President Mary McAleese
7.2.2010
Reports obtained from:
(1) The Independent, (2) The Guardian, (3) Irish Republican News
Sunday, 7 February, 2010
Saturday, 6 February, 2010
Saturday, 6 February, 2010
Brian Feeney: Now Northern Ireland only needs trust
The success of the Hillsborough accord rests with individuals
By The Independent
Ten years ago, 8 per cent of Northern Ireland's police were Catholics. Today the figure is 27.8 per cent, such is the sea change in the mindset of the nationalist population since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Northern Ireland's nationalists have withheld consent from the state and its police force, which they perceived as the paramilitary wing of the Ulster Unionist Party, since its creation in 1921. "Ninety per cent Protestant and one hundred per cent Unionist" was the slogan. Now, as a result of Friday's agreement at Hillsborough Castle, the political representatives of nationalists will sit alongside Unionists in an executive responsible for policing and justice.
Gordon Brown said Friday's deal "closed the last chapter of a long and troubled history". He spoke of a "momentous journey", as the Sinn Fein deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, stood side by side with the prime minister. McGuinness, a former IRA leader, has moved from planning how to kill policemen to running an administration that, if all goes to plan, will oversee policing policy.
It is the former status of McGuinness and of other Sinn Fein colleagues in the Stormont assembly which has made the decision to devolve power over policing and justice so difficult for Unionists to accept and has made them delay so long. Even sharing power with Sinn Fein in 2007 caused a split in the Democratic Unionist Party, the dominant grouping in unionism. To allow Sinn Fein to get anywhere near policing and justice has, until Friday, remained a step too far.
The Unionists could not understand why devolving these powers was so important to Sinn Fein. In 2007, the party had made the seismic move to recognise the new police service, the PSNI. That move was conditional on a Department of Justice for Northern Ireland being established. For Sinn Fein it was essential that it be seen to run all aspects of the state it had given its consent to for the first time. Policing and justice are such crucial aspects because Sinn Fein needed to fireproof itself against republican critics and armed dissidents who accuse it of administering British justice. After the Hillsborough Castle agreement, that accusation has no force.
To the Democratic Unionist Party all that ideology is irrelevant. The DUP's priority was to fireproof itself against its own hard-liners, so it introduced Orange marches as a counterweight in the negotiations. Friday's outcome has balanced movement towards devolution of policing and justice scheduled for 12 April against new arrangements for authorising controversial Orange marches, a framework for which must be pencilled in by March. In short, negotiations still continue.
Whether the pieces fall into place in March and April depends on a new spirit emerging between Sinn Fein and the DUP. The preamble to the agreement makes much of partnership, mutual respect and equality, qualities absent in the DUP's attitude to individual Sinn Fein assembly members. There is suspicion that former IRA members have not changed enough to be trusted. To assuage such concerns, DUP leader Peter Robinson talked of a "clever device", so far known only to him, to guarantee Sinn Fein fulfils its obligations.
Some senior DUP figures remain dissatisfied, especially those MPs who will be facing the Unionist electorate in May. However, the alternative was a snap assembly election which could see Sinn Fein emerge as the largest party, with unionism divided three ways.
Managing his backwoodsmen over the next three months will be a test of Peter Robinson's leadership. If he succeeds he will achieve something no Unionist leader has managed, namely, to persuade Unionists to live on equal terms with republicans.
Brian Feeney is an author and historian
Copyright © The Independent 2010
Northern Ireland: Ulster's real deal
Editorial
By The Guardian
Yesterday's long-awaited agreement between the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin on the devolution of Northern Ireland policing and justice runs to 21 pages. But those 21 pages contain few surprises or intractable issues. The powers and ethos of the new Northern Ireland department of justice, which will come into existence on 12 April, were not seriously in doubt. Nor was the fact that neither a DUP nor a Sinn Féin member would head it. Nor even was the inclusion in the agreement of a reform of the system of adjudicating on Northern Ireland parades. In all essentials the document could have been, and perhaps was, drafted several months ago. As in the Middle East, the uncertainty has always been less about the terms of the eventual agreement and more about whether the two sides could finally bring themselves to sign it.
