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Introduction:Changing
Women, Changing Worlds
Derek Poole
Comment
Ruth Hutchinson
From
the Directors
David McMillan
Changing
Women, Changing Worlds: The Question of Women
Fran Porter
Review...Delightfully
Subversive
Cheryl Reid
Review...Opportune
Linda McClaughlin
Faith
and Practice...Christine Bell
Ruth
Hutchinson
Antjie
Krog
Peter Stark
Review...Thought
Provoking
Myrtle Hill
Review...Smashing
Clerical Complacency
Malachi O'Doherty
FROM
THE DIRECTORS
I know
this is the page that most readers of Lion & Lamb turn to immediately
they receive the new edition for, besides the striking picture of our
illustrious Director, there are usually pearls of wisdom to be pondered
and sharp analysis to be considered. I am a little concerned that you
may feel somewhat disorientated by the tone and thrust of what follows
in this edition. Let me explain.
Recently a decision was made that, since ECONI is a charitable company with a board of directors, the Director’s page should become a shared responsibility. All were in agreement and so in this edition the idea of a rotating responsibility for this page is being put into practice. Which got me thinking about ideas …
A referendum on the border? Now there’s an idea! A possible (at the time of writing) second act of voluntary decommissioning? Now there’s an idea! Is it the spring equinox manifesting a strange pull on the imagination of those on the hill or is it the brutal reality of political life and survival that prompts such out of character thinking. Clearly it is the latter.
With an election coming up in the South, Sinn Fein have discovered that committing themselves to Stormont has had bigger implications for their political fortunes in the South than in the North. Southern politicians who encouraged and cajoled their Northern counterparts to embrace their Republican opponents in the democratic process are showing a marked reluctance to do any favours in the forth-coming election. Indeed some of the noises coming from Southern politicians are down right hypocritical but at least it is a clear indication that they haven’t surrendered the essential competitive component of democracy to flights of ideological fancy. However, it is an interesting paradox that the view emanating from the Republic of Ireland seems to be that the preferable place for Irish Republicans to do their politics is under the umbrella of a British State.
But then maybe that’s because the North is part of a modern, sophisticated plural society unlike the ‘backward culturally monolithic Republic’! So, maybe in calling for a referendum on the border the hope is that, having received a verbal kicking in the South, Republicans will think twice about voting for the removal of the border so that there is at least one warm house on the island for those of a pure Republican philosophy to pursue their politics. No, not very likely, and it’s hardly the reasoning behind David Trimble’s political pre-emptive strike at the recent UUP Council. More likely it is the prospect of the UUP being able to storm the hustings next June, clearly arguing for the maintenance of the Union and making it much more difficult for the DUP to paint Trimble as selling out that lies behind the strategy.
However, the only sense in which the North is part of a plural society is vicariously. Northern Ireland is still essentially a sectarian society bolted on to a larger unit that is culturally, politically and socially of a completely different character. We wouldn’t know plurality if it jumped up and hit us in the face. Furthermore, we don’t want it. Imagine the Orange Order marching through Bradford or the Sinners marching through Tunbridge Wells! Imagine the churches losing their clout in the corridors of power and Crescent Moons appearing on gable walls. Nah, truth is we don’t want to go there because all too often our faith or our politics needs the shelter of sectarianism to give it sense and meaning. A pluralist society like GB or the changing scene in the Republic would leave us feeling like aliens and strangers in our own land. Aliens and strangers? Now there’s an idea! (1Peter 1:1-2 & 2:11)
David McMillan
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