High Political Stakes

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis

Monday January 24, 2005 02:32

by Kevin Walsh

Reflection......Priorities.....Values......

The Peace Process.........

High Political Stakes

Three years ago, the Ulster Unionist party pulled the plug on the North of Ireland Peace Process. Trimble spoke of his impatience with the Republican movement's failure to complete the Transition to Democracy. In reality, Trimble ensured his political survival only at the price of capitulation to his hard-line internal opponents (Donaldson).

The Unionist position which sounded almost reasonable at the time was in fact absurd. It sought to block any political progress until such time as the members of the UUP decide they are satisfied with the behavior of Sinn Fein and the IRA. Trimble knew at this time, he hadn't a hope in leading UUP dissidents like Geoffrey Donaldson (now DUP) and David Burnside who are totally unhappy with having to sit down with Republicans. Trimble sought assurances that IRA violence would be at an end. Donaldson at the time insisted on disarmament and disbandment. On an RTE radio show during that time, he stated the IRA must 'Disappear'. In the last few weeks, we have had the so-called bank heist and we have had Hugh Orde as Judge and Jury pointing a finger without a shred of evidence.

Back in the real world, the IRA will only finally disappear when the injustices that engender support for its campaign are addressed. This of course, is precisely the process that got underway with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement which Messrs. Trimble, Donaldson, Burnside and now Paisley wish to arrest and destroy. Before Christmas we had a fiasco of the polaroid camera. Any Irishman or woman knew in their heart and soul knew that the DUP were not up for any agreement and the insults flowed from Paisley (.....'Sackcloth and Ashes'....). It is now commonly believed that it is political suicide for any Unionist to go into an election campaign while in Government with Sinn Fein. Isn't the timing very eerie? The DUP stance represents an attempt to find the escape hatch.

The demand for IRA disbandment was not made in the hope that Republicans would see to it but in the certainty that they would not. The even graver danger now lies in the comments of our own Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern and Minister Michael McDowell who have taken the word solely from Hugh Orde that the IRA were responsible for the Northern Ireland bank robbery. Our Taoiseach went even beyond Hugh Orde's statement, by saying he sat down with Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness and he believed they had to have had knowledge of a robbery that was being planned. That is a very silly comment to make by a very astute politician, Bertie Ahern. Nothing shocks me about McDowell or what he says. I don't wish to comment on a man who insults my intelligence. I now believe, to avoid a vacuum, hard talking this week and common sense must prevail in the plugging the Peace Process back in.

Kevin Walsh (By the way, for the last 7 Sundays, I have been reading Ireland on Sunday). Who is this Martin Cullen guy - am I missing something here. Is he the guy that featured on Bull Island a couple of years ago? What I read is total fantasy but people tell me its true. Sadly, to be more serious on this issue, the Irish people have lost their sense of outrage and shame in relation to taxpayers money).