ireland, irish, ulster, belfast, northern ireland, british, loyalist, nationalist, republican, unionist

(Irelandclick.com)

The headline in the Irish Times declared that Sinn Féin must break the deadlock.
I am eternally grateful to whoever invented headlines because they often provide an indication as to whether or not it is worth the reader’s valuable time to press on and actually read the article, or should they just skip ahead to the sports section or the TV listings.
And with a wordy beast like the Irish Times such an indication represents a most valuable service indeed.
Obviously, having read that particular headline, I was fairly sure I was not going to waste any more of my precious life hearing how the Irish government lectured my political representatives about the Peace Process.
Did you know, that there was a time when newspapers were actually produced and published without headlines. I mean, you could easily have got caught out…
The Northern Bank robbery has now taken on a new life of its own, a political existence that has nothing to do with the actual heist itself. The Bank authorities themselves have more or less admitted that as far as they are concerned the case is more or less closed.
There was no wrongdoing on the part of their staff, and the customers will not be affected, and as for the money… well, as in all bank robberies, that’s the last thing the authorities care about.
Banks get robbed, have been doing so since the first one was invented, and will probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
This bank robbery was carried out for political purposes, either by the Brits in order to cause difficulties for Sinn Féin, or by the IRA in order to register the fact that last December’s rejection of their offer to move swiftly into totally unarmed activity had inevitable consequences.
And as I previously declared in this column, I am firmly of the opinion that the latter is true. That is to say that when Ian Paisley refused to allow political progress last December, and when the two Governments decided to back him up, the Peace Process was kicked into reverse gear.
One way or another the Irish government have been able to use the Northern Bank robbery as a lever to turn the whole focus of politics in this country onto the question of what they term ‘Sinn Féin’s attitude to the IRA’s criminality’.
Which is all very fine as long as you realise that Fianna Fáil, the Progressive Democrats, Fine Gael, the Labour Party and all the rest of them don’t give a flying fiddler’s monkey about the IRA nor their criminality.
As far as they are concerned, really, the issue of the IRA was resolved on August 31, 1994 when the ceasefire was announced.
The plain truth is that since the foundation of the state, the political establishment in the South has always accepted the fact that the IRA is part of life, a result of history, and as long as they are not going around shooting and bombing, then they need be of no real concern.
The point of the on-going charade over the Northern Bank raid is part of an on-going campaign to keep Sinn Féin out of government, especially in the Republic, and it is the response to what can be described as Gerry Adam’s undeclared policy for uniting Ireland: Sinn Féin, the leading nationalist party in the North, in government in Stormont and Leinster House.
You can see it yourself – imagine Seán Crowe as Minister for Health in the Republic meeting Pat Doherty as Minister for Health in the North, or Education Ministers Aonghas Ó Snodaigh and Caitríona Ruane, or Martin Ferris and Gerry Kelly meeting as Ministers for Justice… or Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness meeting Caoimhín Ó Caoláin, the Minister for Foreign Affairs…
Meanwhile, however, life in the North goes on as ever. Political change is taking place, and the Sinn Féin strategy may well bear fruit in the fullness of time, but the much-vaunted change in the lives of ordinary nationalists in the North is simply not happening. Or if it is, it’s all so slow-moving, and taking so many years to come about, that it’s not worth mentioning.
Whatever happened to the Peace Dividend, the economic injection that was supposed to transform life here after the Ceasefire? Belfast shows no sign of becoming the Barcelona of Ireland… we can’t even keep up with Galway as an attractive arts and leisure destination.
When are we ever going to get equal recognition for our national flag, our language, our Irishness?
Will we ever see the day when the road signs telling you how to get to Derry or Crossmaglen or wherever will be bi-lingual in the Six Counties, just as they our in the rest of the country?
In 1982 the BBC started a weekly, fifteen minute radio programme in Irish; almost a quarter of a century later BBC Radio Ulster has moved on to a half-hour bi-lingual slot, five nights a week. Progress at a snail’s pace, a one-legged snail’s pace…
Did you know that it is still BBC policy not to broadcast the National Anthem before GAA matches in the North? I despair, almost.
We still live in a British-orientated state, which treats Irishness as some kind of an ethnic minority. We need recognition for the fact that being culturally, politically and emotionally opposed to the very idea of a Northern Ireland state is just as legitimate a viewpoint as the unionist one.
Surely, even as the politics develop or un-develop, could we not put our collective heads together to achieve a situation where the Irish side of life in the Six Counties – every aspect of it – gets a fair deal?

This article appeared first on the Irelandclick.com web site on DATE, 2005.