Opinion

Patrick Murphy: This is likely to be our most sectarian election ever

Patrick Murphy

Patrick Murphy

Patrick Murphy is an Irish News columnist and former director of Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education.

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The loser? That'll be the health service The loser? That'll be the health service

The concept of legitimate violence underpinned much of what occurred during the Troubles here. It was a view which maintained that ignoble deeds were legitimate in pursuit of what was deemed to be a noble cause.

Twenty-five years after the violence largely ended, the concept of legitimacy has re-emerged, this time in politics. This week the main parties here abandoned any pretence of normal politics and prepared for what is likely to be our most sectarian election ever (and that's saying something).

But, the parties insisted, it is all in pursuit of a noble cause. Welcome to the world of legitimate sectarianism.

It is a concept based on the pretence that we are debating Brexit, when in reality our politicians are campaigning for a sectarian head-count. Of course, Brexit is an important political issue, but like most politics in our increasingly secular society, it becomes an issue of religious division.

Legitimate sectarianism raises three significant issues: its impact on party politics here, Stormont's future and the consequences for the united Ireland campaign.

In party politics, the SDLP and the UUP will find it difficult in future to differentiate themselves from their dominant rivals in the DUP and Sinn Féin. The SDLP now has the particularly challenging task of supporting abstention in Belfast, but opposing it in Derry.

Support for SF has already caused internal tensions within the SDLP and it will strain relationships with Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin, who strongly opposes abstention.

The second significant consequence is the question of Stormont's future. This column consistently suggested that Stormont could never effectively work, because it was designed to accommodate politicians rather than serve people.

It was not a popular opinion at the time (certainly not with SF) but it now appears to have mainstream nationalist support. (Maybe political comment is just a matter of timing.) In a highly sectarian election, the current nationalist clamour for a united Ireland is likely to drown out calls for Stormont's return.

But that same sectarianism will damage the campaign for Irish unity. Assuming that a united Ireland means a united people, it cannot be achieved without significant unionist support. The current election campaign will do little to encourage this.

Those advocating a united Ireland have a choice of two methods: the politics of division or the politics of unity. Division is fostered by waving the green flag and promoting Irish unity as a promised land, where all our cares will be washed away by the benevolence of Leo Varadkar.

Meanwhile, our divided society will just have to tolerate appalling public services, including for example, a health service described last week at Westminster as being at risk of collapse.

(You have a broken leg, madam? Don't worry. As soon as we have a united Ireland, we will fix it. Trust me. I am a political spin-doctor.) So sectarianism both fuels nationalist enthusiasm for a united Ireland and prevents its likelihood, by alienating potential unionist support for it.

The alternative route is to build political unity between Protestants and Catholics in opposition to failing public services and growing economic inequality. It would be more difficult, but it would be more sustainable, produce a more equitable society and enhance the welfare of people here.

It would require mature political debate about social and economic inequality and the private sector's role in public services (not the sort of thing northern parties, or Fine Gael, would welcome).

Sectarianism is easier. It conceals our parties' failure to deliver a decent society, and it allows successive Dublin governments to hide southern social and economic inequality.

(On Tuesday this week there were 679 patients waiting on trolleys in southern hospitals. The mythical northern lady with the broken leg might have to wait a while.)

So legitimate sectarianism means that in effect we have only one party standing in the election here. It's the "Aren't the other crowd a right shower?" party. And do you know something? I think it will win. And the loser? That'll be the health service.