11.6.2008
Sunday, 1 June, 2008
Messiah for the North
By Garvan Grant
There have been some pretty big leaders in these little islands of ours over the years. Massive names from history such as Henry VIII, Oliver Cromwell, Winston Churchill and Ian Paisley still have a powerful resonance for many people living here.
However, today we still have great men in power, even if they weren’t technically elected leaders in a normal democratic fashion. In England, there is Gordon Brown, whose mate Tony let him be prime minister when Tony ran out of inane things to say.
In Ireland, we have Brian Cowen, who succeeded Bertie Ahern when Ahern felt that a tribunal investigating him for possible corruption was distracting him from running the country. Cowen was then elected leader of the country by a bunch of his mates.
In the North, there is about to be a leader who has been practically chosen by God to run his country. His name is Peter Robinson and he will become First Minister of the Northon Thursday.
He will succeed Ian Paisley, who announced that he was stepping down as First Minister and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party in March. In an unrelated matter, his son, Ian Paisley Junior, resigned as junior minister in the Assembly in February after ongoing questions about his links to lobbying and developers.
It is truly a great day for the North that Robinson is to become leader there. If ever there were a man who could be described as peace-loving and God-fearing, it is Robinson.
Let us get one fact straight: he is responsible for there being peace in the North. Pretty much single-handedly, Robinson steered the peace process through its roughest storms.
Robinson should also be given full credit for drafting the Good Friday Agreement. It is his crowning achievement and he should be proud of himself.
Of course, in an article in the Irish Times earlier this year, Robinson completely distanced himself from the Good Friday Agreement. He also wrote: ‘‘The Belfast Agreement has gone and Northern Ireland is the better for it.’’ In the piece, he was jubilant that the agreement had failed and that his party had negotiated the completely different agreement instead. This completely different agreement is the world-famous St Andrews agreement.
That was probably just false modesty on Robinson’s part. It would be much better if everyone just gave him the credit for it he deserves. In fact, while we’re at it, we might as well give him credit for the Sunningdale agreement of 1974 and the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 which, like the Good Friday Agreement, also failed.
Robinson will be having his day in the sun on Thursday when he finally steps out of the shadow of his beloved leader, Ian Paisley. He has always played second fiddle to Paisley, but now after decades standing behind him, people will begin to respect Robinson for being more than just Paisley’s lapdog.
Of course, we in the south have respected him since he ‘invaded’ our country in 1986.A small armed force of loyalists crossed the border into Clontibret, Co Monaghan in August that year. The fearless Robinson was among this brave bunch. It was also there that he allegedly first suggested the idea that he could be president of a united 32-county Republic of Northern Ireland.
After some fearsome battles involving the 500 loyalists and two gardai, Robinson was arrested. His point, whatever it might have been, had been well made.
Interestingly, Robinson was also involved with an organisation called Ulster Resistance, which some believed to have been a paramilitary group intent on defending Ulster. It came to light that Ulster Resistance was involved in importing guns, leading the naive Robinson to distance himself from the organisation.
Now, this great leader is set to become first minister of the North. He will take up his seat beside his trusted deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness. Paisley and McGuinness have got on like a young teenage couple since assuming power together.
With Paisley gone, it is now Robinson’s chance to get close to McGuinness. In many ways, he will have to get on even better with McGuinness than Paisley did in order to convince the world that he is going to be a great leader like his former mentor.
It is possible that Peter Robinson will eventually be remembered as a leader in the same mould as Mahatma Gandhi, Che Guevara, Jesus Christ or Michael McDowell. And we in the Republic are lucky, because one day, if there ever is a proper united Republic of Ireland, it is possible that Robinson will become president. We live in some hope.
Copyright © Sunday Business Post 2008