LITTLE HOPE OF PEACE IF THERE IS NO RESPECT FOR THE PAIN OF OTHERS
by David Williamson
Western Mail/Wales
Nov 8 2007
FOUR men from Northern Ireland visited the Senedd yesterday in search
of inspiration.
They were members of the Stormont Assembly and in Wales to learn
how technology and translating services could be put to use in
their own debating chamber. This was an unextraordinary meeting of
elected representatives with counterparts from a different region of
post-devolution UK.
Twenty years ago today, 11 people were killed when a bomb
exploded during a Remembrance Day service at Enniskillen in County
Fermanagh. The fact these four politicians were chatting about the
most mundane logistics of democracy is evidence of the near-miracle
which has taken place in Northern Ireland.
Francie Molloy, now Stormont’s Deputy Presiding Officer, was director
of elections for Bobby Sands during the 1981 hunger strikes by
republican prisoners. Lord Morrow of Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist
Party opposed the Good Friday Agreement when it was spearheaded by
David Trimble.
Ulster Unionist Billy Armstrong, an Orangeman, was a part-time reserve
constable with the RUC – 277 of whose officers were killed by the IRA.
And Thomas Burns of the SDLP is a supporter of the Gaelic Athletic
Association, which until recently banned UK police from its membership.
Former enemies are now fighting for the votes of an electorate
demanding efficient government.
It is unlikely any of them would ever claim Ulster has a perfect
peace. But important figures on each side of the divide decided
to suspend their conflict, swallow the most bitter pills, tacitly
acknowledge the deep grief in each community, and begin to build a
new future.
No such respect for those mourning their dead was evident on Saturday
when a monument was unveiled outside the Temple of Peace in Cardiff
in memory of the 1.3 million people Armenians believe died as the
Ottoman Empire disintegrated. A crowd waving giant Turkish flags
hollered there was no "genocide" and denounced the men and woman
gathered around the small memorial as liars.
Resolutions describing the deaths as genocide have been passed
in countries including France, Switzerland, Canada, and, in 2000,
Wales. This does not prove Armenians were targeted for extermination,
but parliamentarians do not risk the ire of Turkey – a democracy and
an ally – without good cause. The protesters who did their best to
drown out the commemoration in Cardiff have a right to argue their
version of history, but hopes for healing in a powder-keg region will
be dashed if they demonise those who have carried memories of sorrow
for generations.
Ireland’s pain is not buried far below the soil and there has been
only limited reconciliation. It takes a tough and truly brave person
to sit down with a foe – forgiveness may follow, but it is not the
prerequisite for progress. That is respect.