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LAST UPDATE | 19 Dec 2023
THE SOAP OPERA that is Stormont politics is performing another of its Christmas pantomimes.
This time, on a stage created at Hillsborough Castle where, in a 12-paragraph document, the UK Government detailed a finance offer as one part in a two-part play to restore the Executive.
The other part of this negotiation is on post-Brexit trading arrangements, and the sea border, which unionists speak of in terms of a constitutional crisis — as something that has made Northern Ireland different from the rest of the United Kingdom.
And, for a little over a week now, the story has been of one possibility and, then, another; the next pages in deep chapters that often describe collapse and resuscitation within the politics of this place.
Might there be a pre-Christmas breakthrough to end the latest in a long list of standoffs on that political hill that overlooks Belfast? The answer is No — certainly not yet — that message delivered in a briefing given to the veteran BBC Political Correspondent Gareth Gordon In Belfast on Monday.
BBC understands @duponline ruling out the prospect of a deal to restore devolution before Christmas
— Gareth Gordon (@BBCGarethG) December 18, 2023
The DUP is not yet ready; not enough in the finance package to put Northern Ireland and its public services on solid ground, and not enough to convince not just them, but others in the unionist community, that the question of the sea border has been addressed.
The UK Government wanted to run at pace to get this negotiation over the line now, but the DUP has decided to jog in heavy boots.
It has a line that it is not “calendar-led” but rather “condition-led”.
As far as it is concerned, there is more to talk about.
Yet, this place is all about the calendar.
The North is a long story of days and dates and anniversaries — many of them ‘Troubles’- related, as the dead of the conflict years are remembered. And there are other anniversaries linked to the peace/political process, which become moments of reflection and stock-taking on what has worked and what hasn’t.
We could make a Northern Ireland-specific calendar. Every date and every day has some meaning. 2023 was the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.
When we turn the pages of 2024, there will be other dates to consider — 15 years since the first legacy report from the Consultative Group on the Past (better known as Eames/Bradley), 25 years on from the Patten Report and its recommendations for a ‘New Beginning to Policing’, and 30 years on from the ceasefires of 1994 that would be the beginnings of the hard work of peace.
2023 will be remembered again for the absence of a working Stormont, for moments of policing crisis, and for the trenches being dug deeper in our legacy wars.
All of that is a reminder that there is nothing simple, easy or straightforward about peace-building.
Stormont has become that soap opera I referenced earlier.
And every day, for too many days, we’ve watched it happening and not happening.
They feel like repeat episodes, but they are supposedly new; as new as anything can be in the politics of this place.
In late November, Professor Jon Tonge reminded us that the Stormont Executive has been down for a total of more than 3,500 days since powers were devolved in December 1999.
In this latest standoff, what passes for progress is measured in fractions — a different word that might hint at possibilities.
And we listen to the same characters making the same arguments that are played on a loop.
The need to get Stormont ‘up and running again’ fights with the latest reasons for the boycott of the Executive.
Lost in this sense, that the absurd — the brokenness of this place — has almost been normalised.
The low bar of just having Stormont should never be good enough.
Those so-called news conferences that repeat the same lines are not news and should not be presented as such.
For months and months and months, there has been talk and more talk about the endless talks involving the DUP and the UK Government; a description of crucial stages, final phases and, then, final, final stages.
These, the words of Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.
And, here we are, close to the end of another year and with a script being written for even more talks in 2024.
There were moments in recent months when some detected some movement. When they thought the script in the soap opera might change — maybe at the DUP Conference and perhaps in The King’s Speech to Parliament.
And, certainly, in these latest talks at Hillsborough.
But thus far, they have failed to put Stormont together again.
It seems closer to something this time, but still not there.
Not if it is a repeat of what has gone before — including those ten years since Good Friday 1998 when politics hasn’t worked.
There is a need for a much wider review — an independent review — of why politics has struggled in the peace; why, at times, it has been unable to cope.
My view is that Stormont should be closed down until that happens. If some form of workable politics there cannot be achieved, then it is up to the two governments to decide next steps in joint work that is not joint authority.
There was an example of this in 2020 when the then NI Secretary Julian Smith and then Tánaiste Simon Coveney jointly presented the New Decade — New Approach Agreement, Stormont’s last rescue mission.
