Opinion

Tom Kelly: With two sides trapped in silos, we are facing a gloomy future

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

Seamus Mallon talked about the Balkanisation of the north. Picture by Mal McCann
Seamus Mallon talked about the Balkanisation of the north. Picture by Mal McCann Seamus Mallon talked about the Balkanisation of the north. Picture by Mal McCann

Christopher Moran, chairman of the peace building charity Cooperation Ireland, has a standard phrase in his speeches. It’s worth repeating. “These islands are small enough without making them any smaller.”

The stalled Northern Ireland political process and Brexit both have the potential to make our islands seem much smaller. In particular the two main traditions in Northern Ireland have been reduced to political silos. Within the respective silos issues are magnified and blown up beyond proportion. Neither side in a silo can see what’s inside the other silo. The result is that both sides become trapped in an edifice of their own creation. It's woefully disappointing and points to a gloomy future.

As someone who works in two parts of the media world, I am fully conscious of the responsibility to make informed comment. There’s little point in creating hyped commentary, being deliberately inflammatory, loose with language or blindly following a propaganda line from one’s own tradition. If as a writer one cannot challenge one’s own prejudices, there’s little chance of having any credibility in challenging anyone else’s.

Sometimes certain columnists and commentators feel the need to feed the herd mentality within the silos and therefore those who produce our media can often fail in their responsibilities to contribute to understanding or rapprochement within Northern Ireland and between the two traditions.

There is a mistaken belief amongst certain sections of the media that giving equal time to the loudest voices of discord from each side fulfils their responsibility to create balance. It most certainly does not. It’s the very fuel that fires up, ignites and inflames opinions. There is no comprehension or listening taking place. That’s a missed opportunity for both our society and for those working in the media.

Seamus Mallon talks a lot about the Balkanisation of the north. He is of course correct. One part of that is down to demographic changes but the other is the course of our political narrative. Mallon often gets slated for his comments. To admit to Balkanisation is like the love that dare not speak its name. Deep down though, we know that the curmudgeonly Mallon is right and that makes many people uncomfortable.

Of late there seems to be a growing misunderstanding between the concept of difference and that of division. All societies are built on differences, but those differences don’t have to result in unbreachable divisions. But here in Northern Ireland they do.

The late Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley appeared at a personal level to understand that differences didn’t have to mean division. Politically speaking their respective tribes were built on maintaining division – separate but ‘equal-ish’ governance. Institutionalised apartheid is too strong to describe the consequences of Sinn Féin and DUP administration but there would appear to have been an unofficial policy of ‘turning a blind-eye’ to the ministerial foibles of the other side. Over the years some DUP ministers opted for a wiping your eye policy over turning a blind eye towards their Sinn Féin counterparts.

The recent comments by Arlene Foster to Paddy Kielty in an interview have attracted much derision. It’s somewhat unfair as Foster gave an honest answer to a direct question about where she would live if a united Ireland came about.

We don’t often get candour from our politicians. Foster’s comments that she may leave is an indictment on those of us from within the nationalist tradition, as it's proof as if proof was needed that there has been an abject failure by all shades across the nationalist spectrum to make a united Ireland appealing or inclusive enough for unionists to share this piece of earth. That failure is in part due to our inability to see beyond the limits of our self-created silo.

The knee jerk commentary from the ostriches in the DUP and TUV that a united Ireland would never happen should have attracted the derision directed at Foster.

Peter Robinson, the former leader of the DUP seems to be one of the few unionist leaders capable of seeing that the demographics are against the future of Northern Ireland remaining within the UK – unless Catholics can be persuaded to vote to remain.

The centenary celebrations planned to mark the creation of Northern Ireland are likely to be quite muted. Nationalists won’t be celebrating a Balkan-like British solution that left them on the wrong side of the border.

As Northern Ireland drifts towards an uncertain future because of our divisions, the risk of becoming smaller is ever more real.