The truth about Bloody Sunday

As a child growing up in Dublin, I remember the atmosphere of horror and shock that followed the killings on Bloody Sunday. A national day of mourning was declared in the Republic, the IRA led a mob that burned down the British Embassy and the limited RTE television broadcasts reverted to a schedule normally only used on Good Friday in those days. Truth be told, it was one of only a few occasions when the 'Troubles' seemed to impinge on daily life down South: the other was the Dublin bombings. To many in the Republic, the six counties, far from being the missing part of the nation, seemed a remote and even unwelcome neighbour. Yet the North provided a daily backdrop of death to the seventies as the IRA became ever more vicious in their killing, only outdone by the gory awfulness of their loyalist counterparts. And Bloody Sunday was the prelude to that brutal decade that scarred so many in the North.

For those whose loved ones were killed on Bloody Sunday, the memories of that day have never gone away, even as the benefits of the Good Friday agreement are felt across Northern Ireland. Today's inquiry should finally give them the answers that they deserve, and which they were so cruelly denied in the Widgery whitewash. It is pretty damning stuff that fully vindicates the testimony of many eyewitnesses, including former Bishop Edward Daly. But it would be wholly wrong to conclude that there should then be prosecutions of the soldiers involved: in a Northern Ireland where once-brutal terrorists - including one said to have carried a machine-gun on Bloody Sunday - are respectable assembly members, and even ministers, there is nothing to be gained from trying to prosecute those soldiers who killed innocent people in Derry on that fateful day any more than there is merit in reprosecuting the many other horrors perpetrated in the bloody years that followed. David Cameron was absolutely right to deliver the apology he did in the Commons, as was Sir Mike Jackson - and it is unfortunate that this inquiry has taken so long to reach its conclusions - but Sinn Fein members who have been among the greatest beneficiaries of the post-peace amnesty should be the first to argue that having finally achieved the truth, it is in nobody's interests not to move on.

A guide to modern Ireland

A brilliant exposition of modern Irish politics from the Irish News.

Ireland is an island to the west of Britain, but Northern Ireland is just off the mainland – not the Irish mainland, the British mainland....

The capital of Ireland is Dublin. It has a population of a million people, all of whom will be shopping in Newry this afternoon. They travel to Newry because it is in the North, which is not part of Ireland.

Under the Irish constitution, the North used to be but a successful 30-year campaign of violence for Irish unity ensured that it is now definitely in the UK. Had the campaign lasted longer the North might now be in France.

Hat tip: Slugger O'Toole

UPDATE: For the benefit of correspondents in the comments, this is a light-hearted satirical piece from the Irish News flagged up by Slugger. It is not my considered view of the geography or politics of Ireland!

Sinn Fein finally comes of age

After the murder of the two British soldiers in Antrim on Saturday night, I thought the response to the brutal killings would be a real test for Sinn Fein. For too long, their responses have been characterised by equivocation and weasel words, and having listened to them for decades both before and after the peace process, I expected another set of carefully calculated platitudes on this occasion. Their response on Sunday acknowledged that the killings were wrong, but had a cold, calculated feel to them.

That's what makes the press conference by Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson with Chief Constable Hugh Orde yesterday such an important moment. The penny seemed finally to have dropped with McGuinness that the killing of a police officer was not simply another pawn on the Republican chess board known as the 'peace process' (never quite what everyone else regarded the process as being), and he expressed himself with unprecedented emotion and feeling. Even Gerry Adams, always a cooler customer, seemed to have been liberated from self-imposed P O Neill mode on Channel Four News last night. When the DUP and Sinn Fein joined together in government, it was a truly remarkable moment. But yesterday was the day when the process - and Sinn Fein - finally showed its maturity.

This post has been picked up by Mick Fealty at Slugger O'Toole and the Telegraph, and by the New Statesman.

Responding to the brutal murder in Antrim

The murder of two soldiers in Antrim - the first in 12 years - is a shocking reminder that there are still some Republican dissidents who are determined to try to wreck the successful and peaceful existence that Northern Ireland has now achieved.

There can be no equivocation about such barbarity - and there must be unity among all politicians in condemning the murders. If Martin McGuinness thinks otherwise, he will simply give succour to those who are determined to wreck the peace that he and others worked so long to achieve. As the SDLP's leader Mark Durkan, said:

Those who committed it are steeped in the mindset and means of past violence. They need to understand this is not an attack on British army but the Irish people who have voted for and value above all else peaceful politics and democratic accommodation.

12 NOON UPDATE: I am pleased to see that Sinn Fein have now condemned the attack.

Compensating factors

There has been strong criticism from both Unionists and victims' groups of the plans proposed by a group chaired by the former Church of Ireland primate Robin Eames and the vice-chair of the Northern Ireland policing board Denis Bradley to pay the families of all those killed in the Troubles £12,000, regardless of circumstances.

