State Violence (35 page)

We are now in a period of transition in Northern Ireland and indeed there is a constant fluidity in the relations between Ireland and Britain. The Anglo-Irish Agreement, the Downing Street Declaration and change within the European Union are part of an evolutionary process towards a settlement of conflict within the island of Ireland, within Northern Ireland and between Britain and Ireland.

In the past 28 years external influences have been very great. The consequences of the single common market have not yet had a chance to fructify to the full but they will, now that there is relative peace, and this, together with a good economy in the Irish Republic, is leading to an all-Ireland economic union. One notices the new flow of trade south from the north and the great number of men from the north working in the building trade in Dublin. The opening up of eastern Europe has ended the 700 year British self-interest in Ireland. In time of war with Spain, France and Germany, Ireland was looked upon as a backdoor to invasion. This danger led to the Tudor conquest of Ireland when England became a nation state competing with continental powers. This security consciousness ensured the partition of Ireland and, as in the matter of the Act of Union of 1800, the Protestants were conveniently used as a support to bring it about. Ireland as a security risk to Britain was a factor until recently in the western alliance against Russia and the communist block. It affected politics as late as the Thatcher/Reagan close relationship, and then it suddenly collapsed with the Berlin wall. The eastern European threat has disappeared. Russia and the eastern European block are now vitally needed to boost a population-depleted and economic weak Europe, a Europe now dwindling in the global economic and political power context. In this picture Northern Ireland is a nasty embarrassing nuisance. Continental Europe will want to see it settled quickly and Britain, now freed for the first time in hundreds of years from its strategic tie to Ireland, has publicly declared that she has no longer a selfish interest in Ireland and will forego sovereignty if that is the will of the majority of people in Northern Ireland.

A century ago kith and kinship bound Britain to unionists in Ireland; there was a common strong Protestantism, a united Unionist-Conservatist party, an aura surrounding the royal family. This has diminished greatly and, what is more, there is a new post second world war Britain, empireless, tied to Europe, and with a more pluralist society, including a million southern-born Irish. It is important to mention this greater picture; while people in the north fight and squabble, the world leaves them behind.

The internal situation in Northern Ireland is still sad and fearful. On the ground parades were in the news. The loyalist marching season, which has jumped from some hundreds of parades to nearly three thousand, is now spreading beyond July and August to cover a period from Easter to October. Besides the Orange Order, the Black Preceptory and the Apprentice Boys, a new separate marching element has emerged – the ‘Kick the Pope' bands and their followers. Some members of the Orange Order are not happy with this new element. They feel they are mistakenly identified with them. Sadly, once the war in a sense ended, underlying sectarianism rose to the top again. It was lying latent.

We have a second IRA cease-fire but before it we had the murder of two soldiers and two policemen. The viciousness of these murders are set against a strategy which might be called ‘to go out on a high'. There was no respect for the sacredness of human life. These murders shocked everybody and created a tremendous pathos in the Catholic communities at home and abroad. The mid-Ulster Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), a break-away from the Ulster Volunteer Force, are still active and in the past year have committed horrible gruesome murders. They murdered a girl lying on a bed, a teenager who took a lift, a GAA official locking up a pavilion and a young man walking home. In the case of the men and boy their faces were bashed in and they were horribly mutilated. The LVF has a perverse religious foundation: they will batter any Catholic to death; to them a Catholic boy or girl, woman or man, young or old, is evil in himself or herself. The INLA is always potentially dangerous but they have not killed recently; they say they will not strike first. The ‘continuity IRA', another splinter group, exploded the hotel bomb in Fermanagh; they might gain some recruits as the republicans consolidate their political strength and grow into a constitutional party, leading logically to electoral pacts with the SDLP and perhaps ultimately merging with them into a single party.

