Ben Lowry: Unionists are in no mood to listen to American pressure about returning to Stormont

It was reminiscent of the ceremony to restore the assembly in 2007, when Dr Ian Paisley of the DUP and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein were joined by the prime minister Tony Blair and others in that very same hall, to an adoring audience. Stormont then had been down for five years after even Mr Blair, who had been so determined to bring Sinn Fein in from the cold, felt that they were behaving badly in not delivering IRA decommissioning (amid IRA spying at Stormont and the Castlereagh police station break-in).

The recreation of such an atmosphere in Parliament Buildings last week might not have been deliberate, but the resonance was striking even if unintended.

The US ambassador to the UK Jane Hartley urged politicians (ie the DUP) to return to Stormont. She said: “Although we weren’t a participant in the Windsor Framework, I think it was a real positive and I would say now is time to sort of take advantage of that, have the parties get back together.”

The US ambassador to the Court of St James is arguably seen in Washington as the single most prestigious overseas diplomatic posting, so it is a big deal to have such an envoy visit Northern Ireland, and take a close interest in it.

Ambassador Hartley chose her words carefully, just as President Joe Biden did on his visit to Belfast earlier this year, being careful not to scold the DUP by name. However, Ms Hartley’s rhetoric edged closer to an instruction than Mr Biden had done, who disappointed Irish republicans by avoiding anything that seemed like criticism of the biggest unionist party.

Ms Hartley’s message was a shade closer to that of Mr Biden’s predecessor President Clinton, who in the celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement spoke in a casual way – as if it was all up to us – but threw in some brutal lines. He said at the event at Queen’s University: “ … and we know what the votes were in the last election we can add them up their allocation of seats in the parliamentary body and it's time to get the show on the road ...”

The audience roared its approval at that remark by Mr Clinton, knowing it to be an almost explicit taunt to the DUP that Sinn Fein got more votes than you did, so get back to work.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was not present for Mr Clinton’s slyly partisan and crowd-pleasing speech, and rightly not. But he was hardly able to stay away from this week’s business event, lest it looked like a rude snub of American companies who are willing to put money into our country.

Even so, unionists will not welcome being lectured for several sound reasons.

The first is that Americans simply would not tolerate for a moment losing control of internal US trade between one state and any of the other 49. Nor would they tolerate a party that was inextricably linked with a terrorist organisation being at the highest levels of government, so at the very least American politicians should show great sensitivity to what is being asked of unionists.

Particularly at a time when leaders of the two main parties in the US have been so unwavering in their support of Israel after the worst mass murder of Jews since the holocaust. Never forget the fact that Sinn Fein will get no heat whatsoever, none, not even a trace of criticism, from American politicians for their open and relentless support for the Palestinians after that massacre, their refusal to condemn Hamas explicitly and for their unceasing attacks on Israel almost from the day of the October 7 atrocities.

Another reason that unionists will not like being lectured is due to the double standards. Sinn Fein was not put in an embarrassing situation once after it collapsed Stormont in 2017, ostensibly over the Cash for Ash scandal, but ultimately refusing to return for three years until Northern Ireland got an Irish language act. In fact, the party was never once criticised by the UK government, let alone American leaders. And by 2018 unionists too had concluded that the ransom of a Gaelic act had to be paid.

And finally unionists would have good reason to laugh out loud at Americans talking about political stability here given the near chaos on Capitol Hill, the bitter, bitter divisions in Washington, and the prospect of a US president being elected from prison.

Sir Jeffrey has a heck of a burden on his shoulders.

Punishment if he stays out, and a unionist rank and file that does not want to return.