Gregory Campbell brings together a series of concerns that many even within the liberal Trimblite end of the UUP undoubtedly share about how realistic the Republican movement is about how unionists see it from the outside.
By Gregory Campbell MP
ARE REPUBLICANS SERIOUS ABOUT MAKING POLITICS WORK?
Recently Republicans have been trying to increase the pressure on the Government particularly in relation to parades in North Belfast and Lurgan. They have tried to portray themselves as victims and have turned their attention to Londonderry in order to tighten the screw for the Apprentice Boys parade next month.
MAKING ‘THEIR POLITICS WORK’
Sinn Fein elected representatives as well as former activist and convict Danny Morrison have contributed to this picture being painted. For decades the wider Nationalist/Republican community have grown accustomed to this awful morass they were allegedly ‘in’ and have warmly embraced the Belfast Agreement as the way out of this bind as it offered the chance for, in Provo speak “politics to work”, thereby inferring that prior to 1998 politics didn’t work and that was why, so the Provo logic runs, the ‘war’ was necessary.
However much they do not like it, certain realities are beginning to stare them in the face. The problem they have is that some of these realities are going to put past perceived injustices in a new light. How will they make their politics work then?
ASPIRATIONS AND REALITIES
Unionists want to be part of a new Northern Ireland where everyone’s political allegiances (that are practised peacefully and within the law) can be recognised. We also want a Deal that has Equality at it’s heart, we want an Agreement that allows our children to receive a first class education.
We also want a new start that offers job seekers the opportunity to get employment on the basis of merit not religious affiliation. We need a Northern Ireland where cultural identities can get recognition. We want a country where people won’t be hounded out but can feel proud to share with ALL it’s citizens. Now, here is where it might get prickly for those same Republicans WE UNIONISTS HAVE THESE ASPIRATIONS NOW BUT NOT THE REALITY, UNLIKE YOU.
35 YEARS OF BRUTALITY
Unionists have faced your brutal military machine for 35 years, we have had our friends and families murdered by your IRA because you said you wanted certain political advances. If you are ready I want to explain why we want this ‘Fair Deal’ that was supported by a majority of Unionists at last November’s Assembly elections.
VIOLENCE AT AN END?
We want to know for certain that murder, violence and terror are OVER. That is why the complete decommissioning of all paramilitary weapons is a necessity. We cannot and will not tolerate a system of Police recruitment that actively discriminates against our community which was put in place because your murder gangs dissuaded members of your community from joining by maiming and murdering them.
JOBS ‘R’ US TOO PLEASE
We want a system in Northern Ireland that provides jobs for Unionists as well as Nationalists. Figures released by the Equality Commission show that in the last ten years there have been 22,000 more Roman Catholics and 5,000 fewer Protestants in work. (Monitored Full Time workforce). An equitable system will mean people get recruited because of their ability to do the job, if you can live with that we can, but on that basis the above figures will have to change, discrimination against our people has to stop.
EDUCATION AND CULTURE
I mentioned education and culture. At the moment you have significant advantages here also. You have an education system where the State pays for a Catholic, as well as a State and Integrated one. Under this regime you have an education system (aside from any funding for the Irish language medium in addition) for a Roman Catholic ethos where your culture history and community background is entirely in harmony with the education offered to the children whose parents hold to those views.
On the other hand we do not have such a facility. We have a State sector, where our culture history and community background may not always be reflected. Our Ulster Scots cultural identity got a pittance of £1million compared to the massive £39million awarded to the promotion of the Irish Language over the past five years.
UNIONIST FREE ZONE
I often hear talk about how Nationalists were treated by Unionists. Sometimes I hear Nationalists talk about their experiences in loyalist areas, they talk as if there is some kind of open season on Catholics. This is the type of thinking that is behind the Provo speak of “Unionists don’t want a Catholic about the place”.
The irony seems to escape them when they say these things, where is it that there is hardly a Prod about the place? The West Bank of Londonderry! That’s where 10,000 Protestants have moved out over the years. Whose actions ensured that it’s a Prod free zone? The very same people who say Unionists don’t want a fenian about the place. Is there anywhere in Northern Ireland where purging on a similar numerical scale has happened to Catholics, No, I thought not.
PARADING
We Unionists parade, and we have a Parades Commission to oversee how that should be done. Most Parades don’t need determinations, but a small number do, not because they are offensive but because some republicans say they are offended by them. In Ardoyne those same Republicans couldn’t see or hear the parade but they were still determined to be offended by it.
Republicans and Nationalists have other ways of expressing their culture and identity, how is it overseen or scrutinised? Oh yes I forgot, IT ISN’T. The AOH or other Nationalist parades pass through Protestant towns like Desertmartin, Limavady, Kilkeel etc., the Protestant ‘host communities’ don’t decide to take offence, start a riot, attack the Police, demand the Parades Commission reroute these parades.
They take what some people might say is a mature and sensible decision to let those who wish to parade or watch it, do so, and those who don’t simply do something else for the few minutes until it is past. Then Republicans say but there is a huge security presence for the Loyal Order parades in or close to ‘our’ areas and this causes inconvenience. Of course there is, and the answer is simple, no need for security when there is no fear of attack on parade. There is no huge security for those Nationalist parades I referred to earlier in Protestant towns for precisely that reason. IT’S CALLED TOLERANCE.
INQUIRIES
Republicans say they want an Inquiry into events where they are concerned about how some people in the Nationalist community were killed. We would like the same. Result; a Bloody Sunday Inquiry costing £150 million so far and British Government agreement to hold other Inquiries. Collusion between members of the Police in the Republic and the IRA has resulted in Unionists being murdered, any word of an Inquiry yet, NO. The Government in the Irish Republic helped to finance the Provisional IRA in 1969, where is the Inquiry into who took the momentous decision that led to the thirty-five year slaughter in Northern Ireland, we’re still waiting.
GAME TO MAKE THIS WORK?
A new day might hopefully be dawning, if it materialises with peace and democratic accountability at it’s core, Unionists will look forward to having their grievances some of which I have outlined here, addressed. Can Republicans (minus the guns) stomach this type of Unionist about the palace and try to make this politics 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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