Prophetic Words
"This house [Stormont]
is not going to determine
when partition will
end. The Irish people
and Westminster will
determine that question
and when the hour comes
they will not give a
tinker's curse what
you [the Unionist Government]
think about it."
This prophetic statement
was made by Cahir Healy,
M.P., Secretary to the
Anti-Partition League,
speaking in debate in
Stormont in 1949. (see
Northern Ireland Parliamentary
Debates (Hansard) House
of Commons vol.33, col.
1379.)
What brings this statement
to public attention
in 2003 are the latest
developments surrounding
the six county statelet
of Northern Ireland.
Much has happened there
since the days of the
Anti-Partition League.
Its parliament was abolished
in 1972. Contingents
of the British Armed
Forces patrolled the
streets of Belfast.
Army observation towers
were erected throughout
the countryside. Helicopters
were in daily use for
reconnaissance and aerial
surveillance. In the
ensuing years more than
3,000 people were killed,
thousands injured, and
hundreds of thousands
suffered mental and
physical hardships frequently
associated with totalitarian
regimes of dictators
and ruthless ideologues.
Good Friday, 1998, saw
the re-establishment
of a parliamentary institution
at Stormont. Successive
walk-outs by Unionists,
frustrated at the growth
of democracy which curbed
what they took to be
their inherited right
to rule, led to the
re-institution of direct
rule by Westminster,
not once but twice,
in a period of five
years.
In March, 2003, a communiqué
was issued following
another of the long
series of meetings involving
consultations with all
relevant political parties,
chaired by British Prime
Minister Tony Blair
and Irish Taoiseach
Bertie Ahern, setting
a date for new elections
to the Stormont Parliament.
David Trimble, the main
Unionist leader, walked
out in the middle of
the two-day meeting,
whereupon Blair and
Ahern drew up a timetable
for the resolution of
many of the issues confronting
not only the political
parties but the English
and Irish peoples.
Whether that timetable
will be met, only time
will tell. But time
is running out for what
was once hailed as "a
Protestant parliament
for a Protestant people".
"This house [Stormont]
is not going to determine
when partition will
end. The Irish people
and Westminster will
determine that question
and when the hour comes
they will not give a
tinker's curse what
you [the Unionist Government]
think about it."
Walking out is not a
policy. It is blind
folly leaving the field,
in Cahir Healy's prophetic
words, to "the
Irish people and Westminster."
--30--
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