|
The
most interesting facet of Ian Paisleys announcement
that he is to retire from his role as an MEP at the
forthcoming European election is that is the fact
that he stated that one of the main reasons that he
is stepping down is to concentrate on leading his
DUP negotiating team during the upcoming review of
the Good Friday Agreement.
The
north Antrim MP announced his retirement from European
politics on Monday past. The 77 year old monolith
apparently is intent on one final blast to rid the
north of the GFA, beginning on Feburary 3rd. Given
the fact that the European poll will take place in
June this year, this does not bode well for the speedy
review that nationalists and
pro-agreement parties in general desire. The timing
of the Reverend Dr’s continental
political demise and the fact that the elections are
almost six-months away, immediately
illustrate that the DUP are intent on a review or
renegotiation of the accord that
far out strips that of their rivals.
In
truth, the more youthful elements within the DUP are
aware that in reality no renegotiation of the agreement
will take place. Whilst busy crowing about the fact
that they are without doubt, after the defection of
Jeffrey Donaldson and his colleagues, the
largest party in the non-existent assembly, there
is developing an increasingly evident,
but still publicly unspoken consensus within the DUP
that they cannot go too far
with their fillibustering, delaying or wrecking tactics
during this review. This really could
be the last chance for this agreement to work, or
at least get back to a working footing.
The DUP, including Donaldson are too covetous of institutional
power and its trappings
to blow this opportunity. In effect the irony is that
no matter whether or not
the electorate endorsed the DUP wish list for renegotiation,
and the evidence wholeheartedly
displayed that they did, the approval of that electorate
could quickly evaporate
if the DUP party do not eventually go back into power
at some point.
The
northern unionist electorate have approved the reworking
of the 1998 accord, in
no way does it automatically follow that they have
also approved the complete dismantling
of devolution as well.
The
fact is that the storm clouds are gathering over the
rainbow coalition that conspired in
three different countries to get the 1998 accord agreed
upon in the first place.
In
London Tony Blair is in danger of having to fight
for his political survival over the university
top up fee fiasco, whilst in Dublin Bertie Ahern’s
presidency of the EU and his ever
more public annoyance with Sinn Fein over accusations
of Fianna Fail financial scandals
owes more to his obvious fear that northern republicanism
is about to claim a
stake in the future governance of the republic in
upcoming elections. For all Ahern’s insistence
that he will not share power with a Sinn Fein party
whilst the IRA are still around,
the fact is that he may have to whether he likes or
not; not only in relation to his
political survival but also his legal and constitutional
right to sideline a party that will gather
enough electoral support to warrant a place of notable
position within the Dail.
As
for the third supposed player in the international
conglomeration to solve the ills of poor
little Northern Ireland, I do not believe that I have
to make any further comment on
the usefulness of George Bush’s administration
since he took the Whitehouse with regard
to ourselves.
In
past periods of hiatus within the devolved parliament,
amidst suspensions and party as
well as personal incriminations of republicans, the
DUP propensity for sabre rattling, name
calling and at times astonishing levels of personal
and political immaturity were and
still remain unsurpassed by any other political party
in western Europe that wishes to
be regarded as a serious entity. Therefore whilst
telling their electorate from the front that
they are going to this review to despoil and destroy,
from the side of their mouths their
tone will become increasingly conciliatory. This cannot
be done with Ian Paisley senior
at the helm of this already leaky ship. As he heads
for his eighth decade, the most apt
phrase to apply to the rapidly aging Paisley includes
the words old dog and new tricks.
Therefore
while no member of the DUP executive will ever admit
it I believe that we
are witnesses of a velvet coup to slowly put the old
man out to seed. Age has not dimmed
the vigour of the infamous Paisley bitterness and
bigotry but whilst he has stood
still shouting, around him the landscape that he has
stood in defence of has altered
irrevocably. He cannot rely on republican violence
any longer as the yard stick
with which to beat his adversaries. In addition the
emergence of an erudite highly
capable republican leadership, busying itself with
the dismantling of the IRA who
remain only now as an expedient tool of the Adams'
mindgame, has fractured forever
the need to rely on the them and us scenario and made
the DUP at last examine some
semblance of normal politicking by actually formulating
policies or at least the consideration
of policy beyond holding a bible in one hand a firearms
license in the other.
