WHO cut funding for the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project?

Strictly speaking, nobody.

In 2022, administrative responsibility for the long-running exercise was transferred from Sinn Féin Finance Minister Conor Murphy to Sinn Féin Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey, along with four years of funding.

Gordon Lyons become DUP Communities Minister in 2024 and watched while this funding ran out.

Brian Feeney: Sinn Féin must refuse to re-enter an Executive until London and Dublin move on border poll

Lynette Fay: The day that changed everything for me

His officials went back to the current Sinn Féin Finance Minister, John O’Dowd, to ask for more but were told funding was now their responsibility as well.

Even this happened without Mr Lyons’s input – he says the matter “never reached my desk”.

Mr O’Dowd says there was an “understanding” in 2022 that the Department for Communities would take over future funding. Alas, the two Sinn Féin ministers who reached this understanding never put it in writing.

There is a parallel here with Casement Park, where Sinn Féin accuses Mr Lyons of blocking a project important to nationalists, while the DUP claims he has simply not been funded by Sinn Féin to fix one of Sinn Féin’s mistakes.

This all becomes clearer if you consider the difference between sins of commission and sins of omission, although it becomes confusing again if you consider the doctrinal distinction.

The Catholic Church views sins of commission as worse, while for Presbyterians like Mr Lyons, both are as bad as each other.

**

The place name funding row revealed how readily some republicans and nationalists now call on Sinn Féin to walk out of Stormont.

Sinn Féin does not want to walk out, but nor did it initially want to do so in 2017, until DUP belligerence and grassroots republican anger caused matters to get out of hand.

Rule changes since 2017 mean it takes six months for the Executive to collapse rather........

© The Irish News