CAMBRIDGE LETTER
Unconcerned about Ireland
BILL KIRKMAN
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Interest in mainland Britain as to what happens in Northern Ireland is almost non-existent.
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REUTERS
Not much concern about Ireland -- a "Bloody Sunday" mural.
ABOUT once a year the political situation in Northern Ireland staggers into its next phase. Just over a year ago, all seemed set for the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive, which had been suspended a year before that.
Then at the last moment, David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, threw a spanner in the works, on the ground that insufficient information had been given about the renunciation of "use or threat of force" announced by Gerry Adams, leader of the republican Sinn Fein Party.
Another year has passed, and the painstaking process of discussion and negotiation has continued. This time, however, there has been change in the power balance on the Unionist side; it is the Democratic Unionist Party, led by Dr. Ian Paisley, which has the majority Unionist support. It is Ian Paisley, obdurate for years in his refusal to do any sort of deal — or even talk — with Sinn Fein, not David Trimble, who has had to be convinced that some kind of power-sharing is inevitable.
As I write this, Ian Paisley has been meeting Tony Blair, demanding photographic evidence that the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has destroyed its arms (a demand that Sinn Fein may well see as a humiliation too far). Before this `Letter' appears, it is likely that either an agreement will be announced, or the British and Irish Governments will publish the proposals put forward as the basis for agreement — and leave the people of Northern Ireland to decide whether their politicians should have accepted them. The proposals represent another chapter in some 10 years of painstaking work by the two Governments since the signing of the Good Friday agreement. During that period, hopes have risen, and been dashed. Devolution has been introduced, and withdrawn.
Ireland in perspective
It is important to put all this in perspective. First of all, it is important to recognise that things have changed. For example, the IRA is no longer a constant looming presence of violence. Relations between the communities — republic and unionist, catholic and protestant — are still tense, but murder is no longer the daily diet.
Second, it is clear that the role of the Northern Ireland politicians is less significant than they themselves think it is. The province has been running quite normally for the past two years without them.
Third, interest in mainland Britain as to what happens in Northern Ireland is almost non-existent. In the era of murder and violence — which was taking place on the mainland as well as in Northern Ireland itself — it was clear to everyone that Northern Ireland was a distressing and disgraceful blot on the body politic. Now, most people think of it — if they think of it at all — as a nuisance in our backyard. The Northern Ireland politicians are largely seen as representatives of this nuisance. Even the foghorn oratory of Ian Paisley no longer attracts much attention.
There are, of course, many other issues which have been dominating the United Kingdom's political landscape, notably the war in Iraq, the European Union's new planned constitution and the fact that we are almost certainly going to have a general election within the next 12 months. Against this kind of background, the Northern Ireland situation is of much more minor importance.
As part of the process of putting things in perspective, it is instructive to look at some population figures. The population of Northern Ireland is about 1.6 million (16 lakhs). Wales has 2.8 million (28 lakhs) and Scotland 4.9 million (49 lakhs). Both Scotland and Wales have devolved government, Scotland in a fuller form than Wales. Even if one looks at English regions, one gets a view of how small the Northern Ireland population is. For example, the counties of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, neighbours making up what is known as East Anglia, have about two million people (20 lakhs).
The apparatus of local government is obviously much less complex than that of semi-independence. Even allowing for that, however, it is reasonable to wonder whether Northern Ireland really needs a parliament, housed in premises of great size and splendour.
That, of course, is heresy. There are historical reasons why things are as they are, and it has to be said that Britain's treatment of Ireland (then undivided) in the 19th and early 20th Centuries was not something of which we can be proud.
It seems nevertheless that the Northern Ireland politicians are at last being forced accept the reality of their limited importance in the overall scheme of things.
Bill Kirkman is an Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, U.K. E-mail him at: wpk1000@hotmail.com
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