The Handshake

From a pragmatic point of view it should not be much a surprise that Martin McGuinness, the deputy first minister in the Stormont Administration would meet with and pay his respects to England’s Queen Elizabeth.  After all the Queen is the head of state of the United Kingdom that, under the current arrangement, claims sovereignty over the six occupied Irish counties, therefore, to all intent and purposes she is Martin’s boss who pays his salary and keeps him safe. 

The Stormont Administration implements British government mandates and policies in the six occupied Irish counties.

Martin and his cohort Gerry Adams have covertly and overtly been serving British interests in Ireland for over thirty years. Their metamorphosis from so-called “republicans” in the early 1970’s to servants of the Queen was gradual and practically indiscernible at the onset.

For Irish Republicans familiar with British tactics in dealing with insurgencies it was not surprising that McGuinness and Adams were targeted by British intelligence as potential allies.  Their lack of conviction with respect to national aspirations coupled with an avid desire for wealth and acceptance were the same traits the British successfully exploited in recruiting touts from within the ranks of insurgents down through the centuries, not alone in Ireland, but elsewhere throughout the world.

 In essence the British concluded that McGuinness and Adams recalcitrance was sectarian in nature, therefore, could be dealt with on a "carrot and stick" basis.

For thirty plus years McGuinness and Adams followed the game plan devised by their British handlers and were rewarded accordingly. In that regard they had a fair amount of success, however, they failed to deliver the main prize; a subdued and compliant “Ulster Province” that would ensure the survival of the United Kingdom as presently construed.  In order to accomplish that the duo would have to deliver the Republican movement, lock, stock and barrel, to the high altar of the British imperial establishment.

That they failed to do. After fifteen years of trying, the only thing the duo managed to deliver was a bunch of sectarian thugs who, in order to survive, had attached themselves to the Republican movement like barnacles to a ships hull.

As the script was supposed to go; the last act in the saga would be the “handshake” a gesture to show the world that the Republican movement was at last defeated, the United Kingdom was no longer endangered and the world was a safer place thanks to McGuinness and Adams -- faithful servants of the realm.