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Towards Peace?
Towards a peaceful settlement ...
Of course, the Ulster Unionists trust the IRA about as far as they could throw the Pope and have, up until a few weeks ago, refused to sit in government with them. Commensurately, the IRA trust the Unionists about as much as they trust a bomb maker with Parkinson's, and have been steadfastly reluctant to decommission their weapons, a demand the Unionists refused to relinquish, being unwilling to sit in government with members of any political party whom they feel could return to war if they don't like the result of a vote.
The stand-off of the past few years, since the IRA first declared a cease-fire, has been the result of this mistrust, with the IRA refusing to hand over any weapons if it is perceived, in any way, to be a surrender on their part. One Loyalist terrorist organisation, which likely consisted of 2 spotty teenagers and their granny, did hand over 5 guns to be ceremonially cut up on prime time television, much to the amusement of the general population who breathed a collective sigh of relief, and went back to eating their beans on toast.
But what of the IRA now? It is difficult to know if this well-funded, tightly-organised collective can turn their backs on violence overnight. Much of their funding has come from armed robbery, the extortion of protection money, cornering the drugs markets and so forth, a line of honest graft they seem unwilling to relinquish. The punishment beatings of those who try to steal their turf or fail to pay their drug bills will undoubtedly continue, and those who feel that they have been sold out by Sinn Fein's political agenda will continue to join the 'Real IRA', a recent collective of the worst nutters of the Northern scene, who don't want to stop playing cowboys and indians.
But will we now have peace in Northern Ireland? There may be no carnage on the scale of old, the support, or grudging admiration, for the men of violence being greatly diminished, but the mistrust of 100 years will not disappear overnight. The system of independent government now in place in Northern Ireland will continue to evolve, and the politicians will have to prove that they can actually run a country without the aid of bomb and bullet, whether from a British army gun or terrorist mortar.
The Nationalists, with the support of the Dublin government, still aspire to a United Ireland, with the option of voting for same every seven years being enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement. It is now up to the Nationalists to make love not war. Once the Nationalist population exceeds the Unionist one, that vote is a foregone conclusion.
Colm McElwee
1999
page 4 - Thirty years of hatred
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