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THE HEAD OF a major peace fund has warned of growing alienation after the coronavirus pandemic and Brexit.
International Fund for Ireland (IFI) chairman Paddy Harte said it is impossible to rule out future disorder such as the scenes at the Lanark Way peace line in west Belfast in April.
Harte also warned that paramilitary groups on both sides of the divide are gaining support from vulnerable communities who feel they have been let down by the peace process.
He said recent recruitment by dissident republicans was “alarming” as well as loyalists capitalising on anger at the Northern Ireland Protocol, seen by that community as a border in the Irish Sea.
He said a huge amount of work had gone on behind the scenes earlier this year to quell the serious disorder that erupted at a gate in the peace wall between the Falls Road and Shankill Road.
The violence stopped after several consecutive nights of violence.
“We were able to put in a fairly rapid response to enable our community workers to work together to ensure that there were young people with credentials there to persuade as many as they could not to get involved,” Harte said.
“It was night and day work… had it not been for the presence of our groups and others, that could have spun out of control, there could have been fatalities – it’s not magic that things didn’t start up again, because people stayed on top of it.”
The efforts included groups of young people from across the divide attending the Uefa Super Cup clash between Chelsea and Villareal in July at Windsor Park as part of new relationships being built.
Significant work also went on behind the scenes at the North Queen Street/Duncairn interface in north Belfast after tensions rose over the siting of a loyalist July 11 bonfire.
However Harte warned: “There is only so long society can expect volunteers and community workers to continue to do this.
People continue to work, and it is a fairly challenging environment for communities workers, but with support from ourselves and others I think we’ll get through it, providing that support stays.
“It’s very, very possible (violence could erupt again) however the connections that we have within communities and the networks that we have means that we could respond again, but it would be very naive for anyone to think that Lanark Way wouldn’t happen again.
“We are dealing primarily with generations of quite appalling conflict.
“Brexit has brought up issues of culture and identity, and raised old sores that had gone well into the background. The protocol has brought up this threat to the union and opportunity for a united Ireland – that sort of binary position is something that us and others have worked for years trying to show there are much more significant things to deal with.
“When we lay Covid on that, that restricted if not stopped opportunities for discourse around these things that helped us in our challenging conversations to work through concerns people were having.”
He added:
“Covid also brought into play Covid nationalism, for want of a better word, that people started to compare what was going on in Ireland with what was going on in Britain, and on one side of the border and the other people started to label people again in a way that had gone into the background.”
Raising the marking of a number of centenary dates, Harte said there are “lots of things that are coming together at the same time that make our work quite challenging and the consequences of all those things are that people have gone back into traditional positions”.
“The middle ground is smaller now than it has been for the last 15 years,” he added, referring to a recent survey which found growing alienation in society.
The fund also supports work around peace walls, with recent progress around barriers at Bishop Street in Londonderry and the gates at Flax Street in north Belfast.
Harte was speaking as the fund launches its new four-year strategy which says renewed efforts to build cross-border relationships are “critical to achieving long-term sustainable peace”.
Connecting Communities includes four programmes to empower marginalised communities. The strategy has been welcomed by Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis and Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney.
Lewis said the fund has done “unparalleled work to build and sustain peace by promoting and facilitating reconciliation and by tackling the underlying causes of violence and sectarianism”, adding it “continues to have a vital role to play”.
Coveney added: “As the world recovers from the social and economic effects of the Covid pandemic, and as Northern Ireland and the border counties continue to deal with the legacy of the past and the impact of Brexit, the work of the fund, through its engagement with the young and the most marginalised, is greatly needed in the period that lies ahead.”
The IFI was set up by the British and Irish governments as an independent organisation in 1986. It delivers a range of peace and reconciliation initiatives across Northern Ireland and the southern border counties.
The current strategy isn’t working. It may seem like compassion, but the rest of us have rights too.
Its not fair to the rest of society that in Dublin the board walk along the Liffey and the O’Connell Street area are dangerous during the day and virtually no go areas at night.
@Fiasco99: If you think that part of town is dangerous, bring your Mommy next time.
@Fiasco99: no go areas? Slight overreaction there surely?
@Val Miggin: honestly, have you been in these areas? Particularly late on a week night when there are few pub goers and especially if it’s a dry night as many of the users choose not to go to a hostel.
It’s not a good place to be. I would not like a family member to be there.
The Gardai choose not to carry out policing here, I assume because it’s pointless bringing the drug users to court for yet another suspended sentence.
