Of Difference Does it Make

Edward Carson, originally uploaded by irelandseye.

Of Difference Does it Make

During the 51-year existence of the Northern Ireland Parliament only one bill sponsored by a non-Unionist was ever passed.

Among the plovers and the stone-chats
protected by the Wild Birds Act
of nineteen-hundred-and-thirty-one,
there is a rare stint called the notawhit
that has a schisty flight-call, like the chough’s.
Notawhit notawhit notawhit
— it raps out a sharp code-sign
like a mild and patient prisoner
pecking through granite with a teaspoon.

— Tom Paulin