Sir, – The recent events surrounding the Garvaghy Road have left me asking two questions. Why, after 28 years, was a parade through one of Northern Ireland’s most historically contentious areas authorised? And why did it take almost two weeks of confrontation before the Secretary of State intervened?
Chris Bryant has described how he spent the intervening fortnight seeking a settlement. But was it necessary to allow tensions to escalate before recognising the obvious risks?
There is, however, another question worth considering: who benefited politically? Recent opinion polls show Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) losing support. Meanwhile, Northern Ireland faces serious problems with public services, hospital waiting lists, public finances and the delivery of effective government. Then almost overnight the political conversation returned to familiar territory: flags, parades, identity and constitutional loyalties. For Sinn Féin the dispute offered opportunity to demonstrate its defence of nationalist communities. For the DUP it provided an equally familiar platform from which to assert unionist rights.
I am not suggesting collusion. But it is difficult to ignore how conveniently the controversy shifted attention from the everyday responsibilities of government.
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I suspect many people across Northern Ireland, regardless of background, watched these events with a mixture of embarrassment, frustration and disbelief. After decades of painful progress, must every political difficulty send us retreating into the arguments of the past? The greatest tragedy would be if political parties discovered that reopening old divisions remains easier than solving today’s problems. Northern Ireland requires better than another generation of politics conducted through the rearview mirror. – Yours, etc,
WILSON BURGESS,
Derry.