In my opinion, it should have been its last chance.
When politics is not about people and their needs, it’s about nothing,
Our story is not just the brokenness of politics, but everything else that is damaged because of Stormont — because of its inability to function.
Failed in its current form.
But Julian Smith hasn’t given up. There has been louder talk in recent days about him having a key background role in these latest efforts to restore the Executive.
Could we have imagined in the euphoria of the ceasefires and, then, the political agreement, that things would have been this difficult?
David Adams was at the top table when loyalists announced their ceasefire in 1994, and was inside the talks that produced that moment on Good Friday 1998.
He thinks our problem is that some in politics considered the ceasefires and power-sharing to be an end point “rather than merely a starting position”.
So, perhaps we need to begin again. Try for a new agreement, and put it to the people. Think beyond Good Friday. Create space for the post-conflict generation to do something different.
We need a politics that is not about the Past. Many lines jumped out at me when I was reading Stephen Walker’s biography of John Hume.
Among them, a statement from 50 years ago, at the time of the first power-sharing experiment — including these lines from the Executive’s press team: “We want the New Year to see the beginning, not just of a new system of government, but of a new spirit. Let 1974 be the year of reconciliation.”
If these latest talks make progress in the New Year, what would a Stormont ‘up and running’ contribute to reconciliation in 2024? Nothing. Not if it is some repeat episode of what we have witnessed throughout much of the past 25 years. Our peace has worked better than our politics.
And, as we move beyond the calendar pages of 2023, that is the thought that I will carry into the New Year.
Brian Rowan is a journalist and author. He is a former BBC correspondent in Belfast. Brian is the author of several books on Northern Ireland’s peace process. His new book, “Political Purgatory – The Battle to Save Stormont and the Play for a New Ireland” is out now at Merrion Press.
Why are the media ignoring the real problem. When the protestants unionists had the chair they would Share Power but with a Catholic in the chair No No No.
It’s all about the Protestant work ethic? I give up, they act like mediaeval guilds sometimes, ruled by the whims of the crankiest old Scrooges with no flexibility.
@thomas molloy: and when SF sat out for three years, or Catholics if I am to use religious labels like you, was that ok?
I agree that the current system has failed. A new one is needed, where no party will be able to bring everything to a standstill as both the DUP and SF have done.
@Brendan O’Brien: SF did so because of DUP corruption. Both circumstances are incomparable. Jeffrey just can’t bring himself to be Michelle’s bridesmaid.
@Anthony Curran: Both did so out of petulance and self-indulgence: because they could, basically. They have a lot in common. It’s a shame that the more moderate/mature nationalist and unionist parties were outflanked during the ‘Peace Process’.
@Brendan O’Brien: So political parties should turn a blind eye to corruption like Arlene’s cash for ash? Brendan, tell me you’re a Fianna Fáil voter without telling me you’re a Fianna Fáil voter!
@Anthony Curran: They should continue to work through the system: not bring down the entire structure.
But the fundamental problem is that it’s possible to bring down the entire structure.
@Brendan O’Brien: Somehow I think that if SF had continued in government with the corruption of the DUP so evident that you would be complaining about that. You would be “questioning” why and how SF could support such corruption.
@Brendan O’Brien: you do understand that the DUP played the brexit card thinking it would force the hand of the EU to reinstall the border between North and south.
Having instead now got a border down the Irish Sea they were left with no alternative but to throw their toys out of the pram.
When SF withdrew from the Assembly they had no alternative except to do so or to turn a blind eye and collaborate in a fraud involving millions of £s
@GEORGE STAGG: And the fact that any single party, for any reason justified or not, can effectively neuter a country and leave their citizens without a functioning government is the problem.
@GEORGE STAGG: ‘they had no alternative except to do so or to turn a blind eye and collaborate in a fraud involving millions of £s’
That simply isn’t true: they could have raised whatever issues they wanted, as forcefully as they wanted, and let the law take its course.
Let’s be frank: they have done far worse things than that.
@Anthony Curran:
I think you’ll find that the cash for ash scandal was more about DUP incompetence than corruption.
