Posted by Jim on June 23, 2017
From Democratic Audit UK James Hughes examines the potential DUP-Tory pact. James Hughes is Chair in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. This post represents the views of the author and not those of Democratic Audit.
Theresa May’s plans to broker a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party not only endanger the 1998 Belfast Agreement, writes James Hughes. They are likely to sour relations with the Republic of Ireland – just as sensitive negotiations over the border begin – and conveniently overlook the DUP’s links to violent extremism.
The discussions between the Conservative Party and the DUP to break the deadlock of a hung parliament have drawn attention to a number of flaws in the 1998 Belfast Agreement. A Tory-DUP alliance has the potential to seriously damage a number of important UK national interests: the peace agreement in Northern Ireland, relations with the Irish Republic in conditions of Brexit, commitments to progressive values and human rights, and the struggle against violent and non-violent extremism.
Northern Ireland’s peace was made from the extremes. The Belfast Agreement was unstable from the outset mainly because the DUP, as the populist extreme of Unionism led by Ian Paisley, was the only major party in Northern Ireland to refuse to sign up to it. Between 1998 and 2007 the power-sharing institutions were suspended on four occasions by the UK government, including for the whole period between October 2002-June 2007. At this time the DUP engaged in extremist outbidding tactics against the moderate Ulster Unionist Party. Some stability only ensued after the St Andrew’s Agreement of November 2006, which saw the DUP commit themselves to the restoration of power-sharing institutions.
By general consensus, the bicephalous DUP-Sinn Fein executive led by Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness worked cooperatively and effectively, despite their deep ideological differences, and the cooperation continued under Paisley’s successor Peter Robinson. The transition in late 2015 to a new DUP leadership under Arlene Foster has seen the return to more polarised politics leading to the breakdown of the Executive. Whereas the old leaders were the makers of the conflict, and peace came from their willingness to compromise, many of the new leaders are the children of the conflict – and the polarisation produced by the recent general election reflects the fundamental differences that persist in Northern Irish politics. The need to bridge this divide is what makes UK and Irish government impartiality so critical.
What will be the impact on the peace in Northern Ireland?
The Belfast Agreement was an international agreement, with the UK and Irish governments acting as co-guarantors. Both governments legislated for a special constitutional status of conditional sovereignty for Northern Ireland: dependent on the wishes of the people of Northern Ireland (as expressed in a referendum) (Agreement 2.1). The governments’ positions are not “neutral”. That word does not figure in the Agreement. The Agreement states that whichever government exercises sovereignty over Northern it must do so with “rigorous impartiality” (Agreement 2.1.v) on a wide range of issues: diverse identities and traditions, human rights, freedom from discrimination, and parity of esteem.
The commitment of the previous Tory government under Theresa May to “rigorous impartiality” was already seen as suspect, in particular on “legacy issues” from the conflict, and efforts to insulate state agents from prosecution. An alliance with the DUP magnifies the claim that the British government cannot act with rigorous impartiality in adhering to the Agreement and in brokering the negotiations to restore the power-sharing institutions. The same charge would apply if one of the main Irish political parties attempted to form a government through an alliance with Sinn Fein.
Relations with the Republic of Ireland
One of the paradoxes of the Belfast Agreement is that it expects “rigorous impartiality” from governments that have strong ideological positions. May and many Conservatives are explicit about their ideological Unionism. Nationalism has also been rehabilitated in the Irish Republic, where all of the main parties, previously repelled by hardline Northern nationalism, are now advocating for a United Ireland.
The question of the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic is one of the three EU conditions to be agreed prior to the negotiations on Brexit. The Belfast Agreement created special North-South institutions to deal with common policy areas (and EU-related funding) and special arrangements for joint citizenship, and it rendered the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland porous and irrelevant. Transparent borders are common in the Schengen Area, but the concept is challenging for die-hard Unionists.
Even a soft Brexit will make managing the social and economic interdependencies between North and South more difficult. The DUP is opposed, at least formally, to a hard Brexit that would see a reimposition of strong border controls. However, the symbolism of a distinct border is important for the DUP, and in particular for its base, and the opposite is true for nationalists. The rational outcome would be for a continuation of the special status that Northern Ireland already has under the Agreement. A Tory-DUP alliance may complicate negotiations on this.