The two governments are encouraging all sides to talk. This is welcome and of course the bright new words are dialogue and trust. The unionists have opened up dialogue with the Catholic Church. I praise them for that. All the political parties should now follow this example and go beyond their narrowed-minded selves and talk to representatives of the churches, the business people, the trade unions and the universities. The great charismatic leaders in South Africa, de Klerk and Mandela, could hardly have succeeded without the tremendous backing of the business people.

In my opinion the general population in the north at present want less party political activity. They just want a breathing space. People forty years of age have not known peace from their childhood. Most people are not over-anxious about an immediate political settlement; they want to hear less not more of entrenched politicians on the media. They would like direct rule to continue for a peaceful period for some years to allow healing and let good measures already taken to fructify. Nobody can see an agreement across a board from Ian Paisley to Gerry Adams in the Mitchell supervised talks. Realistically people know that the two governments will have to work out a settlement. The settlement, one hopes, will be a fair one. It will have to be based on a British dimension for unionists/loyalists and an Irish dimension for nationalists/republicans. No one of the two communities for the foreseeable future should be imprisoned within the absolute ruling authority of either Britain or Ireland. It was inevitable that the entrapped nationalists in the north would revolt against injustice. They did that in the 1960s when they had gained a little strength. The present solution will involve balancing change in the Irish constitution and the Government of Ireland Act. It will be joint sovereignty in fact if not in name. The stronger partner in the working out of this agreement will be Britain whose wielding authority is finance. Anything short of at least
de facto
joint sovereignty would ultimately undermine Adams' republicans and would lead to a renewal of violence in the next generation. For the moment people are war weary. If the present deal turns out to be radical but fair, there is a good chance of permanent peace and good will, and the final solution of the government of the island of Ireland will be left to a future generation.

The continuance of a form of direct rule for some years is important. It is more important that society changes and all the injustices end than that we have a bitter short-lived, hastily cobbled together, devolved government. Let devolution come later. By that time some politicians, who are themselves an obstacle to peace, may be rejected in the ballot box.

In the meantime what is the immediate priority for Catholics in Northern Ireland? – the radical reform and restructure of the RUC. It is the one remaining important imbalanced structure of state. The RUC was raised from some 3,000 in 1969 to the present 14,000, which includes reserves, and is 94% Protestant. It has to change. It is not a matter of tinkering with minor things here and there; a major radical change is necessary. Ms Mo Mowlam, the Secretary of State, has already said there will be reform but she has not spelled out how radical that reform will be. If a major change in the RUC comes, it will upset the Protestant churches. The RUC has always been closely linked into the religious and cultural life of the Protestant churches and they are naturally aggrieved that many policemen lost their lives and many were injured in the conflict. The RUC were pushed to the front during the Ulsterisation of the 1970s and were established very formally in their traditional role as a standing army to defend the state. It hasn't been easy for them to carry out normal policing as a secondary role. Catholics would welcome a Bill of Rights which would incorporate the United Nations ‘International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights' into domestic law and this could be the basis of policing and leave its ranks open to all shades of political adherence.

On 19 August 1969 Prime Minister Harold Wilson issued the first Downing Street declaration announcing an end to religious discrimination: ‘Every citizen in Northern Ireland is entitled to the same equality of treatment and freedom from discrimination as obtains in the rest of the United Kingdom'. With one stroke of the pen, the Labour government then abolished the housing discrimination in Northern Ireland that had lasted for 50 years and which was tied into the political and unjust manoeuvring of the unionist monolithic state. This was one of the grievances that had led to the Civil Rights Movement. This reform changed the face of Northern Ireland; wherever you travel in the north you can view with pride the new sprawling suburbs built under direct rule. The Fair Employment Agency has also done great work under the scrupulous leadership of Mr Bob Cooper. Its powers, however, have not been draconian. Inequality still exists. Catholic men in the north are over 2.5 times as likely to be unemployed as Protestants and are more likely to suffer long term employment.

