June 2008

Northern Ireland Update

New moderator

On June 2, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland installed the Reverend Dr. Donald Patton as moderator for the year 2008-09. Dr. Patton is minister of Randalstown Old Congregation. Along with parish ministry his main area of interest and expertise has been church history.

End of an era as Ian Paisley steps down

On May 30, the Reverend Dr. Ian Paisley stepped down after 37 as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party. He was succeeded by Peter Robinson. Dr. Paisley has also stepped down as First Leader of the Northern Ireland Assembly, where he will also be succeeded by Peter Robinson, who has been finance officer in the power-sharing executive since it was reinstated in May 2007.

This transition marks the end of a long era in which Ian Paisley has been a huge figure in Northern Ireland politics. Paisley was long known as “Dr No” for his fierce and vociferous opposition to any proposals to create a new framework for greater political equality and cooperation between pro-British and pro-Irish political parties in Northern Ireland. His role in leading a backlash against nationalist civil rights demands in the late 1960s undoubtedly played into the hands of Irish Republican elements who then argued that violence was the only thing to which British and unionist leaders would listen. His opposition helped to bring down the Sunningdale Agreement in 1974, galvanized opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985, and led eventually to the repeated collapse of power-sharing in a Stormont Executive after the Belfast Agreement of 1998 (which the DUP did not participate in shaping and to which it did not sign up.) Many would say his orations over the years also contributed to the rise of Loyalist paramilitary groups and their violent campaign against Nationalist and Republican communities. As a fundamentalist Free Presbyterian preacher, he has also been an ardent opponent of any kind of ecumenical activity and has frequently led pickets outside meetings of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland General Assembly and a variety of inter-church gathering, all of which he accused of being apostate.

Whether he will be remembered in history for all of that or for finally saying “yes”  in 2007 to a power-sharing deal with Sinn Fein, which has been a major step forward in the peace process, remains to be seen. There is no question his decision to do so turned many in his own political party and his own church against him. In January he was pushed out as moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church, a position he had held for decades. And now his “retirement” from the posts of leader of the DUP and first minister of the Assembly has come not solely because of age (82) but in large measure because he was pushed by party colleagues who could not stand behind the leadership he was now giving or the public image of his being friendly with Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. Commentators do not expect any major shift in DUP policy away from power-sharing with Sinn Fein as a result of his departure, given that Peter Robinson, as deputy leader of the party, has also been integral to policy development over the years, but it is anticipated that a tougher public stance on Sinn Fein can be expected from Robinson.

Consultative Group on the Past

While power-sharing in the Northern Ireland Assembly has been a major step forward and seems to be holding, huge issues remain to be tackled in the peace process here. One of the thorniest is how to deal with the past: How do you address the needs of victims, who while much of society moves forward feel that they and their loved ones are in danger of being forgotten?  How do you uncover the truth about who killed their loved ones and why when forensic evidence has been lost, destroyed or simply deteriorated over the years and witnesses have died themselves or refuse to cooperate?  (The majority of murders during “the Troubles” remain unsolved—no one has been charged, or is likely ever to be, and in some instances coroner’s inquests have never been held or, if they have been held, their findings were never released to the families.) How much truth about who did what in this “dirty war” does the wider society need to receive or face up to in order to move forward  into a future that is not built on lies about what happened and why during “the Troubles?” How do you get the state, not to mention secret illegal organizations, to take responsibility of the role they played during the conflict? And, most importantly, how do you ensure that this never happens again?

In 2007 the (British) secretary of state for Northern Ireland set up a seven-member Consultative Group on the Past. It was not to deal with those questions but to meet with as wide a cross-section of interested parties as possible in order to feed back recommendations on how this society might deal with the past. The group is co-chaired by the former Anglican Archbishop of Armagh, Lord Robin Eames, and Denis Bradley, former vice-chair of the Policing Board and a community leader from Derry who has played a key role over the years in challenging and liaising with those in the Republican movement. Another member of the panel is The Reverend Dr. Lesley Carroll, co-convener of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland Church and Society Committee.

On May 29 the group released some “initial thoughts” in a speech by Eames and Bradley. The full text can be accessed at the Web site of the Consultative Group on the Past.