Before considering the cash proposal, it is worth saying that the other main proposals from the Commission, ignored by the BBC, are good ideas and worthy of action. These include:

- A legacy commission chaired by international commissioner and two other members to oversee how legacy of the Troubles is comprehensively addressed.
- An information recovery unit which will privately collate and report on information from paramilitaries and British security forces to help establish how and why victims were killed in conflict.
- A new investigative body to replace Historical Enquiries Team to investigate some 3,000 killings of the Troubles.
- £100 million for projects to tackle sectarianism.
- An end to future public inquiries into controversial killings.
- Practical assistance for people who have suffered or were traumatised by the Troubles.

Coming to terms with the past is an important part of facing the future. And the 3700 people who died in the Troubles should certainly not be forgotten. But these other worthy ideas could be lost in a needless controversy over a very silly and offensive proposal that would see the family of the Shankill Butchers and the IRA death squads rewarded for the terror carried out by members of their families. At the same time, as David Trimble rightly said on Today, it is offensive to imagine that £12,000 will do much for the families of the innocent victims. There is already a criminal injuries compensation scheme that does not pay perpetrators of crime.

Of course, there is an awful lot that people have had to accept in order to create a climate where Sinn Fein and the DUP can share power, and there are those in government in Northern Ireland with blood on their hands as a result. There are also many who have been released from gaol despite having committed the most heinous crimes. That has been a tough but necessary condition for peace.

Equally, several of the proposals here could help to ensure that their victims are not forgotten and the reasons for their deaths are properly accounted for. And with the endless Bloody Sunday inquiry, they are right to propose an end to enquiries into controversial killings.

Gordon Brown should accept these other proposals while rejecting the compensation proposal. And he should not have to spend too much time thinking about it.

Conor Cruise O'Brien 1917-2008

Conor Cruise O'Brien has died at the age of 91. He was undoubtedly the most courageous figure in late 20th century Ireland. Born into a family steeped in nationalist tradition, he married into another. Yet in a career that transcended the history of the Republic, he went from being DeValera's nationalist propagandist in the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs to becoming the IRA's fiercest critic as a Labour Party Minister of Posts and Telegraphs in the seventies coalition government, and subsequently a unionist member of the Northern Ireland forum. His time in Africa saw him leading a doomed UN mission to Katanga, on which he published a memorable account, and as an early Chancellor at the national university of Ghana in the early sixties.

Behind the politics there was a formidable scholar, author and journalist: few Irish books since have matched the quality of States of Ireland; few memoirs are as brilliant as his; nobody else was as knowledgeable on Edmund Burke; and his journalism as Observer editor, and a columnist for the Atlantic Monthly, Irish Times and Irish Independent was prodigious. Perhaps he was wrong in his estimation of the potential for peace and compromise in Northern Ireland, and his hatred of Sinn Fein led him to underestimate the extent to which their acceptance of a six counties solution was a defeat for their primary objective. Yet his penetrating critiques of the despicable Charles Haughey - whose chicanery he recognised more than most in the memorable phrase GUBU (grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented) - and of militant Republicanism were a rational antidote to the self-delusional nationalism of seventies and early eighties Ireland.

We have lost one the greatest Irishmen of recent history. May he rest in peace.

UPDATE: Eamon Gilmore, Leader of the Irish Labour Party, has paid generous tribute to Conor Cruise O'Brien. O'Brien had rejoined Labour in his later years.

Brown's decisiveness at a critical moment

Recent criticism of Gordon Brown - which has culminated in today's dismal poll ratings - owed much to a sense of indecisiveness in the face of economic crises. The dithering over Northern Rock had as much to do with his growing unpopularity as his failure to call an election.

But in the last 24 hours, we have seen rather more of the Brown the public used to respect as Chancellor. Ably assisted by his best Downing Street aide, Jeremy Heywood, Brown has facilitated the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS, to the benefit of the wider economy and provided reassurance to HBOS customers (if not those facing job losses). He has also acted quickly to set up an inquiry into what the intelligence services knew in advance of the Omagh bombings.

Whether he gains any public credit for these actions remains to be seen. But having endured so much criticism in recent months, he deserves credit for his speedy responses on these occasions.

This Northern Irish blog

It is flattering that this blog has been voted No 5 in Iain Dale's list of top Northern Irish blogs. And who could fail to be pleased about appearing reasonably prominently in a list led by the great Slugger O'Toole? There is a slight problem, however. This is not really a Northern Irish blog. It is written by a Dubliner based in Bath, and while it is true I do occasionally comment on Northern Irish affairs; I write more about those of the Republic these days, and my main focus is UK politics, education, culture and travel. Of course, I'm grateful for the listing; and, thanks for those votes. But the blog won't be moving from Bath to Belfast anytime soon.

