Will an agreement reached by Democratic Unionsist Party leader Ian Paisley(below, left) and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams finally lead to a power-shared devolved government in Northern Ireland? The Stormont Parliamentary Building in Belfast had been limited to hosting weddings for the last several years (2003-07).
“Compromise is not a dirty word – Compromise.” – Bono
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2007/mar/26/northernireland.devolution
Marriage is give and take. Governments, and nationalist movements, you should know, tend to be more about the latter than the former. But with the setting the Northern Ireland Assembly Dining Room – the only portion of the Northern Ireland Parliament that has been open for business the last 4+ years (you could book your wedding there) – that Northern Irish nationalist leaders agreed on Monday (3/26/07) to legitimately function in a power-shared parliament beginning on May 8, 2007.
The Good Friday Agreement brokered in 1997 as part of Tony Blair’s “Third Way” reforms. The planned devolution (the unitary British Government turning over power) was dissolved a total of four times (suspended from 2003-07) when the historic rivals showed they could not get along. As a unitary government, unlike our shared federalist powers, Westminster has sovereign authority to release or pull back rule.
Britain and Ireland, like the parents of an arranged engaged couple, threw money and smiles at the process.
Former prime ministers, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, said the Sinn Fein-Democratic Unionist pact was the welcome culmination of their governments’ close cooperation on Northern Ireland since 1997.
“Everything we have done over the last 10 years has been a preparation for this moment,” Blair said in London.
In Dublin, Ahern said all players in the often tortuous peace process can “move forward from today in an entirely new spirit and with every expectation of success.” Ahern said he and Blair were “determined to ensure that the final steps of the peace process are successfully completed.”
But will it last? Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams sat at the same table for the first time in history, but they reportedly avoided eye contact and did not shake hands.
This certainly doesn’t not look like a “match made in heaven.” Though, like many nationalist quarrels and cleavages, it is often defined a religious conflict between the Protestant Unionists and the Sinn Fein Catholics. It is much more complicated than that.
Could it also be much more simple?
“Eye, Ian try the Corned Beef.”
“A Guinness, Gerry?”
Brilliant!
Brilliant!
For more on the Good Friday Agreement (The Agreement) of 1998:
http://www.nio.gov.uk/the-agreement
And more on the cleavage on the isle, on the second largest city in Northern Ireland Derry or Londonderry (depending on which side you align):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derry
1 comment:
First off, it's Doire (or Derry if you prefer the English Language in Ireland)
Secondly, I am glad that the Rev. Ian Paisley has retired. He barely knows what compromise is, and he only has two slogans, "Ulster says no!" and "Pope John Paul II - Anti-Christ" (http://query.nytimes.com/1988/10/16/weekinreview/headliners-papal-audience.html)Mind you, Gerry Adams isn't much better, but at least his voice was not banned on UK television for many years because of alleged terrorism. I am suprised that Mr Adams has decided to resign from his consituency in West Belfast (Béal Feirste Thiar) and run for a Co. Louth (Contae Lú) seat in Dáil Éireann in the 2011 Dáil elections.
I do hope for peace in Northern Ireland, and that Tuirseacht Éireann rejoins with the rest of the Irish public. But until then: Éirinn go brách!
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