The
new terminology of unionism has bypassed Paisley.
These days you can still say no, it’s just that
now you must be able to say it in a myriad of ways
and you most certainly cannot be seen to foam at the
mouth with religious fervour on all these occasions.
The purposeful reasoning behind sidelining the big
man during the election campaign last October was
justified wholly on polling day when Paisley grabbed
UTV’s Ivan Martin’s coat collar while being
pressurised by the journalist in an interview at a
count centre. Additional embarrassment was added to
the pyre last weekend when big Ian, wearing his Free
Presbyterian outfit, held a prayer meeting outside
Ravenhill in protest at the destruction of the Lord's
day, as Ulster’s rugby team hosted a European
cup match. Surrounded by the obligatory gathering
of elderly blue rinses and some old women as well,
“there is power in the blood of the lamb”
did not sound as strong when I had paused many years
ago in Belfast city centre to listen to the same type
of gathering. The voice is still strong but cannot
hold the stamina of former decades, the big frame
is devoid of the bulk that intimidated and harried,
blustered and boisterously laughed down his opponents
with a level of self-confidence that bespoke supreme
assuredness that the Lord himself was only a mere
phone call away if he was required. There was definitely
some power in the blood last Sunday, Ulster won 33-0,
desecration or no desecration.
There
is a quiet moving away from the overtly and narrow
minded religious overtones that
are linked to the DUP. If Sinn Fein are, as often
mooted, inextricably linked to the IRA,
the Christ soldiers of Free Presbyterianism are the
comparable equivalent. It is notable
however that in recent years that this has begun to
change. The leadership or executive
of the DUP are not as stacked as they once were with
personalities that hold dual
membership of the party and its religious wing. The
separation of the church from politics
is an ongoing process and another indicator of the
changing face of the DUP.
Can
you for example imagine, that if as expected, Nigel
Dodds assumes the mantle of
DUP European representative, that he would be dragged
screaming rabidly from the
chamber at Strasbourg in the same manner his predecessor
was some years back during
the visit of Pope John Paul?
In
the past there have been occasions when Paisley attacked
Martin Luther for being too
liberal. The depths to which he despises Catholicism
cannot really be quantified, and
these practically medieval beliefs permeate all aspects
of his thinking. Of course the
danger in this has always been the extent to which
he hitched his religious outlook
to a political programme. His attacks on line dancing
as an incitement to lust
readily illustrates a level of superficial silliness
that we can all snigger at but which in
reality mask our discomfort that this type of thinking
still attracts substantial support within
the six counties. This has been the same since Paisley’s
initial forays into northern politics
in the late 1960’s. The tendency by Paisley to
demonise Catholicism and therefore
Catholics was done in the full knowledge that there
were people out there prepared
to kill on this basis but allowed him enough scope
to have his hands remain blood
free, hiding as he always did upon the semantic interpretation
of biblical literalism.
John
Hume once contended that if the word no was removed
from the English language then Ian Paisley would be
left speechless. This is of course not true in the
strictest sense of the wording but we can appreciate
what Hume was alluding to. It is a tribute to Paisley
that it seems that it will be only age that will eventually
dim a mind that was capable of finding a tri-colour
so offensive that he incited a riot that led to the
smashing of
Sinn Fein candidate Liam Mc Millen’s campaign
headquarters in Divis Street back in 1966.
Some historians believe that it was this action that
heralded the start of the “The
Troubles”, three years before 1969. He was there
at the beginning and by doing his
job so well throughout the years he has been a “true”
Unionist and by ensuring that he
will not be there at the end, the union is intact
and he can hand the torch onto the new
generation. In telling journalist Peter Taylor some
years back that he will take his convictions
to the grave summarises his outlook aptly. His place
on history’s podium is undoubted,
but how history will judge him is entirely another
matter. The actions of the new
generation of the DUP may have him spinning in that
grave when the fateful day arrives.
Will Peter Robinson, Nigel Dodds or indeed Ian junior
for example ever be able to
say with the same confidence that they will not forsake
the blue skies of Ulster for the
grey mists of an Irish republic?
Index: Current Articles + Latest News and Views + Book Reviews +
Letters + Archives
|