That, more than anything, is what lies behind the in other respects ridiculous 10 days and nights of negotiations between the two sides that finally ended as the clock was about to strike midnight on Thursday. These so-called negotiations were ostensibly a two-party process involving the DUP and Sinn Féin, intermittently augmented by the British and Irish governments. But it would be truer to say that the negotiations were all about one party, the DUP, struggling to come to terms with the reality that republicans will soon have a say in the running of justice in Northern Ireland at all – inconceivable in any unionist world-view until a few years ago – and that now was the time to face up to it if the power-sharing arrangements were to continue.
It is important to recognise that these issues raised real and potent fears for unionists. Yet, until a generation ago, undiluted unionist control of justice and the police raised far more than fears for nationalists. In the end, it is a tribute to the robustness of the peace process, and to the prosperity which it has delivered, that the DUP has finally agreed to the package. Perhaps inevitably, they required a concession on parades to provide cover for what outright rejectionists on both sides regard as a sellout. Even so, on Monday, the DUP assembly group divided 22-14 in favour of the deal. It took most of the week for party leader Peter Robinson, whose position has been under challenge, to bring them all round. Sinn Féin, which could have upped the ante, chose not to do so. This was the right course and, hopefully, it may help to bring a bit more trust to the relationship between Mr Robinson and Martin McGuinness. Each party had an interest in making the other sweat so that the eventual outcome can be presented as a victory in upcoming elections. Yet this deal was in both their interests too. And it is in the interests of the Northern Ireland people even more.
Copyright © The Guardian 2010
Party leaders to meet Obama
By Irish Republican News
The North's political leaders have earned a high-profile trip to the White House for St Patrick's Day following the successful negotiation of a deal on sectarian parades and local policing powers.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness will meet US President Barack Obama to discuss progress in the North's political process.
Speaking last night, the US president Barack Obama said he is looking forward to meeting political leaders behind the agreement.
Mr Obama said the power-sharing deal was an important step on the path to greater peace and prosperity.
"The president appreciates the personal contributions and steadfast support of the Taoiseach and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown in support of the historic agreement achieved by Northern Ireland leaders today, which is an important step on the pathway to greater peace and prosperity for all communities on the island," a White House statement said.
The 26-County Taoiseach Brian Cowen and the Six-County First Minister Peter Robinson and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness will meet Mr Obama at the White House on St Patrick's Day to discuss progress.
"The president looks forward to commemorating his second St Patrick's Day in the White House with the Taoiseach, a celebration which serves as a reminder of the shared history and close kinship between our two countries," the statement added.
Sinn Fein vice-president Mary Lou McDonald announced this morning that the party's Officer Board has endorsed the Agreement announced yesterday at Hillsborough Castle.
"The Sinn Fein Officer Board met following the Agreement announced at Hillsborough Castle. During its deliberations the Officer Board discussed and endorsed the Agreement reached and commended the Sinn Fein negotiations team.
"This is as an important and significant step forward for the political process and for the future of this country.
"The long overdue transfer of policing and justice powers from Britain to the North of Ireland is a major political achievement that will be welcomed by people throughout the island of Ireland.
"Sinn Fein wishes to see fully functioning, effective political institutions that operate on the basis of equality and which deliver for all of the people. The Agreement reached at Hillsborough is a very important step in that direction."
On Monday efforts will begin to name the North's first minister for justice since the previous devolved Six-County administration was scrapped in 1972.
David Ford of the moderate unionist Alliance Party is widely tipped to be the successful candidate.
On Tuesday Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness will set up a controversial working group, which will have just three weeks to agree the best method of achieving cross-community support for a "new and improved" system of dealing with parading. Failure to do so could undermine the agreed plan to transfer policing and justice powers from London to Belfast by April 12th.
