Peace in Northern Ireland, To find a political solution

 

On Friday Northern Ireland celebrated the 25^th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. 

Democracy or anarchy

 

Civil Rights protest 1968 which began the Troubles

Bloody Sunday 1972

 

The Hunger Strikes – 1981

Drew attention worldwide, Bobby Sands elected MP and died.

 

Security commission set up. concerns in Dublin of riots and violence in Dublin. The Taoiseach held talks with Margaret Thatcher in 1985. The Republic would give up claims to northern Ireland, if they had a consultative role in Joint authority/ administration. Anglo /irish secretary set up Belfast and inter-governmental conference.

**Anglo Irish Agreement 1985 

Consultative role policing. The consent principle – no unity without majority support. 

 

Ulster freedom fighters. Gaddafi sent weapons, he was against colonization. 

Enniskillen bombing

SAS men killed IRA men. But the war could not be won.

Bomb undermining success at the ballot box, no military solution. 

 

Father Alex Reid wrote to John Hume – leader of the SDLP, to talk with Sinn Fein.

 

“I’m about Dialogue – the seed of peace process”

 

People don’t support violence, reasons no longer existed. British to declare their neutrality. Politically neutral, a way of getting out. Change in British position.

 

“Secretary of state for northern Ireland, state not there for colonial reasons - “The British government has no selfish security or economic interest in northern Ireland. “

 

The agreement reached was that Northern Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, and would remain so until a majority of the people both of Northern Ireland and of the Republic of Ireland wished otherwise.

 

Bridges can be built -Take the time, Keep our minds and heart open

Travelling is about asking questions rather than finding answers – people as partners. 

Centenary Northern Ireland: Old black & white photo

 

In April it will be the first centenary of Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland consists of the six counties - 

County Down, County Armagh, County Fermanagh, County Londonderry, County Tyrone.

While the rest of Ireland is the Free State of 26 counties. 

 

Northern Ireland did have a Protestant majority, as there is now a balance equally between Catholic and Protestant. My parents were Ulster unionists and I grew up over in Edinburgh Scotland and visited Ireland in the summers growing up. I have mixed views and during the Brexit debates I couldn’t believe that the English debates never gave any thought to what on earth might happen in Ireland. So much time and effort went into establishing peace with the Good Friday agreement. So much wasted time on this ill-advised Brexit. 

 

I remember the nightly news during the Troubles of bombings, murders or knee cappings. I felt angry that Brexiteers gave no thought to these issues. The troubles began with peaceful protests by Catholics of decent housing. Especially as I still have no understanding of why or what Brexit is about – except saving the Tory party and avoiding the new EU regulations for tax avoiders. Or was it about saving Englanders view of themselves. 

 In 1921 the first Prime minster of Northern Ireland Stormont assembly was Viscount Craig

 

**The Captain of his Football team

Recently I discovered an old black and white photo of my fathers’ father – my granddad – who was captain of his Irish football team. And also a letter from my father to my son dated 1986, when he wrote this treasured photo was from 75 years ago. This photo was taken in 1911– 100 years ago. He played football for the Ards team and won caps by playing for the Ireland team.

Ards Football Team 1912

 

I realised then this photo was before partition and before the Troubles that followed. 

I remember visiting Northern Ireland when there were long road blocks and helicopters hovering over head. Scary times. 

 

Northern Ireland is divided into six counties, namely: 

County Down, County Armagh, County Fermanagh, County Londonderry, County Tyrone.

Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone.

As well as "Ireland", "Éire" or "the Republic of Ireland", the state is also referred to as "the Republic", "Southern Ireland" or "the South". In an Irish republican context it is often referred to as "the Free State" or "the 26 Counties".

 

 Ireland / Eire

also known as the Republic of Ireland (Poblacht na hÉireann), is a country in north-western Europe occupying 26 of 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, which is located on the eastern side of the island. Around 40% of the country's population of 4.9 million people resides in the Greater Dublin Area.The sovereign state shares its only land border with Northern Irelandwhich is part of the United Kingdom.

Stormont

**Northern Ireland Centenary 

Its the centenary for Northern Ireland in May, so it’s a time to reflect and consider the benefits and drawbacks. When Northern Ireland was set up the Protestants has a clear majority there, but not anymore. So the loyalist community feel under threat and not protected by the British empire as they once did.

 

There is existential crisis going on across the British Isles - in Scotland and in Northern Ireland is under strain and something has to give. The loyalists there feel more British than many in London, but find themselves cut off from the mainland by Boris Johnson, false lies and his Northern Ireland protocol erecting a border Irish Sea.

 

The hard Brexit has caused so many problems – for Ireland, for fishing, for farmers, for exports, for immigration and for Scotland. Brexit is a disaster for Scotland – loss of immigration, 40% loss of trade. For businesses in Northern Ireland, its cheaper and easier to deal directly with the EU deliveries, so many are going to consider what’s the point of the present situation. Trying to bring Catholics and Protestant children together in schools worked when we were all in the level playing fields of the EU single market.