@Brendan O’Brien: When will people finally recognise it’s a failed political entity? “Unification for slow learners,” mar a déarfá.
@Brendan O’Brien: It’s time the for the Dublin and the UK governments to sit down and work out a plan on joint jurisdiction. The DUP would then come running back with their tail between their legs.
@John McAlester: Whether incompetent or corrupt, they are all being paid not to pass laws. This can’t be in the best interests of anyone in Northern Ireland.
@John McAlester: Maybe have a look at who benefited most and their links to DUP party members. It’s almost like a certain section of the community up there had a heads up. But that couldn’t be true, sure the DUP are much too honest for that kind of thing. Sarcasm aside, there only one thing the DUP are more loyal to than the English king and that’s the English pound.
@Brendan O’Brien: SF pulled it down over the Irish language act as they were getting too much heat over their protection of sexual abusers.
Surely it’s time for a shinner hunger strike
@Anthony Curran: give me cash for ash over a Northern Bank robbery. Trying to make SF the morality police of the north is an affront to decency and truth.
Time to move to joint authority. The DUP don’t want to play second fiddle to SF. Their mantra is “some animals are more equal than others.” Time both governments told them to put up or shut up.
@SF Means Sh!t 4 Free: Huh? What? Excuse me?
@Anthony Curran: it could be Palestine related … but who knows. Perhaps we should consult the Rosetta Stone?
Back in November when Newry was hit by flooding a shopkeeper told a news crew that towns south of the border had already been told they would receive compensation for flooding but there was no such scheme up north as Stormont was not sitting That is what REAL politics is about – nuts & bolts nitty gritty e
Northern Ireland seems to be managing just grand without those sitting in Stormant maybe stop the wages and they’ll be back quick. Bunch of grifters
@Nemethon: I agree … no work, no wage. Wages paid to a charity(s) instead of
UK government can satisfy every demand the DUP makes and wee Jeffrey will still make an excuse not to go into government with Sinn Fein first minister.
DUP = B1G0TED ULSTER PROTESTERS.
@h5kFhdYI: and when SF refused to sit for a far longer period , was that just sectarian bigotry too?
DUP dinosaurs United party.
Stop the salarys until they go back , problem solved and make it a condition for the future
Majority of Unionists support the DUP stance. It’s that simple. There is no easy answer, the place will not work without both “sides” agreeing to make it work. Joint authority doesn’t bring that I am afraid, the place won’t work. They will be back shortly, they have no choice, this particular card can’t be played much longer. Another few toys out of pram (probably from both sides) over the next 10 to 20 years and with a complete different demographic we can see where the position is. If people think that means a united Ireland, well they don’t understand the place. I mean the numbers of social housing there and state dependents and we can’t even build 30k houses a year. No chance they’d vote for that.
@downburst1: We can – our current government isn’t doing so. At this rate Stormont will be a winter campsite & they’ll all run out of trees.
@downburst1: who are both sides there is only one party sulking over a catholic first minister
I think NI will go on in a stalemate scenario for a few years yet. It was always likely to happen after the GFA for a long while until certain characters are off the scene as there is too much bitterness there. When the next generation that don’t really remember the troubles first hand a properly in situ some progress might be made. The DUP for one just do not appeal to anyone younger and moderate. They are toxic.
By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.”
― Oscar Wilde
Anagram for Democratic Unionist Party :
“Crotchety Impatient Dinosaur”
Direct rule from London is always best for that hell hole. Thankfully it will never be our problem :)
SF/IRA spent 27 yrs blown NI apart to remove a border on the island of Ireland . The DUP refuse to take their seats in Stormont to protest a border in the UK . Who is it that is the Dinosaurs .
@Jack Moss: mossy day 2 delusions
The present power sharing model is redundant, as it has been neutralised twice for extended periods by the two main protagonist groupings.
Stormont needs to be reconfigured based on normal democratic governance by majority, including negotiated coalitions, and elected on proportional representation,to ensure that all communities have an effective input.
It is the rigid de facto 2 party structure that sidelines the growing moderate cohorts that continues this “ if you step in, we will step out again” danse macabre saga.
Back in
@Gerry Kelly: amen!
Sorry folks – my phone is f….d !!!
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