Republican News · Thursday 17 October 2002

Everyone, republican or otherwise

BY LAURA FRIEL

This week has been 'a cold house' for the Good Friday Agreement but republicans are already warming to the task ahead

It was winter-cold and at the corner of Sevastopol Street a bitter wind was blowing. Journalists chatted amongst themselves as they set up their equipment and waited for Gerry Adams to emerge from Sinn Féin's offices.

Towering above was the mural of Bobby Sands with the words, "Our revenge will be the laughter of our children" and "Everyone, Republican or otherwise, has their particular role to play". And the smiling portrait seemed the only benevolent aspect of the day.

There's no getting away from it. Republicans are angry and frustrated, but that's nothing new and at times like these there's a rich seam of strengths to draw upon. And as Martin McGuinness had told a packed Ulster Hall earlier in the week, we'll "keep our eyes on the prize".

At the Ulster Hall last Thursday night, the republican gathering had been remarkably upbeat, almost buoyant, clapping and cheering, even laughing at the occasional heckler's quip.

It may not yet be "the laughter of our children" and its vision of a future of equality, justice and peace but its incalculably preferable to the begrudgery and recrimination bedevilling Ulster's unionists or the lynch mob sectarianism of their paramilitaries.

"There's nothing like adversity to cheer up republicans," someone had joked, as hundreds of our comrades emerged from the hall smiling and greeting each other with the banter of established friends.

Film footage of Holy Cross and more recent unionist paramilitary attacks on the Short Strand had given an edge to the rally. If this was a time for courage and determination, republicans have plenty of experiences to draw upon.

d even after 30 years of conflict, there's nothing cynical about republicans and at moments like this, the generous nature of their vision sustains their humanity as well as their humour.

"As a gift to the working class children of the Shankill and the Falls," Martin McGuinness had announced the ending of the Eleven Plus as his last contribution as Minister for Education.

d it had been another galling week, the tomfoolery of raiding Sinn Féin's Stormont offices and inflated claims of IRA spy rings at the heart of the NIO continued to provide plenty of heat, but not much light.

The fact that Sinn Féin had largely been vindicated with an apology from the PSNI Chief Constable and the return of property seized during the raid was lost in the British and media spin.

"The recent difficulties stem from the loss of confidence and loss of trust on both sides," said British Secretary of State, John Reid. "It is essential that concerns about the commitment to exclusively democratic and non violent means are removed. The time has come for people to face up to that choice between violence and democracy."

Of course, John Reid might have been talking about the ongoing sectarian attacks by Anti-Agreement unionist paramilitaries against vulnerable nationalist areas, or even the bloody gunfights between rival factions of the paramilitary wing of unionist family.

But he wasn't. Instead, we were given just enough fudge for the British Secretary of State to appear a 'neutral arbitrator', with just enough anti-republican spin to allow the media to take up the standard.

"Pressure builds on Provos to disband," said the Belfast Newsletter. "IRA under pressure," ran the headline of the Irish Times.

In a joint statement, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern continued: "It is now essential that the concerns around the commitment to exclusively democratic and non violent means are removed. The time has come for people to clearly choose one track or the other."

d it isn't easy to unpick this. On the one hand, we have a list of allegations from Colombia to Castlereagh, a handful of arrests on the basis of questionable evidence that at worst suggests a measure of subversion and perceived but not actual threat.

d on the other hand we have over two years of sustained violence from anti-Agreement paramilitaries supporting the agenda of rejectionist unionism. Thousands of gun, petrol and pipe-bomb attacks on Catholic homes, schools and chapels and a string of fatalities, from the sectarian murder of Catholic teenagers to the death toll of a bloody loyalist feud.

No one is questioning the truth of this, only the political significance. Pro-unionist violence, we are repeatedly told, has no significance because unionist paramilitaries are not in government, only their political allies within the UUP and DUP.

But Sinn Féin must be held accountable for every act of violence emanating from within the nationalist community, every imagined threat conceived by anti-Agreement unionism and answer for every trumped up charge pursued by the unionists' political allies in the PSNI.

d at the behest of unionism and the stroke of a British pen, a population of over a million is disenfranchised and their electoral mandate set aside, together with the overwhelming endorsement of the Good Friday Agreement by all the people of Ireland. And all this, we are told, is in the interests of democracy.

But it's not democracy that the British are upholding, but the unionist veto.

"Unionists never wanted to share power," wrote Danny Morrison in the Andersonstown News. "It must be extremely hard for people who established their own state, with the might of Britain, had their own paramilitary police and government, and who were raised on supremacist politics for so long to share power even with Castle Catholics, never mind those 'who ain't house trained'," he wrote, citing one of Trimble's references to Sinn Féin.

"There is a range of issues, involving all aspects of the Agreement, which are within the respective powers of the two governments," Gerry Adams tells the media.

"The British Secretary of State in particular has been slow to fulfil his responsibilities in relation to demilitarisation, policing, criminal justice and other matters. There has also been no progress on the legislation regarding political exiles, and no movement on the all-Ireland parliamentary forum.

"The two governments need to convene meetings as soon as possible to spell out how they intend to proceed on these maters and how they will honour the commitments they reiterated," said Adams.

Commenting on the suspension, Adams criticised John Reid's statement. "Most of the British Secretary of State's remarks focused on the IRA. I recognise that the issue of armed groups needs to be dealt with. This includes the IRA. But this process is not a single-issue process.

"John Reid appears to want to reduce the agenda to a single item. This will exacerbate the crisis rather than assist the process. I have told John Reid this but once again he has chosen to ignore this advice."

Outside Sinn Féin's Sevastopol Street offices on the Falls Road, members of the media shiver in the cold. Inside, the party is getting on with the business of challenging the sectarian agenda and tunnel vision of rejectionist unionism and their British guarantors. This week has been 'a cold house' for the Good Friday Agreement but republicans are already warming to the task ahead.

d of course "Everyone, republican or otherwise has their particular role to play."