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For a moment, we can reluctantly reply in Mr Eastwood’s own terms and put the religious results in a broader context.

Over the past century, the Republic of Ireland has not been just a cold house for Protestants, but a virtual igloo. Through a covenant between the Catholic Church and the state, a Protestant population of 10% in 1922 fell to 3% by 1990 with a slight rise to 4% in our day.

I cannot recall relentless charges of systemic discrimination, which Mr Eastwood makes against Stormont, being made against Irish governments. Which is what it was: WB Yeats when an Irish senator said so.

By contrast, Northern Ireland for the Catholic population, despite Protestant anti-Catholicism, has been a virtual greenhouse (pun intended) — roughly 34% in 1922 swelling to almost 46% today by census declaration (and likely higher). Protestants down to 43.5%.

If NI in the past half-century since Stormont fell has been a cold house for Catholics, it has had a funny way of showing it.

It has always been distasteful to see the future of Northern Ireland, indeed Ireland, reduced to a sectarian headcount. I believe that Mr Eastwood responded to the census in ways that could signal to the Catholic population: Thankfully our time has come. It bodes ill.

John Foster

Here: https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/letters/academic-my-concern-at-sdlp-leaders-response-to-the-northern-ireland-census-findings-3855239

#colum Eastwood #John Foster #Eastwood #SDLP

I am tempted to say that I told you so, and now I have. If this collapse in Belfast takes hold it will be because of a fatal but foreseeable error in the post-Brexit architecture insisted upon by Europe, with the eager support of Dublin and, to a lesser extent, London.

The choice was between two models. One was to regard Northern Ireland as part and parcel of the UK’s non-membership of the EU, in which customs controls would approximate to the political border between North and South. The other was what we ended up with: no customs border on land, but at some mythical, invisible point in the Irish Sea, and the North, a part of an all-island set up.

I needn’t spell out the politics of this to most of my readers. It was a pro-Nationalist solution and everyone could see that, especially the Unionists. But of course it wasn’t sold like that at the time. Instead the Irish government summoned up ghosts from the Troubles and warned that establishing Europe’s Border in Ireland would remind people of partition, provoke republican hardliners and nourish a renaissance of republican violence. Remember Leo Varadkar’s trip to Europe, his briefcase stuffed with scary photographs of the IRA bombing of Newry customs station way back in the 1970’s’.

This is what we could return to, warned the bold Leo, if we re-erect a land border in Ireland. Europe agreed, the Brits went along and we ended up with an arrangement which, because it had been erected at the urging of Irish nationalists, would always be opposed by Unionists.

If that was the real plan, and the name of the game was to stick one into the Unionists, then fine; be honest about it. But in this debate, honesty had been in short supply.

At the core of the Varadkar proposition was a claim that it was the Border that had fueled the Troubles, when all the evidence was that while the Border certainly facilitated conflict, Unionist misbehavior was the real culprit. It is a cliche but true nonetheless: had Unionists reached out, as Captain Terence O’Neill urged them to do, and won the support of their Catholic neighbours way back in the 1960’s, it is very possible the Troubles would never have happened and the Border would hardly have mattered.

In this context the Brexit solution that was chosen has brought Northern Ireland to a different crisis. With the theoretical Border now somewhere in the Irish Sea, the absence of a land border serves to underline Unionists sense of insecurity and has led, inevitably, to yesterday’s resignations at Stormont. Putting Humpty together again will be, to put it mildly, a challenge.

- Ed Moloney

Here: https://thebrokenelbow.com/2022/02/03/i-told-you-so/

As I write, the latest version of the Good Friday Settlement is struggling for breath, half way between death and an existence dependent on

#Ed Moloney #brexit #sea border #Irish sea border

Painting at Connor McKernan’s wedding!

In this State (the Republic of Ireland), a de facto moratorium on investigation and prosecution of IRA members (other than those described as dissidents) came into operation. This was demanded by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness…

the Irish government of which I was a member took the decision that further investigation and prosecution by An Garda Síochána of such historic offences was no longer warranted or justified by reason of the greater interest in ending the Provisional campaign and all other political violence in Northern Ireland.

