CKNW Editorial
for July 16, 1999

It is truly sad to see the situation deteriorate in Northern Ireland though I remain confident that a way will be found to bring self government to that beautiful but beleaguered province.

The problems are complicated and run very deep. One need only look at the faces of those doing the marching recently to appreciate just how deeply the emotions do run.

The country cannot escape its history any more than we can. The Protestants in Northern Ireland are still seen as interlopers by the Catholics even though they've been there for 400 years. They're seen as interlopers because they are just as much as white residents of Canada are interlopers. The mostly Scottish immigrants to the country did not come at the invitation of the natives - quite the opposite. And for centuries the Protestants have been in the ascendancy which, until very recently, meant all the good jobs went to them first. Politically, the Protestants ran things - period. Even menial jobs were denied Catholics.

This didn't happen because the Protestants were cruel people but because they saw any concessions of their part being a prescription for rule by Dublin which they saw as rule from Rome. And they had legitimate concerns.

Eire is a Catholic country in the sense that no others are. Their ties with the church are not only strong the distinction between the spiritual and temporal is often very blurred.

The trouble is, as it always is, there are rights and wrongs on both sides and all of them come under a very powerful magnifying glass. This leads to extremism, not just by way of violence but in the sense of Protestantisms deep need to act triumphally with marches through Catholic districts being the most obvious example.

What is also interesting is that Eire really isn't all that concerned about the reunification of Ireland any more even though 75 years ago a bloody civil war was fought over the 1922 partition. The impetus for IRA violence comes not from Dublin but Tripoli in Libya. It is not as if Ireland will be reunited by a threatening army from the Republic.

There is, however, an underlying truth connected to the Good Friday agreement now in jeopardy if not tatters. The inescapable conclusion is that as a logical result of that agreement Ireland will eventually be united. The Reverend Ian Paisley, hateful though this venomous man may be, is right when he sees this the inevitable result. The cooperation between the North and South in many areas is more than just two neighbours involved in mutual problems. There is a co-dominion developing.

I don't know what the answers are. They certainly aren't violence. One can readily understand the First Minister, David Trimble, not wanting to share power with an armed terrorist group. And while the Prime Ministers of Britain and the UK may delicately overlook the fact that the Sinn Fein negotiators, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have buckets of blood on their hands, Mr Trimble cannot and will not do the same.

I suppose the answer is the same as it is in all areas of the world with this sort of unsolvable problems - time. Keep talking and let time pass. And the byword for this centuries old conflict must be patience. And hope. Lots of both.