‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man’: I’ve always wondered about that statement.
A decade or more ago, Martin McGuinness was the Minister for Education and had declared an end to the Eleven Plus examination, which split children neatly into approximately one-third who were the Smart Ones and two-thirds who were the Stupid Ones. I wrote a column back then, in which I pondered an intriguing question: did the announced end of the Eleven Plus happen because history had reached the point where such iniquitous division was simply unacceptable, and Martin McGuinness was lucky enough to be in place as the wave of change crashed in? Or was it a matter of Martin McGuinness having, unlike preceding Ministers of Education, the courage to grab the Eleven Plus by the throat and bring it to its knees? The moment or the man.
On the same day the column was published I was up in the Ulster University at Coleraine. Those of us working in the Education Faculty there were called together by the Dean: the Minister of Education was coming to visit, we were told, and the Dean wanted to introduce us to him. So we stood in a circle and the Dean led Martin round and introduced him or her to the Minister ( including, as it happens, one dyed-in-the-wool DUPer, who dutifully shook hands like the rest). When the Dean and Martin arrived at me, she said who I was and I shook hands with the Minister. Instead of the usual ‘It’s nice to meet you’, Martin fixed me with that blue-eyed stare of his and said “I am not lucky, I did not get swept along on any wave. I imposed my will on the Eleven Plus and throttled it.” He’d obviously read my column that morning. It was a humorous remark but I confess to having felt flattered.
So to bring this question up to the present: has the Executive collapsed because Martin McGuinness decided it was time, or was there an inevitability about its collapse, with a deep discontent among the republican/nationalist electorate forcing the Deputy First Minister to pull the plug?
There’s no doubt that you could almost hear the sigh of relief from the republican/nationalist electorate when Martin McGuinness announced an end to the partnership with the DUP. For two or three years before that, many Sinn Féin supporters had watched the Deputy First Minister and others offer the hand of reconciliation to unionist politicians again and again. McGuinness’s several meetings with Queen Elizabeth, his attendance at Flanders and the Somme, his offer to Arlene Foster that they attend a Republic of Ireland and a Northern Irelan game together: all were met with a stony contempt. Even his friendly advice to Arlene that she step aside until the RHI cluster-duck had been investigated was met with contempt.
So was it Sinn Féin and in particular Martin McGuinness who bent events to their purpose and ended the Stormont farce, matching the feelings of their supporters; or was it that the public spirit of impatience with unionist high-handedness gave Sinn Féin no other choice but to terminate the coalition?
I tend to the latter view. The DUP and the inept British secretary of state are busy calling on Sinn Féin to come back into government and get on with the work of governing.
Forget it. If one party – in this case the DUP – signs Agreements committing them to specific things, such as a Bill of Rights and an Irish Language Act, and then acts as though such commitments were never given – when that happens, trust is gone. The onus is on those who have gone back on their word to give bullet-proof assurances that past commitments will be delivered and future dealings will be characterized by trustworthiness. When that happens, Sinn Féin might consider a revival of Stormont.
But not otherwise. There is a sense among many out there that Stormont has been tried once too often, with unionism each time falling back into old habits of deceit and contempt. Republicanism has turned the other cheek so often, the arm of unionism must be weary slapping it. Enough already.
Because let’s not forget, Sinn Féin are an all-Ireland party. Their development in the south is as important as their development in the north. And in the north, we have reached a point where unionism seems incapable of working honestly and dependably with political opponents. Such is the indignation within republicanism, a new era of mutual respect must emerge before there can be any new Stormont Executive.
Short of a Damascene conversion by the DUP, the voyage to a renewed Stormont looks impossible and business as usual is simply not an option.
The DUP do not want an executive based on equality because such an executive within ten years will be lead by SF and see much of what’s left of unionist supremacy consigned to history.
Stormont is clearly finished for now, possibly permanently. The question is what happens next? Direct rule for the next decade following brexit and a possible hard border makes for a dangerous situation.
