Recently
the redoubtable Mick Fealty who, with his colleagues,
runs the Slugger O'Toole web site —a site which
centers on life and politics in the north of Ireland/NI—
posted
a piece about the death of Siobhan O'Hanlon,
a senior member of SF who died in the prime of life
leaving a young family behind. Even by the standards
of debate on Slugger the response from some posters
to the site was extremely sad, brutal and, for me
at least, yet another example of the lack of constructive
leadership within the Unionist community since the
DUP became the largest party. What prevails is an
inability to even make an attempt to put the past
behind them, let alone actually do so. It was the
bitterness and small mindedness displayed by some
who posted comments on Ms O'Hanlon death that I
found so difficult to accept.
With the death of Siobhan O'Hanlon, there seems
from some to be no attempt to recognize a common
humanity which mourns the passing of a fellow human,
the more so when they go before their time and leave
behind a young family. All the writers to Slugger
can concentrate on is Ms O'Hanlon's past membership
of the PIRA. That during the latter years of her
life she played an important role in bringing the
armed struggle of that organization to a close is
totally ignored. As too is the role she played in
searching for common ground between the north's
two communities, so that the place could at least
be governed in a civilized way. One does not have
to be a full blown supporter of the Peace Process
to understand for a majority of the north's people,
jaw jaw has been an improvement on war war.
I
just wonder, if the type of attitude which was displayed
by those who objected to Mr Fealty posting the announcement
of Siobhan O'Hanlon's death, had been displayed
by the people of Europe at the end of WW2, what
type of societies would the countries who today
make up the prosperous nations within the European
Union have become? After all, in occupying and brutalizing
much of the European Continent, the German armed
forces and those who served in them were guilty
of partaking in monstrous crimes on a scale that
makes the troubles in the north 1969-97 look miniscule
in comparison.
When
Willy Brandt was greeted in a friendly fashion in
Poland in December 1970, should the Poles have spit
upon him? The same when the German Chancellor Helmut
Kohl, who had served in the German army during WW2,
travelled to France, the UK and Holland? Of course
not, for despite their often dreadful experiences,
the ordinary people of these nations and those who
represented them politically realized if life is
to go on and prosper, they must put the past behind
them. This did not mean in the process they must
deny what happen during WW2, nor forgive or forget
the crimes committed, let alone endorse what occurred.
It is just that if humanity is to move forward life
must go on; and to continuously hark back to the
past with hate and bitterness will only stifle future
generations.
The
current tragedy in the north is there are people
in influential positions who are determined to turn
the clock back, which in reality is something beyond
the ability of human-kind. In any case, the very
idea is horrific, as a moment's thought and analysis
would tell one the past is rarely the contented
paradise we often see it as through the fading lenses
in our rose covered spectacles. Housing was disgracefully
poor, health care inadequate and working conditions
appalling; this was the daily fare of the north's
Protestant working classes, never mind their nationalist
neighbours. What is needed from the Unionist leadership
is for them to cease harping back to a past that
rarely existed outside of the north's ruling elite,
like Lord Brookeborough and his ilk. They need to
get some of that courage they are forever prattling
on about. They need to lead their community instead
of tale ending them: an example of which is the
DUP's refusal to demand the standing down of Loyalist
paramilitaries and the public decommissioning of
their weaponry.
If
real leadership were to be showed by the Unionist
politicians, then all that might happen when the
death of someone like Siobhan O'Hanlon is announced,
is that the only comments from her political opponents
would be along the lines of, "whilst we differed
with her politically, RIP, and our thought are with
her family." In other words, what happens throughout
Europe and most parts of the civilized world.