A change to a society based on equality has been very difficult for unionists; a situation of dominance for Protestants was created by government in the Stormont parliament and so a whittling away of power and privilege to face fair competition and merit has met with opposition. The consequences of fair play arouse all the old bitterness of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Equality means a challenge to power; it means power sharing in government. A sudden change in demography has heightened the fear of Protestants. Even though the Catholic birth rate has fallen, the more just direct rule and the change to housing according to need and fairer employment has meant a sharp growth in the Catholic population in the north. That is also seen as a threat. Nationalists' success in the recent local government elections underlined this new reality. The population is now 56% Protestant, 44% Catholic with an equal number of young people. It is a further argument for the inevitability of joint sovereignty. Can unionists face up to this fact? Many of them, heads in the sand, still talk pathetically in loaded words like ‘minority', ‘the democratic majority', ‘the people of Ulster', ‘the mainland', ‘the British Isles'.

What is it like to live in Northern Ireland now? A lot better. Even the absence of checkpoints is a blessing. During the twenty-eight years of virtual war, and the emotional trauma that went with it, there were many times when people would have asked would the ‘Troubles' ever come to an end. There was a mountain of suffering and a mountain of prayers for peace. People let loose their pent-up inner joy of relief when President Clinton visited Derry, Belfast and Dublin. You can imagine then the harm that murder, torture, destruction of property, and imprisonment did to human relationships. Generally speaking the two communities in Northern Ireland have always lived separately. They grew more apart following the partition of Ireland; they grew still farther apart physically and mentally during the last twenty-eight years.

One hopes for a vision of people who might some time in the next hundred years come to respect one another and live in peace. I reckon it will take at least three generations of goodwill to bring about a real friendship. We should talk about one community but, unfortunately, the fact is there are two. At present there is little or no deep friendship between the two halves. There are some tiny pockets of people who live reasonably well together as a mixed community; there is a token dialogue between the heads of the churches; there are ecumenical services once a year; there are some mixed prayer groups of wonderful spiritual people; a few people of mixed religion work together and are good friends; there are mixed marriages and some mixed schools; there are many decent and good people who lead very quiet and private lives. Co-operation at local level has improved in local councils; conditions of cross-community promotion attached to funds has helped that. The local history societies have been doing wonderful work to help people realise that their traditions are not necessarily opposed to one another and that some aspects of traditions are mutually hostile and divisive. There are schemes of education for mutual understanding but these vary according to the depth of local prejudices. That is the good side but generally speaking the two communities live apart – the working class in every city and town are almost completely separated from one another. Even the well-to-do form into ghettos. This horrible war has brought about a polarisation. In some cases people simply were afraid following intimidation and murders and found security living in their religious background. Such polarisation affects trade and even simple things like greetings on the public street. I wonder do visitors sadly see us, who have only one life to lead, imprisoned in our minds and hearts.

Elsewhere in conflict situations we see a new emphasis on people and especially on the individual. So the importance of incorporating civil and political rights into domestic law in Northern Ireland. About a year ago, I attended a major seminar on reconciliation in Belfast; some countries from South America, the eastern bloc of Europe, South Africa and Israel and Palestine were present. The delegates from El Salvador and South Africa were impressive. Why? Because of their honesty and humility; they had learned to admit crimes on all sides; they saw the importance of a commission for truth as an integral part of the healing process. Yes it is important for the republican paramilitaries to tell the truth about their murders and crimes and repatriate missing bodies. Yes it is necessary for the loyalist paramilitaries to tell the truth about their murders and atrocities. Yes it is necessary for the British government to acknowledge that over the past 28 years it acted unlawfully, immorally, and unjustly in the murders and unjust killings of innocent people, in ill-treatment in interrogation centres and in corruption of courts. If honesty prevails, all this is tied into the question of the decommissioning of arms. It may scare all the three perpetrators of violence, republican and loyalist paramilitaries and the state from pursuing the issue. South Africa and El Salvador bravely faced up to the problem; they set up truth commissions. They saw that this was necessary for the emotional healing of people and the process of building a just society. Why do we lack this honesty and humility?