Will N Ireland come out on the side of peace?
I leave Belfast a city preparing for some sort of manifestation of resistance to a return to killing. Nobody knows how many people will turn out.
Indeed, I suspect a lot of people will just stand outside their workplaces and may do it in communities right across Northern Ireland.
Curiously, this is the fifth anniversary of the Madrid bombings, which also shook a civil population out of its lethargy. The manifestations of popular sentiment which followed were vastly enhanced by the upsurge of resentment towards the Aznar government.
The then prime minister had tried to exploit anti-ETA sentiment in Spain by blaming the Basque separatists for what an official investigation subsequently determined to have been an al-Qaida operation.
Alas, history is littered with these awful events. Last night I and my team were in a café talking over the day’s events. Two very angry unionists at a neighbouring table had been earwigging our conversation and castigated us for “not understanding”, saying if you have never lived here you will never understand.
There’s a generation growing up, a tiny minority of whom think they missed something. Many of these are kids of desperate housing estates like that in Craigavon, growing up feeling their fathers and grandfathers found an identity that has eluded them.
In Northern Ireland fundamentally everyone is coming out on one side, all parties united in the face of attacks from a group, or groups, who appear to be traditionally disaffected, alienated, angry, and peeved that they missed their place in the bomb-throwing sun.
Related posts:
There are no comments on this post
I’m from Northern Ireland and was raised as a neutral Catholic.
I must say, one of my first fears when I heard of these killings was the reaction in England where I now call home. Thankfully, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the level-headed lack of fear, and proud of the show of defiance back home from both sides. This is certainly the greatest reaction I could have hoped for.
I wanted to comment to say that “a tiny minority of whom think they’ve missed something” is one of the most astute statements about dissident terrorist groups I’ve yet read. It seems that an ill-advised viewing of the past as “glory days” is a factor in groups like the CIRA existing. As long as former militants like McGuinness stand up and disown the actions of splinter groups, I’ll feel much more satisfied that NI’s government and citizens can deal with this as a small blip, not a total setback for years of peaceful negotiation.
Re: There’s a generation growing up, “a tiny minority that think they missed something”.
Actually. Over the last few years I have caught myself thinking, just once or twice in some quiet moments, that I’ve not been tested in the way that my parents, grandparents and great grandparents were tested during the two world wars. It particularly happens when I think back to what my ancestors had been through when they were my age. So I do understand the line of thought that you refer to Jon.
I wonder if it is just a characteristic of being male in the frustrating modern world, where there’s not much of a role for us men?
Anyway. It’s a thoroughly unhealthy thought that I don’t want to encourage. I try to dispell it by reminding myself of the horrors of those times. I hope the generation growing up in Northern Ireland will look at the archives, the history books and the TV documentaries and realise it would be stupid to return to those times.
I also think the government needs to find better things for men to do. It’s all very well promoting equal opportunities and creating millions of office-based jobs/careers that are female-friendly, but we need roles that are a lot more male friendly too.
Ship-building for instance…
The people of Northern Ireland have enjoyed peace for ten years now and for that reason people who want to disturb the peace will not get much support.