You have to expect Irish unity to be high on the agenda at Easter.
It is a potent time for republicans and nationalists alike – each of whom claims an unbroken line to those who fought the British during the Easter rising, and who paid the price.
The Irish learned much from that epoch-changing week in 1916. The British – as we have seen in succeeding generations - learned nothing. The treatment of the rebels turned defeat into victory, and made independence inevitable.
From our recent past, the families of innocent people brutalised by the British are still fighting for justice - and in the face of a government hostile to international principles of justice.
Indeed, the so-called Secretary of State for Northern Ireland – who debased himself defending law-breaker Boris Johnson on TV earlier this week – is actively unlearning the lessons of history.
Although party to the Good Friday Agreement, and a guarantor, this British government appears to be actively seeking ways to undermine it.
And it’s being cheered on by the DUP; a party which didn’t sign up to the deal, and which saw Brexit as an opportunity to reinstate a hard border in Ireland.
There is no need here to re-rehearse the political misjudgments which saw the erection of a border down the Irish Sea instead.
But there is a need to ensure the DUP record is understood by those who have traditionally voted for it on the basis of what it says, without paying any attention to the grim reality of what the DUP does (or doesn’t do) in power.
That message is best coming from an unimpeachable unionist source; and thus far, Captain Doug Beattie MC, appears to be doing a good job.
For those who want to see Ireland united, Beattie carries baggage. But he is the leader of a party whose predecessor was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to the peace process; and he is self-confident enough in his identity to know he doesn’t have to shove a flag in people’s faces at every opportunity.
That’s a lesson which could be learned by some on the republican side – not least the flag-bearing loons of the National Republican Commemoration Committee who this week disgraced the ‘one people’ message of the Irish Proclamation; despoiled the anniversary of Lyra McKee’s murder; and who desecrated a cemetery.
At another Easter event, a different message was being communicated to a crowd no less loyal to the dead of 1916.
Speaking in Belfast, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told unionists directly: “We seek partnership with you.”
Her speechwriter deployed all the rhetorical tricks for a passage aimed at unionists which could almost be described as Churchillian: “A future of equality and freedom belongs to you. A future of progress and change belongs to you. A future of prosperity and opportunity belongs to you.
“It is not for anybody to invite you in; that future is already yours. It is about you, it is of you, it is for you.”
Extolling the virtues of “a parliament here, for the people who live here”, she asked unionists to: “Walk this journey with us.”
Given the shambles at Westminster, the benefits of getting out of the UK are clear. But it’s fair to say McDonald’s words fell on stony and cynical soil. And let’s be realistic, Sinn Féin’s association with violent republicanism leaves a nasty taste in many mouths.
But so too does unionism’s links with loyalist paramilitaries; and Britain’s record on the ground and in the courts is also bloody.
All sides can play the game of ‘bring out your dead’. And every story – every one that I have heard at least – has tragedy at its heart; and heartbroken mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters and sons.
So how – more than 20 years after the Good Friday Agreement, and the creation of a ‘power-sharing’ executive, and decades after republican and loyalist ceasefires - can we come to a point where McDonald’s rhetoric takes physical form?
She took an important step this week. The kickback was inevitable – particularly this side of an election. But she should not be discouraged. The challenge for her is how does she put her words into practice, and address what unionists see as the elephant in the room – the victims of the IRA’s campaign. Other elephants need dealt with too.
If we don’t address directly with this conundrum – the lack of trust which comes from suffering - none of us will live to see the peace and reconciliation too many died for.
