Last week I listened to Allison Morris and Alex Kane talking with genuine concern over the general situation and political stalemate in Northern Ireland. They had fears that things were getting just as bad if not worse than in the years of the Troubles.
I have to say I echo these concerns when I read nearly everyday, since the untimely death of Lyra McKee, of bombs, explosions, attempted murders and ugly scenes at a number of community events. It does make me wonder what was all the talking, negotiations and attempts at reviving the assembly for. I do feel that we have squandered all the good work that was done to achieve peace and stability for all the people of Northern Ireland.
Allison Morris was quite right when she said: “I believe that the will has gone” and this was shown vividly in the interview on television with DUP leader Arlene Foster and Sinn Féin MP for Fermanagh South Tyrone, Michelle Gildernew, where they were obviously uncomfortable in each other’s presence.
Where does that leave the people of Northern Ireland?
Without leadership, without democratic government and largely without rights of any description to be able to progress in their daily lives.
When I held the privileged position of Speaker of the Transitional Assembly I had many talks and discussions with the two leaders of the main parties, the same parties of leadership today,
I saw how they thought and had deliberated on what they needed to do to bring peace to the whole country. I was able to see how they progressed their opinions when they were at St Andrews for the formal talks but they were also very aware that we all had suffered enough and they had to show leadership, not just in talk but in action.
Every one in Northern Ireland or mostly everyone felt hopeful when we passed the Good Friday Agreement and achieved an assembly and subsequently full devolution after the work of Dr Ian Paisley and Martin Mc Guinness.
May I ask the leadership of the two main parties to activate some good will and work towards a goal that includes not only your own party ambitions but for the lasting benefit of all the electorate who will show their support for your actions and we will all benefit.
EILEEN BELL
Belfast
A Brexit which hardens the border will be a huge backward step
The day of this useless, pointless border imposed by force and sustained by bigotry is coming to an end. The Brexit process which is hastening it unfortunately at the same time threatens to revive forms of segregation and separation that we thought were part of the past.
A Brexit which hardens the border will be a huge step backwards. It will intensify political emotions, sap everyone’s prosperity, save the smugglers and erode the processes of reconciliation. The recent step-up in dissident republican violence may not be directly related to Brexit threats but there is no question it will feed off it.
In the absence of a functioning Stormont, and given the major party stand-off, the seeming inability of either Dublin or London to do anything useful, now is the time for the somnolent centre of northern politics to wake up and for political moderates to take the initiative. Something like a mark two peace process is called for.
This could take the form of a people’s forum made up of community leaders, business people and political experts working to an open agenda. Key consideration, however, should be given to the concept of a federative Ireland. The benefits of such a constitutional arrangement that would provide loyalist intransigents and those wedded to the idea an immediate 32-county republic with a half-way house are obvious.
The danger of course, will be of just another talking shop, so if focus and outcome are to be secured a small spearhead executive is needed to drive the process forward. Wringing hands and complaining about Sinn Fein/DUP obduracy gets us nowhere.
Political drift is an ever increasing danger, for politics abhors a vacuum. Paraphrasing our greatest political philosopher, Edmund Burke – evil prospers when good men do nothing. Now is the tiime for actiion. The border referendum for which pace is gathering needs to be prefaced by this kind of coming together and meeting of minds.
Seamus Mallon in his recent book argued sensitively as to the need for consensus. So let’s get on with building it rather than just waiting for crude demographics to produce an outcome for which too many are still not ready.
TP McNEILL
Cushendun, Co Antrim
Indefatigable defence of a dead language
If Ulster Scots Agency CEO Ian Crozier is to take away any positives from his indefatigable defence of a dead Ulster Scots language (July 25) it must be his predecessor’s decision all those years ago to engage a fluent speaker to write and read proper Ulster Scots, especially at their beloved Burns concert.
Having allowed Ulster Scots dialect to become extinct might this be a good time to change the agency’s name to the Belfast Burns Society? It is a bit rich for him to suggest that I was not affronted when accepting the agency’s meagre increment for my work. An undignified experience is how it might be described but I had accepted that I was never going to be a big beneficiary from the agency’s exorbitant £2.3m grant, after all I was not a marching band.
As for these claims by CEO Crozier about the large numbers attending his Burns concert, the Ulster Orchestra and a well-known singer will fill a hall anywhere. They are the reason the Titanic is a sell out, not the Ulster Scots language, without them an Ulster Scots language-only concert would not attract too many.
CEO Ian Crozier may have his own agenda for insisting that the Ulster Scots language/ dialect is not dead. For his information I have no agenda political or otherwise. Nor do I need one.
WILSON BURGESS
Derry City
No more common sense
My mum always said: “You can take a horse to the water, but you can’t make it drink.”
My solution to the conundrum posed by Brexit is to replace the Union with a United States of Britain – where Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales are nations in their own right. Also, that United States of Britain should incorporate Dublin as that city has become British in all but name. Then allow Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Dublin their own individual referendum on EU membership. Also, make language policy voluntary rather than state-run – so it will be determined by consent rather than political expediency.
The whole argument underlines the lack of willingness to compromise. The two sides don’t even respect each other. Instead, they mock, insult, ridicule and humour their rivals.
The whole lot aren’t wise.
DESMOND DEVLIN
Ardboe, Co Tyrone
