The people of Northern Ireland go to the polls Friday to choose between the continuation of a bloody past and the opportunity for a peaceful future.
Those who choose the past–and there are disturbing indications that many pro-British Protestants will do just that–do so at their own peril.
Voters in the North and in the Republic of Ireland to the south are being asked to ratify an agreement, painstakingly hammered out over two years of negotiating, that would considerably diminish British control in Northern Ireland. It would create a governing assembly of representatives from the Catholic electorate as well as the Protestant majority and at the same time eliminate Ireland’s constitutional claim to the six northern counties that make up Northern Ireland.
There’s no doubt that voters in the predominantly Catholic Republic of Ireland will give the deal an enthusiastic thumbs up–they have little to lose but a historical claim that is largely symbolic.
Residents of Northern Ireland, though, have much to lose if the agreement passes.
They stand to lose a legacy of bloodshed and violence that has taken more than 3,000 lives in 30 years and has wounded and maimed many thousands more.
They stand to lose the pervasive fear and sectarian mistrust that haunts the streets of their cities and poisons neighborly relations in small border towns.
They stand to lose their international reputation for hatred and danger, which has prevented the North from joining in the prosperity enjoyed by England and the unprecedented economic boom that is transforming Ireland.
Yet a handful of Protestant leaders loyal to British rule, key among them the notorious Rev. Ian Paisley, are drumming up opposition to the agreement by playing on the basest emotions of a population too long held hostage by fear. They are telling their fellow Protestants that if the agreement is ratified the guerrilla Irish Republican Army will rule the North, that the prisons will be emptied as thugs and murderers are set free, that the police department will be taken over by terrorists.
In fact, if a “yes” vote carries the day, some political prisoners on both sides will eventually be released, the overwhelmingly Protestant national police will likely be restructured to include more Catholics, and Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA, will no doubt win seats in the new assembly.
That’s what progress is all about. Those who say “no” to it will be casting their votes for chaos, for violence and for a retreat into a hopeless past from which future generations will find it ever more difficult to escape.
