Is There A NICE TIME Happening In Northern Ireland?
And could it lead to a unified Ireland?
For the first time ever, an Irish nationalist will be the first minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly — and it may lead to the reunification of Ireland. This is a very, very big deal.
Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill actually should have become first minister two years ago, when the party first received a majority of support in the last elections. However, the Democratic Unionist Party, which represents those who wish to remain part of the United Kingdom, walked out of the Assembly in 2022 in protest of post-Brexit trade agreements that instituted checks on goods coming from the rest of the United Kingdom. The DUP believed that these restrictions, instituted after Britain left the European Union, threatened Northern Ireland’s relationship with the rest of the UK.
(For those used to our American terminology, I should probably point out the the Democratic Unionist Party is the conservative party, and the nationalists and Republicans in Ireland are actually on the political left. Up until now, the first minister — the highest position in the Northern Ireland government — had always been from the Democratic Unionist Party.)
Tuesday, by strange coincidence, was the 52nd anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the day that British soldiers shot 29 unarmed protesters in Derry, Northern Ireland, killing 13 (14 in total, as one died later from injuries sustained during the massacre), making it the single deadliest shooting* incident that occurred during the Troubles.
The Derry protest that became Bloody Sunday was organized by Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association against “Operation Demetrius” — the mass arrests, imprisonment and torture, without trial, of people “suspected of being involved with the Irish Republican Army.” In reality, the vast majority of these people were just random Catholics or Republicans who had literally nothing to do with the IRA, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), or any other paramilitary groups — though many did end up joining afterwards, having for some unknown reason lost their faith in the power of nonviolent protest.
The Troubles continued up until 1998’s Good Friday agreement, in which the Unionists and Republicans agreed to share power in Northern Ireland. (There were obviously incidents after that as well, but on a much smaller scale.)
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that she believes that this is a turning point that could lead, finally, to the long-awaited unification of Ireland.
“In historic terms, it is within touching distance and I think that is a very exciting thing and I hope people will find that a very welcoming conversation,” McDonald said, according to The Guardian.
As per the terms of the Good Friday agreement, all that’s needed for unification to happen is for a majority of people in Northern Ireland to vote for it. With Sinn Féin now the majority party, and the country increasingly moving to the left with each generation, that is looking to be far more within reach than it once was.
“That will be a moment of very great significance, not simply because we haven’t had government for so long but because it will be the first time that we will have a Sinn Féin first minister, a nationalist first minister,” she added.
As part of the agreement to return to power-sharing, there will not be checks on British goods coming into Ireland.
“That was our core key objective and I believe what we have secured represents real change and everybody will be able to see it for themselves,” said DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.
Via The Guardian:
If there are no glitches, Stormont [the Irish parliament] could be recalled as early as Friday to elect an assembly speaker and appoint an executive drawn from Sinn Féin, the DUP, the Alliance party and the Ulster Unionist party. The DUP will be entitled to the deputy first minister post, which has equal power to first minister but less prestige and symbolic weight.
O’Neill said Stormont faced an urgent workload, including a fiscal crisis, strikes and crumbling healthcare. “We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, a slog ahead of us, but collectively we can do better for the people we serve. Collectively, we can fight back against this Tory austerity agenda, collectively we can stand up and fight hard for public services.”
The government has offered a £3.3bn financial package that is conditional on Stormont’s restoration. It includes funding for pay rises that could avert public sector strikes, though not a strike by transport workers that is to go ahead on Thursday.
Northern Ireland is the slowest growing economy in the British and Irish isles, and a large part of the argument for reunification is economic in nature. Sinn Féin and other nationalist groups argue that a unified Ireland will “allow for more coordinated and strategic economic development across the island and especially within the border region, attracting more investment, improved productivity, and with it enhanced essential infrastructure” throughout the island.
This is all a very big deal, and incredible news for the Irish and for people all over the world who have wished for and supported a unified Ireland for so long.
Tiocfaidh ár lá!
*There were two deadlier explosions — the Omagh bombing, which killed 29, carried out by the Real IRA (a splinter sect that opposed the Good Friday agreement) in 1998 after the Good Friday agreement was signed, and the McGurk's Bar bombing, in which the Ulster Volunteer Force killed 15 Catholics.
PREVIOUSLY:
I grew up in England in the 70s and 80s - living with the constant background threat of being a victim of an IRA bombing. Somehow, that always felt more urgent a threat than the Cold War nuclear holocaust did.
However, even as a youngster, I understood that we were oppressing the people of Northern Ireland, and that it made no sense that we occupied a tiny corner of someone else's country. Of course, as an adult, I get that there's a bit more nuance to it, but the dividing walls, the watchtowers... every time I saw that on TV, I just knew that it was *wrong*.
I remember being told that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness were the 'bad guys' - but I always thought that Ian Paisley seemed like the most fanatical, hateful bastard of them all.
I'll be supremely pleased if I get to see a united Ireland in my lifetime.
I grew up on the British mainland throughout the Troubles and, to this day, can still remember the horror and shame I felt at the actions of the British army. I will just add that Ian Paisley was one of the most egregiously evil men to ever squelch on this earth and I hope his bile-fuelled brain is mouldering in hell.
On the bright side, Nice Time for Ireland and about bloody time too!