Sinn Féin has dismissed the official conferring of the British crown title of Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead on the Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness.
Under the Westminster parliamentary so-called Chiltern Hundreds protocols, this is one of two titles that are traditionally and alternately applied when MPs resign. As Mr McGuinness this week formally resigned as MP for Mid-Ulster, the British chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, conferred on him the English aristocratic title.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams was similarly titled by prime minister David Cameron when he resigned his West Belfast Commons seat in 2011 to run for a Dáil seat in Louth.
Neither Mr McGuinness nor Mr Adams took up their Commons seats, in line with Sinn Féin’s abstentionist policy.
A Sinn Féin spokesman was distinctly unimpressed with the additional title.
“As Irish republicans we gave no time for antiquated and ridiculous titles of the British parliamentary system then [as with Gerry Adams] and this remains the situation.”
