In recent days the press and airwaves have been full of articles and programmes looking back at the 20th anniversary of the IRA’s ceasefire – the prelude to the Good Friday Agreement. Much store has been put on the events that followed the historic announcement of June 1997 which eventually led to the talks process and all that flowed from that.
In many of these articles there has been the theme of David Trimble’s courage and one commentator described how Trimble did ‘a lot of the heavy lifting’ to get things moving. It is funny how history tends to be rewritten in light of the present day. Currently Sinn Fein are being painted as the reason why there is no Executive and functioning government here and so it follows that the early problems in setting up the Executive should also be laid at Sinn Fein’s door. In this scenario David Trimble was a man struggling against almost insurmountable odds to establish an Executive and was rightly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
There is only one problem with this scenario – it simply is not true. I think it was Eamonn McCann who once said awarding Trimble the Nobel Prize was like winning the Lotto without buying a ticket. I think, and this might be the cynic in me, that even when it came to something like the Nobel Prize there was still that attitude – so prevalent in this country – that if one side are getting something then the other must get it was well. Hence there was a strong argument for awarding John Hume the prize but in the name of balance Trimble had to get it too. It may well have been more fitting for it to be awarded to Hume and Adams as it was their efforts that actually moved the situation on. But that would never do would it?
Trying to be objective about unionism and Trimble in the days leading up to the Agreement and after it is difficult to see any signs of generosity of spirit being brought to the table. Unionism was continually throwing up obstacle after obstacle. Think back to the day of the Good Friday Agreement itself. When the deal was done it was lauded by Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair, George Mitchell, John Hume, Gerry Adams and then came Trimble. His speech and this is recorded was negative ‘we did not give joint authority, we did not give etc.’. His whole attitude towards the hard won agreement was one of mealy mouthed tolerance but no real acceptance. Is it any wonder that those within his own party opposed to the deal felt strengthened to go out and agitate against it.
We often hear of the risks Trimble took. But what was he actually risking? Losing his job. Oh how brave. Then look at what Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams were risking. If they had pushed republicans too far or too fast then they risked splitting the movement. (Something it seemed the British government were constantly trying to do.) But even a cursory reading of history shows what happens when the Republican Movement splits – it doesn’t end well for those in charge. Republicans who are seen to split the movement tend not to go quietly into an early retirement. But they took the risks they felt were necessary to carry the movement with them because that is what leadership is about – leading not catering to the least progressive section of your party..
Now let’s envisage an alternative scenario. Let’s just say that instead of Trimble and unionism putting up obstacles they had displayed some generosity of spirit. Imagine Trimble standing outside on Good Friday 1998 and proclaiming ‘this is a good deal for unionism’, this is a deal we can build on and this is a deal unionists should embrace.’
This immediately would have put the opposition in his own party on the back foot. Then building on the momentum of the referendum imagine if Trimble had rushed to get the Executive up and running. You would have had a Ulster Unionist/SDLP dominated Executive. Sinn Fein would have gone along with that and the DUP would have had problems if it was seen to be working. Then imagine three or four years of politics working. Decommissioning would have ceased to be a problem and more than likely would have occurred by the logic of the situation and perhaps and just perhaps the electorate would have been happy with that situation.
But instead we had Trimble nay saying progress. We had Tony Blair being the first person to deviate from the Good Friday Agreement with his handwritten pledges to unionism. We had obstacle after obstacle. Demands for decommissioning something not in the Agreement and which was seen by nationalists and republicans as tantamount to demands for surrender and then crisis after crisis – most of them manufactured by one unionist demand after another.
So a ceasefire called on the premise that politics was an alternative to armed struggle was not embraced by unionism and in many ways still isn’t being embraced today. Yes everyone has suffered in the war but we are never going to move on until everyone at least agrees to forget if not forgive. If there is ever to be progress then there has to be a generosity of spirit shown by everyone sadly that is still lacking in many quarters.
Here is something which IRA supporters don’t seem to understand, even after all this time: you don’t get prizes for stopping killing people and blowing things up. Yes it was great that the IRA ended its campaign, but it’s a bit much to prance about calling yourselves “peacemakers” for doing it. Hume, yes. Adams realised the campaign wasn’t working and may have had some role in ending it. But it was a pragmatic decision, not a principled one. Trimble destroyed his party to get GFA in place.
Brendan
Very well said.
Do you get prizes for killing and blowing things up? Depends who is doing it I suppose?
A lovely naive insight into the politics of the of past there Brendan…I detect an underlying dislike for the Republican movement….probably emanating from a disgruntled and very lonely SDLP supporter. Who would you hang the accolade of “peacemaker” on ?…. Your ludicrous suggestion that Trimble destroyed the UUP to get the GFA working is as ridiculous as it is laughable. The UUP destroyed itself through bitterness and infighting…..they couldn’t unload their racism and sectarianism. A full 9 years after the signing of the GFA , Trimble was still triumphantly dancing with Paisley at Drumcree…. bitter and twisted fools.
