The Irish question: notes towards resolution
Four months ago, the new power-sharing executive at Stormont raised eyebrows in Northern Ireland, not least at the sight of Messrs Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams sitting in the same room and expressing their anticipation of a conference together.
Voters and analysts alike were sceptical yet on the ground, the mood is positive. Many now believe a lasting accord can exist between the extreme groups, and most are delighted to see local government in practical control.
“I want nationalists and unionists to live in Northern Ireland with fair play and no discrimination, and to rejoice that they live here. We can’t keep raking over the embers of fires that have long burned out,” said Paisley. This willingness to forget the past is surprising, but the fact remains that a hardline unionist leader is willing to drag his followers into compromise.
Sinn Fein has gone through its own remarkable change of heart. Political legitimacy has been embraced by the organisation after the decommissioning of the party’s militant wing, while Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew’s handling of the Foot and Mouth crisis is reflective of the party’s grass-roots development into a purely political force.
Having negotiated the incredible leap of faith to regard each other as political equals, the parties now face the daunting task of the day-to-day business of public office.
In Belfast, change has been more manifest. As of a few years ago, murals across the city – depicting sectarian slogans and often horrifically glorified paramilitarism – have been phased out, replaced in many instances by celebrations of the national football side’s recent success.
Within a hundred yards of each other on the Albert Bridge Road, just east of the River Lagan, are two such murals, one reading “Espana 2 – Our Wee Country 3, Viva Norn Iron”, while the other celebrates 125 years of Irish football with a life-size reproduction of David Healy’s historic strike against England in 2005.
However encouraging these developments might be, it remains vital to keep the short term issues and challenges in focus. Peace will come in a series of small, barely noticeable victories, and ones that will not lend themselves to soundbites and government figures.
There is a nascent movement towards regarding ‘Northern Irish’ as a distinct identity; tolerance will not truly come until the archaic ‘communities’ delineated by ‘unionist’ and ‘nationalist’ are rejected as relics of a past left undisturbed.
Back in May, Paisley said: “I have had a dream in which children can play together, in which people can work together, and in which families can live happily side by side, regardless of their community or ethnic background or their religious beliefs.” Maybe his dream will not be realised in my lifetime, but I take no small pride in the fact that I was around to see it begin.