 

The only solution that I can realistically see, is a return to the EU single market – that Scotland has been pushing for. Since 2016, this ill advised Brexit has been a disaster – who actually benefits from it? So far I’ve found no answer to this question (except those with offshore tax funds) If Brexit is about English Nationalism, then its time for English independence – and its well past time for a new constitution.

 

The Loyalists feel let down by all sides. and ignored in all this. The Tories try to claim this is all about the EU being too strict over the border. The trouble is the British empire no longer exists. The problems Northern Ireland are not only sectarian, they run very deep. Protestants in Northern Ireland feel more British than  many in London and fly union jacks constantly. Its an existential crisis made much worse by this ill advised Brexit. Those in London never considered the dramatic effect Brexit would have on Ireland or Scotland. Brexit makes a united Ireland more likely for instance, for both trade and business reasons.

Lack of History teaching.

 

Today, in Germany children are taught over and over how easily evil dictatorship can take over, to protect and ensure this is never repeated. Its a sad state of affairs that History is sidelined in UK schools and often hardly taught at all. We are taught of the Tudors but nothing of more recent and crucially important histories of Empire and imperialism.

However Boris is on a mission to reclaim the glories of Rule Britannia on the ocean. But this past is well and truly gone: most of the empire are now independent nations since the great wars.

 

Story of Northern Ireland

Several Gaelic kingdoms, 16^th century Ulster most resistant to English control (1596 – 1603).  Norman Irish Lords

The Pale, around Dublin controlled by the English. 

Henry VIII, Tudor English king, declared himself King of Ireland in 1542.

 

The Plantation of Northern Ireland began under the Tudors, and Elizabeth and continued under James Stewart, after union of the crowns 1603.

Flight of the Earls. Ulster Irish Lords O'Neills, after defeat fled to Europe. Lands confiscated crown and colonized by British Ulster Protestants. The War of Three Kingdoms ended English Parliament.

 

Conquest ensured Anglican Protestant rule. 

Williamnite – Jacobite war 1688-90 – Siege Derry, and Battle of the Boyne. 

Scots migrated to Ulster due to Scots famine. There was Institutional discrimination with Penal laws to disadvantage Catholics and Presbyterianism. 

 

250K Ulster Presbyterians emigrated to America and now there is 27m Scotch-Irish Americans and Scotch-Irish Canadians.

1700s there was secret militant socialites.

1801 – United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland formed, governed from London. Pushed for 2 kingdoms to merge to quell sectarianism, remove discriminatory laws and to prevent spread of French republicanism and reform for democracy.

 

Late 19^th century, Irish nationalists MPs, Westminster committed the Liberal party, to Irish home rule, first bill defeated, third home rule introduced, suspended by first world war. Conservatives opposed and threatened violence – 1914 weapons smuggled from Germany: By UVF to oppose Rome rule for Ireland. 

 

Easter Rising 1916 – full independence rather than Home rule. Irish Convention 1917-18

British Lloyd George proposed Home rule.

Fourth home rule to divide Ireland passed May 1921, with creation of Northern Ireland. 

26 counties Dublin/ 6 countries Belfast

 

Peace maker John Hume 1937 - 2020

 Hume died August 2020

‘Until you agree on the problem you can’t agree the solution.’ 

 ‘This piece of earth, our divided people.’

‘He made hope and history rhyme, ‘Seamus Heaney.

He was instrumental in the Irish peace process, and won 3 peace awards – The Nobel Peace prize, the Martin Luther king peace prize and the Ghandi peace award. He will be remembered with other peace makers.

He paved the foundations for the peace and the Good Friday agreement, signed in April 1998 and agreed on by two referendums in May1998, which ended the 30 years of the Troubles (1960s – 1990s) Issues relating to sovereignty, civil, and cultural rights, decommissioning of weapons, demilitarisation, justice and policing were central to the agreement.

There are some visionaries who can see the bigger picture, join up the dots and offer new stories and hopes. John Hume was one. 
My parents were Ulster unionists and I remember well the despair and dreadful violence and indiscriminate killings every day on the news during the troubles. It was a scary time. I remember visiting my family in northern Ireland as a child and returning when I was older when there were army roadblocks and helicopters circling over head. And each day there were more killings. 

Hume saw past all that – past the old sectarian hatreds and divides. 

In the 1980s Hume gave speeches at universities around northern Ireland: at Queens university students union when he would say – 

‘I’m here to make the single transferrable speech.’

The place was packed, and Hume was heckled by both nationalists and unionists. He always had an answer though  ‘This is not a history lesson,' he’d say.’

‘Foxes and hedgehogs know one big thing, we are all different. Diversity is to be celebrated. How does that threaten anyone?’ 

‘You can’t eat a flag.’

On human dignity – ‘An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.’

‘Spill sweat not blood.’

 ‘It not our land, its our people.’

He played better outside than inside the inward-looking, insular Northern Ireland and he knew it was more important to get the message out abroad. He spoke with US President Bill Clinton, about the political process rather than the military one. 

He got both Paisley and Thatcher to agree, he changed minds - and to see Northern Ireland not as an occupied territory, but as one day liberated. 

He asked the UK government, for civil rights and equality, how could they refuse?

It was his peace solution based on the European Union – The European Parliament, the European Commission and European Council. 