Jude-below is an article from Ben Lowry regarding the Irish Language issue-Convince me that Ben Lowry is wrong in this article-I am open to persuasion but from what I see and hear from supporters of the Act this is how I believe it would pan out if implemented.The DUP can simply not give way on this and this anext to the union itself is why I and people like me give them a vote
Implementing a standalone Irish language act has the support of a large swathe of the political spectrum, from Alliance in the middle to the hardest fringes of republicanism. Those various groups have different visions of what exactly an act might entail. But there is an onus on the more moderate supporters of an act to go through Sinn Fein’s 2015 proposals for an act (which are published in full at the very bottom of this article) and tell us which of those nine stipulations they want to see in such legislation. After all, such moderate supporters of a standalone act are telling unionists that new protection is necessary. Instead then of scolding unionists for having understandable concerns about how such an act might be used, perhaps they would let us know if they think the 2015 plan was too extreme. The first of the 2015 proposals is to define Irish “as an official language” in NI to “guarantee services through Irish on a par with those available through English”. How many moderate nationalists, perhaps people who enjoy sending their children to Irish summer schools in Donegal, actually think that Irish is or should be on a par with English? In March, the Department of Communities published figures for 2015/16 that found that 9% of the adult population in Northern Ireland can speak Irish, 5% can write it and only 1% can write or carry on a complicated conversation in the language. In the recent Assembly and Westminster elections, more than 40% of those who voted cast their ballots for nationalist parties. Irish language provision is widespread in Catholic schools, a major part of NI’s education sector. If this is such an indispensable part of nationalist culture that it must not only by law be protected in the Province, but must in fact be put on a par with English, then it is reasonable to ask why the language has failed to gain more traction within the nationalist population here. The second of the 2015 provisions is “conferring the right to speak the Irish language in legal proceedings”. Would that, for example, require there always be a judge who can speak the language? Northern Ireland has 32 judges of county court level or above. For the proper administration of justice, such a judge would have to be fluent in the language, which would put them in the 1% of most proficient speakers. Even to have a single such fluent judge would require positive discrimination (it could not be assumed to happen on the basis of probability). If there was always to be an Irish speaker judge at high court level or above (of which there are 14) an even higher degree of positive discrimination would be needed. The fourth 2015 provision is not only to create an Irish language commissioner but to create a summary offence of refusing to co-operate with such a commissioner. If 9% of adults in NI speak Irish but 40+% of votes go to nationalist parties it is clear that a comfortable majority of nationalists can’t speak the language, Presumably such non speakers would not support such an offence of failing to co-operate with a commissioner, whose role is to enforce a language that they do not themselves speak? The fifth provision calls not only for affirmative action in favour of Irish speakers to the civil service and public bodies, it calls for all such bodies (eg the police) to “put into effect the official language status of Irish”. In other words the PSNI would have a joint English and Irish name. Do, for example, Alliance supporters of an act support such dual naming? The eighth provision is for bilingual roadsigns “to have the Irish content on a par with English”. The only possible ultimate outcome of this is that every single road sign is replaced with one that has both languages to the same degree of prominence. The next time you travel from Belfast to Londonderry or Larne to Enniskillen or any long distance journey note how many signs you pass, and consider how expensive such a replacement will be and how it will change utterly the feel of Northern Ireland (as is intended). Do moderate supporters of a standalone act think this is necessary, and – if they do not speak Irish – why? The final provision is to guarantee right to education through the medium of Irish. Do moderate supporters of legislation believe, for example, that every school in NI should be required to provide Irish language teaching, even if there is no demand (as is plainly the case in schools across the Province)? If they do not speak Irish, why do they think so? The extreme 2015 proposals will never come to pass but the mere fact of them damages the goodwill that there is towards Irish among moderate unionists. They illustrate how some people intend to use an act in a thoroughly divisive way. Note that no legislation that would enforce on the whole of Northern Ireland any facet of culture that is as overwhelmingly linked to unionism as the Irish language is now to nationalism has ever been proposed. No such legislation would be proposed by unionists and there would be uproar if it was. The mere suggestion would kill it dead forever. Yet there was no such uproar over the 2015 Sinn Fein Irish language proposals. Their radical nature raises reasonable doubts in the minds of non nationalists about the very concept of an act, and how even a modest act might be used by some republicans as a stepping stone to more radical rules. Moderate supporters of a standalone Irish language act might perhaps want to turn their ire on hardline advocates of aggressive and triumphalist language provisions, and the damage they have done to the prospects of milder legislation, instead of always scolding those who have entirely reasonable reservations about such an act. •
There are more difficulties with the law and Irish. Common law needs precedent and a very good facility with language. It’s difficult for a non-native speaker to be fully fluent in another language. Although translation is possible between languages, the subtlety can be missed. Further, if a judgement setting a precedent is delivered in Irish, can we be sure that other judges will fully understand it,even in translation.
