We need a new generation of journalists and politicians

It's self-evident that the political class in Northern Ireland is entirely out of step with a people rapidly advancing in civilisation. As Mick Fealty said:

"The irony is that in general terms, sectarianism is on the slide, and mixed marriages are up and the wider population is beginning to adopt a more open view of how the world works than many of their most senior politicians." 

Politicians stand as fountainheads for the most extreme: talking singularly about the past, parades and victims. Yet, as Brian Rowan said of the parading stalemate of summer 2013, "The standoff is in one part of Belfast, and here and everywhere else, people have other worries - food, bills, jobs, education."

The effect of this cause is apathy and indifference which only sustains the bogus cause. A negative and hideous feedback loop. Taking a line from Alex Kane, moderate unionism and nationalism has been replaced with opt-out-couldn't-care-less-about-the-whole-thing-anymore unionism and nationalism. We need to break and replace the negative with a virtuous feedback loop.

This requires a two strand remedy and the dismantling of the older order. Northern Ireland needs a new generation of journalists and new politicians.

A New Generation of Journalists

Micheál Martin leader of Fianna Fáil said:

"Fundamentally, a public discourse once solely focused on conflict has not evolved a new approach. There are only a handful of journalists who pay any attention to the wider cultural, social and economic dimensions of relations within Northern Ireland and between North and South."

A New Generation of Politicians

Alex Kane said:

"Northern Ireland needs a new political generation, a new agenda and new political parties. It needs people who will work together to make Northern Ireland a success. It needs a generation of politicians who will refuse to accept that stalemate, mutual veto and same-old, same-old elections are the best we can hope for."

Previous posts on "The Two Worlds of Northern Ireland" series here, here, here, here, here and here.

Third Way - 21 December 2013

 

I made a brief address along the following lines.

"Peace has to be fought for in every generation. As Christopher Hitchens said, the enlightenment principles have to be promoted and defended time after time. We are the post-conflict generation. We are the poeple of Northern Ireland who have liberated ourselves from the Cold War mentality of green versus orange. We are like Rosa Luxembourg, internationalists whose loyalties lie beyond the nation state. 

Our leaders are failing. As Trevor Ringland said, we need to become more demanding of our leaders. 

We want to mark the 16th anniversary of the GFA and every year thereafter. Look at Hannah Nelson. She is so representative of the post-conflict generation. She was wheeled out for Obama and then binned, and the extremists were wheeled back in. The United Community document was rushed out for Obama and then shelved. Now we have the Haass failure. 

Tony Novosel said post-conflict societies can slip back into violence. The precedence is there also  that socities can maintain the peace. Just as Americans fought for the removal of the Jim crow laws, so we need to fight for change. The urge to censor and shut out unwelcome or unpleasant opinions will always exist. Freedom of speech has to be refought for in every generation.  

W.B. Yeats wrote: 'The centre cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/ The worst are full of riotous passions, the best lack all conviction.' We the best need to fight for our peace, stability and prosperity."

More images from the day below:

Fintan O'Toole on the Good Friday Agreement

In 2005 Fintan O'Toole wrote a fascinating article on the Good Friday Agreement on September 13 2005 in the Irish Times under the title, Folly of sectarian 'solutions'. On where the agreement ranks in human achievements, Fintan O'Toole said:

"[The agreement is] supposed to be a kind of constitution. It defines Northern Ireland as a political space and seeks to do so in a genuinely radical, exciting way. It is, indeed, perhaps the boldest constitutional document ever agreed between sovereign states. It creates space that is not ultimately claimed by any state, defines national identity as potentially both mutable and multiple, and rests sovereignty, not on history and geography but on that most complex and fluent of things - the collective mind of a majority of the population."