You more often hear Ian Paisley quoting Martin Luther than Martin Luther King. After all, didn't People's Democracy model their 1968 civil rights march, attacked by unionists at Burntollet, on King's 1965 Selma to Montgomery march?
But yesterday the new look Dr Paisley quoted the great civil rights leader's famous Lincoln Memorial speech when he told MLAs "like another King, I have had a dream. I have had a dream in which children can play together, in which people can work together, and in which families can live happily side by side, regardless of their community or ethnic background or their religious beliefs."
Genuinely impressive, although I wondered about that phrase "like another King". Isn't the monarch a Queen? Or is Dr Paisley considering making the First Minister's position hereditary?
A bit belated this, but I notice that a recent edition of the Mourne Observer quotes SDLP activists in South Down as indicating that Eddie McGrady will defend his seat in the next general election. His logic, allegedly, is that if Ian Paisley can be First Minister at 81 there is no reason he cannot continue at Westminster. If this holds true, it won't bother his party colleague, the Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie but may unsettle the Education Minister Sinn Fein's Catriona Ruane. She must have hoped that a place at the Executive table would boost her chances of taking South Down next time around.
After the falling out between the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Culture Committee reported earlier in this blog it seems that calm has been restored. Sinn Fein's Barry McElduff and the Ulster Unionist David McNarry met this afternoon for peace talks in the Assembly library. They didn't solve their differences over an inquiry into the latest round of consultation on an Irish language bill, but they agreed to disagree. Fortunately neither subscribe to the old Nazi dictum "when I hear the word Culture, I reach for my revolver".
On the topic of the Irish language consultation, officials are now wading through an estimated 4000 responses. Last time the balance of views was 93% in favour of an Irish Language Act. But this time both unionists and nationalists have clearly got organised. One unionist boasted to me that his office has processed 400 responses - it will be interesting to see what the balance is when officials work their way through the avalanche of incoming mail.
The veteran Ulster Unionist MLA Robert Coulter asked if he had to declare an interest when rising to speak about the need for a Commissioner for Older People this afternoon. Robert Coulter is slipstreaming that other North Antrim unionist, Ian Paisley, in the race to be father of the Stormont house. He wondered whether both he and the First Minister would be barred from applying for the job if a Commissioner post is created (the answer is almost certainly yes, unless they stand down from their elected jobs).
Revd. Coulter was just getting into his stride embarking on the story of one elderly woman who.....when the young whipper snapper Deputy Speaker David McClarty cut him off in his stride as "out of time". However his party colleague Basil McCrea rushed to his aid using his speaking time to finish the anecdote which concerned an elderly woman being robbed by her own daughter.
Robert Coulter may look venerable, but he lives his life in the fast lane. An enthusiast for vintage motorbikes, he's the Ulster Unionists' silver haired Easy Rider.
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