Sir, - The current crisis in Northern Ireland was inevitable because the Good Friday Agreement is the worst of a series of attempts to placate a noisy minority at the expense of the majority.
My use of the terms "minority" and "majority" do not relate to Catholic and Protestant, but to armed extremists and a largely peaceful population which is, to some degree, at their mercy. With terrorist representatives in government, while loyalist and republican extremists support each other in a united attempt to prolong "the peace process", is it any wonder that most people are demoralised and disillusioned?
When the British and Irish governments signed the Good Friday Agreement with promises of peace and decommissioning, they pledged what they could not deliver. What they did deliver in the end was a power-sharing administration that institutionalised sectarianism and made real government impossible. Meanwhile, the streets are dominated by well-heeled gangsters in expensive suits, and poor people are kneecapped and tortured by their minions. Real government does not, therefore, lie within the confines of Stormont, but in other places where power and weapons of death are inseparable.
Despite this, most moderate people went along with the agreement in the hope that some form of normality would eventually evolve, especially as its architects were always quick to point out that the level of violence had fallen dramatically. The decline of violence in its most obvious form, was never surprising, however, because those who control it realise they need political power to advance.
It was turned off to suit this need, and the result culminated in a victory for extremism in the recent election, with larger numbers of people voting for its representatives. The Good Friday Agreement has therefore produced a more polarised society, with the spectre of even greater violence in the future.
The latest antics of the UUP in its efforts to embarrass Sinn FΘin demonstrate how far removed the politicians are from dealing with that situation. Trimble's ultimatum of more than a month ago sounded like a serious threat to end the entire charade, but it has resulted only in an anti-climax which exposes his party as one whose central interest is power, not people.
Instead of a showdown, a new game of musical chairs has begun, with Reg Empey assuming power in the leader's place. Once again, real change has been avoided and a new deadline has been drawn. Another six weeks of protracted argument and mutual denunciation by nationalists and unionists will further demoralise the population, while the paramilitaries square up to each other on the streets of our towns and cities, unperturbed and undisturbed by the antics of the politicians in Stormont.
The future of Northern Ireland cannot be secured in this way, and the governments cannot guarantee peace while the most violent elements in our society participate in decision-making. It is time to end the political farce and to strengthen democracy, instead of allowing the very forces that are opposed to it to grow stronger with each new crisis.
Unless I am greatly mistaken, that was supposed to be the purpose of the Good Friday agreement in the first place, but three years on, things are still getting worse instead of better. - Yours, etc.,
Seβn Kearney, Glantane Drive, Belfast 15.