Michael McDowell, here: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/sinn-f%C3%A9in-needs-reality-check-on-historic-prosecutions-from-troubles-1.4704986

In this State, a de facto moratorium on investigation and prosecution of IRA members (other than those described as dissidents) came into operation. This was demanded by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, the leaders of Sinn Féin at the time. And it was conceded. Every Troubles-related murder, bombing and maiming is, on paper, a serious offence in this State by reason of the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act of 1976.

But the Irish government of which I was a member took the decision that further investigation and prosecution by An Garda Síochána of such historic offences was no longer warranted or justified by reason of the greater interest in ending the Provisional campaign and all other political violence in Northern Ireland.

And so, as far as this State was concerned, a line was drawn across the page of historic Provisional IRA criminality in Northern Ireland.

What is strange, to my mind, is the total failure by most in the media south of the Border to remind Sinn Féin politicians that it was they who insistently demanded criminal immunity for IRA members as part of the wider implementation of the Belfast Agreement.

Their spokesmen might remember that the leadership of Sinn Féin begged on bended knee for an effective amnesty in criminal law for IRA historic crimes. Britain took a different course with its letters of comfort issued to the suspected perpetrators of at least 300 deaths. Let’s have a little honesty in our approach to historic crimes and their prosecution.

Michael McDowell, here: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/sinn-f%C3%A9in-needs-reality-check-on-historic-prosecutions-from-troubles-1.4704986

Party demanded line be drawn on Troubles-era crimes in Republic during peace process

#immunity #amnesty

After the Belfast Agreement was signed in 1998, it took eight further years to implement it to the point reached in the St Andrews agreement in 2006.

- Michael McDowell, here: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/sinn-f%C3%A9in-needs-reality-check-on-historic-prosecutions-from-troubles-1.4704986

Party demanded line be drawn on Troubles-era crimes in Republic during peace process

“Contemporary Irish historian Charles Ivan McGrath, associate professor of history at University College Dublin, sees an “Irish gene” at work, stubbornly resistant to any historical narrative that questions an exclusive victim role. This defensiveness towards looking in a differentiated way at the past makes for strange alliances in Ireland today, he says, even among his first-year students at UCD. They may have little connection to the Catholic Church yet rush to defend its framing of Irish history.

“People might be horrified by church teaching on homosexuality, for instance,” says Prof McGrath, “but by clinging to the historical crutches of the penal laws people are, perhaps unknowingly, clinging to the church narrative [of our past].”

https://brianjohnspencer.tumblr.com/post/656044934850314241/the-best-catholics-in-the-world-and-the-most

#student #students #university

#SDLP #Claire Hannah #Claire Hanna #civil rights #RUC #police

Post-colonialism is a perfectly respectable academic pursuit. Unfortunately once out in the wild it becomes a sectarian crutch for calling unionists colonists and occupiers, as the past week has amply demonstrated.

It is now commonplace to hear Northern Ireland referred to as a colony, with little awareness or care for what that implies. In contrast to Machnamh’s high-minded deliberations, much of Ireland has begun sounding like a character from Father Ted, shouting “good for you, President Higgins, you tell ‘em!

…there is a considerable difference between saying Northern Ireland was a colonial creation a century ago and saying it remains so today. The President is entitled to his historical analysis; unionists can argue the reverse. What undermines the agreement is forgetting this analysis was dropped at the outset of the peace process.”

- Newton Emerson (here: https://sluggerotoole.com/2021/09/24/those-who-only-gaze-backwards-to-100-years-ago-will-give-us-all-an-awful-crick-in-the-neck/)

And to finish the week, Newton Emerson throws some light on the politics of the President’s refusal to come Armagh in October as a part of t

#Newton Emerson #colonial #colonialism #colonist #unionist

“What [had started out as] an invitation to a religious service had in fact become a political statement,” he said. “I was also referred to as the President of the Republic of Ireland. I am the President of Ireland.”

