The emotions extant here and now are of annoyance, anger,
disgust at the situation in which we find ourselves. Whether
for or against the Belfast Agreement the feeling is of deep
resentment that what was promised by the government and the
pro-Agreement parties has not been delivered; that the plans
for devolved cross-community government has been frustrated,
suspended if not prevented, with the Sinn Fein/I.R.A. determination
not to decommission its arms. Those who anticipated such an
eventuality and warned as to what would happen when they voted
against the Agreement are very angry too because their warnings
went unheeded. There is little pleasure anywhere. Whether
it was worth the trouble to produce a government inclusive
of republicans in order to rediscover the intransigence of
Sinn Fein/I.R.A. and ready acceptance of republicans of the
benefits to them of the peace process - release of prisioners,
acceptance of unrepentant former terrorists in government,
the almost literal disbandment of the R.U.C. - is the question
being asked. The munificence of the government and the accommodations
of the Blair cabinet to Sinn Fein/I.R.A. has been incredible.
Political, philosophical and ethical standards acceptable
in democratic societies everywhere were set aside in an attempt
to move them to accept principles and practices far removed
from their armed struggle. The response was only partial in
ceasefires while the threat of arms remained as potent as
ever. There are those who will justify what happened in pointing
up the political progress that was being made in an adminstration
in which our own politicians wrestled with our own problems.
But that just showed that there is potential in sharing even
in a government unique in itself with not one but several
political philosophies cohabitating in it. Always there was
the hidden guns and ammunition to prevent progress. The threat
of violence which influenced the thinking at Westminster could
no longer be allowed to affect a process dependent on the
trust of the participants and the determination of the people
to rid society of the continuous terrorist menace. At January
31, with no movement from Sinn Fein/I.R.A., the government
had had enough and it was told deliver or else. The decision
to suspend the Assembly followed. The days subsequent to that
date were dominated by media concentration on the personalities
directly involved in charges and counter-charges on who was
responsible for the crisis so that we were deafened by the
recurring noises from raised voices to make listening and
viewing an agony. We reached the stage when what was being
said was so repetitive that we could have supplied a missing
word. The end result from intensive toing and froing was never
in doubt and in the event suspension happened. "What
next?" was the question put to Peter Mandelson on the
morning after parliament had received the Royal Assent for
the suspension of the Assembly. He had no answer but then
neither has anyone else. President Woodrow Wilson has a word
for these times: "The future is not for parties 'playing
politics', but for measures conceived in the largest spirit.
Pushed by parties whose leaders are statesmen, not demagogues,
who love, not their offices, but their duty and their opportunity
for service." One thing remains constant - the need for
Unionists to work together for that which is of the utmost
importance to us, the Union and the quality of life to be
expected in a peaceful, well-ordered society. We do ourselves
an injustice if we do not strive to obtain what are necessary
for our well-being, a devolved government and with it the
responsibility and opportunity to make Northern Ireland so
desirable that its residents will find it peaceful, prosperous
and its visitors the place to come to enjoy themselves.
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