NATIONALIST UNHAPPINESS with the status quo at Stormont, recession and the threat of dissident republican violence have been cited as dangers to the stability of the peace process, a commission has heard in Belfast.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Britain and Ireland, meeting at the weekend, heard submissions from a range of people representing diverse standpoints on the peace process.
Vijay Mehta, from the Wales-based International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy, told the commission he believed nationalists were harbouring “an increasing degree of dissatisfaction with the current status quo”.
He added: “There is a perception among nationalist supporters that Sinn Féin and its leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have become too wedded to the peace process and have become too embedded in the powersharing structures with the unionists at Stormont.
“To the nationalist punter in the street, Irish unity has not come closer since the Good Friday agreement was signed in 1998.”
He further suggested that the peace process remains particularly vulnerable to dissident violence and that what he called “the uneasy live and let live attitude which has developed among Northern Irish people over the last 10 years” could be endangered by serious dissident violence.
Although noting the loyalist response to the murders of two British soldiers and a PSNI officer last March, Mr Mehta suggested that sudden violent acts with perhaps a number of victims “would prove to be a substantial test for the continuation of the peace process”.
The recession and its impact could also create the conditions for what he called “increasing dissatisfaction among young men in particular and a drift back into the use of violence”.
He noted that the early years of the peace process was accompanied by a rising economic prosperity and near full employment.
The “lessons of Ulster”, he added, were now being applied “by prime ministers, presidents, diplomats and intelligence agencies to numerous area of violent conflict” across the globe.
But he also suggested that the emerging peace needed to be underscored by new realisations and concerted work at peace building.
Calling for the training and appointment of “a large number of peacekeepers” he urged a grassroots campaign to stabilise communities.
“We should have a large number of peacekeepers who can help build trust in communities, weed out the seeds of terrorism and give hope to vulnerable minorities,” he said.
“The fact is that a substantial majority of people wish to live in peace and a small minority should not be allowed to perpetrate violence which brings disastrous results.”
The commission discussions were chaired by Dr Thomas Daffern, a governor of the Saor Ollscoil na hÉireann in Dublin and Director of the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy.