Fortunately, NI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris was on hand to remind the British prime minister of the Taoiseach’s name
They step on to the dock to take questions from the waiting media; be sure to position the TV camera to get the yellow Harland and Wolff cranes in the background, for the clip on the evening news. Northern Ireland is done, back on the plane by lunchtime.
In fairness, the media was already in a restive mood. The Number 10 comms team initially sent reporters to the wrong address, then had to dispatch someone to rescue them from the car park of an industrial estate. That got sorted out just in time for another kerfuffle, this time over splitting the “national” media from the “regional” — their terminology — so that each group could not overhear the others’ questions.
The headline announcement was “significant funding” for Casement Park, though with no figure or timescale; that and the prime minister’s “commitment” to Northern Ireland. The reality is that, though the Conservative party stands candidates in Northern Ireland there are no seats to be won here. Ultimately, this was about ticking a Northern Ireland-shaped box; while Sunak may have been speaking in Belfast, what he was saying was firmly aimed at his “national” audience, across the water in England.
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