No single country has a veto on Brexit, but the Irish can make things very challenging for the British, and vice versa.
The DUP and human rights
The DUP was founded by Ian Paisley in 1971 on policies of anti-Catholic sectarianism, opposing civil rights for Catholics, demonising reformist Unionists, and provoking civil disorder and encouraging Loyalist paramilitarism. In his later life, in a mea culpa, Paisley acknowledged his major destructive contribution to the conflict. Many of his party colleagues, who form the current leadership, proffer no apologies for DUP extremism past or present.
The current DUP leadership under Arlene Foster presided over the collapse of the power-sharing institutions in January 2017, seemingly unable to replicate the spirit of compromise achieved by the previous leadership. Even moderate nationalists, such as former SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell, have charged Foster with reverting to crude sectarianism. The DUP “don’t want a taig (derogatory term for Catholics) about the place”, he declared in late 2015..
The social values of the DUP are “extremist” in a UK or Ireland context. The founding ethos of the party was set by Paisley’s religious fundamentalist “Free Presbyterianism”. Large numbers of its members, and many of its voters believe in Creationism and regard the Pope as the Antichrist. Since the late 1970s the UK parliament has legislated for the reform of human rights for women on abortion, and equal rights for gays, and more recently including same sex marriage. A similar process of social reform has occurred in the Irish Republic since the 1990s. The social conservatism of the DUP is today out of step with the other main parties in Northern Ireland, and at Westminster.
The DUP has used a power established by the Belfast Agreement, the “petition of concern”, to block any legislative reform on these social values in the Northern Ireland Assembly. In addition to several financial corruption scandals the party has also been embroiled in numerous anti-migrant racism and Islamophobic episodes. Notably, in 2014 the then party leader Peter Robinson made disparaging remarks about Muslims and defended a Free Presbyterian pastor, James McConnell, who denounced Islam as “heathen”, “satanic” and “a doctrine spawned in hell” .
The struggle against extremism
No one questions the strong relationship historically between Sinn Fein and the IRA. Theresa May seems to be overlooking the similar strong relationship between the DUP and Loyalist paramilitarism. The DUP’s founder Paisley was careful to incite and condone Loyalist violence. However, at certain key moments the DUP collaborated openly and directly with Loyalist paramilitaries, for example, during the Ulster Workers’ Strike in 1974, in mass protests in 1977, and again in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985.
In 1986 the DUP formed its own terrorist organisation, Ulster Resistance, which became part of the combined loyalist paramilitary command, and co-organised illegal arms shipments. Current MP Sammy Wilson chaired the opening meeting of Ulster Resistance, and current MP Emma Little-Pengelly’s father was convicted of arms smuggling for Ulster Resistance.
May has been a leading advocate of strengthening the UK Prevent Strategy against violent and non-violent extremism that conflicts with “British values”. In making a deal with the DUP she not only endangers UK national interests, but is also further damaging the credibility of government policy on violent and non-violent extremism.
Posted by Jim on June 21, 2017
Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, Inc.
Kings County Board, Brooklyn, New York
Cordially invites you to join us at our
“Shuffle off to Buffalo” BBQ Fundraiser
On
Sunday, June 25, 2017
2:00 – 5:00 PM
Please join us for an afternoon of BBQ fun as we “Shuffle of to Buffalo” in some gift certificate raffles including a Weekend for Two at Gavin’s Irish Country Inn in East Durham.
Donation includes BBQ food, Beer, Wine & Soda to benefit the
LAOH Kings County Board and campaign for JoAnn Gundersen to wish
her well in her bid Missions and Charities (or higher)
in the LAOH New York State Board!
at
The Baile Na N’Gael,
2750 Gerritsen Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11229
DONATION: $25.00 (Reservations required)
Music By “Brooklyn Bards”
Please call Rose Coulson: 347-866-1848 to RSVP or for details and/or directions. If you cannot attend but would like to make a donation, to the campaign, please forward your check payable to “LAOH” and
mail to: Rose Coulson, LAOH Kings County,
3315 Nostrand Avenue #5G, Brooklyn, NY 11229 –
We thank you for your support!
Posted by Jim on June 18, 2017
In one of a number of incidents related to parade tensions, loyalists
marchers belonging to the Apprentice Boys of Derry staged a mob attack
on an Irish bar in Liverpool last Saturday evening, June 16.
