CIRA leaders deny ousting claim - The Irish Times - Thu, Jul 29, 2010
THE CONFLICT MONITOR: So... was it a prank, to test or divide the CIRA? Was it a way to provoke “B Ruairc” to a public statement? Or is it true that younger generations are becoming restless as the first dividends of peace were outside their own direct experience and all they've seen is more of the same? I'd say the last is more consistent with the writing on the wall in Belfast and Derry these days. Peace is growing old in NI and it needs some serious facelifting before it will need reviving.
A unified republican front might bring those young folks into politics before they blow up the streets and I think that SDLP is making a huge mistake by placing obstacles. This is not the 1980's for crying out loud.
The CIRA and RIRA are rising out from a well defined growing socioeconomic and political vacuum in NI and Cameron's plan will only make things worse. Not only is he going to dispose of all the benefits that go now to Northern Ireland - see development, water charges etc - but in spite of his NI visit rhetorics he is most likely about to unleash a wave of neoliberal economic treatment on Northern Ireland never to have been seen before! I will set aside for now my full analysis of why this man may be a mild version equivalency to Sarah Palin in the UK... but let us just say for now that he takes history very lightly when putting it in his mouth so far...
History in Northern Ireland is everything. The whole situation there is nothing but a complex web of reenforcing and contradicting narratives of people who live "together" separated by peace walls and identity and socioecomic bubbles that are constantly at the point of bursting with the slightest provocation. It is a society that is still far too early, far too slow in its healing process which is practiced while sectarian and racist violence is still at large, while even cosignatories to the Good Friday Agreement have not decommissioned fully yet, while every year we face violence over a custom that desperately needs to be self regulated and all this under the shadow of a global economic crisis which the UK has managed so far to protect from the public eye even with the collapse of giants such as Goldtrail and others. The UK has increasingly more reasons to want NI out... but the combination of similar circumstances with a conservative residing no 10 has never meant good news for Ulster-minus.
There is no doubt that we are facing peace fatigue in Northern Ireland. Very little is done with intercommunal dialogue, in bringing the peace walls down, taming the parade sessions, controlling sectarian and racist violence, concluding the decommissioning process, removing organized crime, and creating a common vision for the young generations to join in. All of those issues are not purely economic but they are core socio-political, and issues of role and identity.
In spite of the generous sacrifices and compromises by the major players in Stormont, peace in Northern Ireland in terms of reconciliation, truth, justice, and mercy, and a sustainable violence-free future seems to be drifting backwards... The institutions of devolution may look good on paper but the degree of success depends more on how effectively and how fast they can contain and reverse the emerging trends in Northern Ireland society. They have to start working and start working fast!
It's always easy to blame Sinn Féin first for anything that work or doesn't work in NI so let me start from expressing my disappointment in that it should at this point be leading the community - from within - towards building the new Northern Ireland instead of relying on the snail slow, financially broke, sabotaged by spoilers Good Friday, St Andrews and the Hillsborough Castle Agreement institutions. As precious as they may be for leveling the legal playground, otherwise, as we all know, they alone are for the looks, and they should be considered as such especially in an environment of scarcity of financial resources and a landscape of partisanship as friendly as a minefield. At this point it is the parties together and from within their communities that need to begin implementing the points of transition and considering the current capacities and long tradition on involving the community from the republican side Sinn Féin has a responsibility to lead. And so it does, only it is time for some serious brainstorming in coming up with ways to get the other side involved.
The party politics on the loyalist camp - with the exception of PUP - are not the same with those on the republican side. The community has never engaged as deep into party politics as the Catholics have and so it was and is with their paramilitaries as well. The loyalist community even today remains within its own bubble, protected and spoiled by handlers and big time orators who have left them believe that they can handle everything without their direct involvement and participation. Party politics in the loyalist community are elite politics and so constituencies are treated as a pool of prey where party and non party powerful organizations such as the Orange Order, and large parts of the DUP feed from without much obligation to reciprocate. Yes, loyalist sometimes do vote and increasingly so and this is always a good sign but beyond that their relationship with their parties are no more. DUP, and UUP are seen just the same as the Orange Order and the paramilitaries, as necessary evils, the security apparatus, that will protect Protestand traditions and the union with the Crown to the end of time. This is an issue which does trouble folks who care to see an active constituency in the loyalist camp such as Jeffrey Donaldson but it has never become the project of the size that it deserves.
Such asymmetry between republican and loyalist party politics not only is not addressed effectively, but what we have - in fact as a result of peace itself - is an increasing disfranchisement of Catholic youth. This is no news by any means for Europe that youth is staying increasingly away from politics but for Northern Ireland the consequences can be devastating. Not participating into main stream politics doesn't mean youth have no political views. On the contrary, in an environment of socioeconomic crisis from which Norther Ireland have never completely emerged, the political self and the willingness to join for a cause are on the rise. When parties do not catch up with trends within the community then it is alternatives to main stream politics that thrive.
The current configuration sees loyalists politically uninvolved - except from contributing to their "handlers" and most republicans still remaining involved with youth - finding politics increasingly boring and unproductive. This system alone can already tell us the future as it balances in favour of republican youth joining or organizing alternatives to politics and loyalists dumping money and support to their handlers as a means of "response."
It is the system that has to change and by all means it is about time for SF to lead the way into remaking politics attractive for republican youth. It is about time for loyalist politicians who are honest with themselves and really care for those they represent to turn for help to those who know, even to republicans, in reshaping Protestand politics; and those should include seasoned republican organizers and members from all sectors of the community Catholic and Protestand.
This is not a call for hugs and kumbaya. For as long as loyalist voters remain connected to politics only for the day of the year that they have to vote or to go join the parades to stick it to the Catholics, the Republicans will continue to talk and to seek for partners in this peace process among folks who do not understand their language. They remain deaf and blind to the gestures and even sacrifices that republican parties have to offer. Yet what they do relate to is whatever violence or threat of violence is expressed by the republican armed dissidents, the CIRAs and the RIRAs and who know what will come in the next few months even.
The process in Northern Ireland have taught us that peace is a hungry beast that it grows more and more hungry as time goes, getting bored and tired of the same recipes... and until it learns how to stand on its own feet it requires more creativity, more ingredients and wilder imagination of the chef's to keep it alive. Time and again it shows that it's ready to go and the Northern Ireland folks have pulled a two decades display of jigs and turns keeping us all at the edge of our seats and in awe with their creativity and self sacrifice. They have fed the monster with foods none of us have ever imagined to even exist! They have stretched every theory and technique in complex negotiations and they have proven to the world that the stereotypes of the warlike Irish folk should be left only for the cheap propaganda leaflets and the staff of dark prejudice. Following this conflict since the early 80's I can testify that I know of very few people on earth that love peace more than the Irish do; including those who consider themselves British. So I have confidence that they'll find their way out. As an expert though I have the responsibility to ring the bell when a pattern seems to emerge and that I just did.
I look forward to see what is next on the peace menu!
Christos
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