I just want to write something about the political situation in Northern Ireland- I don’t want to speak for Irish people, but I think it’s important people who live in Britain take an interest and understand what’s going on.
Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland is meant to have devolution, with it’s own parliament. There’s a strict agreement about powersharing between the parties.
In the last 6 years, Northern Ireland has had a functioning parliament for two of them. This is largely due to the DUP blocking the formation of a cabinet that doesn’t serve their interests. The liberal ideal of “just vote” isn’t working.
One of the more recent and significant events are that in 2022, the DUP first minister resigned due to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal- a Brexit deal which very clearly disregarded the Good Friday Agreement, and Northern Ireland in general. This essentially caused the dissolution of the parliament and led to elections in May 2022.
For the first time, Sinn Fein won the most seats, meaning the first minister would be someone from the party. But the DUP were unhappy, and refused to participate in the election of a speaker, meaning the government could not function. Due to the DUP’s behaviour, just like from 2017-2020, there’s currently no NI assembly. And it seems like the DUP know if they just hold out long enough, they’ll force another election.
And presumably they’ll keep doing this until they get the result they want.
People tell us to “just vote”. Well, the people of Northern Ireland did vote, and the party in power refused to relinquish their interests. Meanwhile, catholic republican communities continue to be discriminated against in all sorts of ways- including by the police. The police, furthermore, are a symbol (and a practical force) of Britain’s colonial occupation of Northern Ireland.
Against this backdrop, what other recourse do young Irish people have but violence?
