He came, he spoke, he didn't impress
By Peadar Whelan
MARTIN MANSERGH, special adviser to Taoiseach Bertie
Ahern, came to the Springvale Centre in West Belfast on
Tuesday evening 3 March.
There at the request of the pressure group Cearta,
whose charter for change is about ensuring that the
rights of northern nationalists aren't bargained away
in exchange for some bogus `peace settlement', Dr
Mansergh's visit was eagerly awaited.
He had been described as the ``conscience of the Dublin
Government'', by a presenter on Triple FM the radio
station of Feile an Phobail.
d despite the hasty notification - people only heard
of the meeting 48 hours previously - about 100 people
attended.
Sadly though, Dr Mansergh's talk didn't match his
courteousness in turning up, practically at the drop of
a hat.
Whereas Oliver Kearney, representing Cearta, made a
clear and unambivalent contribution to the discussion,
Mansergh seemed to give the `party line' and attempted
to tell his audience that the present talks process had
the potential for delivering `peace' despite their
experience of unionist intransigence and London
prevarication.
Outlining that people living in the North, as part of
the Irish nation as defined by Articles 2 and 3 of the
Irish Constitution, must be treated accordingly,
Kearney argued there must be real equality for northern
nationalists and dismissed the nefarious notion of
`equity' that has reared its ugly head in the aftermath
of the Heads of Agreement Proposition Documents.
Kearney warned against any changes to the Constitution,
stressing that to sell changes to Articles 2 and 3 as
necessary for peace would only ``ensure more conflict''.
During his contribution Mansergh referred on more than
one occasion to the need to bring nationalists and
unionists together or Catholics and Protestants
together, seemingly missing the point that his argument
sidelined the British presence.
One speaker, a Protestant republican, pointed out from
the floor that unionism is about supremacy and
dominating nationalism.
The playing field isn't level and it is the British who
give the unionists the veto and ability to say no to
change.
The audience, made up of a fair cross section of the
West Belfast population, was clearly disappointed with
Mansergh's analysis. He didn't seem to accept that the
Dublin Government's support for barring Sinn Fein from
the talks, agreeing to the Heads of Agreement
Propositions and acceptance of the latest changes to
the Parades Commission were sending out the wrong
messages to a community that is all too aware of the
cost of living in the Six Counties; a cost made all the
more clear with the killings of two men in Poyntzpass
at the very time Dr Mansergh was saying he didn't want
a unity that would bring violence.
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