This language problem is present in the Irish Constitution. In that Irish as the ‘national’ language has precedence over English, ‘an official language’. There is at least one area where the two language versions aren’t in agreement, to do with the age of the president.
There’s nothing truimphlist about the Irish language, Gaz – it belongs to all.
Why should Irish not be an official language, it is native to this land and most if not almost every State on this planet gives official recognition to its native tongue.
Irish road signs are there to make the language visible. If unionists find the sight of Doire or Bel Feirste too much to stomach then quite simply that’s your problem. I’ll call it for it is – bigotry.
What happens if a Polish or Lithuanian person appears in court having no English? Do all the judiciary and court employees have to learn Irish? No. They bring in an interpreter. Signs will be changed when replacement is necessary. Any more puerile remarks?
Very good jude
Thanks, Jim
Consider Switzerland; there around 60% have German as their mother tongue (though usually Swiss-German, they learn ‘proper’ German in School), about 30% have French, and 10% have Italian.
All three languages are recognised as ‘official languages’, and documents are available in all three. Not all public employees can speak all three.
Any professional will need a good knowledge of all three, and of English.
But…there are a group of languages collectively called Romansch which perhaps 1% speak as a mother tongue. This is recognised as a ‘national language’ but not an official one. Such people need to know at least one other language to be able to live outside their community (and to watch mainstream TV etc).
Romansch in Switzerland is in a similar position to Irish here. Could it be used as a model?
I believe nationalists have given SF their mandate which is to keep the DUP out of power indefinitely, when the colony’s centenary comes to be celebrated by exclusively by unionists alone, the elephant in the room will be the locked gates of Stormont glaringly attesting to Haughey’s line about the political failed entity that is norn iron.
Jude
excellent article which expresses the view of us that are Republicans and Nationalists on this island. I’ll go so far as to suggest that it may also reflect the views of some moderate unionists. But as for the solution ? Will the DUP ever see the elephant in the room? Can extreme orange loyalists be loyal to their Queen without being sectarian and hate driven ?
Croppies will never lie down or be beaten down again. The British and Irish governments must step up to the mark to ensure that justice, equality and respect prevail for all citizens in the six counties. The DUP must respect and honour agreements that they have made, and those agreements made in their name by their government in Westminster.
Martin McGuinness was correct and yes, he did everything possible to ensure change in the building of a new society. But he also knew and recognised that the patience and tolerance of ordinary Nationalists and Republicans was exhausted. The hand of friendship has been spurned too often. The only hope that remains is that there are those within the wider unionists communities that are pragmatic and have yet to assert their voices. They will need to become active in redefining a road to equality and respect for all citizens if there is to be a breakthrough in the stalemate.
thanks Jack…
SF would do well to heed what nationalists are telling them. I’d guess and say most nationalists are sick to the back teeth of SF’s appearance of grovelling to unionism this last ten yrs. if that means no stormont then so be it. Those of us remember previous slaps in the faces by unionist eg the maze project. Apparently the titanic thingy majingy,in “counter terrorist” death squad supporter Peter robinsons constituency was agreed by both sides along with the maze project. Alas once unionists got what they wanted they endeavoured to renege on the deal. So we have been here before with unionists bad faith. Enough already.
Btw, those urging SF to accept unionists watered down version of irish language act probably know that it would stir more anger against SF from its electorate.
Stormont…….. Goodbye and Good Riddance. It would make a good bonfire on 11th night and no collateral damage to private dwellings.
Martin McGuiness and subsequent SF education didn’t grab the transfer by the throats and “throttle it”. Their attempt to end academic selection was countered and effectively beaten by the grammar schools and the de facto result was that it was privatised and unregulated.
It’s an example of SF inability to deliver even when having the power to do so.
It was a simple failure.
