Reading the foreword of a book in Waterstone's recently I was struck by the lines of a proverb alongside which said, ‘Each generation will reap what the former generation has sown.’ Those words kept repeating in my head.
Over the past few weeks we have witnessed a near complete breakdown in our political structures. Neither of the two leading parties, DUP or Sinn Féin, are showing any kind of leadership. It’s the era of ostrich style politics with each tribe burying their head in a sandpit of their own making. God only knows what they are both condemning the current generation of young people to. If this generation reap what the DUP and Sinn Féin have sown they will be condemned to repeating age old mistakes, continuing to live in funnels and the best and brightest will probably see their future outside of Northern Ireland.
It was beyond bizarre to see Sinn Féin MPs (who by their own choice will have no say in the progress of the equality campaign) having the audacity to line up in the background of the Westminster marriage equality launch being promoted by British parliamentarians – Conservative, Labour, SNP, Greens and Liberals.
Although a key campaign pledge of Sinn Féin it may ultimately be delivered by everyone but them. Equally galling is to watch this faltering British government make a mess of Brexit without the voice of a single Irish nationalist in parliament, despite the greatest impact of Brexit being felt in the north.
Again, it’s up to Labour, Liberals, pro-EU Tories and the SNP to lessen the damage by this political juggernaut.
And so, the absence of Sinn Fein allows the DUP to not only claim to be the voice of Northern Ireland but to also put forward their own narrow minority political viewpoint as being that of all the people in the north. This is despite the expressed will of the majority of people with regard to Brexit and marriage equality being the polar opposite of the DUP village view of life.
It’s a bit pointless Sinn Féin MPs getting exercised and outraged on social media by the antics of Paisley, Campbell and Wilson when they opted not to take them on face to face in Westminster. They might as well whistle in the wind.
However, the success of the DUP and Sinn Féin has by and large grown because they have lured each respective community to the safety of life behind the barricades on their own side. We are now engaged in political trench warfare. And neither side can get spades big enough to dig further in.
To the people who created the space for peace twenty years ago, George Mitchell, Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair, John Hume, David Trimble and others, it’s a huge blow. Trimble’s successors in the Ulster Unionists are like flotsam bobbing from one thing to another without any sense of direction. The SDLP, despite passing the baton to a younger generation, are still caught in the headlights of their legendary eminences grises.
On the nationalist side, particularly for the SDLP leadership, there needs to be some new radical thinking. The type of creative thought that brought about the Sunningdale Agreement, New Ireland Forum, the Anglo-Irish Agreement and the Good Friday Agreement.
At the minute while there is much soul searching going on there is no big idea which captures the public mood.
However there appears to be a degree of reality and honesty within the SDLP that recognises whilst many voters do value the principles of the party they are less sure if the party is the best vehicle to advance them.
Even places as leafy as South Belfast have become more ‘tiocfaidh ar la-de-da!’ Such a change is going to require both pain and courage. And of course, there will be dissension and political arguments as the internal debate takes place but the old arguments about neutrality with southern parties are well past their sell by date.
The nationalist electorate is in a different space to the SDLP and the political tide in Northern Ireland has not turned in the past 17 years. That’s a long time for activists to be blowing on dandelion puff balls wishing for that tide change.
As Seamus Mallon said in 1999, “Each generation has its own vision. Each generation has its own dreams. Precious few have the chance to realise those dreams.. to write their own page of history.” It would seem for Colum Eastwood and Nichola Mallon that time has come again.