- Michael D Higgins https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/higgins-blames-politicised-title-of-ni-event-for-declining-invite-says-dup-criticism-a-bit-much-1.4676291

President rejects suggestion he is snubbing the queen and hits back at DUP criticism

#Michael D Higgins #Northern Ireland

As long as the British remain in a part of Ireland, there will always be some kind of IRA to stand up to them.

Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, here: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/resistance-will-endure-warns-irish-hardliner/SFWIMK4UHGG2MJZZX7BNGVTGXE/

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“Are the stories being suppressed or are Protestants not pushing enough to have them heard? I honestly can't say.”

- Gareth Mulvenna, https://twitter.com/gmulvenna1980/status/1424299131783233540?s=21

#loyalism #loyalist

Even after a protracted discussion on the nature of consent, Adams refused to accept that Sinn Féin had any responsibility for, or role in, persuading the unionists that unification of the island was in their best long-term interests.

That was a problem created by the Brits and it was up to the Brits to sort it out – they had sole responsibility for showing the unionists where their best interests lay. In our conversation, Good acknowledged that the meeting was not the forum where any significant departures from this line would be revealed: nevertheless, as a display of intransigence on a key issue it represented a disturbing portent.

Slightly at variance with that, however, was a flicker of recognition by Adams that the pace of change had to be governed by what the (unionist) market would bear.

- Rev Harold Good

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/gerry-adams-was-ignorant-basic-protestant-views-and-didnt-think-he-had-persuade-unionists-back-united-ireland-declassified-file-3080030

I was 30 at the time; 1972 was the most unpleasant year of the Troubles, the violence was unbelievable, almost on a daily basis a soldier, a police officer or a prison officer was killed or seriously injured.

The intention of firing the rubber bullet was to get youths who were in the process of throwing stones and generally causing mayhem around a post, which was an RUC station.

We were there to protect it, and I fired a rubber bullet, one of thousands fired that year, the vast majority of which gave little more than a bruise, and unfortunately the one I fired horrifically nearly killed poor Richard.

Years later, when we met, we immediately got on exceptionally well, we had a bond and have formed a great friendship.

At some stage I certainly said to Richard 'I am awfully sorry this happened'. As I say to other people, the intention of the rubber bullet was no more than to get the people who were causing the problem to go away.

That was the sole intention; the idea I had intended to damn nearly kill a 10-year-old child was never there.

I had children of a similar age myself, and the last thing in the world I wanted to do was damage a child. But the only means we had of trying to disperse people being violent was a rubber bullet gun.

The great regret remained with me for a long time.

- Charles Inness

#violence

In another respect, however, the AIA failed, and was bound to do so. This was because the process had excluded the Unionists, whereas John Hume’s nationalist SDLP had been briefed throughout. The majority in the community were accorded fewer rights than the minority. So the deal could not ‘take’. It was diplomatic, not democratic.

This is part of the reason why Good Friday 1998 has not produced resurrection in Northern Ireland. It cleverly divided the spoils, but it did not bury the hatchet.

- Charles Moore, here: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/margaret-thatcher-vs-everyone-else-the-making-of-the-1985-anglo-irish-agreement

The late David Goodall’s account of the negotiations reveals a beleaguered prime minister arguing with Garret FitzGerald and her own politic

#Charles Moore #Thatcher

She was a Unionist, but she was unimpressed by Ulster’s Unionists. She might be prime minister but, on this subject, she had hardly any useful allies. Republican terrorists had murdered her best adviser, Airey Neave, in 1979.

- Charles Moore, here: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/margaret-thatcher-vs-everyone-else-the-making-of-the-1985-anglo-irish-agreement

The late David Goodall’s account of the negotiations reveals a beleaguered prime minister arguing with Garret FitzGerald and her own politic

#Thatcher #Airey Neave

In nationalism generally, there tends to be a sneaking regard for the idea of a 'failed political entity' as the road to unity. We have to get away from that, we have to make Northern Ireland work. Then we have a conversation about where we are going to go next.

- Colum Eastwood, here: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/colum-eastwood-why-i-carried-inla-mans-coffin-31566062.html

The challenger for the leadership of the SDLP has defended his controversial decision to carry the coffin of a republican veteran as masked

#Colum Eastwood #SDLP #sneaking #failed #fail

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