The Irish are a profoundly dysfunctional family. This, at least, is the view of John Alderdice, a prominent Belfast psychiatrist and chair of the Alliance Party, a smaller but calmer group of Unionists than Rev. Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party.
Alderdice’s metaphor, however, may put too fine a gloss on the matter, for the past 25 years in Ireland have been nasty and brutish, but not short.
If anything has been very long in Ireland, it is the relentless memory of past injustices.
Nationalists and Unionists alike nurture their different versions of centuries-old grievances, not to the expiation of their grief, but to the extension of their pain.
The grief of Nationalists is never diminished, only exacerbated, by the constant drumbeat of the Orangemen recalling, each summer, the victory of William of Orange (their Dutch hero) over the Nationalists.
And the pain of a Unionist mother who has lost her only son in a senseless pub bombing cannot be justified by Nationalist recollections of colonial domination going back to Henry II, the harsh penal codes of Elizabeth I, the massive slaughter and enslavement of innocent civilians by Cromwell’s armies, the seizure of the land and its transfer to Scottish planters, or the other things on the too-long list of injuries inflicted over the centuries.
And so, as collective memories have gone unchallenged, we have witnessed the nasty and brutish violence that conflicted Irishmen have inflicted on one another.
Nationalists-typically members of the paramilitary Irish Republican Army-have committed atrocities against the occupying British Army andIrish civilians identified as Unionists.
Unionists-typically members of the paramilitary Ulster Defense League, but also members of the police and the Army-have committed equally horrible deeds against Irish civilians identified as Nationalists.
Against the awful and bloody background of this war, the current cessation of hostilities by the IRA should be welcomed by all.
Nationalists seeking the reunification of the six counties of Northern Ireland with the Republic may now be afforded a place at the conference table to discuss their political objectives, for they have-in the words of Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams-pledged their “firm intention to see the gun removed permanently from Irish politics.”
By overcoming their aversion to dealing directly with Nationalists and spending time at the table with them and with representatives of the Irish Republic, Unionists now seeking to remain with the United Kingdom may receive sufficient assurances that their communal identity and all of their civil and political rights will be fully protected in any new arrangements for the future of Ireland, whether united or divided.
Now is not the moment for premature pronouncements of “peace in our time.”
As London and Dublin both know, the road to the conference table is still fraught with difficulty. Bosnia and Rwanda remind us of that every day.
But the stunning breakthroughs in Israel and South Africa also remind us of the possibility of success.
At least the road ahead in Northern Ireland now has greater promise at its end than the previous standoff and slaughter. So neither is this a moment for failure of nerve to seize the precious opportunity that the IRA cease-fire presents.
Those who are committed to the status quo of the appalling violence in Northern Ireland will now attempt to sabotage the peace before it has a chance to succeed, much in the style of the hawkish hardliners among Israelis and Palestinians who remain opposed to the peace process in the Middle East. For example, Paisley has already forecasted a full-scale civil war in the wake of the IRA cease-fire announcement, and he has accused Britian of having betrayed the Unionists by “selling out to the IRA” and “pandering to the government of the Irish Republic.”
Such talk is a pathetic distraction from the urgent task of ending the conflict in a way that ensures it does not erupt again.
Opponents of peace in Ireland can be counted on to rev up their old resentments and to point accusing fingers again.
But as they insist that the larger questions revolve around who started what first and who replied with more excessive force, saner minds should now repudiate their arrogant, smug commitment to continued mutual self-destruction. It is time for the dysfunctional Irish to undergo some family therapy, to heal their wounds, and to function better as members of the larger human family.
