So – was the civilized exchange on The View between John O’Dowd and Edwin Poots a harbinger of a wider warming of relations between Sinn Féin and the DUP?
Before you get excited, maybe have a think back. Can you ever remember seeing John O’Dowd in a debate with unionists where he didn’t behave in a civilized way? Let’s not get overly excited that one of the outstanding northern talents in Sinn Féin is courteous and always has been to political opponents.
The other thing to keep in mind is that the O’Dowd-Dodds debate was deemed significant exchange because John O’Dowd, on behalf of republicanism, said that the Kingsmills killings were shameful. Can you imagine any Sinn Féin politician saying it wasn’t shameful?
And then, miraculously, mention was made of what happened the day before the Kingsmill killings. In the village of Gilford, two cousins and an uncle of John O’Dowd were killed as they sat around a piano having a sing-song. Fifteen miles away in Whitecross, three members of the Reavey family were shot. Two died instantly, the third a month later.
Edwin Poots said that the slaughter of the three O’Dowds was “wrong”. Again, can you imagine any unionist politician saying the slaughter of the three “was right”? …OK, maybe let’s not examine that one too closely
Anyway, the conversation between Poots and O’Dowd – was it a foreshadowing of better relations generally? The commentator Felicity Huston said last Sunday that she wasn’t sure if it was. She mentioned two other significant moments – Michelle O’Neill shaking hands with Arlene Foster at Martin McGuinness’s funeral, and Martin McGuinness condemning the dissident republicans who killed a PSNI man as “traitors to Ireland”. Much fuss she noted, had been made of those gestures at the time, but nothing had come of them. It could well be that the O’Dowd response to Kingsmills would likewise go nowhere.
She may be right. Interesting, though, that all three events – Michelle handshake, McGuinness condemnation of republican traitors, John O’Dowd condemning of Kingsmills killings – all three have a common factor. They were performed by members of Sinn Féin, and they got no significant response from unionists.
So why can’t the two parties get together? The SDLP , the UUP and Alliance are all highly critical of both parties. Nichola Mallon called for action from both– so has everybody else. Which means Nichola is implicitly producing that old chestnut “One lot’s as bad as the other.” But not Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin: “I detect from Arlene Foster a clear commitment to the restoration of the Assembly and Executive and a belief that it’s the right thing for Northern Ireland.” To translate: “Those damned obstructionist Shinners!”
Let’s take a moment to look at some facts. Sinn Féin see no point in going back into Executive sharing with the DUP until previous commitments made are implemented. That is, there had been previous agreements, but the DUP – and the British government –have chosen to pretend they didn’t happen.
Alas, guys, they did happen. So look at it this way. If you were in business partnership with someone, and they agreed to do certain things vital to the success of the business, and then didn’t bother doing them – how would you feel? Better still, how would you feel about drawing up another agreement with said partner? An agreement in which you make further concessions, as well as dousing your flame of indignation over past conduct? What sort of clown would you be to do that?
Sinn Féin know which way the electoral wind is blowing. They have their electorate ranked behind them, and that electorate is saying: “Don’t go back in there to be bamboozled and hoodwinked again.”
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