Well Brendan, killing and blowing things up was a very lucrative industry for unionists over the whole period of the conflict. I mean that in purely monetary terms. Not quite sure of the glittering prize that was presented to nationalists ?
Still waiting for that one.
There were many in the IRA prepared to carry on the fight – and indeed had to be persuaded to put away the guns. Loyalists only stopped using the guns when England stopped supplying them.
England still stands guilty of many heinous crimes in this country. And if we are to make the best use of any political influence we have, then we should use it to ensure England and her Unionist puppets are held to account for their war crimes.
Adams and McGuinness looking to be praised for no longer supporting something they should never have supported in the first place-Trimble just calling them out
England was involved in it’s imperialism and genocide long before the IRA came along. Let’s have less of the Bullshit in pretending that England and it’s unionists cohorts were just fighting the “good fight” against the IRA.
If you were a Catholic in this place, then you were a victim. How dare anyone from England tell us how to live and be in our own country !
Gaz, Adams and McGuinness never sought any recognition. Thank God they did stand for what they did or who knows were we would be today.
This applies to the Stormont knockabout too,gaz?
Apartheid in south Africa. The same Apartheid was practiced in the north east of Ireland and the free state before partition. We were also murdered deprived of jobs housing beaten up burnt out no vote smashed about by the RUC Bspecials google is your friend. I personally experienced it and i was a harmless crater but boy they loved doing Catholics. Finally with Paisley and what not something had to give and the tossers all complain and try to deny that because of themselves it kicked of like south Africa. But oh dear me in the end even blessed Margaret called Nelson Mandela a freedom fighter lol. Ah well i have said enough google what was done to the Catholics here by the big house the ruc by stormont by the shipyard protestants by the orangemen. The British ho ho ho the mother of all parliaments the democrats responsible for slaughtering millions of people and remember when you finally put someones back up against a wall you have to be prepared for consequences. look up the picture on the internet of the brave British soldier holding up the severed heads of two murdered Kenyans and the isis creep in the exact same pose holding up the severed heads of two innocent people from Iraq. They both have a lot in common. No replies please from sophist’s.
If you have to try to portray Northern Ireland as apartheid South Africa in order to justify your support for nationalist terrorism, maybe you ought to stop supporting it.
We were exactly like the poor South Africans. And Tam old boy boy i said i did not want any replys from a sophist. Also your time has past i am free today to vote and publicly support whoever i want Tam and be a proud nationalist what do you think of that not much i’m sure lol. Poor old unionism no more rubber bullets for the nationalists still plenty of collusion for the DUP/UDA. As for terrorism look to the unionist community for that from the very start of partition they practiced terrorism google is your friend Tam you cannot hide the truth from the world anymore. I love the way the protestant unionist community try to pretend the troubles started in a vacuum. Nowadays thanks to the internet i can always point them towards the truth. I also in my previous working life and now my semi retired working life where i firstly traveled all over the world and now i greet people from all over the world. I never met anyone with a great opinion of the protestants/unionists of northern Ireland. I am happily in the position to tell a lot of visitors to the north east of Ireland the real truth behind the troubles as they are called. Jude has also now given me the horrific story of Kate Thompson (this i will print outfor customers to read)to pass on to people so they can get a taste of the real horror and complete helplessness of the catholic community at the hands of the British and the unionists / orangemen RUC/UDR Bspecials UDA/UVF Special branch collusion etc. I take great delight passing on the real truth and sending them of home knowing they will pass it on. And i always have Google to back me up.
You weren’t exactly like the poor South Africans. Black South Africans were denied citizenship and had no vote. There was racial segregation and apartheid.
You were always free to vote and publicly support whoever you wanted and be a proud nationalist.
And the unionist community didn’t practise terrorism from the very start of partition.
I would suggest to you again that you ought to reflect on why you feel the need for gross exaggeration in order to support whatever argument it is you’re trying to make. Surely that indicates that your argument must be incredibly weak.
Tam i suggest you start to use google and just for instance look up gerrymandering i will not reply to you again because like geo you are a sophist, great word look up its meaning and as the man who put me onto it wrote if i really want a sore head i will find a brick wall and knock my head against it goodbye old son and happy googling.
I suggest you stay off Google and read some proper history.
Oh how Unionism yearns for the days of the past…..their own sectarian police force , their own private armies , guaranteed work for their uneducated mobs , guaranteed election results through gerrymandering and not a Fenian about the place…..and it’s all gone …all gone….bonfire building and marching around in ever diminishing circles while dressed up as circus clowns is all they have left and when they open their racist eyes they’ll find themselves in a re-united Ireland….oh the irony !
At no point did I suggest that Unionism or the British had anything to be proud of. They were participants in the Troubles, same as the IRA.
I think it’s a matter of fact that Ulster Unionist Party was destroyed, or if you prefer, destroyed itself, in supporting the GFA.
Gerry Adams does promote himself as a peacemaker.
The IRA put back the cause of Irish nationalism and reunification by decades.