Irredeemable futility of the Northern situation

HILLARY Clinton arrived in Northern Ireland last week for what was supposed to be her victory lap.

The plan was that she would bask in the glorious peace that she, through the proxy of her husband, had helped secure. Instead, she entered something approaching a warzone. On either side of a sectarian divide, zealots raged at what they felt was their disenfranchisement. The main source of outrage for the unionists was the fact that the Union Jack would no longer fly every day of the year over Belfast City Hall. For the dissident republicans, who were placing viable bombs in Derry, the motivation was less clear but we can assume it still relates to British occupation of what they feel is Irish soil. But do they even need a reason at the end of the day? They feel themselves to be involved in a righteous war, so justifications are not high on their list or priorities. Just like those other lunatics all over the world fighting imaginary wars in the name of religion, these gangs of thugs in the north of Ireland are utterly consumed by their own sense of self righteousness.

 

“The Troubles” is the euphemistic device we employ to describe the horror that unfolded in the years leading up to the Good Friday Agreement. It is a phrase which masks and, in a perverse way, excuses, what went on. We tell ourselves that it is all in the past. As recent outbursts of disgusting violence have shown, it is not in the past, it is a contemporary concern. Although major bombings and massacres have been absent from our television news reports in recent years, the reality on the ground in the North has been far from peaceful. The gangs who formerly fought under the banner of loyalist and republican have continued since the ceasefire to operate as the criminals they are, trafficking drugs, humans, cigarettes and alcohol and generating vast profits for themselves and headaches for police forces on both sides of the border. Coupled with this has been the intimidation of ordinary people on the ground with impunity.

A number of those arrested in relation to the recent riots around a flag were in their early teens. There is the future of the North, if anyone wishes to carry out an assessment of what it holds. It does not matter how many young people go to college, how much local talent is harvested by the finest companies in the world who locate there because of the generous government grants, there exists a concerted and unmoved intention on the part of a certain, possibly significant, section of the population to maintain, nurture and fuel hatred and violence; all in the name of history. In reality, this is a front for what are essentially criminal organisations, who hide behind the mask of political ideology.

There is no doubt that historical injustices have taken place in the North of Ireland and that communities have suffered but that exists where it belongs, in the past. In recent weeks, there have been fresh revelations regarding British collusion with loyalists and we are all aware of historic instances of Irish governments supporting republicans. That, we must now hope, is a thing of the past too. In fact, if we are honest, neither government really wants the north. Between the constant political bickering, power struggles and costs involved, the North now constitutes a political headache, more than anything else, for the Irish and British governments.

Sinn Féin and, in theory some other Irish political parties are in favour of a united, 32 county Ireland. In reality, this is not a viable prospect. Ireland is currently so mired in economic hell that the concept of taking on the six counties and making them a part of the whole is, frankly, laughable. It would also be interesting to see how those fervent nationalists north of the border would respond to becoming part of the republic and losing the benefit of the National Health Service they currently enjoy. Paying for doctors, requiring medical insurance and all the other complications people south of the border are forced to endure, because of the catastrophic dismantling of the Irish health service, would not be very welcome to even the most dyed in the wool nationalist in the final analysis.

The British political establishment, other than a few hard-line ideologues, would be delighted to be rid of the North of Ireland as it is nothing more than a headache and a cost. If it could be jettisoned without causing a fatal wound to the ‘Union’ as it exists, I have no doubt it would be in the morning.

The status of Northern Ireland, in the context of a vote on Scottish independence, will be something worthy of close examination. If the Scottish choose to leave the Union then northern Unionists may find themselves fighting to maintain their place in an anachronistic entity which belongs to history. The reaction of the British and Irish governments in this situation would also be worth seeing as the issue of ‘whose problem the North is now’ would be thrust upon them with urgency.

The most laughable aspect of the terrible calamity that is the north of Ireland was a recent show of unity from both sides of the political divide. Marie Stopes recently opened a private abortion clinic in Belfast to howls of cross-community protest. Those placard-waving protestors loudly proclaimed that they came from both Protestant and Catholic communities and that they were there to defend the lives of the unborn. These religious identities, which for the last few decades have denoted which cause people are willing to murder for, now came together in the name of protecting life. It was beyond anything satire could have portrayed.

This latest violence in the North of Ireland over a flag, a piece of cloth and how many days it can be allowed to fly over a specific building has led to the life of an Alliance Party MP being threatened and the “attempted murder” of police officers. Is it any wonder that Ireland and Britain, nations with serious political problems on their hands, are sick to the back teeth of dealing with this historical mess of their own shared creation which has now morphed into a hotbed of criminality, hatred and irredeemable futility?