Twenty-one months marked with controversy

An event which has nothing to with Northern Ireland will nonetheless have an impact on its future, writes Dan Keenan , Northern…

An event which has nothing to with Northern Ireland will nonetheless have an impact on its future, writes Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor

The surprising thing about Northern politics is that people are still surprised by anything. When Mr Peter Mandelson fell from grace, the Stormont job fell to Dr John Reid.

He now packs his bags thanks to an A-level marking fiasco in England which contributed to the shock resignation of Ms Estelle Morris as Education Secretary. The reshuffle that that has prompted lands John Reid back in London, riding shotgun for Tony Blair who clearly foresees danger behind every rock.

Not for the first time, events utterly unconnected with Belfast will have an impact on its future.

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John Reid vacates his sumptuous official residence at Hillsborough, kindly made available by Queen Elizabeth, and heads for the airport with hisses of derision from hardline unionists and Sinn Féin, slow handclaps from others and two cheers from his friends.

He was the ninth longest-serving of the 13 secretaries of state since Willie Whitelaw's day and the era of direct rule in 1973. He was also the first Catholic.

His Scottishness precedes him by several hundred yards and he gives every indication of relishing the image of a street-wise Glasgwegian unafraid to call a spade a spade and to employ a colourful adjective or two while doing so.

Privately he is warm, affable and unapologetic. In between cigarette puffs, what you see is what you get. He has exhibited considerable platform skills before vastly different audiences.

He had last year's SDLP annual conference delegates rolling in the aisles, then silenced them by eulogising John Hume and Seamus Mallon with the words: "Enoch Powell was wrong - not all political careers end in failure." He got a standing ovation.

The decision to speak at the Police Federation conference earlier this year was seen as brave, though risky. He sat through a fusillade of criticism of justice and policing policy typical of such events. His thoughtful response - a wry joke here, a tacit admission there - earned him polite applause, the equivalent of a badge of honour from a hall-full of former RUC men.

Interviewed by The Irish Times last March, he was upbeat about the future. He claimed the Belfast Agreement was proceeding on all fronts, weapons had been "put beyond use" by the Provisionals and the Stormont institutions were up and running. The economy was humming nicely.

He leaves what he calls, with a wink, "one of the most relaxing jobs in government", cursed by a little political bad luck. His record shows he suspended those institutions three times and leaves Parliament Buildings echoing with half-emptiness. But for all that, his 21 months were marked with controversy.

The Celtic supporter courted popular unionist support by empathising with them and working to ensure Northern Ireland would not become "a cold place" for them, in the same way it had for Catholics.

Nationalists were miffed at even the merest hint that a rising, newly confident Catholic population could respond in kind to unionist one-party rule.

There was more raising of eyebrows when Dr Reid decided to attend a political meeting in loyalist west Belfast which was attended also by Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair. The two did not meet, but it was clear that signals were being broadcast and received.

The outgoing secretary of state also lost no sleep over his decision to brand the UDA and LVF ceasefires as bogus at the height of the loyalist protests at Holy Cross School in Ardoyne.

By and large, his relations with the Irish Government were good. Tributes paid to him by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, were as warm as they were personal.

Neither Mr Cowen nor Dr Reid were afraid to live up to their reputations as political heavyweights in round-table discussion, sources say. Despite some well-voiced disagreements, the pair worked well.

A well-placed source indicated Dr Reid was surprised at the speed of his departure and was torn between enjoyment of the Belfast job and the lure of a higher profile one back in London.

The decision clearly did not trouble him too long and he leaves with varying degrees of criticism from all sides in Belfast. For him, that will mean he has done a balanced job.