Secretary of State Paul Murphy's decision to introduce tougher sentences for 'hate crime' in Northern Ireland is the first serious attempt here to deal with the cancer of sectarianism.
Since 1921 the north has been disgraced by outbreaks of sectarian-motivated violence and sectarian rhetoric – "savage, repeated and prolonged" in the words of Winston Churchill. Many sectarian speeches were uttered by Unionist cabinet ministers in the turbulent early years. For example, in 1934 the then prime minister, Lord Craigavon boasted at Stormont that "ours is a Protestant parliament and a Protestant state". His cabinet colleague, the future PM, Sir Basil Brooke went further, urging an Orange meeting in 1933 to employ only "good Protestant lads and lassies" since Catholics were "only out to cut their throats".
Despite Nationalist protests to Westminster there was no legislation on the statute book to deal with such bigoted outbursts by public figures. Until the late sixties the British parliament chose to turn a blind eye to the sectarian problems in its own back-yard. In the 1960s, the civil rights movement campaigned for the extension of the English Race Relations Act to Northern Ireland but to no avail.
It was only with the outbreak of the Troubles in 1969 that British pressure forced the tottering Stormont government to pass a law against sectarian incitement.
The resulting Incitement to Hatred Act of 1970 was used only once. John McKeague, the firebrand chairman of the Shankill Defence Association, was prosecuted in 1971 for publishing a loyalist song book containing nakedly sectarian sentiments. The jury disagreed – always a problem in such cases in the north – and Mr McKeague was acquitted at a retrial. As a result there were no further prosecutions under the act.
The problem of sectarian and racially-motivated speeches erupted again in 1984 over the remarks of a DUP councillor, George Seawright. Seawright told a meeting of the Belfast Education and Library Board that "Catholics and their priests should be burned". As a result of the ensuing furore councillor Seawright was expelled from the Rev Ian Paisley's party.
In recent years the ongoing series of sectarian pipe-bombings, school attacks and burnings – mainly directed against Catholics in areas such as North Belfast and east Antrim – has underlined the basic weakness of the law. High-profile incidents such as the Holy Cross dispute of 2001 and the recent loyalist protests at the Catholic 'blessing of the graves' service at Carnmoney Cemetery have forced the government's hand. Only last week, Chief Superintendent Brendan McGuigan, the PSNI officer policing the Carnmoney dispute, publicly admitted that his hands were tied: "There is no law against sectarian protests."
The legislation announced yesterday by the Secretary of State is the first move towards creating a more tolerant climate for all in the north, including racial minorities, gays and Travellers.
Dr Eamon Phoenix is a political historian and commentator. This article appeared first in the October 3, 2003 edition of the Irish News.
