Easter is regarded across the world as a time of rebirth and renewal. For Irish republicans it is also a time when we look back to the Easter Rising and to all those who have played their part in the struggle for Irish freedom, but it is also a time when we look to the future.
Now more than ever, more and more people are talking about the future. The conversation on Irish unity is well underway across the island and involves people from all backgrounds and political viewpoints.
The imposition of Brexit by the Tories, with absolutely no regard for its impact on the north and our economy, has led to many people asking questions and considering new options and opportunities.
The onset of the Covid pandemic has also accelerated that conversation as people look to see an island-wide approach.
People are now looking beyond Brexit to a new and better future in a new Ireland.
There is a democratic pathway in place in the Good Friday Agreement to allow that to happen.
It gives us a unique opportunity to shape our own future.
We have an opportunity which is unique in the modern world to build and shape a new state and a new society.
We can create a new economy to meet the needs of the 21st century and a suite of rights which reflects the diversity of the society in which we live.
We have the chance to build a new Ireland from the bottom up which serves the needs of everyone, not an elite few.
This is an unprecedented opportunity at nation building which would be the envy of anyone with a progressive view of politics or society.
And it is an opportunity we must grasp.
The conversation on a new Ireland has already begun.
So we now need to begin effective planning for it.
The British government has a responsibility under the Good Friday Agreement to hold a referendum on constitutional change, giving people the opportunity to have their say on our own future.
The British Secretary of State has a legal duty to hold such a referendum. And it is clear that society in the north is moving and the people’s views on the constitutional position of the north are changing.
Now is the time for the Secretary of State to announce the intention to hold a referendum and to begin planning.
The Irish government too has a duty to prepare for constitutional change. It now needs to establish a citizens convention, inclusive of the entire Ireland, on a new Ireland, as well as bringing forward a white paper and creating a ministerial position with responsibility for constitutional change.
This will allow for the reasoned, informed and inclusive debate which is required before any referendum.
There is a place for everyone in that debate and all views should be taken into account.
The more viewpoints included in the debate the better as it will help shape an inclusive, welcoming and pluralist Ireland.
We are already on the road towards a new Ireland and we want as many people as possible to join us on that journey.
The circumstances which have led to recent loyalist unrest are due to a failure of unionist political leadership, including from DUP leader Arlene Foster, says Christ Donnelly
12 April, 2021 01:00
Chris Donnelly
IPSEDIXITISM is a difficult enough word to say, never mind spell. It is the dogmatic assertion that something is factual without any proof to back it up, or because someone, somewhere said it.
I came across the word in a tweet from Countdown’s Susie Dent.
It immediately sprang to mind when listening to the latest attempts, by faces old and new, to explain the most recent outbreaks of loyalist violence.
On the Nolan Show last Thursday morning, a caller phoned in to complain about the size of the houses on the other side of the peace line amidst a depressingly ignorant rant which highlighted how prejudice flourishes when lives are lived in unsplendid isolation from the Other.
We live in an age of fake news, but facts stubbornly persist as a necessary corrective to those more comfortable with myths.
In its centenary year, Northern Ireland remains a place in which Catholics are considerably more likely to be poor than Protestants.
This is a statement of fact as confirmed by the regular collation of a multiple deprivation measure by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).
The most recent statistics (2018/19) from the Department of Education show that, in a single year, 883 poor Catholic boys and 543 poor Protestant boys left school without 5 good GCSEs, illustrating how educational underachievement and the troubles that flow from that are not the exclusive preserve of one community.
Relative poverty and dismal educational outcomes are always a factor, as evidenced by sporadic dissident republican-induced street violence in Derry and other pockets of deprivation across nationalist areas of the north, but they are not the main reason for loyalist alienation nor violence today.
Neither is apparent anger at the PSNI’s handling of a funeral nine months ago.
The setting for the first outbreak of loyalist violence in recent days was the Sandy Row district in Belfast.
Within a short distance of the rioting in the same loyalist area of the city, a leading loyal order figure in the locality was buried last September in a large funeral which clearly breached the same restrictions.
Two months earlier, large crowds gathered in the same area in breach of the Covid restrictions to celebrate the Twelfth of July.
If Arlene Foster’s current stance of righteous indignation over the Bobby Storey funeral had anything at all to do with concerns over public safety and the example set by political figures, then she would have long ago thrown Sammy Wilson out of her party.
Nor is the violence a reaction to additional layers of paperwork requiring to be completed by businesses wanting to keep trade connections open with a post-Brexit Britain.
So what is it all about?
It’s about the type of leader who meets and briefs the heads of active, illegal loyalist paramilitaries but who publicly snaps that she won’t meet with the PSNI chief constable… before caving due to public pressure.
It’s about the type of leader who, amidst developing constitutional discussions, proclaims that she will abandon hearth and home in the event of Irish unity, knowing that such a sentiment will spread alarm amongst her own grassroots.
It’s about leaders who made a succession of calls over Brexit that were spectacularly ill-judged, callous and ultimately self-defeating, demonstrating their utter disregard for the impact it would have upon everyone living on this island in the process.
It’s about leaders who take the easy option and give succour to a facile and wholly false narrative about culture to defend contentious parades and utterly destructive practices of burning wood, tyres and sofas alongside flags and emblems of the Other instead of educating people about the need to abandon aspects of traditions that are simply not worth retaining.
It’s about leaders who, 23 years later, continue to refuse to embrace the Good Friday Agreement primarily because they are fundamentally opposed to its very premise of equality and parity of esteem for all in Northern Ireland.
It’s about leaders who continue to act as if they represent a majority and not simply a minority voice in this society, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge the need for nuance and appreciation of consensus amidst the rapidly changing demographic profile of our shared home.
It’s about a political leadership choosing fury, fear and antagonism every time instead of hope, reason and co-operation.
The role of leaders includes challenging, educating and exposing absurd claims, destructive practices and prejudice-based assertions amongst one’s own supporters, not merely parroting them.
The violence is what happens when leaders fail to do what must be done.
Noel Maguire decided to withdraw his nomination in the forthcoming by-election in Fermanagh / South Tyrone. [This decision meant that voters were faced with a straight choice between Bobby Sands and Harry West, the Unionist candidate.]
