By resigning from the executive, in the knowledge that Sinn Féin did not intend to nominate a new deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness collapsed the political institutions set up to achieve peace in Northern Ireland and across these islands. He and his party have created a crisis and shown a reckless attitude towards the Good Friday Agreement. Any assessment of his contribution to the ‘peace process’ should bear this in mind.
The DUP deserved to be held to account on the floor of the assembly, through the committee system and, if necessary, through an independent inquiry or investigation, by all the other parties. However, Sinn Féin’s response was unacceptable, particularly as most of the challenges we face as a society were caused by campaigns of violence waged by republicans and others.
I once told Martin McGuinness that while I abhorred his previous actions, I was prepared to work with him, provided he acted constructively for the benefit of everyone in Northern Ireland and across this island.
Like many others, I was taking a pragmatic approach to forgiveness, which enabled me to do business with him, even though he always maintained the position that the IRA campaign of violence was justified.
Nothing was achieved through violence that could not otherwise have been achieved through peaceful means. At some stage, Sinn Féin will have to come to terms with that reality as well as get over its frustration that the police and the army prevented its movement from killing many more people and causing civil war.
The best achievable outcome for nationalists and republicans is to show they can work Northern Ireland so well that Irish unity becomes a viable proposition. Any less constructive strategy will only continue to hurt people, damage the economy, threaten more disorder and, as the use of violence in the past proved, make the likelihood of achieving their constitutional preference less likely .
The secretary of state should be pragmatic, as the government has been in the past, and call the parties together, in order to suggest that they agree to cancel an election which will waste everyone’s time and money. They should get back to dealing with all the issues that need to be resolved urgently, like the health service, the economy and the education system.
TREVOR RINGLAND
Holywood, Co Down
Principles of class struggle being compromised
Pronounced demands from the Irish left for abortion on demand now enjoy prominence both as policy and as a standard campaigning platform. Yet while forwarded as standard socialist doctrine, the position arguably risks compromising principles of class struggle in an important sense.
Two identifiable contradictions exist within the ostensibly titled pro-choice socialist position and it is only right that they are challenged by comrades of a differing perspective.
Marx recognised that ‘choice’ in capitalist society was a contested perspective – that what on the surface appear as ‘free actions’ are in fact often moulded by pressures emerging from unfavourable economic conditions.
No Marxist would recognise the independence of a workers’ choice to accept a detestable job, ignoring pressures that force marginalised people to make negative decisions, yet this fundamental class analysis is often simply abandoned when socialists debate choice around abortion.
Such was illustrated in November’s Northern edition of The Socialist, which dedicated its front page to demanding that Stormont adopt the 1967 Abortion Act, with zero mention made of the economic deprivation that shapes the ‘choice’ of many women.
Considering that this was not a one-off example, one must question if the restricted approach to highlighting state abandonment of pregnant women and mothers, represents a mere oversight or a refined means to prioritise calls for abortion on demand?
If the latter is so, then the left are engaging in an ideological retreat, under emphasising the negative role of capitalism to instead promote a selective concept of choice, probably contrary to basic Marxist doctrine, and denying a class analysis of women’s oppression itself.
Closely related is the refusal by many on the left to accept the legitimately held belief that abortion is by its nature a negative procedure.
One does not have to be a fundamental Christian, misogynist, priest or DUP minister, to subscribe to the basic philosophical position that the prevention of a developing life due to socio-economic pressures is questionable, perhaps tragic and fundamentally so.
CIARAN CUNNINGHAM
Socialist Republican, West Belfast
Uplifted by music of truly great artist
There has, over the past 50 years, been wonderful singer-songwriters to come out of Dublin to fill us with joy and resolve as we’ve grown up with them and it was such a privilege to see the great Christy Dignam of Aslan on The Tommy Tiernan Show on RTE. Even the name of his band is gentle and melodic.
Christy’s beautiful voice,and his very grounded attitudes to life, much of this brought about through adversity and illness, is inspirational and all he wishes for is for those he leaves behind – hopefully in a time far off – to be secure in certain ways, which he specified. I have no doubt his extremely wealthy contemporaries will have his best interests at heart and it is never too soon to let someone know they are loved and will be taken care of. George Michael will forever be remembered for his goodness, for example. Ireland and especially the young, have been constantly uplifted by the music and lyrics of this great artist and truth to tell the last time I sobbed was when we learned first of his very serious illness. But, as he says himself, the music goes on.
ROBERT SULLIVAN
Bantry, Co Cork
‘Scrap yard on the hill’
May I draw readers’ attention to a wee place, supported by honest taxpayers’ funding, that opened about a decade ago on our side of town.
It’s a Steptoe’s Yard for stuffed cats (dead of course), indoor elephants, unwanted barge poles, particularly the 40-foot type and the odd shibboleth. Also here you’ll find the puffed ego, the blind bat, the fisted-mind among other land stalkers that usually have a breeding cycle of four to five years. And after their cycle completes they enjoy an almost guaranteed reincarnation.
It’s an extraordinary place of rarefied atmosphere in which honest brokers might find it difficult to survive. To do so you would need a dehumiliator, the use of a patroniser and a condescender might help, and the surgical removal of that part where honesty resides. A conscience should be replaced by an adviser or two as recommended.
Now I think of it, it’s not so small, but quite big and white and best seen from the 20A or 23 bus. Extremely costly except to its friends.
N MEHARRY
Belfast BT4
Protecting Irish culture
Political parties that shout about the importance of Irish culture but then take the stance of wanting to remain in the EU, the Single Market and have open borders, flies in the face of protecting Irish culture and tradition.
Open borders is the slow death of Irish culture and tradition from free movement and multiculturalism. All cultures need representation in a democracy, therefore the government tool of enforced political correctness dampens cultural expression and free speech to appease and counteract potential/perceived offence, which eventually dilutes and diminishes each culture in parallel.
Where will Irish culture be when, as predicted by a Dublin City University professor recently, the Irish people will be an ethnic minority in the Republic by 2050, current trends continuing.
M CAIRNS
Belfast BT15
