No commentator on the political realities of Northern Ireland is better than Irish News columnist Brian Feeney. Indeed, he is so good the Irish National Caucus regularly disseminates his columns in the United States Congress as part of our important Irish Congressional Briefings.
So, his recent column – ‘There will never be ‘normal politics’ here because the north is an artificial construct’ (April 20) – was naturally of interest.
I have noticed over the years that increasingly the preferred description of the north, by those critical of it, is that it was artificial. And, of course, it certainly was. However, it was even worse than artificial – it was, also, and more to the point, racist (meaning anti-Irish) and sectarian (meaning anti-Catholic).
It serves neither truth nor reconciliation to evade this. And, certainly, Edward Carson MP (commonly seen as the virtual founder of Northern Ireland) minced no words on that.
On May 18 1920, he explained why the ‘artificial construct’ was necessary: “We have to refer in these matters to Protestants and Catholics – we should only be making the very greatest camouflage of argument if we did not treat them in that way – because these are really the burning question over there.
“The inclusion of these six counties would bring in under the jurisdiction of the north of Ireland parliament 820,000 Protestants out of 890,000 in the whole province (counting Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan).
“On the other hand, while you would leave out 70,000 who are in these three counties (Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan), you would bring in from these three counties into the northern province, an additional 260,000 Roman Catholics.”
And, that is how and why the six counties came to be an artificial contraption – to keep Irish Catholics as second-class citizens and no problem for Protestant supremacy, or for England’s continuing rule.
Have hardline unionist/Protestant leaders in the past 100 years really ever shown a true change of heart and a new-found commitment to the values of democracy, equality, justice and solidarity?
These are the values next week’s elections in Northern Ireland must resoundingly endorse and embrace.
FR SEAN McMANUS
President Irish National Caucus, Washington
Truth Recovery Process never supported British ‘legacy proposals’
IN her letter – ‘Following NIO play book on truth and justice’ (April 22) – Sandra Peake alleges that the Truth Recovery Process is “backing the British government’s legacy amnesty proposals”. I wish to state categorically that we have never supported the British government’s proposals, which are in clear violation of Articles Two, Three and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights. I would further ask her to show where in any of our documents on www.truthrecoveryprocess.ie we have advocated the British government’s amnesty proposal.
What we have proposed is that in the long period that has elapsed since the Good Friday Agreement victims and survivors of the Troubles should be offered the option of pursuing their cases, if they so wish, through a mediation process where former combatants would engage with them to provide all the information they seek and acknowledge their pain and loss. The scheme would also facilitate adequate compensation by the British and, or Irish governments and avoid the time, costs and above all the uncertainties of criminal or civil proceedings.
Even if far greater resources are invested in processing cases through the courts, this will not address the needs of the vast majority of families, some of whom have been waiting more than 50 years for their cases to be heard. Neither will it allow the many miscarriages of justice that have occurred in the past to be addressed, or the responsibility of the main actors in the conflict – on all sides to be established. These principals are rarely mentioned, let alone appear in court.
In suggesting that we are ‘following the NIO playbook’ Sandra Peake does a disservice to herself as well as to the need for honest dialogue. While we have engaged with the NIO, as we have with many other bodies north and south, we have never sought or received any funding or material support from it. We are certainly not following a ‘playbook’ devised by the NIO, or anyone else.
We fully respect the invaluable work of the Wave Trauma Centre on behalf of victims and survivors and we hope Ms Peake and the centre will continue to engage with us. The needs of the people they serve are paramount and if our approach challenges the prevailing wisdom we would at least ask our critics to accept that we are acting in good faith.
PADRAIG YEATES
Secretary Truth Recovery Process
Insular attitude of ‘us v them’ still prevalent
From reading Nuala Perry’s letter – ‘Ubiquitous paramilitary task force’ (April 26) – one would be forgiven for assuming that the Paramilitary Crime Task Force was established with the sole purpose to ‘invade and wreck the lives’ of people from one particular persuasion. This is not borne out by facts given that the task force, made up of the police, NCA and HMRC, disrupts criminality perpetrated by practitioners purporting to be of one political hue or none. In December 2021, one of its greatest successes was seizing £100,000 worth of drugs from the east Belfast UVF. The insular attitude of ‘us v them’ is unfortunately still prevalent in our society when it comes to issues that people should view as having ‘right or wrong’ outcomes. In any other country, most people would give the task force three cheers for their demanding work which ultimately should be seen not just as asserting law and order but crucially as protecting communities from the clutches of illegal organisations – loyalist, republican or other– which continue to run amok.
P DONNELLY LL.B
Co Down
SDLP’s loss of
direction
I
n partial response to Andrew McAnee’s letter (April 25) that the SDLP should change their name to the Socialist Unionist Labour Party: he has misread the party’s wayward loss of direction entirely.
The SDLP position on the constitutional question is unquestionable; the problem is they’ve lost sight of socialism, this means the first three words of their name are now essentially redundant and they might as well register as simply ‘Party’. Going by their conduct in Newry council, supporting the demolishing of more of our historic buildings, they seem a party of Thatcherites beholden to some twisted form of ‘modernity’.
Their biggest problem is simply inertia. It was put to me by a local Shinner that Rostrevor should be an SDLP village, but through a sheer lack of being bothered they’ve handed the town to Sinn Féin.
FIONNBARR RODGERS
Rostrevor, Co Down
