Shamefully someone has asked me to write a piece on the standoff in northern Ireland. I really do not want to but I will. There really is very little to say other than Michelle O’Neill is in an impossible position within an argument that was stoked and is being stoked by two arguments about where the state stands.
It is not so much that there is a standoff between Republicans and Loyalists, it is a facet of the Troubles that took place thirty plus years ago. It is a realization of two identities, one tied to the Good Friday Agreement and the other to the Belfast Agreement, neither right – neither wrong, both identical, both contested and argued. It is about as much ‘identity’ and what you identify with, but it is also an incomplete argument of identity that challenges the politician, activist and the citizen.
In many ways it is about sectarianism losing its voice among a people who identify with everything northern Irish rather than having a memory of what it is to be segregated, live in the Shankhill or anywhere else that there is a wall that identifies with the Troubles, which is today a tourist attraction. Whether it is a mural or a pledge to fight to the end is really just a voice of a minority among the majority who want to be celebrated for being lucky enough to live in a country that leads the education tables (nothing to do with the politicians and all to do with the people who have administered the state,) have a standard of living that is envied and celebrated, restaurants that are legendary, Belfast being one of the hottest spots in Europe and finally a destination for filming for its beauty, character and ability to host people from around the world.
So the argument of a march is an argument that undoes the positives, or does it?
The fact that Michelle O’Neill has taken a stance politically as an activist doesn’t really mean that much to the people of Northern Ireland. It is a continuation of a lost world of identity, all the things that make the identity of the state. It is as lost as the Red Brigade, PLO, planes that flew into the twin towers and ISIS – each more angry than the last. I am not sure whether Michelle O’Neill will appreciate my argument, but it is a question of identity, lost identity, lost voices, lost arguments, lost ambition and lost revolutions.
If she had been been as passionate about sectarian argument than lip service would not have been an aspect of Lyra Mackee’s death, it would have meant something. The horror of the kids rioting was a cry for help from an underclass and the failure of the state to cater for their fears, anger and poverty. It is very much the failure of Stormont, Article 2 and anything to do with keeping the people of northern Ireland aware of where they are today and what yesterday brought that links the present with the past.
It is not a question of today but yesterday, a battle being fought out because of the failures of the politicians in Britain and Ireland, neither giving an inch, neither arguing for the people of northern Ireland and neither giving a damn, just a battle of wills and Brexit, coming to bite the people who have done so much to change the perception of who or what the northern Irish are and what their future is. Strangely, it is a lack of maturity in Michelle O’Neill and the politicians in the Stormont to realise the people have moved on and those making a stand to stop an expression of identity, is as much a failure of the past as it is the future.
The men in black are an expression of anger, they are the storm troopers of the righteous, the believers, the people who stand in Portsmouth, Dover and now the people stopping the march in Drumcree. Each, stopping, pushing and arguing against something they believe in, just as much as the migrant and anybody with an opposing view. Strange, but that seems to be the identity of any argument – an argument of darkness.
But the ability of who or what stands in the way of an argument is also a realisation that while Stormont was talking about the future of the NHS, there wasn’t a conversation on what this week would bring. Was it a political failure beyond political failures… This is the second time under Labour, first Hilary Benn and now Chris Bryant, both lost and both mishandled an argument that is a cry to the world.
The argument is that there are voices that are different and as Michelle O’Neill shouted this morning and stood on a platform of difference, the idea of identity of the state is in danger. But just as angry and just as righteous were the voices of the DUP who stood tall on the law and spoke of the rights of thirty men to march. But the voices are angry and the British minister stood in front of a thousand cameras and microphones and pleaded with everyone to ‘calm down’. Strangely amusing as he had just come back from a labour conference in Liverpool.
The idea that northern Ireland will blow up is also a realization that the northern Irish population are just not interested in the sectarianism of yesterday. Michelle O’Neill has taken a stance, the DUP have taken a stance, but the identity of those involved are just voices that really are shouting an argument of yesterday, today the men in black and the men in Orange are just standing their ground and making news, the situation for the police is just a moment of madness and a day of Remembrance for the officers who lost their lives in the Troubles.
The standoff will continue, both sides patiently waiting, but the incendiary voices of the politicians will be stilled as the world remembers those killed over thirty years and in the end coming to like anything in northern Ireland – a compromise.
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