An Saoránach

Barry Magee is a native of Co. Down. He is a Law Graduate from Queens University Belfast and has been involved  in Northern Irish, EU and US Politics for a number of years.  This is the second part of an article  about growing up as a Republican in the North over the past 25 years and what he feels needs to be done to achieve Irish Unity in the future

Following on from my earlier post regarding the growing up in the North during the Troubles, I would like to now discuss how we can actually progress the type of change that we want – and create a new, agreed and united Ireland.

This is a difficult one when one considers the current lie of the political landscape in the North. There is widespread inertia and this is typified by leadership failures at the very top of the political establishment between the Sinn Fein and the DUP.

This inertia is in truth a basic result of the St Andrews Agreement. This agreement created a form of balkanised “Government” in the North. It is not really a Government in the conventional sense, one that makes decisions and has a distinct presence of accountability. It is a “Government” of nobody and everybody at the same time. There is a clear lack of accountability for decision-making and it is a Government that has become synonymous with constant, almost perpetual, grid-lock and political inertia.

Considering the inability of the Assembly to properly legislate and the inability of higher echelons of the Executive to provide leadership it is a Government that does not really govern. As a result many people may begin to question the ability of the Stormont institutions to act as a proper vehicle to deliver sound and credible devolution and question whether Stormont is capable of delivering the goal of all-Ireland state.

In reality the institution stagnation is a result of the diametrical and conflicting nature of both the DUP and SF and reflects the institutionalizing of this conflict. This direct opposition only serves to perpetuate sectarian animosity and undermines any semblance of a shared society that exists. The fact that the two parties cannot even agree on a Shared Future strategy compounds this argument. This makes the prospect of a united Ireland look distinctly “pie-in-the-sky”. If political parties can’t even agree on how to live together in peace, then how exactly could they agree on something as outlandishly contentious as creating a united Ireland?

I believe that the problems with the current political dispensation are not only reflective of the composition of the mainstream political establishment in the North; they are inherently institutional. There is simply too much power concentrated in OFMDFM currently between what are confrontational and diametrically opposed parties in the DUP and SF.

Institutional reform is realistically an option if the circumstances dictate, and the current stalemate over the devolution of policing and justice may even prove to be that, but a change of political personnel is a dynamic that may not be so easily achieved. The DUP-SF mutual “love-in” has been so far electorally successful for both parties, despite the TUV giving the DUP a bloody nose at the European Parliamentary elections in June. While nothing continues to get done and the Executive workload begins(!) to drift, the DUP and SF continue to feed off their mutual blame and opposition to each other.

When republicans consider these difficult realities, a united Ireland sometimes seems like not only distant but an unachievable and hopeless goal. Not only is the leading party of Northern republicanism complicit in continuing to undermining public confidence in the devolved institutions but they have also entrenched and antagonised unionism, thus putting off the prospect of a united Ireland even further.

So who else should republicans look to for leadership? The SDLP are a party of leadership, but currently it is vastly outnumbered in the NI Executive and has a limited political voice due to the unhealthy weighting of power, at the hands of the DUP and SF, within OFMDFM. While the SDLP enjoy good relations with all parties in the South, SF has a long way to go in terms of being recognised as a major all-Ireland political force.

With virtually no influence in the South, SF seems unable to shake of the mantle of being a “northern party”. Couple this “northern party” label of SF with considerable opposition towards them in the North and it seems SF do not offer a viable vehicle to achieve a united Ireland. The monopoly on all-Ireland politics that SF currently enjoys is extremely unhealthy for both the political development of the North and for the overall all-Ireland project. I believe that this monopoly is also unhealthy for republicanism.

Firstly SF’s connections to violence will always undermine their ability to generate unionist consensus behind a united Ireland. Simply put SF will never deliver a united Ireland on their terms. This is due to the simple fact that their role in the troubles has meant that unionist do not trust them. Although this may seem like a paradox but a united Ireland will never be achieved without unionist support and any major advocate of all-Ireland realignment must be capable of gaining their trust. SF undoubtedly fails in this crucial task.

