Daily Ireland, May 28, 2005
Editorial:
Who will address nationalist fears?
British secretary of state Peter Hain was invited by the media earlier this
week to address the fears of the Democratic Unionist Party about going into
new power-sharing arrangements in the North with Sinn Féin representatives.
As one might expect, he made suitably reassuring noises to placate those
paragons of democracy within Mr Paisley’s party.
In a similar vein yesterday, Prime Minister Tony Blair was warning that Sinn
Féin would be left behind if the IRA did not cease its activities.
How exactly the majority nationalist party can be relegated to observer
status while new institutions are constructed is, however, anyone’s guess.
The reality is that a solution without Sinn Féin just isn’t on.
That much was accepted by the SDLP’s Eddie McGrady — no friend of Sinn Féin
— when he accepted yesterday in the House of Commons that a voluntary
coalition between the SDLP and unionist parties was a non-starter.
Two decades ago when Sinn Féin was just emerging as a political force, it
proved impossible to banish the party to the sidelines in order to clinch a
deal between moderate nationalists and unionism. Today, any political
initiative that ignores Sinn Féin’s mandate is even more certain to fail.
However, it is not only republicans who have a veto on any attempt to cobble
together a deal that dismisses their support. So too does the DUP. While
nationalists can insist that the Irish and British governments address their
fears and press on with the agenda of change promised by the Good Friday
Agreement, there can be no power sharing without the co-operation of the
DUP. On the other hand, ordinary nationalists do not need power sharing to
have their rights to equal treatment guaranteed. After all, it is the
British government that continues to treat the Irish identity and the Irish
language as second-class in the North, not just the backwoodsmen of unionism.
Will the DUP cut off its nose to spite its face? Will it bar itself from the
committee rooms of ministerial power because it can’t stomach sharing those
rooms with Sinn Féin? Perhaps. However, one thing should be made abundantly
clear to Mr Paisley’s party — if the IRA moves to liberate the peace process
by responding positively to Gerry Adams’ appeal, there can be no hiding
place for the unionist refuseniks. They cannot be allowed to hold the
nationalist community to political ransom. It is only when the DUP sees that
it is losing out through its “never, never, never” tactics that the party
will abandon its trenchant position.
On councils across the North, DUP councillors bit their bottom lips and got
on with it when the courts said they had to accord Sinn Féin representatives
equal treatment.
In the same way, once those in the DUP see that the train of political
progress and influence is leaving the station without them, they will be
rushing to the ticket counter. All aboard!
