Northern Ireland once more seems to be out of sight and out of mind. Many feel that the Troubles are over and it can just get on with things without the daily, detailed and deep attention of premiers and presidents.
This will please those for whom Northern and Ireland are the two most boring words in the English language, as one cruel wit once put it.
But the truth is that just a few baby steps have been taken on a perilous path of recovering from barbarism and terror.
History shows that the ‘Recurring IRA’ bounces back from defeat because, as they would see it, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace. Such a resurgence now seems improbable because the 1998 Good Friday Agreement was overwhelmingly endorsed in a pan-Ireland plebiscite. Unity requires the consent of those in Northern Ireland which is unlikely for now. Unity may or may not become possible but the land border has all but disappeared for most practical purposes.
However, so-called dissident republicans are serious about violence with 23 serious attacks this year. The murder of the young and Catholic police constable Ronan Kerr in April united police chiefs, political and civic leaders north and south in a massive display of solidarity.
However, mental borders within Northern Ireland remain potent. The number of so-called peace walls and gates which disfigure the interfaces between Catholic and Protestant areas has increased since 1998.
This reflects deep segregation and sectarianism in Northern Ireland where only seven per cent of children attend integrated schools, despite 85,000 empty and expensive desks in the system.
Many people live entirely separately from their Catholic or Protestant neighbours in what has been dubbed benign apartheid. Power is not so much shared as shared out between two dominant parties – Sinn Fein and the DUP – that have little in common but are spatchcocked together in a mandatory coalition.
There is no programme of government, no collective decision-making and no opposition. It may have been a necessary evil initially but it is not an efficient model of government.
The two formerly dominant moderate parties – the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP – were shredded at the polls and are discussing how to renew themselves, including the longer-term possibility of jacking in their ministerial posts and forming a formal opposition.
David Ford, the leader of the non-sectarian Alliance party told the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly in Brighton that he only got the job of justice minister when powers were finally devolved because the DUP and Sinn Fein couldn’t trust each other with the post.
An external focus remains essential – following partition Northern Ireland was left to its own devices and injustices were allowed to fester and explode. The long-term answers must properly take root in Northern Ireland but outside assistance will help.
The BIPA has played an honorable role in helping incubate the Agreement and in fostering better Anglo-Irish relations since 1990. It brings together parliamentarians from Britain, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales as well as Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of man – the Atlantic archipelago.
The gulf in perceptions between British and Irish politicians was initially deep and bitter but relations have mellowed as odd bedfellows have worked together. Take the alliance forged between former Tory security minister Michael Mates and Sinn Fein Assembly member Barry McElduff. They agreed that the old army base in Omagh, where Mates had lived as a young officer and which was an IRA target, should be handed over to local ministers rather than flogged off to property developers. The base is becoming an educational campus.
The BIPA should shadow and check bodies that bring ministers together in these islands. Its standing committees could conduct inquiries that devise practical and popular proposals. The committee headed by veteran Labour campaigner Lord (Alf) Dubs, for instance, is probing the position of Irish travellers and also the problem of people trafficking.
But its USP is sharing best practice and networking to overcome division and grievance. The coming years see several major and deeply controversial centenaries which can rekindle acrimony. They include the anniversaries of the Ulster Covenant, the Easter Rising, Partition and the Irish civil war.
History is very much current with major conflicts over how to handle the past. Sinn Fein demands for a truth commission are undermined by hollow laughter in reaction to claims that Martin McGuinness left the IRA in 1974 and Gerry Adams was never in it.
The BIPA has built a cadre of politicians who can show ‘good authority’ on such issues. It needs to renew that role in each generation of public representatives.
The bitterness of the past was amplified by the BIPA’s decision for practical rather than symbolic reasons to meet in the Grand Hotel 27 years after a Provisional IRA bomb nearly assassinated Mrs Thatcher.
Some Conservative MPs baulked at this because the senior ‘Shinner’ was Irish MP Martin Ferris who served time. Such queasiness is understandable but Sinn Fein is now a full part of the politics of these islands.
As it happens Ferris stayed at home to support Martin McGuinness’ bid for the Irish presidency. Victory is unlikely. The Northern Ireland deputy first minister has received a rough ride from those angry about IRA murders of Irish soldiers and police officers. A Donegal Facebooker recently quipped – ‘Just found an election leaflet from Martin McGuinness under my car. Old habits die hard.’
Such cruel humour often speaks volumes and illustrates the obstacles to be overcome. Ireland and Northern Ireland have made tremendous progress but continuing progress requires all its friends to keep them in our hearts and minds.