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8 November 2001 Edition

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Facing down the bigots

BY MICHAEL PIERSE

     
This week has shown us that this is the time for challenging the bigotry and sectarianism that has dogged the history of partition - not for accepting 'half a loaf'
Sinn Féin Assembly member John Kelly's characterisation of 'The Brawl in the Hall'(as the melée at Stormont on Tuesday evening was dubbed) as a 'hold me back, let me at him' affair, could have been a general criticism of DUP strategy in recent times. The party refuses to sit in government with 'Sinn Féin/IRA', yet engages in a tactic of rotating its alotted seats on the Executive between senior party members (to what avail?) and has consistently worked, sometimes closely, with Sinn Féin within local councils and the Assembly. Defiantly, the DUP says that its bottom line in this process is IRA decommissioning, yet when the IRA makes a move on arms the DUP is thrown into disarray. The reality is that this 'lost tribe of Ulster' has been wrongfooted by the IRA, wrongfooted by the peace process - wrongfooted by the dialectic of history.

All of this has served to lift the veil behind which obstructionist unionism has been allowed to masquerade as 'democratic' and 'pacifist' for 30 or more years, confining its political activity to vitriolic condemnations of the IRA and denials of human rights abuses in 'Ulster'. It has also created a dichotomy within unionism itself.

The scenes on Tuesday in Stormont typified what happens when a bully is finally faced up to. Like their colleagues in Glenbryn - another species of school bully - they have a small and dwindling circle of friends and are beginning to feel the bite of reality.

The UUP, in recent weeks, has made a decisive move away from the encroaching shadow of its Paisleyite rivals. Even as the Assembly failed to elect David Trimble on Friday, there was less of the usual talk of 'beleaguered' David Trimble, or of his inability to lead his own party, or of the electoral threat from the DUP. Instead, the UUP leader appeared confident and assertive in TV interviews, while speculation developed as to how long it would take to expel Peter Weir and Pauline Armitage, the rebel Assembly members who voted against him, from the party.

After the IRA move on arms, the UUP's Michael McGimpsey had heralded a new direction for the UUP when he challenged the DUP to participate with the other parties and criticised their rubbishing of de Chastelain's report on arms. Trimble continued on this line when he was elected on Tuesday, terming the DUP's charade of "operating at arms length" in the institutions as "one, huge serious flaw".

Although the acrimony between the UUP and its rivals has continued for some years, before now there has always been some blurring of the lines. The DUP always accepted the political expediency of engaging in the institutions so as to keep itself out of the political wilderness. The UUP always accepted the need to pander to the DUP line so as to keep its electorate, and its own rebel MPs, onside. Finally, the worm seems to have turned.

The latest crisis in the peace process may have sounded the death knell for the politics of the old Stormont regime. It has ended with the election of Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble as First Minister and the leader-elect of the SDLP, Mark Durkan, as Deputy First Minister (or 'cheat' and 'deputy cheat' as the DUP have branded them). But unlike previous elections of the sort, there is an air of permanence about this one - a truly unprecedented opportunity for all who have placed their faith in the peace process.

Martin McGuinness, speaking in the Assembly during the week, welcomed this opportunity: "I look forward to working with those Unionists who do want a Catholic about the place. I do not know them very well, but I have met them over the last 18 months in different situations. I say, without fear of contradiction, that there are decent people on the opposite side of the House who want to see Fenians and Catholics about the place and who are prepared to work with me to bring about the essential change that the Good Friday Agreement promised all of our people.

"Our job," McGuinness continued, "is to ensure that the power-sharing arrangements continue. It is the duty of the pro-Agreement parties this week to cross that vital Rubicon together. We have shown that we can work together and that we can create the new future that all our people want. That future includes power-sharing institutions, equality, justice, an end to domination, the demilitarisation of our society and the taking all of the guns, Irish and British, out of Irish politics. It is also about the all-Ireland institutions and moving forward to create the new future that we all crave."

