Conflicting signals on the peace process
A week may be a long time in politics, but how long is Fianna
Fáil's memory? Marca Mac Ruairi ponders that question
OVER recent weeks the Dublin government has been sending out
conflicting and confusing messages as to what it expects from the
peace process.
d this is at a time when politicians from all parties in the
north and both the British and Irish governments are currently
sitting down in Stormont to try and establish an agenda on which
the peace process can proceed.
While much history has been made in recent months with handshakes
and high profile meetings, substantive progress in terms of
seeking a solution to the conflict in Ireland remains elusive.
The Unionist Party has in many ways belittled the process, making
presentations amounting to no more than one sentence long and
engaging in other prevarications.
Last week it was agreed that in order to move the talks on, two
representatives of each party would go into a series of closed
sessions in order to hammer out an agreed agenda. It is now hoped
that real negotiations will begin in the New Year once this
agenda has been established.
At this juncture in any negotiating process the parties, having
stated their positions, should be laying down the issues they
feel require debate and answers from their opponents. It should
be a time of exploration between negotiators
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Fianna Fáil is in danger of repeating the mistake made by John
Bruton, who felt that negotiations were between two opposing
factions in a corner of Ireland. He presented himself as a benign
facilitator - in effect his position bolstered unionism and the
status quo
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Moreover, negotiations are in essence about trying to maximise
gains for given opposing positions - there is no point in
entering talks but with that understanding. But to row back from
stated positions before the negotiations even begin beggars
belief.
It is strange therefore, at such a sensitive time, that
conflicting statements as to its position have been emanating
from the Irish government through the media, many of which serve
only to undermine the nationalist position. And all this while
the Unionists have not budged an inch.
On taking up his position as Minister for Foreign Affairs in
Dublin several months ago, we heard David Andrews saying that
there would never be a united Ireland in his lifetime. This brash
statement was followed up several weeks ago when he said that he
expected cross border institutions would result from the talks
process. These would have executive powers akin to those of a
government. Screaming foul, unionists threw a tantrum and
demanded an apology. Before the week was out Dublin duly supplied
what they wished for - Andrews apologised for and retracted the
cross-border institutions projection.
Last Thursday, in an interview with the Financial Times, Bertie
Ahern expressed his government's willingness to drop Articles 2
and 3 from the Constitution of the 26 Counties and again, just
days later, he qualified it by saying that it would only happen
in the context of the revision of the Government of Ireland Act
by Britain. He has also gone on record last week as saying that
he can foresee an assembly in the north and expressed his
satisfaction at the prospect of David Trimble as its
prime-minister.
In the same interview Ahern went further; he suggested that the
Irish government is prepared to enshrine in its constitution the
right of the majority of the people in the Six Counties to
determine their own future.
Whatever the rationale behind this flurry of conflicting
statements, they will have fundamentally weakened the negotiating
hand of the Dublin government.
It was an absolute mistake of scandalous proportions to apologise
for saying that cross border institutions with executives powers
would arise from the peace process and naive to suggest that
unionists could veto any proposed settlement.
d as the public pronouncements swing from one position to
another it must be driven home that the conflict in the north
cannot be resolved by conceding something to one group and then
something to the other, in doing so negating the first
concession. Fianna Fáil is in danger of repeating the mistake
made by John Bruton, who felt that negotiations were between two
opposing factions in a corner of Ireland. He presented himself as
a benign facilitator - in effect his position bolstered unionism
and the status quo.
Attempting to allay unionist fears merely serves to encourage
their intransigence. Ultimately, for a lasting peace to be
established, the status quo cannot be allowed to continue
unchecked. There is a need for real change with more than just
verbal platitudes to Irish nationalists in the north and and an
acknowledgement of their right to have abstract aspirations. The
Irish government is in a position to play a key role in moving
the situation forward, but can only do so from a position of
strength.
By apologising to David Trimble for proposing the concept of
cross border institutions, the Dublin Government has undermined
the very process of setting an agenda for substantive talks
currently being undertaken at Stormont. The apology will act as
encouragement to the unionists to accept no change and may in
effect be used as a bulwark to narrow the agenda to a purely
unionist one.
Similarly, the deletion of Articles 2 and 3 from the Constitution
of the 26 Counties cannot be viewed simply as a quid pro quo to
the revision of the 1920 Government of Ireland Act by the British
government. Any movement on it must rather be part of an
all-encompassing, all-Ireland settlement which supersedes the
existence of both Articles and in doing so makes them irrelevant.
The conflict in Ireland has not arisen as a result of
unexplainable and irrational communal tensions but out of
inequalities, injustices and discrimination perpetrated by both
British and Unionist governments over decades and from the
unresolved relationship between Britain and Ireland resulting
from Britain's involvement in Irish affairs. Talking of tinkering
with Articles 2 and 3 totally misses the point.
The present Dublin government is in the enviable position of
being able to play a key role in putting this conflict behind us
for good, establishing an Ireland that can draw on the allegiance
of all its citizens. It needs to have a clear agenda and vision
of where it is going and how this can be established, remembering
that hundreds of thousands of Irish citizens are living in the
Six Counties and for whom both the status quo and internal
solutions are unacceptable.
For their part, it is incumbent on the British government to make
it clear to the Unionists that they cannot simply go on saying no
and that they must come to an accommodation with the rest of us
living on the island.
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