John Hume’s speech at the EU Parliament Strasburg – He speaks of the EU’s philosophy of peace and to respect difference. He asks that the EU should send not arms but their philosophy of peace to places of conflict. All conflicts is about seeing conflict, because difference is only an accident of birth. We should respect difference. 

https://www.youtube.com/john-hume-strasburg

He never held high office but he moved mountains. 

His endless persuasion worked. 

‘This piece of earth, our divided people.’

‘He made hope and history rhyme, ‘ poet Seamus Heaney. 

John Hume (1937 – 2020) was an Irish nationalist politician Irish nationalist politician from Northern Ireland, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the recent political history of Ireland, as one of the architects of  The Northern Ireland Peace process - with the Good Friday Agreement signed April 1998. 

A native of Derry, he was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour party (SDLP) and served as its second leader from 1979 to 2001. He also served as a Member of the European Parliament, and a Member of the UK Parliament, as well as a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. He was named "Ireland's Greatest" in a 2010 public poll by Irish national broadcaster RTE to find the greatest person in Ireland's history. 

Gerry Adams, John Hume, Bill Clinton, David Trimble

Gerry Adams, Albert Reynolds & John Hume

The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement (Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or Comhaontú Bhéal Feirste; Ulster-Scots Guid Friday Greeance or Bilfawst Greeance), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles: a political conflict in Northern Ireland that had been on going since the 1960s. It served as a major development in the Northern Ireland peace process of the 1990s Northern Ireland present devolved system of government is based on the agreement. The agreement also created a number of institutions between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. 

The agreement was approved by voters across the island of Ireland in two referendums held on 22 May 1998. In Northern Ireland, voters were asked in the 1998 Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement referendum whether they supported the multi-party agreement. In the Republic of Ireland, voters were asked whether they would allow the state to sign the agreement and allow necessary constitutional changes to facilitate it. The people of both jurisdictions needed to approve   agreement in order to give effect to it.The British–Irish Agreement came into force on 2 December 1999. 

Hume was co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with David Trimble, and also a received both the Gandhi Peace Prize and the Martin Luther King Award. He is the only person to receive the three major peace awards. He was named "Ireland's Greatest" in a 2010 public poll by Irish national broadcaster RTE to find the greatest person in Ireland's history.^[5]

Gaelic as a Weapon?

At Celtic Connections festival each year I hear the beautiful and very moving Irish and Scottish Gaelic singers.

I was shocked recently to hear former Northern Ireland politician David Trimble, Ulster Unionist Party, (UUP) claim that the DUP feel the Republicans wish to use the Irish Gaelic language as a weapon!

Part of the discussion over the power sharing at Stormont in Northern Ireland, is over the legal use of the Irish language.By comparison Scots Gaelic and Welsh Gaelic both have equal status for use in schools and on signs etc.

Why not Irish Gaelic?

I assume the cracks run deeper – this is about the struggle between British imperialism and the suppression of indigenous cultures. I’ve often wondered – why can’t the two nations run side by side.

Part of the problem is English entitlement and superiority and empire building attitudes. After the union of England and Scotland in 1707 many Scots poets - Allan Ramsay, Robert Fergusson, Robert Burns and others - while encouraged to write in English, they decided it was only in their native tongue of Scots that they could really express themselves.

Then I read the Wee Ginger Dug’s, Paul Kavanagh (wonderful Scots writer who expresses so well the conflicts for Scotland today) his article on Orange Hate. He had looked into the history behind it all. It appears the first Scots settlers to Northern Ireland were early 17^th century, after the union of the crowns and they spoke Gaelic, oddly!  

The Scots Presbyterians who settled in Northern Ireland during the Plantations in the 17th century came predominantly from Galloway and Ayrshire. At that time those parts of Scotland were mostly Gaelic speaking, and they spoke a dialect of Scottish Gaelic which had more in common with Irish than most of the surviving dialects of the language do. One of the first Presbyterian ministers ordained in Ireland, a certain Jeremiah O'Quin from Bushmills in the north of county Antrim, was a native Irish speaker who was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1647. Presbyterian services were conducted in the medium of Irish throughout the next two centuries. One of the first books for people who wished to teach themselves Irish was written and published by a Presbyterian minister. The Rev. William Neilson of Kilmore in County Down published An Introduction to the Irish Language in 1808. It was based on the speech of his own parishoners. In the 19th century there were Presbyterian schools in the Glens of Antrim and Tyrone and all across Northern Ireland which taught Irish speaking Presbyterians to read and write with the aid of the Irish language bible.

The Pope was also an ally of William of Orange – in a battle against France! When William defeated James at the Battle of the Boyne, the Pope ordered the bells of the Vatican to ring in celebration! Ah there’s a thing then – what “side” exactly are Orange men on?!  The establsihments?

This appears to be a battle between British imperialism and one culture dominating another – or Co-existence and acceptance of differences and other cultures, and otherness.

What I don’t understand is why different nations can’t live separately in todays inter connected world and also live side by side…

Info at -  http://www.presbyterianhistoryireland.com/history/presbyterians-and-the-irish-language/