In a video taken by a passing motorist, a man was held in a headlock by
one loyalist while being punched by others. The terrified driver filmed
the men brawling on top of her car as violence erupted.
Trouble began when the Protestant marching group, the Apprentice Boys of
Derry, passed the Liffey Irish bar in Renshaw Street.
The bar has been a regular target of loyalist intimidation and
provocation in recent years.
Loyalist bands normally strike up sectarian tunes as they pass the bar,
but in an escalation on Saturday, bandsmen and their followers attempted
to enter the bar in a concerted attack. Merseyside police said they made
two arrests.
POLITICIAN ATTACKED
In County Derry, a nationalist member of the Stormont Assembly said he
had to dial 999 after his car was attacked by loyalists on Friday night.
East Derry SDLP representative John Dallat had gone to collect a Chinese
takeaway on Main Street in Kilrea when he was spotted by people
attending a band parade in the village.
Mr Dallat said a group came over an kicked his car after he had moved it
during a break in the parade.
“I have lived through very bad times but this is the first time I felt
the need to phone the emergency services to help me get away before
worse happened,” he said.
GAA CLUB TARGETED
In County Antrim, a GAA club was targeted in a sectarian graffiti
attack, the third in recent months.
The letters ‘UVF’ were scrawled on a wall at the entrance to St Mary’s
GAA club in Rasharkin overnight on Thursday.
The loyalist slogan ‘No Surrender’ also appeared while a UVF flag was
draped across the wall at the playing fields.
A mainly nationalist village, Rasharkin has been at the centre of a
bitter parades dispute in recent years.
North Antrim Assembly member Philip McGuigan said more needed to be done
to stop “these hate-filled sectarian attacks”.
“The people responsible are anti-Catholic, anti-Irish and anti-community
but should not be allowed to succeed in raising tensions as is their
intention.”
GARVAGHY CONCERNS
Meanwhile, nationalist residents in Portadown have warned the British
government against any political deal that would allow the Orange Order
to again hold a provocative march down the nationalist Garvaghy Road.
They were speaking after Portadown Orange lodge urged the new DUP-backed
administration to place the parading issue high on their agenda. It said
that it “trusted” that parading issues, especially in Portadown, would
be high on the agenda for the new government.
Orangemen have been rerouted from the Garvaghy Road since 1998. The
Portadown Orange Order were keen to point out the new influence of local
DUP MP and prominent Orangeman, David Simpson.
There has been speculation that an agreement between the DUP and
Conservative Party to keep Theresa May in power could include the
abolition of the Parades Commission, which adjudicates on the routes of
contentious parades.
Senior DUP figures hinted as much when they told journalists at a
Westminster press conference: “The future is bright, the future is
Orange”, reprising a familiar marketing slogan.
In one of the more contentious parades, hundreds of Orangemen marched
through Belfast as part of the annual ‘Tour of the North’ parade on
Friday night.
Around 800 people and 13 bands took part in the parade which passed St
Patrick’s Catholic Church on Donegall Street – the scene of previous
disorder. However the march, which is partially restricted, passed off
without incident.
COUNCIL COLLUDES WITH BONFIRE CRIME
In related news, it has emerged that Belfast City Council is storing
pallets to be used for a notorious loyalist bonfire close to a busy
tourist hotel.
The bonfire close to the Holiday Inn, just off the Sandy Row, has become
emblematic of the ‘Eleventh Night’ in Belfast. For the past number of
years, tourists have been terrified when the inferno blazes alongside
the hotel and loyalist violence reaches a crescendo across the North.
Two tourist buses were damaged in a suspected loyalist arson attack
outside the hotel last month.
Last month, Belfast City Council bizarrely decided to facilitate the
bonfire by collecting and storing the bonfire material. Hundreds of
pallets were removed from the city centre site by council employees and
held in storage at a council facility to be delivered to the site in
time for its construction.
After being accused of handling goods stolen from one company, they were
forced to return the stolen pallets.
Sinn Fein councillor Jim McVeigh, the party’s council group leader, said
it would strongly oppose any attempt to return the remaining pallets to
the bonfire site.
“The council could be leaving itself open to a legal challenge from
ratepayers on health and safety grounds by facilitating this bonfire if
anyone is injured or property damaged as a result,” he said.
