In this most Irish of British cities, many delegates to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool expressed confusion over recent days at the events near the Garvaghy Road in Portadown, at the excavation of a dark past they thought their party had helped to bury.
Labour’s contribution to the Belfast Agreement remains one of the party’s proudest achievements, cited by its senior figures in its conference halls and debating rooms as an example of what they can do when they get a grip of the levers of power.
It always gets an ovation from party members. The recollection is a salve for Labour minds, a form of self-reassurance for what, these days, is a slightly uneasy party leading a very uneasy country through the fog of a perilous age.
Yet look at what we can do when we galvanise, they tell each other. Great things can lie within our grasp. Peace in the north of Ireland is proof. The example of that achievement still gives Labour hope that it can fix the modern-day ills of Britain.
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That may be why so many Labour members with whom I spoke about the Garvaghy Road over recent days were so confused by what has happened since last week, when division flared once again over a proposed Orange march through a nationalist estate.
“We thought this stuff was all over,” a few Labour members said to me quizzically.
British political party conferences are festivals of ideas and policy debates. But most of all they are extravaganzas of excess, an endless stream of socialising at well-lubricated fringe events where the real currency of the conference – gleeful gossip – is exchanged.
At the conference in Liverpool, the Labour Party Irish Society’s reception is always the biggest and, arguably, the best of the social gatherings. The Mirror party may be more prestigious because of its elite guest list. The Labour Irish bash is always more fun.
It is usually held on the Monday evening, shortly after the Irish embassy’s party and a separate, similarly well-attended event held by Lodestone Communications, which runs the secretariat for an Irish-linked all-party parliamentary group. By the time everybody reaches the Labour Irish gathering, everything and everyone is in full swing.
Earlier, at the embassy party, Sonja Hyland, the new Irish Ambassador to Great Britain (her correct and official title – a separate branch of the State handles relations with Stormont) had been the first official to mention from a lectern the events in Portadown.
By the time of the Labour Irish event an hour later, the issue hung in the air. There was all the usual relaxed rejoicing among the crowd, who enjoyed traditional music, stout and everything else you might expect at an Irish party in Britain. But the tension caused by events in the North crept into the voices and across the faces of some of the speakers.
It is a difficult trick to address a room full of raucous partygoers about a very serious situation without deflating the atmosphere or saying the wrong thing.
The Irish Labour Party’s leader, Ivana Bacik, gave a vigorous speech calling the decision by the authorities in the North to allow the march “reckless, irresponsible and wrong”. But this was a party, so she also played for laughs by repeating SDLP leader Claire Hanna’s old quip that Irish unity-loving Donald Trump was “not as orange as he looked”.
London mayor Sadiq Khan didn’t veer into Drumcree territory but he repeated the reassuring old Labour mantra that the Belfast Agreement is core to the party’s values. Then he looked out upon the scores of merry revellers before him and, smiling gamely, reminded them that as a Muslim he always knew to bring water to an Irish party.
Then it was the turn of Colum Eastwood, the SDLP MP for Foyle and a former leader of his party. Eastwood always speaks from a lectern with a natural ease that evades most other politicians. Yet this time events in Portadown also weighed upon him.
He reminded the crowd that the official theme of Andy Burnham’s first conference as prime minister was hope and “how to bring it back”. In Liverpool, he said, Hope Street famously includes a Protestant cathedral at one end and a Catholic one at the other.
“We need some hope right about now,” he said.
The crowd swiftly hushed. Eastwood had the room’s full attention.
He told the SDLP’s sister party that the nationalist community on the Garvaghy Road needed them to stand with them against “domination”. He implored his “good friend” Chris Bryant, the UK’s Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, to ban the march.
“There are some people in the north of Ireland right now who are determined to extinguish the hope that my kids have, and that I have for them. We’re not going to let them,” said Eastwood, his oratorical ease intact, yet his emotions still clear.
The gravity of his words landed for a few moments.
Then, this being an Irish party, Labour MP Emily Thornberry got up to sing a song, The Lass of Aughrim, followed by When Irish Eyes are Smiling.
While this Labour government has plenty of problems to solve in Britain, many Irish eyes, for now, are on Bryant.