Part of that new future, and a part that unionism must recognise as integral to secure republican satisfaction, is the creation of a new policing service. While the symbolic name change of the RUC on Sunday to PSNI may have been welcomed in some quarters, symbolism by itself amounts to tokenism. Nationalists and republicans are looking for far more than a name change.

Changes proposed by the Patten Commission have not yet been fully reflected in British government legislation. Indeed, the first days of the 'new' force were marked by criticism from residents in Portadown, who said that the RUC/PSNI had secretly escorted members of the Orange Order along some of the Drumcree route following a service on Sunday. The Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition warned that nationalists may mobilise in the town next Sunday to prevent a recurrence.

In troubled Ardoyne, the RUC/PSNI has been accused of attacking Holy Cross school parents and endangering their children on the 'gauntlet of hate' by scaling down its presence in the area. Fr Aidan Troy called on the RUC/PSNI to apologise for its "heavy handed" treatment of the parents and their children.

In light of these events, amongst many others, it is questionable what the SDLP will have achieved, if anything, in sitting on Wednesday's first meeting of the Policing Board. Can the SDLP now guarantee the safety of Holy Cross children, ensure that the Orange Order will not be marching down the Garvaghy Road or that those RUC personnel that have abused human rights will be brought to book?

If anything, this week has shown us that this is the time for challenging the bigotry and sectarianism that has dogged the history of partition - not for accepting 'half a loaf'.

 

DUP instigated Stormont melée




Sinn Féin Chief Whip Alex Maskey said that the abusive and rowdy scrum that greeted the election of David Trimble and Mark Durkan at Stormont on Tuesday was instigated by the DUP.

"The DUP failed to disrupt the election of David Trimble and Mark Durkan," said Maskey. "This is an important step forward for the pro-Agreement parties. We now need to see this new consensus come together to drive the process forward and the full and faithful implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

"The DUP having failed to block the pro-Agreement consensus then instigated an unseemly melée in the Stormont foyer. Elected members of the DUP and their supporters hurled sectarian abuse and physically attacked members from my own party and others from within the pro-Agreement consensus.

"These disgraceful scenes typify the wreckers approach of the DUP to the Agreement. It will not succeed in deflecting the majority of us who wish to see an end to conflict and the needs of people living in communities throughout the north addressed by local politicians."

Swaggering in the Assembly



BY JIM GIBNEY


    
Perched high above the 108 Assembly members I saw Weir and Armitage, faces grimacing, scream with gusto 'No' when the Speaker asked for a verbal indication of support for the vote. Having expunged their hot air, they deflated
Political swaggering was in fashion in the Belfast Assembly last Friday. Peter Robinson of the DUP had it down to a fine art. In fact he seems to be the 'swagger' trendsetter for the rest of his party, but what was interesting was that he added a rare smile to accompany his swaggering. Peter the 'Punt' should be renamed Peter the 'Frown'. As he swaggers, he normally carries his burden on his brow.

Ian Paisley Junior has his own style of swaggering; whereas Peter swaggers from the hips, Ian Junior swaggers from the shoulders. Now young Peter Berry, the youngest DUPer, swaggers from his feet. I noticed all this swaggering from a lofty position in the Assembly's gallery.

Of course, last Friday the DUP had good cause to swagger and smile. Courtesy of UUP Assembly Members Peter Weir and Pauline Armitage, they had wounded David Trimble by preventing his and Mark Durkan's election as First and Deputy First Ministers. They had a whiff of Trimble's blood in their nostrils and like hyenas they circled him, intent on finishing him off... but that elusive prize wasn't quite within clawing distance.

The late Andy Warhol, the outrageous and flamboyant avante garde New York artist, said everyone should have fifteen minutes of fame in their lives. Well last Friday it was the turn of Weir and Armitage to bask in the spotlight. All eyes and cameras were on them and Weir more than Armitage wallowed in it.

I watched him skulking in an alcove waiting until all the other political leaders descended the stairs to the quaintly called 'great hall', which is quite small, for the cameras' benefit. When the stairs were his and his only, he glided, as if on a cloud, more than walked down them. The cameras whirred and clicked and Peter smiled, obligingly, thinking himself a very important person. His moment had arrived.

