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Northern Ireland: The Phoney Peace
By The Anglo American | June 14, 2008
Tony Blair with Jonathan Powell
Jonathan Powell was chief of Staff for the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. His recent book Great Hatred Little Room, is an attempt by British Labour politicians to draw a line under the Ulster conflict. But as much as Blair and Powell try to consolidate their legacy there is still a nagging doubt. Is this really peace in our time or, as Neville Chamberlain found to his cost, not worth the paper it was written on?
As a boy, preoccupied by everything but politics, Northern Ireland never the less still puzzled me. Walking to our school rugby ground, in Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, I would pass graffiti, painted on a wall of a house, saying “One Man One Vote” in large letters. I’d seen those very words on similar walls in Belfast. Even at the age of twelve, I had a grasp of democracy. This was the UK where all adults could vote, or so I thought.
It was only later did I learn what every Northern Irish Catholic knew. The Electoral register in the six counties of Ulster were wide open to abuse and fraud. Retired Chicago policeman will chuckle when you mention, “vote early, vote often”. The vote rigging for the Kennedy election has now passed into folklore. In an Ulster election, catholic people would turn up only to be told they had already voted, so ____ off. This is presuming they registered to vote. For Catholics, lucky enough to find work, the very act of registering to vote would ultimately lead to the loss of their job.
Who were the perpetrators of this injustice - the British? Well, while there have been those on the US lecture circuit, saying just that, it is factual distortion. It would be true to say that this criminality was taking place under the British flag, probably since the partition. But I doubt that Northern Ireland would have achieved a level of consciousness for British members of parliament of the day. Few would have realized it was a part of the UK! Even fewer would have been aware of how many people that Ulster families had lost in fighting British wars. Probably no British politician would have known how those pro-British Irishmen, racially, hated the English peoples!
The electoral criminals were Northern Irish, but they were not Catholic. It was the the Protestant Northern Irish who, to this very day, form a slender majority in the Northern six counties - a majority so small that had to be protected to prevent any reform. Any reform would have exposed just how rotten the Ulster government was. Certainly it would have exposed the complicity in this corruption of Ulster’s number one secret organization. Not, as you might think, the IRA, but the Orange Order - a secret male only organization modeled on the freemasonry movement. The Orange Order controlled every facet of Ulster life and remains a powerful force today.
Storemont, N. Ireland
By mid 1960’s Northern Ireland was already heading for civil war. The pressure was building. How long did the Northern Irish Government in Stormont think they could keep the lid on all this? Did they think they could suppress the civil rights of nearly half the population forever? It was a catastrophic decision that they believed they could. It was also an opportunity for the IRA to hijack the civil rights movement of justice for the cause of a united Ireland. And they did this with no political mandate. Not that it mattered. Who had faith in this democracy - certainly, nobody who was Catholic.
This was a country where unemployment was near 20% of the working population and a high percentage of those were catholic. The IRA had a tough sell to persuade Catholics give up their welfare checks, so generously paid for by Welsh, Scottish and English taxpayers. The Irish in the south had no such benefits. But the IRA’s tool of choice was coercion and not just towards the Protestant Pro British and British Troops.
As an adult I have gone back to work in N. Ireland a number of times. I remember walking into a pub in Belfast, after a day’s work. It was kind of the barman to poor me this pint of Guinness because he told me once I had drunk it that I must leave. Other people in the bar were extremely apologetic but explained that while the IRA would beat me into a pulp if they knew I was there, they would also beat the hell out of every Catholic in the bar as well - for allowing and Englishmen to cross the door. Those good people took a dangerous risk to be human to me that day.
And so, the IRA, tied to the ancient, romantic cause of a united Ireland, bulldozed legitimate protest on civil and human rights out the way. Most people in Southern Ireland wanted little to do with the troublesome northerners. But the IRA could rely on many Irish Americans to help them; at least the ones still married to “the cause”. Little did they know that their dollars would be used to buy weapons to kill civil populations, Catholics being amongst them. As with most coercionists this planet has ever seen, if you weren’t for them then, you were against them.