“The materials should not be put in storage. They should either be
returned to their rightful owners or destroyed immediately.”
Posted by Jim on
An attempt by British Prime Minister Theresa May to placate the North of
Ireland parties over her plans to form a pact with hardline unionists
saw Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams tell her that her government is “in
clear breach of the Good Friday Agreement”.
The Sinn Fein leader said his party would oppose any deal which
undermines the power-sharing arrangement for the Six Counties.
He spoke out after holding face-to-face talks with Theresa May in
Downing Street aimed at tackling the deepening crisis in the peace
process.
The British PM met with representatives of all five main political
parties from the North of Ireland amid continuing speculation over the
DUP’s demands in return for propping up her government. She issued the
invitations as an attempt to resume talks at the Stormont Assembly in
Belfast was overshadowed by her negotiations in London.
The Tories lost their parliamentary majority last week after May’s
disastrous decision to hold a snap general election, forcing them to
play the ‘Orange Card’. The use of unionists to secure a Westminster
majority has a long history of bringing turbulence to Ireland. Its
reappearance, in tandem with the Brexit crisis, has raised fears that
the political process in the north of Ireland could collapse.
While Sinn Fein appeared reluctant to raise the alarm, senior British
political figures such as former PM John Major and former Downing Street
Press Secretary Alastair Campbell issued stark warnings over the fate of
the 1998 peace deal. In particular, they acknowledged that under the
terms of the Good Friday Agreement, the British government must remain
neutral in its dealings between nationalism and unionism.
Flanked by Michelle O’Neill, leader of Sinn Fein in the North, Mr Adams
said of the talks with May: “We told her very directly that she was in
breach of the Good Friday Agreement and we itemised those matters in
which she was in default in relation to that agreement.
“This is the first time I have been here without (former Deputy First
Minister) Martin McGuinness and we also gave her Martin McGuinness’
resignation letter because that points out the difficulties (where) the
institutions failed but also pinpoint the way that the institutions can
be put back in place on a basis which shows respect for everyone,
tolerance and integrity.”
He added: “We will oppose any deal which undermined the Good Friday
Agreement.
“A little side bargain to keep Theresa May in power, a temporary little
arrangement, won’t have any integrity and isn’t as important as the
integrity and the needs of the people who live in Ireland.”
Mr Adams also ruled out any prospect of Sinn Fein’s seven MPs taking
their seats in the Commons in an attempt to block the Conservatives.
He said: “We’re Irish republicans, we have just been elected on a
certain mandate. That mandate is that we won’t interfere in British
affairs, we won’t take an oath of allegiance to the English Queen – no
harm to her.
“We’re united Irelanders, we want to govern ourselves. You folk here
made enough mess of your own elections, make enough mess of your own
governments, make enough mess of your own affairs. We want you out of
our affairs and we’ll try to sort out these matters as Irish men and
women on the island of Ireland.”
And speaking on Irish radio on Friday, Mr Adams warned the British PM
was “detached” from what is going on in Ireland.
“She didn’t respond in any intelligible way. There is a detachment from
what is happening here,” he said. “She is a woman who is struggling to
stay in power and is prepared to do a deal with the DUP to say in
power.”
May will attempt to form a government next week, but her declining
political stature suffered another blow with a lacklustre response to a
disastrous fire in London this week. Over 100 people are thought to have
died on Wednesday at Grenfell Tower in an inferno blamed on the use of
cheap construction materials in a public housing refurbishment project.
Tory austerity measures have been blamed, and there have been a number
of large protests over official attempts to play down the scale and
significance of the tragedy.
Despite a mounting sense of crisis over her leadership, May is set to go
ahead with a ‘Queen’s Speech’, a text setting out her plans to form a
government on Wednesday. It is reportedly set to go ahead whether a deal
has been concluded with the DUP or not. The leader of British Labour,
Jeremy Corbyn, has also said he is continuing his own efforts to form a
government.
FOSTER ‘READY TO TANGO’
Amid the talks in London, DUP leader Arlene Foster told Sinn Fein
leaders that if they are concerned about her party’s increased influence
at Westminster they should agree to restore local power-sharing in
Belfast.
Sinn Fein collapsed the Assembly in January as allegations of DUP
sectarianism and corruption finally became impossible to ignore.
