Unionist threat to use violence, nothing new
Posted by Jim on October 12, 2013
By Brian Feeney (for Irish News)
Sinn Fein spokesmen have been queuing up to express disappointment at
what they complain is a lack of unionist leadership. Where have they
been? Perhaps they have read no history but most of them have lived
through the whole period of the Troubles and therefore the present
stance of unionist politicians should come as no surprise to them.
Unionists have always used violence or the threat of violence to get
their way. For them to join in common cause with the UVF in north and
east Belfast is entirely consistent with past behaviour.
Forty years ago exactly senior figures in what was then the Official
Unionist Party and the DUP sat down with loyalist terrorists to conspire
to destroy any attempt to establish a power-sharing executive. The
following year 1974, members of both parties sat around the table with
the UDA and UVF to organise and carry out the UWC strike which brought
the north to a standstill. Just run your mind over all the other
instances of unionist politicians standing four square with men from
organisations which were relentlessly killing Catholics. Indeed
unionists voted men from the same organisations into ceremonial
positions in councils. Then there’s the ‘Carson Trail’, the ‘Third
Farce’, the 1986 ‘Day of Action’ against the Anglo-Irish Agreement, not
to mention Ulster Resistance with Peter Robinson looking ridiculous in
his red beret and glasses. Why then should anyone in Sinn Fein be
surprised or disappointed to find Robinson throwing in his lot with the
wilder shores of unionism? Don’t forget Robinson has form. Form in the
shape of a criminal conviction for leading a mob into Clontibret which
terrorised the village and injured two gardai.
After a brief flirtation with moderation in 2011 Robinson returned to
form last year when he belatedly added his name to the notorious letter
signed by practically every senior unionist elected in Belfast which
attacked the Parades Commission and encouraged defiance of its
determinations. Oh, and by the way those determinations have the force
of law though we’re all waiting (but not with bated breath) for anyone
to be convicted for a breach of a determination. What we’re witnessing
in the last year is a unionist counter-revolution against the Good
Friday Agreement. Piece by piece and bit by bit unionists are working to
dismantle the agreement. They have stopped working the executive. It
operates only in sectarian silos, each department a law unto itself.
Robinson’s unilateral U-turn on the Maze/Long Kesh deal means that there
is no Programme for Government any more, not mind you that it was
operative. However, Robinson’s U-turn on an item in the programme is a
precedent which means that he can walk away from any item with impunity.
You can spot the next target easily because Robinson’s next position is
Jim Allister’s current one. Whatever Allister sets his sights on is
where Robinson will be in a couple of months. Therefore the next target
is the definition of victim. Unionists will refuse to operate any deal
on the past until republican victims are excluded from it. In this
context the fact that after meeting Dr Haass unionists scuttled up to
Twaddell Avenue to signal solidarity with the Orange Order and UVF is
highly significant. Letting loud mouths from the order do their dirty
work has always been normal practice for unionist politicians. You stand
behind them on the platform and in the case of Nelson McCausland last
weekend applaud with your hands below your waist so the crowd and
journalists, though not the cameras, can see but your presence endorses
and justifies the remarks.
You can see why Sinn Fein is disappointed and dismayed by this behaviour
but if they review the last year they can come to only one conclusion
and it is that unionism has not changed in any way. The DUP has always
opposed the Good Friday Agreement, its principles and underlying
concepts. Now with the support of loyalist mobs they feel justified in
stopping operating it. Many in Sinn Fein now question whether they have
a partner in what they still call ‘government’. In the last year no DUP
minister has said a word to lead them to believe they have.