Whatever the legal interpretations of the Good Friday Agreement and its different strands there was a clear understanding that the three relationships – between people in the north, between north and south and between Ireland and Britain – was in urgent need of remedial action.
To that end there can be no doubt that enormous efforts have been made to address the relationships between the Republic and Britain and we can all remember the queen coming to Dublin, speaking Irish and laying wreaths to acknowledge the sacrifices of people in the past.
Sadly there has not been the same energy placed on building relationships in the north and even now in this political crisis there is hardly a syllable uttered about that element of the Good Friday Agreement which is to promote peace and reconciliation between our people, many of them living on opposite sides of so-called peace walls which have got higher and higher since 1998.
The Civic Forum which was intended to give the wider community input into the political activity at Stormont has been well and truly buried and as savage cuts bite into government services the PSNI no longer has the resources needed to build a truly community-based policing service.
The key aim of the Good Friday Agreement has been well and truly sidelined as two political parties grab the headlines to promote their own self-importance and differences. The work begun by John Hume and other courageous political, community and indeed religious leaders of the past has been swept aside.
The fundamental need to fund genuine peace work is not being addressed and has been sadly neglected, particularly in the last 10 years and that is very worrying because there is an old Irish saying: Ní hé lá gaoithe lá na scoilb, which translated into English reads ‘The day of the big wind is no time to be doing thatching’.
Too few are doing the thatching to help prevent the day when another generation could – God grant not – repeat the mistakes of the past and plunge this country into another campaign of needless violence.
The big prize is not the demands of two political parties, full of self-importance, but the long-term need to reconcile our people, torn apart by bad politics and a refusal to address the need to reconcile the mistakes of the past.
That can best be done when this assembly is functioning as it was intended as a genuine response to putting right the injustices of the past and promoting trust and harmony among people divided by division all of which was so unfortunate but surely worthy of not repeating in the future.
JOHN DALLAT MLA
SDLP, East Derry
‘Red liners’ have no interest in making a better society
Recent commentaries blame everyone but ourselves for the parlous mess that Northern Ireland is in.
We serially vote for the parties who represent and play upon sectarianism. Because people vote for the extreme parties does not mean that they support those parties on all their policies on contentious issues, as those in leadership seem to claim.
I know several people who do not support a party’s position on abortion, border poll, energy from waste etc, but vote for that party .
The main parties use lazy arguments, blaming others for austerity and for an under performing series of public services. How much of taxpayers’ money is wasted by our local people, be they elected representatives or others? How much criminality, be it white collar, street crime, smuggling or other fiddling must our politicians accept before they start to demand a clampdown ?
The mantra of ‘local government, local responsibility is good’, is not being demonstrated here.
It is said that the point of politicians is to make progress for all the community, making compromises and uncomfortable decisions where necessary.
The fatuousness of having ‘red lines’ is a sign that the “red liner” has no real interest in making a better society.
Our readiness to strenuously object to any new or different idea just holds back any normal development and growth of our community.
As a former Alliance councillor in Belfast, I was privileged to try to make Belfast and Northern Ireland a better place for everyone by making the hard contentious decisions from which others ran away.
Interestingly, many of the hard decisions now seem remarkably ordinary.
TOM EKIN
Belfast BT7
Derry has a properly paid jobs famine
A schism between two groups is a deep, bitter, near irreconcilable split which can last a long time.
The bitter argument between Sinn Féin and the DUP over an Irish Language Act is now hardening into a schism. So we will likely have direct rule by Halloween.
If so it’s of the utmost importance that Theresa May appoints a minister for Derry whose main job would be generating properly paid jobs generated by overseas companies.
In raw language using power to solve Derry’s properly paid jobs famine.
And we have a striking example of how ministerial power can develop a slowly dying city – Liverpool. Back in the 1980s Margaret Thatcher sent Tory heavyweight Michael Heseltine to Liverpool. His brief – regenerate the slowly dying city of Liverpool.
The result – ‘unfathomable success’ particularly in the generation of properly paid jobs.
Heseltine became known as the minister for Liverpool. So, why not a minister for Derry city (MfDC) with a brief similar to Heseltine’s.
And one of the first questions the new MfDC will ask is why in the last six months Belfast got three new US companies generating over 400 properly paid jobs compared to none for Derry?
TOM BRADLEY
Derry city
Maurice Fitzgerald should take up residence in north
You have to feel sorry for the real (Kerry) Maurice Fitzgerald, having to share a name with the Cork branch of the TUV.
In the 2016 UN Human Development Report (which lists the best countries in the world to live in), Norway as usual tops the poll, Ireland is at number eight and the UK is at number 16. But sure what would the UN know?
Had they only bothered to ask Sir Maurice, they’d have realised Ireland is in fact a “nightmare failed state which has nothing to offer”.
Can The Irish News organise a whip-round? For all our sakes we need to get this man fixed up with refugee status, lifetime membership of the TUV, an RTÉ signal-blocker, a subscription to Fox News, a place on the Radio Ulster accent-correction programme and a semi-d in sunny Larne.
Alternatively, Maurice is Sammy Wilson understudying Kevin McAleer and I claim my £10.
SEAN MacCANN
Trillick, Co Tyrone
Expression of thanks
Barnardo’s Northern Ireland is grateful to the generous people of south Belfast who contributed £431 to our street collection which was held on Wednesday June 7 between the hours 8am and 5pm.
The money collected will be used locally in Northern Ireland to support our work with children, young people and families.
ANNE DAWSON
Barnardo’s NI
