After four and a half years’ suspension, devolved government in the north of Ireland returned with the reconvening of the Stormont Assembly on 11 May. In his oath of office speech, First Minster and Unionist leader Ian Paisley declared: ‘I have not changed my Unionism, the union of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, which I believe is today stronger than ever.’ Sinn Fein deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness on the other hand claimed ‘I am proud to stand here today as an Irish Republican who believes absolutely in a united Ireland.’ Here lies the contradiction of a political process which is hailed as the final solution to centuries of conflict between Britain and Ireland.
On 15 May Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern became the first Irish premier to address the Westminster parliament in London. In a speech celebrating ‘the most beneficial transformation in British-Irish relations in over 800 years’, Ahern told his audience; ‘the so-called “Irish Question” was for a long time shorthand in these halls for a nuisance, a problem, a danger. A recurring crisis that was debated here, but not where its effects were most felt’. But today, he declared, ‘I can stand here and say that the “Irish Question” as understood then has been transformed by the Good Friday Agreement.’
Sinn Fein has now replaced the middle-class SDLP as the main voice of northern nationalism. Under its leadership, the Republican movement has accepted the ceasefires of the 1990s, British rule and the Unionist veto as set down in the Good Friday Agreement, the various acts of decommissioning that followed, and the disbandment of the IRA in 2005. Finally, Sinn Fein has now accepted the sectarian police force in Ireland and will take up their seats on the policing boards in June. British imperialism has constantly shaped the political process which has led to this result, and at every turn backed the Unionists in whatever demands they have placed on Republicans.
Meanwhile, on 3 May the main loyalist death squad, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), stated that it would be standing down its members but would not be decommissioning any of its weapons. This move was being made now because the ‘constitutional question has now been firmly settled’. The UVF always refused to meet with the international arms body established to oversee the disarming of the IRA but this has never been a major issue for the Labour government. Today in the north of Ireland there are over 144,500 legally held firearms, one for every nine citizens over the of age 16 years – the overwhelming majority are in the hands of Unionists.
On 16 May representatives of the former IRA leadership met with leaders from the loyalist death squads in their first ever public meeting. The images of this exchange were front-page news in the Irish press, and presented as evidence of the new type of politics in Ireland today, which reduces the conflict to one between two warring communities rather than one waged by Republicans against British imperialism. Anti-imperialist politics have now been replaced with the politics of identity and culture; demands for national and political rights have been replaced by demands for civil and human rights.
With the IRA out of the way Sinn Fein is now free to court middle-class votes in the south. However, in elections to the Dublin parliament on 24 May Sinn Fein did much worse than expected, winning only four seats compared to the five out of 166 seats they held in the last Dáil parliament.
Paul Mallon
On 23 May it was announced that a further so-called ‘peace wall’ – euphemism for a segregation wall – is to be built in Belfast. Since the 1994 ceasefires nine other such walls have been built as sectarianism has increased during the course of the peace process. The result is increased segregation: in Belfast in 1991 63% of the population lived in areas that were either more than 90% Protestant or 90% Catholic. By 2001 this had risen to 66%.
FRFI 197 June / July 2007
