Letters

Deadlock in Northern Ireland

People of Northern Ireland, as elsewhere, need adults in the room

Tue Nov 01 2022 - 00:11

Sir, – Jeffrey Donaldson’s claim that he wants to see Stormont restored as soon as possible is risible. If there was a modicum of truth in this he would show appropriate leadership and bring the DUP into a new devolved government based on the outcome of the May election. Instead he chooses to exercise his and his party’s perennial response of “no, no, no” to any engagement in a democratic outcome that represents the shifting political landscape of Northern Ireland, namely, an Assembly led by a Sinn Féin first minister.

At a time when the people of Northern Ireland, as elsewhere, need adults in the room, the DUP continues to hide behind the Brexit Protocol as its rationale for non-participation in government.

The best place for the DUP to influence any change in the Protocol is from “within the tent” rather than shouting into an echo chamber from the sidelines.

– Yours, etc,

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GERRY PRIZEMAN,

Clontarf, Dublin 3.

Sir, – The excruciatingly slow pace of political progress in Northern Ireland owes much to the ability of the two largest Assembly parties to collapse the Executive on a whim. The need for structural change in the governance of Northern Ireland to prevent recurrence of this is glaring.

The current impasse is due to DUP opposition to the Protocol. In 1998 the DUP was the only significant political party on this island to vehemently oppose the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. It is political cynicism of the worst kind for spokespersons of this party now to argue that the Protocol is inconsistent with the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Perhaps however this means that the DUP have come round to belatedly support the 1998 Agreement almost 25 years after all other parties did so. That would represent very slow (but welcome) progress for them.

Alternatively at this juncture maybe is it simply expedient for them to reference an agreement they once so trenchantly and loudly resisted to now bolster their case for ridding NI of the Protocol their own well-established political naivety and shortsightedness delivered to them.

Recent history should teach the DUP to be very careful what they wish for.

– Yours, etc,

PJ MCDERMOTT,

Westport, Co Mayo.

Sir, – Like so many, I share my fellow Belfast pensioner’s views (“Everyone needs to get round a table and move on,” Letters, October 28th) if we could only unlock this political deadlock. An option could be for some of the moderate parties to form a coalition as for example the Alliance and Ulster Unionists currently have 26 seats, enough to offer to take the deputy first minister role. But to do this they would need to designate as “other” but this is impossible due to the present DUP veto.

Let’s take the initiative to amend the constitutional terms of the current agreement and allow such co-operation to end this tragic deadlock and move on. – Yours, etc,

IAN ELLIOTT,

Belfast.