Northern conflict raging on

COMMENT

HAS anything changed in Northern Ireland? Yes, there have been many changes, in spite of recent chaotic riots and mindless anarchy on the streets of Belfast.

 

 

The biggest change – and to me by far the most important one – is that people are no longer being killed on an almost daily basis as was once the case. Catholics are sharing power with Protestants and we have a Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Belfast. Those are things that could not have happened in the past. The fact that hundreds, if not thousands, of people are walking around today rather than lying in cold graves is the greatest tribute of all to the peace process.

Certainly, there is a lot to dislike about what is happening on the streets of Belfast these days and nights. But there is also a lot to dislike about what is happening down here in the Republic. I think it is true to say that austerity has hit us in the South far more than it has hit the people of the North. But this article is not about austerity in the North or in the Republic. I am talking about the sectarianism that appears to be as bitter today as it was at the height of the Troubles.

Northern Ireland is today held up throughout the world as an example of how conflict between two communities can be resolved. However, has it really been resolved? There have been some advances but the distrust and hatred that people on the Shankill Road, for example, have for their neighbours on the Falls Road, appears to be as strong today as it ever was.

When I was younger I had a passionate desire to see the two parts of Ireland united. I still want to see a united Ireland but the unity I want to see is a unity between the two divided communities in Northern Ireland. I am no longer too concerned about who rules over Northern Ireland, whether the people of that little part of our country are governed by London or Dublin. I am far more concerned about whether or not they are able to live with each other.

I would love to see them going to the same schools, worshipping in each others’ churches, playing in the same soccer, hurling, rugby or football teams and getting married to people from the other community. If those wishes cannot be fulfilled in the near future, I want to see them respecting the other community’s culture and diversity.

However, it is not easy to respect the other community’s culture if you are forced to adopt it. For example, Catholics or Nationalists should not be forced to endure an Orange parade that marches into their area with the sole intent of provoking and insulting them. Neither would I expect Protestants of the Shankill Road or any other Loyalist area to welcome a Republican demonstration in their area. However, I think Republicans know better than to wave the Tricolour in any part of Loyalist Belfast.
What the North needs more than anything else now is good leadership and we are certainly getting very little of it from the Orange or Unionist side. I try to be as neutral as I can but I have to say that most of the present sectarian violence seems to be coming from the Loyalist side. If Unionists condemn Loyalist violence, they do so with lots of equivocation. They might say it was wrong to petrol bomb the police but they add that the attacks on the police are understandable.

I am not saying that the Republicans are all saints. They certainly are not. Extremists on the Republican side have a lot in common with their counterparts on the other side: they are both fundamentally opposed to the peace process. However, I am sure that police files will show that most of the present violence is emanating from the Unionist side.

Therefore, there is an urgent need for Unionist and Loyalist leaders to get in among their own people and stop them from destroying the very institutions they profess to be fighting for.
If they want to be able to march through Catholic areas, they should talk to the leaders of the local Catholic community and see if some arrangement can be made. Nothing can be gained for themselves by forcing their way through streets where they are not wanted. How can they possibly call themselves “Loyalists” if they attack their own police force, which has pledged to enforce the Queen’s law? Loyal to whom?

Much of the present mindless violence comes from a fear on the Loyalist side that they are going to be forced into a united Ireland or at least that they have to surrender the ‘privileges’ they might have gained in the past. They are not going to be forced against their will into a united Ireland. If they have lost any privileges, those are privileges they should never have had. Neither community in Northern Ireland or anywhere else is entitled to privileges that the other community does not have.

It is a reality that Dublin and London have turned their backs on Northern Ireland in recent years. That was the reason for the troubles in the past. Both governments have a duty to ensure that justice for all prevails. The peace process is not something that could be enforced by the signing of a document and then left to its own devices. It is something that is evolving and that needs to be steered in a direction that will eventually please all sides. The alternative is what we have been seeing on the streets of Belfast in recent days.

Sure, a lot of things have changed in Northern Ireland and mostly in improved community relations. However, much of those changes have been under the surface. Remember that riots and violence sell papers but peace and harmony do not.