Making history at the Hist
A motion that ``immediate decommissioning is necessary for
Northern Ireland'' was defeated at a packed public debate in
Trinity College Dublin last week which saw dissident Unionist MP
Willie Thompson share a platform with Sinn Fein TD Caoimhghín Ó
Caoláin. While the surroundings were historic with echoes of
Trinity students of the past like Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmett,
Douglas Hyde and Edward Carson, the debate was bang up to date as
the clock ticked away to the 31 October deadline in the Good
Friday Agreement.
Student debates can often be highly tedious with aspiring young
politicians and/or barristers testing their oratorical skills
with much bombast and little substance. Last week's `Hist'
(College Historical Society) debate had its moments, however,
with the prize going to the student who, referring to the
anti-Agreement unionists, said that some people were ``living in
a world of Pancake Tuesdays and Ash Wednesdays, trying to pretend
Good Friday never came''.
Orange Order cheer-leader, revisionist historian and media
handler for British agent Seán O'Callaghan - this is the cv of
Ruth Dudley Edwards. The atmosphere was too polite in Trinity -
or most of the students were too ignorant of her true role - for
this to be referred to by anyone from the floor but Dudley
Edwards still won few friends with her approach. Refusing to take
any comments or questions she launched into an anti-republican
diatribe worthy of her relative Conor Cruise O'Brien.
Naturally the main focus of the debate was on Willie Thompson and
Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin.
Ó Caoláin said that the real issue delaying the formation of the
shadow Executive and the All-Ireland Ministerial Council was not
decommissioning but ``the refusal on the part of sections of
Unionism to embrace change and a new future for all of our
people''.
Ó Caoláin said that if David Trimble fails to establish these
structures by the 31 October deadline he will have defaulted on
his undertakings of Good Friday. He urged David Trimble to ``put
the decommissioning obstacle behind him'' and implement the
Agreement in full.
Willie Thompson MP said that he had ``no regrets in opposing the
Agreement''. He said that unionists had voted ``not on the letter
of the Agreement'' but on the basis of promises from British
Prime Minister Tony Blair regarding decommissioning. The West
Tyrone MP said that unionist opinion since the referendums has
``greatly moved against the Agreement''.
When Willie Thompson spoke of the fears of the unionist community
on the issue of weapons Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin intervened to ask
if he accepted that the republican and nationalist community
also had real fears. The MP seemed stuck for words in what was
overall a strangely subdued sppech, perhaps reflecting the
disillusionment and lack of direction among many unionists.
Kevin McNamara, former Britisg Labour Party spokesperson on
Ireland ably summed up for the opposition and when the vote was
taken a majority was recorded against the motion.
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