And while Weir relished the attention, Armitage wriggled in her Chamber seat in the middle of her UUP colleagues, eyes coquettishly flashing to any of her colleagues who would speak to her and they were few.

Meanwhile, on the floor of the Assembly during Friday's debate, the Assembly Members had clearly been taxing their creative minds, not to mention consulting their thesaurus and dictionaries. Some colourful phrases clashed in mid air across the chamber.

Monica Mc Williams and Jane Morris of the Women's Coalition, about to reclassify as unionist and nationalist, had replaced Sinn Féin as the 'devil's incarnate' for the anti-Agreement unionists. The DUP's normal sexist vitriol was added too. Pro-Agreement Assembly Members were accused of clinging to power 'on the apron strings of the Women's Coalition', who were nothing more than a bunch of political 'cross dressers', 'hermaphrodites', 'transvestites'; 'chameleons' who 'willy nilly' at the 'flick of a switch' had 'transmogrified' themselves into unionists.

They spotted 'skulduggery', 'chicanery', shysterism, 'intellectual somersaults' and 'gymnastics'. Not to mention a 'conundrum' 'masquerading' as a 'horse's ass' 'parachuted' into what? They were undecided. They 'oscillated', torn between a 'circus' and a 'pantomime'. All aimed at betraying the 'genuine' unionists of 'Ulster'.

Peter Weir wondered out loud if he said he was redesignating himself to being Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt would he then be seen as Tom or Brad by the other Assembly members from that day hence. This absurd Frankenstinian suggestion provoked widespread laughter in the Assembly.

Not to be outdone, his learned friend Bob Mc Cartney turned his legal prowess to the profound question and asked 'Can parliament make a man a woman?' Surely this is not the same man, working class hero from the Shankill Road in Belfast, with a distinguished career at the 'bar', who famously entered unionist politics when he grabbed a microphone from Paisley's hand on a platform outside the City Hall in the mid-'80s.

The great white haired, white hope, a liberal doyen of the unionist establishment, now safely ensconced in the bosom of the DUP's arch bigots.

As the minutes ticked by towards the redesignation vote, the atmosphere in the chamber took on a nervous edge. Would Weir and Armitage join the antis?

I knew before everyone else. Perched high above the 108 Assembly members I saw Weir and Armitage, faces grimacing, scream with gusto 'No' when the Speaker asked for a verbal indication of support for the vote. Having expunged their hot air, they deflated.

When it arrived, the antis shouted with delight. David Ervine of the PUP's earlier comment seemed appropriate: 'They celebrate crisis, dismay, instability."

Within seconds, Paisley's roaring voice was booming around the 'great hall' claiming victory. The 'swaggerers' were in the ascendancy; clinging to each other, clinging to the microphones, puffed up chests, squeezing as many heads into one camera frame. Immediately behind them out of camera shot, dressed in their uniforms with their distinctive red jumpers, was a group of Holy Cross schoolgirls and their parents.

They had brought their message to the assembled media at the Assembly. They stood quietly, unaware that the hooded bigots who threw bombs at them, who spat at and hurled sectarian abuse at them and blocked them getting to their school along the Ardoyne Road, had friends who wore expensive suits and dresses, were neatly groomed and wealthy and stood inches away.

A weekend of frenetic activity ensured that Paisley's victory would be short-lived. The Alliance Party, despite their leader David Ford's assurance on Friday last that they would not 'be dressing up for Hallowe'en', donned their unionist clothes and backed the First and Deputy First Ministers.

Seamus Mallon on the same day, in a rather prescient remark, reminded all gathered in the Assembly that 'fisticuffs' had broken out in the same Chamber in 1973. The Paisleyite pugilists led that charge as they led Tuesday's.

But it was the poet in Martin Mc Guinness who captured the real meaning of Tuesday's victorious vote. He recited the following poem from a poet called Appolenaire:

"Come to the edge.
It's too high.
Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
And they came,
And he pushed them,
And they flew."


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