On 5 February the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), following consultation with the Orange Order, finally announced that it had agreed to the transfer of policing and justice powers from London to Belfast on 12 April. The Hillsborough Castle agreement ends the impasse since Sinn Fein agreed to support British policing in 2007. While Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams hailed the settlement as ‘a hugely important, as well as symbolic moment’ and continued ‘This is the political parties in the north of Ireland demonstrating our ability to negotiate a successful agreement together. It marks a new phase in the [peace] process’, in fact it was yet another step in Sinn Fein’s capitulation to British imperialism and in practice to Unionist supremacy. DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson was much more accurate in saying that the agreement represented ‘a good day for Unionism which will further cement Ulster’s place within the United Kingdom’.
On 4 February, just prior to the completion of the talks, Peter Robinson resumed his role as First Minister having temporarily stood aside on 11 January amidst allegations that he had breached the Ministerial Code over his failure to report on his wife’s financial dealings to the authorities (See FRFI 213). His return was apparently prompted by the absolution of Paul Maguire QC who offered the opinion that no wrongdoing had occurred. Maguire, who has made a career appearing for the British government in a number of high profile cases, including the continued detention of framed Republican Colin Duffy, had been appointed by the Departmental Solicitor’s Office to look at the issue. Robinson received further assurances from the British government’s Secretary for the north of Ireland, Shaun Woodward, who described him as ‘an outstanding politician…who had cleared his name.’
The Hillsborough agreement, like all agreements relating to the Six Counties, has been presented as all things to all men. Practice has however demonstrated that the political process in Ireland is dominated by Unionism, fully backed by British imperialism. Exercising its veto over proceedings, the DUP held out to achieve greater demands, citing the need for ‘Unionist community confidence’. Behind this lies political upheaval among Unionists as they jockey for position in preparation for the forthcoming Westminster election. Failure to reach agreement would have triggered Assembly elections prior to then, which the DUP leadership feared. The task now for Peter Robinson is to satisfy his hard line constituency; this is why he had to hold out for approval from the ‘Loyal Orders’ on the issue of sectarian parades, along with a key Unionist demand for increased funding for the police and state-sanctioned weaponry.
Far from seeing a reduction in supremacist Orange parades or a reduction in sectarianism, the period known as the peace process was characterised by the complete opposite (see FRFI Ireland section for further analysis). In 1986 there were 1,731 loyalist parades; since then this figure has risen year on year to 2,525 (2004-5).[1] Following nationalist opposition to sectarian marches on the Garvaghy Road, Portadown, in the mid-1990s, a Parades Commission was established to regulate contentious parades. The Orange Order has a policy of non-engagement with the Commission and made its disbandment a precondition to accepting any policing agreement. The Hillsborough agreement sets out a timetable for replacing the Parades Commission. It is a measure of the weakness of Sinn Fein’s strategy that the Orange Order holds such sway in political proceedings in the north.
In respect of policing, as Peter Robinson put it, ‘Devolution of policing and justice powers will occur on Unionist terms. There will be no Sinn Fein Justice Minister. Unionists have a veto on who will hold this post.’ While Sinn Fein has attempted to present the devolution of these powers to Belfast as an opportunity for greater accountability, the reality is the agreement explicitly states that the judicial system will be immune from what is termed ‘partisan or political interest’. The judicial system in the north of Ireland like all judicial systems will be used by the state to preserve its rule. In a sign of things to come, more funding to the police was guaranteed by the British Prime Minister ‘to meet any exceptional security pressures relating to policing and justice’. This extra funding, which was welcomed by Sinn Fein, will be directed against republicans who continue to oppose British rule in Ireland.
Another area of concern for the Unionists was the question of weapons. Having successfully secured IRA disarmament (see FRFI 187) the Unionists were determined to hold on to their own weaponry. Since the inception of the state, Unionists have always had access to a legal arsenal of weapons for what is described as ‘self defence’ – over and above the ammunition available to those who worked for the British military. Today over 90,000 people have their own personal firearms, known as ‘Personal Protection Weapons’, sharing among them a total of 140,000 guns for an adult population of just over one million people.[2] The vast majority of these weapons are in the hands of the Unionist community.[3]
This is the context in which the Irish National Liberation Army announced that it had disarmed its weaponry, the day before the British government deadline for decommissioning on 9 February. The next day raids and arrests were made on both sides of the Irish border reportedly directed against Republican militants. The resolution of the political impasse over policing will do nothing to alter daily lives of nationalists on the receiving end of Unionist supremacy and state harassment.
[1] Figures from the Strategic Review of Parading in Northern Ireland Interim Consultative Report available at www.srpb.org.uk
[2] In June 2008 it is estimated there were 1.775 million people living in the Six Counties; with 21.5% being children (aged under 16) and 16.7% being of state pension age. By excluding these two categories, the adult population stands at just over one million. Figures from The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, online at http://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/default.asp10.htm
[3] The Unionist community in the north of Ireland constitutes around 51% of the total population. See http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/politics/election/electsum.htm
