The Orange Order, Apprentice Boys and evangelical Protestants together with the main Protestant Churches were officially represented at meetings of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation in Dublin Castle.
A number of Ulster Unionists made personal submissions and what follows is an abridged version of my own.
Speaking at the forum in 1995 I had commented that it was not an illusion to suggest that "already, those who have eyes to see, can grasp glimpses of a new world of peace and cooperation" in which "our sectarian past will only be of historical interest".
I take nothing back from those sentiments, but we now face a major difficulty.
Almost a decade since the Downing Street declaration and five years after the Good Friday Agreement – both predicated upon a permanent end to violence – Sinn Féin remains inextricably linked to a functioning, active terrorist army who spent 25 years pursuing the forcible establishment of a 32-county Irish state.
The leadership of the SDLP, as well as of Sinn Féin, has promoted the same agenda – Irish territorial unity. This has often been fostered on the basis of the same sectarian head count they condemned in relation to the foundation of the Northern Ireland state. A united Ireland is seen as inevitable if and when the magical 51% majority is reached. We thus remain largely within the winner-takes-all mindset rather than that of a new pluralist ethos of inclusion. This ethos is set out in the letter and spirit of revised Article Three which enjoins unity on the basis of 'only by peaceful means' and in 'harmony and friendship' and can only mean with the support of most of those hitherto of a unionist persuasion.
The Irish state was, in the words of eminent historian John A Murphy, in many ways, a 'pretence'. While in theory committed to encompassing all the inhabitants of Ireland, regardless of creed, in practice what was established was a Catholic, Gaelic, and later, republican state. The first official language – Irish – was and is seldom used, and according to recent research appears to be facing serious decline in contrast to Welsh-speaking in the UK. Northern unionists, including those who are not Protestant, once feared domination by a Catholic-inspired state but now many fear domination by a heady mixture of nationalism and republicanism.
If the disastrous conflict of the last 30 years has taught us anything it is that 'force majeure' is impossible and holds no solution if the main traditions in Ireland are to live side-by-side in adequate harmony. If we were to exchange one form of domination for another we would return to where we started, but without a large British army presence to hold the ring. The implications of this would be a civil war of Bosnian proportions – itself initiated by a referendum, which became an ethnic head count and triggered an appalling inter-ethnic-religious war.
We must take the Good Friday Agreement seriously as a means of meeting the needs – rather than wants – of both traditions in both parts of the island. Unfortunately, many still see that agreement primarily, if not solely, as a means of addressing nationalist grievances in the north and promoting the united Irish agenda. The symbolism of the Irish tricolour – meaning a friendly and lasting truce between Orange and green – has been lost on generations. The sense of peace was drowned by the sound and fury of battle driving unionists further and further from their fellows on the island.
Yet there remain grounds for hope in the north/south linkages and east/west institutions. The British-Irish Council envisages ever closer ties between our islands and this concept can be extended to include the evolving regions of England – in which, as we all know from family experience, millions of people of Irish extraction now live quite happily. Ancient ties of kinship, language, proximity and history form indissoluble links between our islands of the north-east Atlantic.
The Republic will continue to move closer to the other island without loosing its distinctive features or independent parliament. It could, alongside several other republics, re-enter the Commonwealth and demonstrate that the old animosity between Ireland and the United Kingdom is gone and that reconciliation is at hand. In that stabilised context new relationships between north and south could be envisaged and nourished. The deadly animosities stirred by 19th century romantic nationalism, the overbearing influence of the British empire at its height and the chauvinistic fervour let loose by the First World War in Europe, could at last be laid to rest. Our isles could become a 'common political area' where nations and increasingly diverse peoples can freely associate to their mutual benefit.