The end of an era for Bertie Ahern and Irish politics

News that the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern is to step down will surprise nobody who has been following the convoluted tribunal investigations into the Taoiseach's murky financial affairs, and many in his Fianna Fail party probably think his resignation should have come sooner; hopefully, after May 6th, Brian Cowen can restore some semblance of purpose to the coalition government. Bertie presided over the good times for the Celtic Tiger, but failed to make the necessary improvements in health and education that the largesse of the boom years allowed; now Ireland is facing the economic chill that has affected the US and Europe. Yet his single greatest achievement, as Jonathan Powell reflects in his new book, was with Tony Blair to the Northern Ireland peace process and the Good Friday Agreement, and for that he deserves great credit - few will forget his returning quickly from his mother's funeral to keep the process on track. Bertie survived 11 years in office, a remarkable stint only matched by Eamon DeValera. Perhaps it was inevitable that as the country's fortunes started to wane, his did too. It is the end of an era not only for Bertie, but for Irish politics.

Goldsmith's snub to the Irish in Britain

When Ireland decided to leave the Commonwealth in 1949, admittedly a rather silly act of gesturism by an inter-party government, Clement Attlee's government wisely decided to place Irish citizens in the UK on the same basis as British citizens. This included a right to vote in all elections in the constituencies where they were resident. At a time when the Irish were literally rebuilding Britain after the war and Irish nurses were vital to the new NHS, this was an act of enlightened pragmatism. Even though some concessions had to be moderated following the entry of the UK into the EEC to avoid having to afford similar rights to all European nations, these voting rights were maintained - to the credit of the Heath, Wilson, Callaghan and Thatcher governments - through the worst of the IRA's campaigns. British citizens enjoy reciprocal rights in Dail elections. Now, at a time when Anglo-Irish relations have never been stronger, Peter Goldsmith is proposing to phase out those rights in the name of legal tidiness rather than any pressing requirement to do so. His impractical proposals for youthful pledges of allegiance are (one hopes) unlikely to see the light of day; but Gordon Brown should make clear that he has no intention of taking the vote from Irish citizens who live in Britain, those whom Lord Goldsmith regards as 'residuals'. Indeed, if Lord Goldsmith accepts that Northern Ireland will still need a different regime, his arguments for the change are even less justified: is he saying that a Belfast Catholic with an Irish passport who decides to move to London must change nationality to keep his Westminster vote? The ex-Attorney General may have a fine legal mind; he has no sense of history.

UPDATE: There are lively blog debates on the subject here, here and here.

Ian Paisley steps down

Ian Paisley - the senior figure in the comedy duo that is the Chuckle Brothers - is to step down as First Minister in Northern Ireland. His contribution to the process that began with the Good Friday agreement has been creditable: he was right to demand full demilitarisation by the IRA and he was right to share power with Sinn Fein and his co-chuckle brother, Martin McGuinness in the end. But it was his extremism in the sixties that probably contributed as much to the birth of the Provisional IRA as anything, and his flirtation with the brutal end of loyalist paramilitarism was inexcusable. Nevertheless, his work over the last few years have shown the other side of a remarkable man; his constituents had always seen it, and now Northern Ireland has benefited from the stability of his leadership for the best part of a year. Peter Robinson, if it is he who succeeds him as First Minister, will have a tough act to follow.

Sinn Fein's 1950s throwbacks

For years, the Republic of Ireland was crippled by a narrow nationalism that fed the economic and social isolationism that kept the country far poorer than its potential suggested. That started to change in the sixties, but since the 1990 election of Mary Robinson and the emergence of the Celtic Tiger, all has changed, changed utterly, to paraphrase Yeats. The President now properly commemorates Ireland's many war dead: when I visited Ypres a few years ago, the names of thousands of working-class Dubliners stood out. When Diana was killed, Dubliners queued up to sign a book of condolences. The Queen is likely to visit Dublin soon, the first such visit by a British monarch for over a century. Nationalist Ireland - at least in the South - is now capable of celebrating its British heritage, because it is self-confident about being Irish. Now, turn to the petty-minded throwbacks that still populate Sinn Fein at local council level, this time in Limavady. Of course, it is true that they are often more than matched by their Unionist counterparts who have sought to deny that Northern Ireland has an Irish as well as a British heritage. However, times are supposed to have changed. So, what message do these councillors think it sends to their fellow Northern Irishmen and women to seek to scrub all memory of one of New Zealand's longest-serving prime ministers, William 'Bill' Massey, and Limavady's most successful sons, because he was a member of the Orange Order? This sort of petty act might have been acceptable in dreary 1950s Ireland. It should have no place in modern Ireland - North or South.

All-Ireland politics

Now that Fianna Fail has announced its plans to organise in Northern Ireland - and perhaps even to merge with the SDLP - there is no reason why the Irish and British Labour Parties should not ensure that voters of all backgrounds have the chance to vote Labour. Both parties should ensure there are Labour candidates in every constituency. I used to oppose this idea, but times have changed. Bertie and Sinn Fein shouldn't have a free run.