An Endless Circus?

Another year, another round of tense negotiations in Northern Ireland, another series of threats, missed deadlines and political posturing. The latest series is over the admittedly sensitive issue of policing, with some parades thrown in there for fun and games. Sure, everyone loves a good ol' parade yeah? Yeah? Hmm...

This system that has evolved of re-negotiating things that had apparently been agreed more than ten years ago in the Good Friday Agreement has proven to have become the downfall of the centrist parties; the SDLP and the UUP, as those on the extremes shout and cry fowl until they get some concession. We are now left in the absurd situation where the DUP, once thought to epitomise some of the worst bigotry of during the Troubles (who can forget Ian Paisley calling the Pope the antichrist in the European Parliment) are now being out-flanked on the right by the Traditional Unionist Voice party (who recently called the Irish language "a leprechaun language"). 


This had lead to some critics call for an end to the d'Hondt method and enforced coalition. Senator Fiona O'Malley raised this in the Seanad this week, saying "it rewards people from the extremes and does not reward people who bring together communities and serve all of the people within their communities. While we continue to prop up a dysfunctional system, frankly it will never work and there will be crisis after crisis." There is some truth in her words, but while we may not like it; it works at one very important thing. It has stop the armed conflict.


I don't think anyone is under any illusions that the current system is intended to be temporary until things calm down a wee bit (whenever that will be). It has brought Sinn Féin and the DUP to the table. In time it will bring the TUV to the table if they do become a force after the next elections. In the time since the Good Friday Agreement, the IRA, UVF and UDA have all decommissioned their arms. The current system gave the North the breathing room to do this, to be able to move past violence without the spectre of extremely confrontational politics going on in the assembly. Without a doubt, that would have made the task so much more difficult. 


The key question will is when do we change to a "proper democratic system"? Well for one thing, devolution has to be completed and will have to been so for quite a while. The people of the North need a sense of normality about their lives without the drama of these almost annual re-earthing of the old troubles. It's going to take a long, long time. When hatred is bred from birth, it does take a few generations at least to wean the community of it. 


When the deal was struck back in 1997, Tony Blair said that the real work was only beginning. Those are words worth remembering now.