Opera strikes a chord for Troubles

'We shall be free. We shall find rest." The prisoners move hesitantly, blinking their eyes in the unaccustomed sunlight

'We shall be free. We shall find rest." The prisoners move hesitantly, blinking their eyes in the unaccustomed sunlight. The scene from the Welsh National Opera's production of Leonore last Friday seemed to reach far beyond the confines of the Belfast Opera House - up the Falls and the Shankill, west across the River Bann to Derry and south to Armagh.

Leonore was Beethoven's first shot at the opera that was to become Fidelio. As my colleague Michael Dervan has pointed out, it is inferior as a work of art, less tight dramatically than Fidelio, labouring a bit to get across its message - a passionate plea for justice, freedom and the redemptive power of love.

Maybe. But in Belfast last Friday this story, sublimely rendered, of a wife who risks all to save her husband from an unjust death seemed like an act of homage and remembrance for all the victims of the past 30 years. It gave recognition to their suffering but looked forward to the future with hope.

The great German conductor, Wilhelm FurtwΣngler, described Fidelio as being "in truth, a Mass rather than an opera." I don't think I was the only person in the audience who experienced that feeling at Leonore on Friday. The man sitting next to me listened intently to the final chorus of the opera and repeated the words aloud: "God puts us to the test but He does not forsake us." Belfast was in a mood for cautious celebration last weekend.

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At a reception in the City Hall to mark the official opening of the Belfast Festival, a young man said to me: "The whole skyline of the city looks different." But many of the comments were wary, pointing to the difficulties that still lie ahead, as though desperately wanting to hope but hardly daring to do so.

Already, a bare week after the IRA's statement on arms and David Trimble's announcement that the three UUP ministers would go back into the Executive, we are back to the old, familiar language of crisis. Mr Trimble has said, quite understandably, that he wants to be elected on unionist votes. It may be that he will have to call on the Women's Coalition. That would be a personal and political blow for the UUP leader, but it would not be a disaster. Neither would it be the first time that the Women's Coalition have made themselves available to bring a bit of peace to the peace process. It's already becoming clear that if the new dispensation is to avoid the stop-go crises of the past, all the pro-agreement parties must accept that the peace process is a collective project. Each community and its political leaders are mutually dependent and need each other to make it work.

There have been hopeful signs of a new sensitivity to the needs of the other. For example, at last Saturday's meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council there was much talk of David Trimble having achieved a stunning victory over the IRA.

Mercifully, the UUP leadership has had the grace, so far anyway, to welcome the IRA's move on arms in reasonably generous terms and to recognise the historic significance of the decision. (Ironically, the scepticism of many unionists as to what Gen John de Chastelain's statement actually meant may even help Gerry Adams to calm the deep unease in the republican grassroots about the IRA's statement. That's just how politics works and not only in Northern Ireland.) The continuing violence by paramilitary groups on both sides show, in the usual bleak fashion, that people are right to be wary. Even if the political structures are secured, there is still an enormous task to be done.

As Seamus Heaney remarked in a speech last weekend on the role of education in promoting respect for diversity: "Culture is self administered. You cannot take people along and give them an injection or a shot of a new mental process. It is a gradual process of education and self education."

When the structures are safely in place, politicians can and must give a public lead. Take the issue of the Holy Cross school in north Belfast and the trauma inflicted each day on those small girls. Privately, many unionists recognise that something must be done and soon, but say any public condemnation of the protest by David Trimble would further alienate the residents of the Glenbryn estate and drive them into the arms of loyalist paramilitaries. But nationalists also have a right to expect that unionist politicians, particularily those who represent north Belfast, should come forward to condemn what is happening to the Holy Cross children. We know from the experience of this State that sectarian divisions can take years, even generations, to bring under control.

In Northern Ireland there is an even greater need for politicians to affirm, on every possible occasion, that eradicating such divisions is central to the building of a new and better society.

In relation to the Holy Cross School, here is a small proposal. When David Trimble and Mark Durkan are elected to their respective posts, hopefully tomorrow, they should announce that they intend to go together to north Belfast. Both sides need to be shown that they have not been forsaken.

mholland@irish-times.ie