REACTION
"This might just be the day when the political process in the North came of age," Mr McGuinness said yesterday.
He said that compared the deal announced yesterday at Hillsborough Castle to the Good Friday Agreement and St Andrews Agreement, "this could turn out to be maybe the most important agreement of all".
Mr Robinson said the deal was a "good day for Northern Ireland". He added: "No future generation would forgive us for squandering the peace that has been so long fought for. Today's agreement is a sure sign that there will be no going back to the past."
Republican Sinn Fein strongly condemned the deal.
"With the fervour of political converts the Provos cannot wait to administer British Police and British Justice in Ireland," said party President Des Dalton.
"As they don the uniforms and carry the weapons of their one-time enemy, it can be truly said that the 'poachers have become gamekeepers.'
"When the new 'Broy Harriers' take to the streets under Provo direction history can be accurately said to be repeating itself.
"As British rule reaches into the grass-roots in the Six Counties, British Imperialism in its updated mode seeks to make itself more acceptable. However history teaches us that it will once more be resisted."
eirigi chairperson Brian Leeson warned that vulnerable nationalist communities could not be sacrificed to secure the transfer of "limited" justice and policing powers to the Six-Coounty administration at Stormont.
Yesterday's announcement was "heavy on spin" but "very light on detail", he said, but it was clear that the DUP and Sinn Fein had agreed a "trade-off" on the issues of policing and sectarian marches.
"It is inconceivable that the DUP would have agreed to that trade-off without securing concessions on sectarian marches through nationalist areas," he said.
"Sinn Fein, and to a lesser extent the SDLP, must now be asked what price have they have paid to the DUP and the British government. Have they agreed to sacrifice the people of the Garvaghy Road on the altar of British policing and justice?"
On the issue of the limited transfer of powers to Stormont, Leeson continued: "I have no doubt that Sinn Fein and the SDLP will present today's deal as some form of victory for nationalists and republicans. But instead of victory, today's deal is nothing but the latest in a long line of defeats at the negotiation table.
"The most basic study of Irish history demonstrates that British governments have always been willing to allow loyal subjects to administer British rule in Ireland - once that loyalty has been established beyond question.
"Regardless of the so-called transfer of policing and justice, the PSNI will remain a British paramilitary force, administering British laws in support of the British legal and judicial system."
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams admitted the agreement was not the end of all difficulties but was "a staging post" along the path to greater equality.
"This isn't all going to be all hunky-dory. This is very much a staging post, there are lots of other issues that need to be dealt with such as citizens' rights and equality," he told Irish television.
Mr Adams said the progress of talks with the DUP depended on who was sitting across the table from Sinn Fein.
"Some of these guys are dinosaurs," he said. "But there are others who are more pragmatic and who live in the real world. When we got sitting with them that's when we made progress."
He added: "When we got the governments out of it to a certain degree, more specifically the British and Northern Ireland Office, we were able to neutralise distractions and diversions that they were putting into negotiations in what they thought were the best interests of unionism.
"The governments were to fault in many ways on this agreement and the British government particularly. The Irish Government was distracted by certain issues, too."
He said this was not to take away from the work of the Taoiseach and the 26-County Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin.
The agreement was attacked by Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister. "Roll-over unionism is still delivering - delivering the Sinn Fein agenda," he said.
In a statement the Orange Order offered a qualified welcome. "Our initial reaction is that it is a positive step forward and we are pleased that people have been focusing on the issue of parading."
Church leaders also welcomed the agreement and called for a new focus on normalisation and economic recovery.
President Mary McAleese hailed the deal as "a decisive move ahead".
"This is a deeply significant day in the evolution of the peace process. Indeed, history may well record this agreement as the moment when the peace process transitioned from potential to reality," Mrs McAleese said in a statement.
"After many years of negotiation and inching forward at an often cautious and painstaking pace, a decisive move ahead has been made and, critically, it has been made by the parties themselves."
Copyright © Irish Republican News 2010