“If others decide that they are not coming back into the devolved
administration here in Northern Ireland then those issues will have to
be dealt with at Westminster,” Foster said. “It is really for Sinn Fein
to decide where they want those powers to lie.”
Foster also met with new 26 County Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Dublin on
Friday. Asked if she expected to be First Minister in the Northern
Executive again soon, she said: “It takes two to tango. We’re ready to
dance.”
But Gerry Adams accused the DUP of failing to turn up for three days of
talks to restore Stormont this past week. He said, at a meeting on
Monday, the parties agreed they would meet from Wednesday onwards, but
the DUP failed to show.
Mr Adams said: “We met with DUP and agreed with them that we would clear
our desks – Wednesday, Thursday, Friday – and meet with the other
parties also. The DUP didn’t turn up. We need them in the room.”
Posted by Jim on June 12, 2017
There was a surreal air in Belfast on Monday as talks aimed at
restoring power-sharing in the north of Ireland went ahead, even as the
DUP were separately negotiating to enter a deal on government with the
Tories in London.
With the talks in London still ongoing, there is to be a delay of some
days in the resumption of the Westminster parliament. The traditional
opening, where the English queen declares an agenda for government from
the throne, has been postponed.
The planned ‘Queen’s Speech’ on June 19 had already been due to clash
with the start of Brexit talks, and both are now expected to be
delayed.
Following the results of last week’s general election, the
Conservatives narrowly lost their overall majority and Tory leader
Theresa May immediately turned to hardline unionists for the necessary
support. Few details have so far emerged of the talks between the DUP
and Tory delegations, however, their planned coalition has infuriated a
wide section of British society. There has been a stream of hostile
commentary in the mainstream media about the North’s dominant unionist
party and its history of bigotry and paramilitarism.
Tory backbenchers, already furious at the electoral setback following a
disastrous election campaign by Theresa May, could yet object to the
deal amid calls for May to step down as party leader.
Up for discussion in the talks are said to be the resumption of all
sectarian marches by the Orange Order, including the notorious Drumcree
parade through the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown.
Also likely to be included in the discussions will be impunity for
loyalist paramilitaries and British military war criminals. Other key
issues include the unionist veto against political change at Stormont,
human rights and the legal status of the Irish language.
Amid continuing questions over a half-million-pound donation to the DUP
towards the Brexit campaign effort, the DUP is also said to be
insisting that the extreme right-wing Nigel Farage, former leader of
UKIP, is handed a role in the Brexit negotiations with the EU.
The discussions may also include a guarantee that no referendum on
Irish unity will take place in the lifetime of the parliament, and a
gerrymander of proposed changes to the North’s 18 electoral
constituenciess.
Leading his party’s delegation at Stormont outside Belfast, Sinn Fein
president Gerry Adams said that any deal between the DUP and the
Conservatives to prop up a Theresa May-led government would be a
“coalition for chaos”.
Mr Adams was speaking at a press conference at Stormont with the party’s
seven Westminster MPs by his side.
“We don’t believe that any deal between the DUP here and the English
Tories will be good for the people here. Any deal that undercuts in any
way the process here of the Good Friday and other agreements is one that
has to be opposed by progressives,” he said.
Mr Adams added there was a “huge onus” on Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the
incoming Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to “ensure that all aspects of these
agreements are implemented”.
Earlier, Mr Varadkar said the British government should not become too
close to any party in the North of Ireland. “Our role as governments
here in Dublin and in London is to act as co-guarantors and not to be
close to any particular party,” he said.
Mr Adams warned on the consequences of Brexit and said Sinn Fein would
not reject any positive deal that might emerge from these DUP-Tory
talks. “We never turn up our nose at good deals. Let’s wait until we see
what sort of deal is done,” he said.
Mr Adams also said there was no pressure on Sinn Fein to end its
Westminster abstentionist policy. “There is no pressure on Sinn Fein to
do anything except fulfil the mandate that we received” in the
Westminster election.
While he said that Mr Brokenshire should not chair the talks, he added
that he had nothing personal against him, but the British government was
partisan and a player in the talks.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood insisted Brokenshire could not be an
impartial chairman. “If James Brokenshire thinks for one second that he
can be an independent arbiter, an independent chairman of these talks he
is absolutely wrong,” he said.
An independent person was required to chair the talks “otherwise they
are going nowhere”, added Mr Eastwood.