The devolved regional assembly of Northern Ireland which sits at
Stormont the building which previously housed the N Ireland government
from 1922 to 1972 is in crisis.
The precipitation something as ordinary as a funeral something that
happens every day all over the world but this was no ordinary funeral
This was the funeral of Bobby Storey a charismatic leader of the Irish
Republican Army. An icon to generations of republicans and a man held in
high esteem by colleagues and former comrades alike.
A close personal friend to Gerry Adams former leader of Sinn Fein an
ex-prisoner and the man many believe masterminded the escape of 38 republicans
from Long Kesh maximum security prison camp known as HMP The Maze on September
25, 1983, One of Europe’s most secure prisons and designed specifically to
prevent communication between political prisoners The ‘H’
Blocks of Long Kesh HMP The Maze Prison
Storey was also credited with overseeing the appropriation of hundreds of
classified secret police Special Branch files in March 2002 at their
Headquarters in Castlereagh Police Station
On December 15, 2014, the Northern Bank Headquarters based on Donegal Square
West Belfast had 26.5 million pounds stolen. Accusations that Storey and
the IRA were involved in the raid have never been provenB
The anecdotes involving Mr Storey are too numerous to mention and many will probably never be told Known only to a few people who will probably carry them to their graves.
Mr
Storey passed away shortly after having an unsuccessful lung transplant in
Newcastle Upon Tyne England
He died on June 21 aged 64 and had served 20 years in prison on various charges
connected to his membership and active participation in the IRA armed
campaign for national liberation
Michelle O Neill is the deputy party leader of Sinn Fein and serves as
Joint First Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly
Since Ireland was partitioned by the British in 1921 we have had two
governments on the island of Ireland one North and one South of the
border.
The North of Ireland after partition had an inbuilt pro-British unionist
colonial population and through this inbuilt gerrymandered majority the Ulster
Unionist Party ruled the North f of Ireland rom 1921 as a one-party state
‘A Protestant Parliament and a Protestant State’ is
a quote from Lord Craigavon in 1934.
The indigenous Catholic Irish absorbed into this new partitioned statelet were treated as second class citizens and viewed as an enemy by the new state.
After nearly 25 years of internal armed conflict in Northern Ireland from August
1969 to the IRA ceasefire June 1994, a new dispensation was then created and
the people of Ireland North and Soth voted in favour of the Good Friday
Agreement also known as the Belfast Agreement on April 10, 1998, and the IRA
embraced politics as a method to obtain National Reunification over armed
militant struggle and so the Peace Process was born
This was followed by a devolved government being elected and the IRA enter
government at the old Parliamentary Building at Stormont.
The newly elected Assembly first sat on July 1 1998
Powers were re devolved to the Northern Assembly on December 2, 1999,
having been suspended from 1972
This has been an uneasy marriage between two sets of political antagonists.
One one side the descendants of the colonial settlements of English and
Scottish settlers who wish to maintain the link with the United Kingdom they
are Unionists and then we have the indigenous Irish who wish to see the final
removal of the British State occupation of Ireland with the national reunification
of Ireland where all of the people of the island, unionist and nationalist,
republican and loyalist can decide on their future together without
British governmental interference.
The outworking of this experiment is a forced Mandatory coalition delivering
both political parties a veto on disputed legislation
The assembly has collapsed twice before
That last collapse was in January 2017 with the assembly only reforming
after fresh elections on January 11 2020.
The COVID 19 pandemic has led to restrictive enforcement of
legislation around funerals.
It limited the number in attendance to 10 close family relatives and until
recently the cemeteries and crematoria were closed to the public.
With the Death of Mr Storey, an impasse has been reached.
Prior to COVID 19, Mr Storey would have received a full semi-state like
funeral from his IRA comrades and the political Elite of Sinn Fein
Thousands would have attended from all over Ireland America Britain and Europe
His funeral would have been massive akin to the funerals of the IRA and INLA Hunger Strikers in 1981
However, the restrictive guidelines in place today because of COVID 19 allow for a maximum of 30 people to attend the funeral, socially distancing at between one and to metres.
At Mr Storey’s funeral, there were indeed 30 people walking behind the funeral
cortege. There were also 120 in attendance at St Agnes requiem mass on the
morning of the funeral. A guard of honour and the streets lined with
former IRA comrades and Sinn Fein members from the church to the
cemetery
Probably in excess of 1000-to 1800 people attended perhaps more with the
streets lined with mourners many of whom were from Belfast showing their
respect for a fallen hero
Now the Unionist members of the Assembly aided by some members of the
Social Democratic Labour Party have called on the joint first minister Michelle
ONeill deputy leader of Sinn Fein to stand aside from her
position while Police carry out an investigation as to whether she
and leading members of Sinn Fein, all elected members of both Parliaments
on the island, are in breach of their own COVID 19 restrictions?
Sinn Fein has consistently claimed the funeral met all statutory
regulations as to the number of mourners and social distancing
They claim they tried to mitigate the size of the crowd in attendance
To the other Assembly members, Sinn Fein are not above the law and must lead by
example during a Pandemic and they have called for ONeill to resign
The Assembly is a combative pugilistic type arena and many outside see the
calls for resignation as nothing more than political opportunism from unionists
and optics for the gallery
Having fallen twice before, should the assembly collapse again it could be
strike three and you’re out!
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