Good Friday Ambiguity, twenty years on

Posted by Jim on April 14, 2018

Elephants filled Queen’s University’s Whitla Hall this week where a
major media event was organised to mark the 20th anniversary of the
1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Starring in the show were former premiers Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and
Bertie Ahern, while former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and Ulster
Unionist leader David Trimble topped the bill of local politicians.

The most heartfelt praise was for former US Senator George Mitchell,
whose political skill and negotiating prowess was universally praised.

Earlier in the afternoon, Senator George Mitchell received a standing
ovation after his speech.

He told the audience: “Many of you have thanked me for my work here, my
response is that it is I who should be grateful. And I am, for you have
filled an inner void that I didn’t even know existed.

“I am an American and very proud of it but a large part of my heart and
my emotions will forever be with the people of Northern Ireland.”

Among those whose absence was felt were former SDLP leader John Hume,
who is struggling with dementia, Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness, who
passed away last year, and former British Direct Ruler Mo Mowlam, who
died in 2005. Nevertheless, there was a mood of celebration at an event
which literally sung the praises of a peace deal credited with
effectively ending the recent conflict in the north of Ireland.

The afternoon’s panel discussions were a Hollywood-ready mix of
anecdote and nostalgia, and a selected audience of around 500 were
appreciative of the dealmakers who brought an end to a fearsome
conflict in which thousands of lives were lost.

The agreement brought demilitarisation by the British Army, the
disbandment of the Provisional IRA and the release of hundreds of
republican and loyalist prisoners.

But twenty years later, unresolved and unimplemented aspects of the
1998 Agreement continue to haunt the north of Ireland, including some
of those who participated in the negotiations.

Former SDLP Deputy Leader Seamus Mallon brought a chill to proceedings
when he said he was angry by the “hypocrisies” of current politics in
the north. A key nationalist architect of the deal, he accused the DUP
and Sinn Fein of creating “political silos”, debasing the process and
“almost Balkanising” the north of Ireland.

The former Newry and Armagh MP said he would become “sad” and “angry”
when at home watching television news.

“I watch the hypocrisies which are unbelievable and the untruths which
are believable,” he said.

In the days before the gathering, comments by former UUP leader David
Trimble also cast a pall over events when he mentioned two
unmentionables in a single breath — Brexit, which is weighing
massively on what remains intact of the deal, as well as the continuing
violence of loyalist paramilitaries groups who signed up to it. The
Noble Peace Prize Winner delivered a sharply off-message intervention
when he warned of loyalist attacks against the south of Ireland if
Dublin continues to oppose the return of a militarised border.

Probably the biggest elephant in the room lurked behind former DUP
leader Peter Robinson, who in 1998 was roaring in protest at the gates
of Stormont as the deal was being hammered out.

Most unionists now support his party who continue to reject the
agreement, and Robinson ws proud of the fact.

“The specifics of the Belfast Agreement itself, clearly I oppose – I
think I was right in opposing it; I think the unionist community
validated that by their subsequent votes in the electoral process,” he
said.

The event was criticised by a range of politicians who stayed away,
including a number of senior DUP figures.

DUP MLA Edwin Poots said praise for the Good Friday Agreement “as the
deliverer of peace” had done a “grave injustice to the men and women
who put their life on the line infiltrated the IRA”.

Another DUP figure, Christopher Stalford, described the event in
colourful terms as a “glutinous, nauseous, back slapping exercise” that
“never made me more glad that I was with the ‘No’ campaign in 98.”

An even more hardline unionist, TUV leader Jim Allister, stood on the
steps of the Whitla Hall and handed out leaflets to the guests as they
went in. The two-page leaflet listed ‘deceptions’ in the Agreement
which Mr Allister labelled a “failure”.

The collapse of power-sharing a year ago, in part due to the DUP’s
refusal to implement outstanding agreements was something which the
celebrants felt obliged to address, and the former premiers did so in
hopeful tones.

Bill Clinton urged the politicians present to “inspire the world”
again. The former US President, who was awarded the Freedom of Belfast
on Tuesday night alongside Senator Mitchell, spoke directly to
political leaders who sat in the second row.

In his signature folksy style, he told the audience: “I’m sitting here
and my view is [current DUP leader] Arlene [Foster] and [Sinn Fein
leader] Mary Lou [McDonald] sitting in the same row. We just gotta
figure out how to get them to sit next to each other.”

He described the Good Friday Agreement as a “work of genius that is
applicable if you care at all about preserving democracy”.

He added: “Because the rest of the world continues to do foolish things.
You do smart things. Save the peace, save the freedom, save the
democracy, inspire the world.”

Tony Blair said the important thing was that the conflict had ended.

“The important thing is not to compare where we are with where we would
ideally want to be because ideally we would want to be in a better place
than where we are,” he said.

“The comparison is with where we are and where we were. The important
thing is to remember when we used to wake up every day to the news of
death, destruction and and terrorism.”

Optimism was the byword and Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams predicted his party
and the DUP would eventually go back into government.

“We’re in a bit of an ebb at the moment, a bit of stagnation,” said Mr
Adams. “That’s temporary. That will pass. And we’ll be back to sorting
these issues out.”

Describing the 1998 agreement as a “highly significant development in
Anglo-Irish history”, Mr Adams added that the accord could still act as
a “template for the times ahead” in fresh political negotiations aimed
at restoring power-sharing.

The event also saw criticism by some republicans. The President of
Republican Sinn Fein Des Dalton said the legacy of the Good Friday
Agreement was “a dysfunctional and undemocratic sectarian statelet”.

RSF campaigned against the 1998 Agreement, and Mr Dalton claimed his
arguments that it institutionalised sectarianism had been borne out.

“The two dominant political blocs, the Provisionals and the DUP are two
sides of the same sectarian coin,” he said. “Corruption and nepotism
is the currency of this outpost of colonialism.

“Since 1921 there have been five Anglo-Irish agreements all of which
have failed to provide a settlement of the conflict in Ireland. The
reason that all of these have failed is because all are based on the
partionist set-up, imposed upon the Irish people in 1920/21 by the
British Government with the threat of “immediate and terrible war”.

“The root cause of the conflict in Ireland is partition and the
continued British military and political occupation. A New Ireland can
never emerge from the Stormont Agreement because it copper fastens the
partition of the historic Irish nation.”

Raymond McCord, whose son Raymond Jnr was beaten to death by the UVF in
North Belfast in 1997 and his body left in a quarry, also criticised the
celebrations.

“These events have practically excluded victims from Northern Ireland,
I am not talking about victims from the unionist community, this is all
victims,” he said. “Twenty years after the Good Friday Agreement
victims have been betrayed by politicians.”

He is seeking an inquest into his son’s death, adding: “Why should we be
doing this 20 years after the Good Friday Agreement?”

He also criticised the inflated reporting of this week’s loyalist claim
that their paramilitaries would now support the rule of law.

“The whole week has been a disgrace for victims, it has just been a
repeat of what has happened over the years. They are all telling us what
to do and what is best for us.”

The main victims’ issues had been ignored by the official events, he
said. “Why don’t they sit down with ordinary working-class people like
myself? What is the government and organisers frightened of? Why are
they frightened of victims sitting on a panel? They don’t want the truth
to be said, they are frightened.”