Methadone is just a park and containment strategy effectively giving addicts a free heroin substitute. It does nothing to address addiction. It’s obviously been adopted as policy as it is relatively inexpensive and somewhat effective in achieving its limited goals but it offers no real hope to those afflicted most of whom will be on it for the remainder of their shortened lives.
Methadone makes too much money for the health professionals and big pharma , it is the golden cow. It is ten times more addictive than heroin, they do not want to rock the boat.
@Mr Jerry Curtin: Twit.
methadone….I always feel it’s a bit like a cigarette smoker switching to just pipe / or cigar smoking-
@Frank Dubogovik: More like switching from Major to Silk Cut.
Far better to have mandatory residential centres to assist drug addicts get off their addiction
@Stephen Kearon: are you serious !?
@Cathal: sounds like a winner to me.
@Stephen Kearon:
I see your advertising your British poppy again Stephen, any chance Micheal Martin or any one in FF is going to be seen dead wearing one?
I think we need to work on the homeless situation and the issues with the health service . If people really wanted to get of drugs they would .
And trust me I know .
@Greg: really? Is there a magic pill or potion. Utter BS
I was employed as a counsellor for many years in a large methadone clinic in Dublin. Its not true that service users are excluded from a treatment plan . I personally know Doctors ,Counsellors , Nurses, Pharmacists and General assistants who put in many hours encouraging users to take part in treatment programmes. Doctors are very willing to reduce and end Methadone treatment. If the Service users are willing to take an active part in reduction programme’s ,which are available to all Service users. Lynn’s article is not correct in many respects . In order for Doctors or Pharmacists to dispense Methadone they have to carry out specialist intensive training . And the majority of community based Doctors do not have any inclination to do this training , as they do not want to work with those who are abusing drugs. Over the years that I worked in the clinic I saw Gran parents , Parents Daughters and Son’s all from the same family attending for Methadone treatment. For many , addiction passes down through the generations. There are very few programmes or interventions for Young Children to stop them going down the same road as their Parents and Gran Parents. I have also known many S.U who having come off all drugs including Methadone . Relapse because they have to go back and live on the streets or into Hostels that are nothing more than drug den’s with a bed for the night . I think Lynn Ruane would be better employed trying to do something about homelessness and lack of service’s for the Children I mention here. Rather than taking a cheap shot at the Staff in the clinics who are doing their best to provide a good service, under what are often very difficult circumstances.
“service users” watch out for that one.its what they’re calling prisoners now too.
It seems to me methadone sacrifices the individual drug user and their family. It is given to reduce offending and theft etc in cheapest way regardless of if it consigns the drug user into another dependency stupor. Individuals and their children etc deserve the chance to be drug free. Ultimately this will benefit society with functioning individuals and families who can contribute to society. Invest the money into counselling and residential services aimed at getting people drug free not invest in maintenance programmes that lock people into addiction substituting one drug for another
The central issue you highlight is the conceit of doctors, the so called ‘experts’ and how the political establishment is in thrall to their ‘expertise’. Methadone can be a life saver and is for many but many doctors believe that the best that can be achieved is to turn drug users into professional patients but above all also is their belief that they know best when in truth many have minimal understanding of drug users and addiction.
@Liam Hunter: Utter nonsense. You clearly dont know how this operates with individual clients. Maybe ask a GP in a practice that prescribes it.
@Margate: you have no idea how much I know about this..way back before even the protocols… As for ‘utter nonsense’…some of us have profound understanding of this issue going back as far as the eighties…where does yours emanate from ?
Short termism and quick fixes is what our political system and can kicking… the methadone programme is a case and point.
It’s a good time to raise the question Lynn, you may need to take this further in your position as Senator so that the policy is reviewed and recommendations dealt with before another 20 years passes. Good work but more steps are required other than an article in the Journal.
The major issues are policing of clinics , addict goes in to try come off hard drugs and are met on the way out by dealers peddling drugs/tablets . The fact that the clinical staff will not entertain addicts looking to reduce their dose isn’t a surprise when you see the monetary incentive to keep addicts on their books.
It’s a cash cow for doctors administering methadone to addicts.
I look forward to your night in Donore Youth Centrethis coming month. As someone who was involved in Treatment service development in the 90′s in Dublin. It sickening me to my stomach that successive govs pay millions for mrthadone. There’s no stomach by this gov or agencies to setup up a programme that take users of Heroin of methadone to a completely drug free lifestyle….just keep the merry go round spinning for big pharma.
There needs to be investment in residential detox.
Addicts going into prisons should be put on detox.
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