It has not started that well, according to the Guardina today:
‘One-sided’: unionists react with scorn as US delegation arrives in Ireland
Unionists have responded with scorn and scepticism to a US congressional delegation that is attempting to shore up support for the Northern Ireland protocol.
That seems pretty blatant, even for the GHraun -- not seeking agreement then, but shoring up the Protocol
The Democratic Unionist party (DUP) led accusations on Monday that the nine-strong delegation, which includes Democrats and Republicans from the House of Representatives and Senate, was partisan and out of touch..... “We’re going to have a particular challenge with Congressman Neal,” he said, referring to Richard Neal, the chair of the ways and means committee....[see the previous post for grounds for this suspicion] Others such as Jamie Bryson, a prominent loyalist, went further and accused Neal, an ally of President Joe Biden, of supporting the IRA. “We aren’t going to be dictated to by some foreign politician acting as a surrogate for republicanism,” he tweeted.
So have they met both sides in equal proportion so far?
The delegation met the Sinn Féin leader, Mary Lou McDonald, and the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, on Monday. Both lauded the visitors, reflecting a united front between Dublin and Washington on the protocol....The delegation is scheduled to meet DUP leaders before returning to the US on Wednesday.
What of the Unionist case?
In public and private, unionists have accused the Americans of refusing to recognise that the protocol is rejected by most unionists and thus undermines the Good Friday agreement....On Sunday Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, said the delegation’s call for full implementation of the protocol was folly. “Implementing the protocol in full means ending grace periods, with an economic tsunami hitting Northern Ireland. Power-sharing only works with cross-community consensus.”
It all reminds me of the intervention by B Obama in the Brexit debate, urging all sensible people to remain -- that did not end well either, and looked a bit like some foreign politician acting as a surrogate etc
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