Secondly, SF negotiators at St Andrews failed republicanism with the deal that they struck with the DUP and British Government. SF gifted the DUP a perpetual veto for themselves and republicans have been living with the consequences ever since: DUP torpedoed the Irish Language Act, blocked SF’s education proposals, DUP continue to block the devolution of policing and justice powers and, frankly, there is a litany of other examples. The triple-lock veto given to the DUP by SF at St Andrews represented a sell-out and has allowed the DUP to dictate the agenda and call the shots.

One must ask whether allowing this DUP veto was either incompetence on the behalf of SF negotiators or in fact an ingenious but cynical strategic ploy, knowing that giving the DUP would be like giving a hunting rifle to Sarah Palin. A DUP veto would enable SF to play the blame game. This victimhood is the very essence of where SF draws it’s political power. Here we delve into the murky realms of SF political thought where SF cannot survive unless they can accuse unionism of oppression. Neither the DUP nor SF would be so powerful if it was not for the existence of the other: they both represent a rather perverse case of mutually dependent existentialism.

What we now have is a high-stakes political blame game between the DUP and SF. This is being pursued by each party for self-centred electoral purposes while the grid-lock threatens the very essence of the peace process, the stability and credibility of the structures in which the peace process is institutionalised and the very health of the political progress that has been made.

Thirdly, SF has displayed an inability or unwillingness to compromise and work with other parties, including their green counterparts in the SDLP. In the devolution of policing and justice debate SF have been complicit in attempting to exclude their fellow republicans in the SDLP and have attempted to deny them their democratic claims to a future policing and justice ministry. This is an unacceptable. Cooperation is also a fundamental principle of power-sharing government and their inability and unwillingness to compromise on the transfer debacle has not only created chaos in the education system but has shown SF to be incapable of being a party of leadership. The strangle-hold that SF currently exerts over republican politics in the North must be broken.

In my opinion for this to happen there must be all-Ireland political realignment involving other parties, North and South. Fianna Fail’s recent decision to organise in the North is something that should be welcomed by all republicans. This decision should not become dialectic or be about conflicting ideological issues between the various strands of republicanism, such as an argument about left or right. Republicans must look to the bigger picture: it’s about what is right and what is wrong in terms of the struggle for united-Ireland and a realignment of politics, potentially prompted by a move North by FF, will be simultaneously beneficial to the political health of the North and the republican struggle in the long-term.

Both the SDLP and SF have publically recognised this fact. They too know that all-Ireland political realignment will further advance republican goals. While each of these parties may have their respective concerns about the electoral ambitions of FF, whether FF will pose an electoral threat to these parties remains to be seen and is a discussion for another day.

The participation of another all-Ireland party within the realm of Northern politics is a development which must be accepted as an inevitable reality on the road to normalising the North and in the future create a united Ireland. Unity will not happen unless those who support it have political influence. Those driving the process forward must have influence in government in both the North and South. But it is imperative that FF, should they finally decide to contest elections in the North, operate on the basis that strengthening the republican agenda across the island of Ireland will involve cooperating with other republican parties already established here and seek to explore ways through which they can collaborate.

Even with this realignment, a united Ireland will not happen overnight. In order to bring that reality closer we must break down this cycle of deadlock in the North and make REAL power-sharing work. Republicans must also pay attention to the unionist community; a united Ireland can only happen with them on board. We must stay true to the consent principle and begin a process of engaging the unionist community in discussions about a united Ireland. This must be done by developing practical arguments for unity, and identifying the socio-economic benefits that it will bring to the table.

Another substantial issue will be dealing effectively with the legacy of the past. This is a major issue for me and one which the SF-DUP axis have failed to show proper leadership upon, instead preferring to degenerate this narrative into a zero-sum, sectarian game. There must be a proper, balanced and thorough process of reconciliation and truth that addresses the legacy of the past and all those involved.

There are many questions that will remain unanswered for the time being, including practical governance issues with unity including the implications for public finances, etc. These difficult issues are for a time in the future when a united Ireland is a more realistic prospect and when a much more serious debate can be instigated. Let’s just take one step at a time.