Politics is not the only late arrival in Northern Ireland. The Honest Ulsterman, erstwhile home of northern Irish poetry finally got its act together today with the publication of its summer 2003 edition. Ex BBC man Eric Waugh has a go at bringing his own swaging honesty to what passed for political process in the brief life of the Northern Ireland Executive. Here’s where he hits bone for the pro-Agreement parties.
That once-a-month meeting of the Executive was a damning indictment, for it said everything about the absence of connected dialogue between Ministers. here was no “government” in the accepted democratic sense of a common purpose at all: for did not one ministerial faction seek to preserve the State and another to destroy it?
How could the government organise itself into a coherent vehicle for the common good if one faction, in unfettered control of vital segments within it, withheld the most perfunctory, pro-tem acknowledgement of the State which gave it birth? This conundrum had never in practice been posed anywhere else -ever, because it has no answer. The frustration which flows from it continues to exercise a baleful influence.
If an election now were to favour the extremes, it would be magnified. That is why there should be none. For no government denied a common purpose can survive.
If there is to be a revival of the pro-Agreement camp, the first thing they will have to prove is that a grand coalition can work!
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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