*education ministers
Well done Jude I am in full agreement with you. Close storment send all them DUP/UDA boys and girls home with no wages and I am sure very very few of them will get the same wages and benefits in the private sector. I and I know many others who will not vote Sinn Feinn if we are betrayed. Lets take our time, have patience and green the councils. I am blessed to have another grandchild on the way and will be a lot some a lot older we will be the majority. And we will expect Sinn Feinn councils to do the right thing with new by laws to control and enforce the removal of flags and bonfires that burn effigies. Also I would expect the Lisburn road CULTURAL parade to be marshaled properly by the PSNI (SURELY THE THOUSANDS OF CHRISTIANS COULD DO WITHOUT ALCOHOL FOR A FEW HOURS) and portaloos to be put at close intervals because these, lets call them people cannot control their bowel movements or carry a rubbish bag for shitty nappies or other rubbish. They should also have to pay us the ratepayers for the immense and disgusting cleanup after they have passed. its like the remains of one hundred gypsy encampments every 100 hundreds yards. I also wish for them not to use the cross avenues with their nice gardens and hedges to be hidden behind to use for a quickie. When i came out the front door to get something from the car and i came across them having their quickie I was called a dirty old bastard for looking towards them. I could hardly avoid seeing the dirty little bastards so i went strait to the side of the house and turned the outside hose on them i might be getting old but i am not afraid to square up to a thing like that anyway she ran of pulling up her knickers and he quickly followed. I could go on about my life’s experiences of the other side if i may call them that. Always remembering while i was growing up soccer belonged to them they won the second world war the RUC was theirs the B specials were theirs and on and on and i was second class. Sinn Feinn have my vote now bollix to storment and Ben Lowry we hold out or we walk away and play the long game and green the north east of Ireland.
I am inclined to agree with Patrick Murphy when he says of SF ” respect has to be earned. In view of the years they spent chuckling with Paisley, Robinson and Foster, some might suggest that if they did not respect themselves, they cannot reasonably expect others to respect them”.
Saturday’s wouldn’t be the same without Patrick Murphy critising Sinn Fein.
As it is I believe SF were dragged out of Stormont by the grass root support and that same support is stopping them from going back.
The SF leadership would go back tomorrow given the chance. Adams certainly flew a few kites coming up to the deadline and I can only assume he got a very firm reply – no return.
Its a very dangerous game political Unionism is playing. Its no secret that Stormont is part of the Republican strategy in terms of a United Ireland but I wouldn’t say its everything. Its also very important to Unionism. The DUP may have influence over the British Government today but that only comes along once in a blue moon and its also limited, in fact according to Alex Salmond, Theresa May might be gone as soon as October and another General Election called. So DUP influenced Direct Rule wont last forever, if it even happens at all.
Regardless if Labour or Tories win the next election, if Unionist votes aren’t needed Westminster will implement whatever it takes to get SF back into Government in Stormont. The DUP know this. This includes a clear stand alone Irish Language Act (which Westminster committed to) and other things like the Bill of Rights (as part of GFA). So its very much in Unionisms interests to get back into Stormont, have control over how things operate here (instead of Direct Rule Ministers) and bring stability to the region. Arlene’s arrogance at refusing to step aside back in January has cost Unionism a lot already, everyone knows an ILA will come in one shape or another and Unionism has lost its majority for the first time in the Assembly but things could still get worse. True, Arlene had a good Westminster Election but despite that huge Unionist turnout its important to note the Unionist vote declined below 50% for the very first time in a Westminster Election, leading many to think Unionism has potentially “maxed out” overall. There is certainly no excuse of a low Unionist turnout to explain it.
Sinn Fein’s demands are very reasonable, its the implementation of agreements. Forget about shared government if agreements aren’t going to be implemented. If I was a Unionist I would be urging my politicians to copperfasten the Union by bringing stability and by making nationalists feel comfortable. That’s the opposite to what’s being done. Political Unionism is taking huge risks with the Union they proclaim to cherish by wanting to poke nationalists in the eye at every opportunity, the same people who, whether they like it or not, are here to stay and who they WILL have to convince to maintain the Union in the future and vote Unionist regularly…..
Good luck with that….
