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extra! p.s. extra! comes to you alongside p.s., the fortnightly e-mail and web discussion forum from the Centre for Contemporary Christianity in Ireland. Where p.s. is published on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month, p.s. extra! arrives occasionally, in-between times, to bring you further biblical reflection and theological thought on contemporary matters of broad public concern. To comment, or read other comments on articles, please click here to go to our discussion board. To find out more about p.s. and read previous editions, click here. |
The question nobody wants to ask … |
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This week, the 108 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly met together for the first time since they were elected in 2003. Their task is to form a shared government that will enable the restoration of devolved powers to local politicians. Since the collapse of the previous Executive in 2002 amidst accusations of IRA spying and its failure to decommission weapons, trust remains a rare commodity. Ongoing criminal activities by paramilitaries and further revelations about spying by British agents have made finding the right moment to reconvene the suspended assembly almost impossible. As events in Ballymena last week demonstrated, the inability to share political responsibility for the future has consequences on the ground. Sectarian tensions are an everyday reality in many towns and the annual conflict over parades by the Orange Order raises the stakes even further. It is unlikely that any deal will be done by the end of the first six-week deadline in June. Whether it can be fixed in the autumn with is immovable 24 November deadline is another question. Three fundamental obstacles stand in the way of the process succeeding. First we need to recognise that the politicians and people of Northern Ireland are being asked to do something that no other country has ever achieved. The blunt truth is that the conflict is not over. There is no agreed consensus by the people concerning the nature and legitimacy of the state. Questions like this are normally resolved on the outcome of military force. Given that Britain and Ireland have no interest in going to war, or supporting their clients in a war, it has to be resolved through dialogue. No bad thing. The genius of the Belfast Agreement was to recognise that violence was destroying no one but us. In setting aside the constitutional question, structures and institutions were put in place to build new relationships and provide a mechanism for protecting rights and sharing power whatever the outcome of a border poll. Thirty years of violence however required tribal leaders to reassure their people on the fundamental question. The DUP's insistence on declaring the union weakened and the need to defend it and Sinn Fein's persistence in forcing the pace on a united Ireland undermined the very basis on which an agreed future could begin. Second, the process has evolved to ensure a lack of political incentive to do a deal. No deal not only helps Sinn Fein avoid the charge of administering British rule in Ireland, but gives greater momentum to British and Irish co-operation in the North. If Trimble's deal delivered a Sinn Fein Education minister, Paisley's deal will give them Deputy First Minister. Worse still, with devolution of justice and policing powers to a shared department a pre-requisite for Sinn Fein's participation in the Policing Board, a former IRA man as minister for justice or policing is just too much to take. It will take some leadership skills to bring an unprepared electorate to this point. Not for the first time will Unionists be left wondering if they should have taken the deal on offer at last year's prices. Finally, the question nobody wants to ask - that concerning moral responsibility. There is no escaping the responsibility that rests with those who pursued violence when politics was always an option. The paramilitaries have ensured that making peace in this community is a generational task. Yet when will the Protestant middle classes, many of them churchgoing, accept any responsibility for what has happened over the last thirty years? This week the leader of the Progressive Unionists, who have a close relationship to the loyalist paramilitary UVF, joined the Ulster Unionist's Assembly group. Paisley and the Democratic Unionists were furious. They will have no dealings with terrorists. As a child of the seventies I stood with the middle classes of Protestant Ulster watching and welcoming massed ranks of paramilitaries as they marched to rallies at Stormont. These good people did not pull triggers or plant bombs. Their war was fought at arms length, often with family members serving in the legitimate forces of the state. But it was still a war, with all its bitterness and sectarian hate. They pointed their hearts and they used what the Bible tells us is the most potent weapon of all, the tongue. Northern Ireland did not just happen. It was the bitter fruit of generations of fear, suspicion and hate throughout our community. Washing our hands of those morally corrupted by their violence, is not a biblical option. Isaiah and the prophets were no more idolaters that those in our churches are murders or rioters. But they knew before God that they belonged with their people and were part of the sin that had engulfed them. Hard and bitter hearts and middle class morality will be the undoing of us. David Porter Centre for
Contemporary Christianity in Ireland - Summer School |
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