are anti-Irish. Anti-Irishness has no place in the St Patrick's Day celebrations and if politicians or their followers consider themselves to be anti-Irish, of if they believe that Irishness is disreputable, then why don't they just stay at home, or go to work, or whatever and allow the rest of us to have a ball.
But we can't be expected to turn our Irishness off just to be deemed deserving of a £30k bung from the unionists at the city council!
Hearty and heartfelt congratulation go to the PUP's Billy Hutchinson who was brave and honest enough to cross the lines and vote against the Unionist and Alliance party bigots on Belfast City Council and also to Linfield Football Club who offered their facilities to St Mary's Camogie Club when the girls were stuck for a training pitch.
Now when the camógs from the Falls go down to train in the Village I hope Linfield FC fly the Union Jack from the highest mast, and the camogie team wear their green, white and orange tops with pride. That is the new society we all want to see.
Most Unionist and Alliance Belfast City Councillors, however, could never grasp the basics of this type of equality. The only answer is for the electorate to exercise their ability to bring about a change, a serious change on the fifth of May.
