N.Ireland - Behind the smokescreen

Even by Northern Ireland’s standards this has been a dreadful week for the province and for defenders of the peace process. The dispute over access to Holy Cross primary school in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast is, however - for all its squalid, distressing and unpleasant nature - essentially and comparatively trivial in itself. Its significance lies not in the actions of an ugly Loyalist mob but in the windows it opens into the hearts and minds of Republicans and Unionists alike. It is a symptom, not the cause, of the paralysis in the peace process.

North Belfast has been the scene for one sixth of the 3,000 deaths during the Troubles. In that time it has witnessed significant demographic changes. Once staunchly Protestant areas have become Nationalist (or Republican) strongholds. No wonder Loyalists, as they do in Derry, feel themselves under siege. They find themselves in the same position as Catholics did in the years before the Troubles broke out - oppressed, fearful, intimidated and misunderstood. That doesn’t remotely justify the hysteria and ugliness of the past week, but it helps explain the mindset capable of producing such bilious fury. Loyalism is swimming against the tide of history and, predictably, getting nowhere. And sympathy for Unionism’s predicament is thin on the ground.

Nonetheless those commentators who have been willing to compare the situation in the Ardoyne with the bussing in of black schoolchildren in Alabama in the 1960s are, whether they realise it or not, endorsing the Republicans’ agenda. Such comparisons are grotesque. Only credulous fools can believe in them. Victimhood in Ulster is not, as it was in the southern US, a one-way street.

Republicans have always attempted to ally themselves with history’s underdogs. For years they proclaimed themselves the Irish ANC and called for a ‘Unionist de Klerk’ to appear. Well, when such a man did appear in the shape of David Trimble, Sinn Fein has done everything in its power to undermine and isolate him. Despite the strides towards decency Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have made, we might fairly ask: where is the Republican Nelson Mandela?

Trimble has recognised the sins of his Unionist predecessors. In his Nobel acceptance speech he said: "Ulster Unionists, fearful of being isolated on the island, built a solid house, but it was a cold house for Catholics. And northern Nationalists, although they had a roof over their heads, seemed to us as if they meant to burn the house down. None of us are entirely innocent." Neither Adams nor McGuinness has made as public or generous an acknowledgement of their shared responsibility for the conflict. Similarly, Billy Hutchinson told reporters this week: "I’m ashamed to say I’m a Loyalist." When, despite the continuing round of beatings and banishments on Republican controlled estates, has any Republican expressed similar sentiments without qualification?

But generosity and compromise are not high on Sinn Fein’s agenda. The party pays lip service to democracy but has no discernible intention of delivering its side of the Good Friday agreement bargain. Ever since that admittedly momentous shift in the public face of Republicanism, Sinn Fein has privately stalled and prevaricated, doing everything in its power to provoke the more cloddish elements of Loyalism into pulling down the agreement themselves, allowing Republicans to play the Padraig Pearse card - that of the noble martyr. Unionists have seen their old assumptions turned upside down in pursuit of a compromise from Republicans that has not come. It takes two to break bread.

Decommissioning is difficult for the IRA, but the release of prisoners and the Patten reforms of the RUC are difficult for Unionism. The Provisionals’ recent offer to move on the arms issue was deliberately insubstantial. The suspicion must be that they hoped Unionists would, as they did, refuse the ‘offer’, ensuring that John Reid would then call fresh elections in which Sinn Fein would be sure to prosper. Reid, commendably, has so far refused to do so.

The Republican movement resembles a spoilt child who will only play the game if they can do so by their own set of rules. No wonder politicians in London, Dublin and Washington alike are losing patience. The future, however, does not hold out much hope. Sinn Fein currently holds a single seat in the Dail but seems likely to win as many as six seats in next year’s elections. Should that happen, Fianna Fail may be dependent upon Sinn Fein support to form a government. Such a development would be akin to inviting a burglar into your house since Sinn Fein seeks to destroy the Republic as surely as it does Northern Ireland. St Patrick did not banish every snake from Ireland’s four green fields.

Just because Sinn Fein have a masterful understanding of media manipulation and propaganda should not blind us to the essential truth of the stalled peace process: namely, that the overwhelming responsibility for that state of affairs lies with the Republican movement.

The Battle for Holy Cross Primary has laid a smokescreen across that truth, but in time the smoke of battle will clear and the truth will reappear.