Powell and his boss, Tony Blair, were more than happy to accept the forces of coercion. But, in doing so, they sacrificed the moderate forces of reason. Seamus Mallon, the former Deputy First Minister for Northern Ireland and Chairman of the SDLP’s assembly party was a Catholic leader and outspoken in his opposition to IRA violence. He was told by Tony Blair “the trouble with you guys is that you don’t have any guns.” {Source: Financial Times}. David Trimble, who guided the Ulster Unionist Party to a more moderate position, was also moved to the sidelines by Blair and Powell. This was a duplicitous act by the British government as it betrayed its strongest allies in the province. It was hardly just reward to proven democrats.
What Powell and Blair have failed to realize is that the IRA will take power by any means it can - whether with IRA arms or Sinn Fein words. Power is even more important to them than any policy towards a united Ireland. It is more important than the minority catholic population they represent. It remains a deeply corrupt organization still capable of robbing large amounts of money from Irish banks. The IRA will still hurt or kill people that get in its way. Like al-Qaeda, it is heavily involved with drug trafficking and remains a purchasing participant in the unregulated arms trade.
But Powell and Blair were not content with cutting a deal with the devil, they cut a deal with another one as well - Ian Paisley. Paisley represents all that is wrong in Ulster politics over the past 50 years. For most of his life he has been the face of Protestant intolerance. His close association with the Orange Order has allowed him be at the center of the Protestant rallying call for Catholic persecution. Together they have infiltrated nearly every Northern Irish institution, be it the Church of Ireland, the post office, the local council or the bus company. He may have retired as first Minister but the corrosive residue he has left in Ulster’s DNA will be there for a very long time to come.
Looking at Northern Ireland over my lifetime, reminds me of Orwell’s Animal Farm - but without the socialism. The farm animals {the Catholics} look on as the pigs {the IRA/Sinn Fein} take office with the Orange Order farmers, joking and laughing as old pals, slapping each other on the back in self-congratulation. The farm animals found little had changed after all their struggle and that remains true for the Catholic Northern Irish. Yes, Belfast may have no bombings and less shootings but as with many urban war zones, the city has always been a vibrant town to go out in. Sectarian killings still remain a part Northern Irish life. There is still segregation in schools which means there is still segregation in opportunity. The communities remain as separated as the day I was thrown out of that Belfast Catholic pub. The voting system may pass international standards now but it is still as difficult as ever for a Catholic man or woman to get work. This very large minority population has considerable reason to feel aggrieved now as they did 50 years ago.
As advocates of multiculturalism {as opposed to multi-racism} Blair and Powell have spent a lot of time in Northern Ireland. But it has never occurred to them that multiculturalism has not worked here, since the reign of Elizabeth 1. Rather than attempt to resolve the deep differences within the culture, they have compounded them. By appealing to the extremes of Ulster society, they have hardened and entrenched the divisions between the communities. This is the politics of cynicism, not the politics of hope.
Blair’s Government has overseen similar multicultural experiments in England with equally disastrous results. No civilization can flourish where communities are isolated from each other and are encouraged to stay in isolation.
Will Northern Ireland’s injustices swell into civil war again? It is difficult to determine. Certainly the building blocks for civil war have never been taken away. At least the IRA won’t be distorting a long held grievance for political gain. After climbing on the backs of Catholics for so long, the IRA has what it wants. It is now a part of the establishment. It is hardly likely to challenge the status quo.
In their efforts to secure peace, Blair and Powell failed to confront the criminality in Northern Ireland and deal with it impartially. I have the distinct feeling that if these two had to confront the 1930’s gangsters of Chicago then Al Capone would never had made it to jail. And if he had, they would have let him go.
Peace in our time? The answer is yes, for now. But the ghost of Neville Chamberlain remains a powerful specter.
©The Anglo American
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