I think problems are being created that do not actually exist, as reasons for truculence. As fiosrach said, all the problems are eventually surmountable with enough will; translations , translators and all the rest.Road signs can be renewed when needs be, sometime in the future. Let’s face a few facts here …every place name and most surnames in English are bastardisations of the original Irish gaelic local tongue. They were bastardised by the English just as they also did in India because they either couldn’t understand the depth of the local words or were too lazy(or otherwise) to speak them as the natives did.As for English .Ask yourself just how proficient Mr Joe Average out there is with the English language and you ‘ll be surprised to discover that a majority get by with a very limited vocabulary even if it is the language they learned from birth.Many can barely use what they have and if it gets really complicated ….well forget it.Watch people being interviewed on television to see what I mean.
All of this is a shoal of red herrings…(and try and translate that for someone who doesn’t speak English fluently )…..Red herrings?????? What?????!!
no …I think it is phoney baloney nonsense from a unionist perspective who see the native Irish as a threat , even though they are now native Irish themselves.As Jude remarked of Sammy Wilso …He claimed not to have a drop of irish blood in him.I wonder what country the man though he was born in?
I never read Patrick Murphy.He only came to my notice on two occasions outside of his Irish News column.Once as a British Government appointee to develop a university in West Belfast which ended in catostrophic failure and secondly as the guest speaker at a Northern Sticky / WP conference.Such a political genuis has some neck on him to be lecturing successful parties like SF!
Well Michael, you know more about Patrick Murphy than I do. But I very much agree with his opinion on SF at Stormont. And it is precisely because so many nationalists share that opinion that Stormont collapsed. Isn’t that so ?
No moser . I would agree that the Stormount joint -rule experiment was a failure. There is no doubrt in my mind about that .In fact I would say it entered the realms of farce at times. That said , i don’t see it as a failure from the perspective of Sinn Fein.The fact is that at the beginning and throughout its time , nationalism wanted the experiment to express the possibility of what power -sharing might really mean . They gave it a fair wind because it has to be the way for a possible all-Ireland futureI .If a United Ireland is to eventually work , that would be something like the template for its workings. The facts that it didn’t work are down to the bad faith of the DUP and if anything, that had to be fully explored and even eventually exposed for the sham that it was. That took considerable patience and time.Had the DUP had any wit and wisdom they might have seen how a possible future might work without the sting of acrimony and violence.They worked against that at every turn even though they were on an obviously sliding scale and they acted with bigotry , silly cynicism and ultimately financial stupidity and probably chicanery too. We watched it play out like a TV boxset on a daily basis , so columnists such as Mr Murphy either saw that happening too or had their own agenda to blind them to it.T
The Dup literally hanged themselves with all the slack rope the MMG handed to them in the most civil manner , merely asking them to do what they though best with that rope. We all know what they did with it.All this talk about “kingmakers” and” great hustlers and dealmakers” is so much chaff.They latched onto a weakened and broken Tory party at a time when May’s two best men had been given the boot .She was in such a poor position that she would have gladly given them the sun , the moon and the stars for their compliance, but she got away with a £1billion in the end , which gives you some idea how cheaply they were finally bought.They will doubtless use that little lot to feather their own nest or possibly even make a similar bollocks of it as Arlene did with the RHI scandal. They will glow in the light of certain local council chambers and be shunned otherwise right across the board in every other arena , in Wales , Scotland,England and nationalist Ireland.Everyone now knows who they are and what their values are and the cartoonists and the commentatos have hit bullseyes at every shot..That was the ultimate result of their tenure in Stormount .They proved that they could n’t be worked with or trusted to fulfill obligations and that is exactly where they are now and where they will be in another year when the light goes out for the Tories …
A very considered rebuttal Paddy. Well said.
Jude you are wrong about the 11+ its demise was no great victory for working class communities
Jacks – you may be right. I’m simply saying what happened back then, and it is a fact that McGuinness tackled head-on what had been avoided for so long. The 11+ is an affront to the very notion of education, shows a crass lack of understanding what intelligence and talent and social cohesion are all about. McG’s throttling of it was undermined by grammar schools and selfish, class-conscious parents who wanted to keep their children away from the riff-raff and in the stream that got to third-level education (the grammar school/secondary school split is as much about class as it is about education – more, in fact). Me, I think we should cherish all the children…
Murphy has an agenda and it has “sticky” written all over it.