While their recommendations will not be finalized until September at the earliest, in their speech the group identified a number of areas they believe are crucial to the task of dealing with the past and making sure this never happens again. These include:

1. Recognizing the needs of victims and survivors and making fuller provision for service and support mechanisms for them and challenging, where necessary, victims and survivors who use their pain to continue divisions.
2. The group recognizes that deep hurt occurred in both Unionist and Nationalist communities and said,
1. we “believe Republicans have not come to fully understand the hurt that still exists (in the Unionist community) and they need to acknowledge and appreciate the damage they did to the prospect of reconciliation between our two communities.” They go on to say Republicans need to convince their neighbours that they will not take up arms again to advance their political cause. They have to say “it must never happen again.”
2. For Nationalists this conflict is rooted in deep feelings of alienation and “Unionists have not come to terms with the reasons for this disillusionment and subsequent actions.”
3. Loyalists need to follow through on their words of remorse over the killing of nationalists with the action of decommissioning their weapons. “They need to make it clear to their neighbours that they will not begin their violence again. We also want to hear from them that “it must never happen again.”
4. “…the State not only sought to be an honest broker during the conflict but also played a combative role and, in this context, sometimes went beyond their own rules of engagement.” “If we are to move out of the past in a healthy way, then the State itself needs to acknowledge its full and complex role in the last 40 years.” “Having to confront the State about acknowledging its wrongdoing must not take away from the majority of men and women in the Royal Ulster Constabulary and Ulster Defence Regiment/Royal Irish Regiment who did their duty and suffered appallingly and unjustly as a result.”
5. Whereas many feel a need for justice to be done “as each day passes securing justice becomes less and less likely. The public needs to understand the limitations in securing convictions. In many historic cases witnesses have died, exhibits are no longer credible or have disintegrated over time. The evidence collected in the 1970s, and indeed in more recent times, is highly unlikely to meet modern forensic standards. This is the reality of the situation. If this is the reality then we believe we have a duty to begin to tell people that and not perpetuate false hope.”
6. The group acknowledged that legal inquiries aimed at establishing truth about what happened have proven to be very limited in their effectiveness and very costly financially and therefore, are probably not the most effective approach to pursue.
7. Turning to the role of elected politicians today the group said “Our local politicians have a choice—they continue to act in this antagonistic way and use the past for selfish political aims and allow themselves to be guided only by the hurt on either side. Or they can become statesmanlike around this most difficult issue—that would be the greatest contribution they could make.”
8. “The troubles were not simply bad people doing bad things. The prolonged violence and political stalemate points to a deeper malaise for which every institution and sector in our society must share some responsibility.”
9. “As we live in a society where Christianity is the religious practice of many people, then the Churches must play a leading role in building and sustaining a better future—their leadership is vital if we are to take on the scourge of sectarianism.”
10. “The deepest, most difficult and profound legacy of our past is our antagonism and division. Only with a measure of reconciliation in our generation can we ensure that this legacy is not passed on to the coming generations, to the victims who are not yet born—their future is in our hands’

As an editorial in the pro-nationalist Irish News stated: “In the not-too-distant past, there would have been outrage over any claim that innocent victims were allowed to die in Northern Ireland because elements within the British state acted illegally.” And yet  the comments from this Consultative Group were “effectively unchallenged by official sources.” The same editorial says “the symbolism involved in the state displaying leadership by openly acknowledging its previously hidden role in a range of events would ... be powerful.” The pro-unionist News Letter’s editorial about the speech sees a danger in the Group’s comments giving any legitimacy to those who engaged in terrorism, while welcoming their assertion that Republicans need to comprehend the hurt caused by their actions. Both editorials welcome some of the nuanced balances in the speech and recognize the enormity of the task before the Group in making its recommendations and this society in finding ways to deal with the past.

The initial response from the Church and Society Committee of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland has been to welcome this report and the analysis of the Consultative Group.

Two resolutions reflecting this will come before the PCI General assembly this week:

That the General Assembly commend the ongoing work of the Eames/Bradley Consultative Group on Dealing with the Past, as set out in their speech of May 29, 2008, and recognise their wide ranging analysis of the huge challenges facing everyone concerned for the well being of Northern Ireland Society.

That the General Assembly affirm the key role of our Church, working alongside others, in building a healthy civil society and in particular welcome both the invitation and the challenge made by Eames/Bradley for the Churches to be part of the healing and reconciling work needing to be done to achieve a shared and better future.

Ongoing violence

While the peace process here has made huge strides forward, the major paramilitary groups are on long-term ceasefires, obvious security measures have disappeared, and the overall level of sectarian violence has been vastly reduced for a number of years—by no means has it stopped altogether. In fact, in recent months, there has been a gradual increase in bomb scares, shootings and petrol bomb attacks by dissident groups on both Republican and Loyalist extremes. This has included the shooting and wounding of a policemen in Derry, a car bomb attack on an off-duty policeman near Strabane, and persistent attacks on Nationalist households in Stonyford and other predominantly Loyalist communities. While not destabilizing the peace process as the perpetrators intend, these are constant reminders of how important it is to pursue goals that go beyond what we now have and truly foster reconciliation.

Doug Baker
PC(USA) Regional Liaison for Ireland and the United Kingdom

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 152