DEPUTY FIRST Minister Martin McGuinness has appealed for unionists, particularly in the DUP leadership, to accept the principles of equality and partnership. The alternative, he warned, is “deadlock and stasis”.
In a speech billed as among the most important he had delivered since the restoration of devolution two years ago, Mr McGuinness said he recognised unionists found profound political change difficult to accept and that some “miss playing the Orange card”.
Others, including those within the civil service and what he called “the British system”, thought they could “start to reverse the template of the Good Friday agreement, with its all-inclusive power-sharing structures, its accountable political institutions, and its bedrock of equality and human rights for all”. The old ways were gone forever, he said. There was now a changed political landscape which all would do well to recognise.
Addressing a hunger strikes memorial in Park, Co Derry, Mr McGuinness said: “My strong preference, and that of the Sinn Féin leadership, is that all sections of the DUP – and indeed unionism – will now embark fully on the pathway to equal partnership, and a future of national unity and national reconciliation in Ireland.
“For unionists, that pathway starts in recognising and embracing the equality agenda in Stormont and the other Good Friday Agreement institutions. The alternative to partnership and equality with Sinn Féin is deadlock and stasis.” The people deserved the transfer of policing and justice powers, and to have “full confidence in the partnership approach of those leading the political institutions”.
In what his party said was a “major and direct appeal to unionists”, Mr McGuinness added: “I understand that this process presents enormous challenges for unionists, particularly their political leadership. Together with the collective republican leadership, I have been at the forefront of the process of change on this island for over 20 years. I know what it means to take political risks and embrace political transformation.”
Some unionists, he said, may be concerned about their political reputations. “But the republican leadership has risked far more than reputation to bring about the peace process and provide the opportunity for peaceful political progress which has now opened up.”
Many republicans, he said, “put our lives on the line because we are determined to ensure that all of our children will never again have to face the indignity of institutionalised inequality and the terrible outcomes of armed conflict”.
He argued there would be long-term benefits of such a step forward for the DUP, which “would far outweigh the short-term risks that make them lose their nerve”.
“I am appealing to unionism to stand with us and work with us in building a society of equals,” he said. “It’s now time for the leaders of political unionism – currently the DUP – to join with Sinn Féin in hammering home the keystone of equality and cementing the bridge of hope to tomorrow’s new dawn of national reconciliation and national unity.”