Northern Ireland European Election or Secterian Head Count?

national | politics / elections | opinion/analysis Thursday June 11, 2009 10:06 by rebels yell

European Election OR Sectarian Head Count 2009? Sinn Féin's sitting MEP Bairbre de Brún created Northern Ireland electoral history by topping the poll with 126,184 votes. However, both the Dublin and Irish governments will tonight be pondering nervously about the future of their landmark Good Friday Agreement (Sunningdale Mark II).

European Election OR Sectarian Head Count 2009? Sinn Féin's sitting MEP Bairbre de Brún created Northern Ireland electoral history by topping the poll with 126,184 votes. However, both the Dublin and Irish governments will tonight be pondering nervously about the future of their landmark Good Friday Agreement (Sunningdale Mark II).

The proverbial fly in the ointment comes in the form of Jim Allister, Leader of Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), who polled an astonishing 66,197 first preference votes. The majority of his votes were gained at the expense of his former party the DUP and their candidate Diane Dodds.

Anyone familiar with the political polarisation within Northern Ireland will be well aware that the word European bares little significance with many voters. Instead, all elections, European or otherwise, since the implementation of the world famed (‘truce’) Good Friday Agreement have acted only to further polarize both political tribes. For unfamiliar NI political observers, you must first grasp an understanding of the under currents of colonialism, partition and sectarianism which both, dominate and stifle, the political agenda in Northern Ireland. Also, this has not been a thunderbolt that has just hit our political scene today or yesterday. Many astute Northern Ireland political pundits will agree that unresolved issues have been festering under the surface since that momentous Friday back in 1998. They will also agree rather than dispel old grievances, GFA has only sought to further exacerbate and compound them which has further institutionalised sectarianism within this British state-let. It is not an understatement to say that the Good Friday Agreement has been decaying since its inception, ever since that immortal premise that;

‘Britain has no more strategic interest in Northern Ireland’.

Au contraire, we have been witnessing a steady slip to the right manifesting itself in an increasingly dogged expression of British imperialist interest. This rightward shift has been accelerated by increasing unionist reaction coupled with the capitulation of Irish Republican ideology.

We need look no further than the insular reactions at the European Election count in the King’s Hall, Belfast today. Whilst, Sinn Fein’s Bairbre de Brún made electoral history, she was not exactly greeted magnanimously by her fellow co-elected European candidates on her emphatic success. Instead her announcement of re-election to the European parliament was greeted in a derisory and cacophonic manner reminiscent of the pre GFA Northern Ireland era. Whilst Ms de Brún made her mandatory victory speech, the TUV supporters proceeded to turn their backs whilst twirling their football rattles and jeered. This was further aggravated by the DUP’s Diane Dodds refusal to offer Ms. De Brun a congratulatory handshake! However, the most rapturous applause came for TUV leader, Jim Allister, who even managed to rework that old phrase coined by Gerry Adams as a rallying cry:

"We haven't gone away you know."

Northern Ireland’s new dice with Sectarianism?

While this Sinn Fein electoral victory may seem to superficially reinforce Sinn Fein’s electoral dominance among the Roman Catholic community, it does not hide the fact Northern Ireland may be facing its most turbulent political storm since the GFA. The zealous antics of unionist politicians yesterday in the King’ Hall only bolsters the common perception that ALL Northern Ireland elections serve only as a mere sectarian headcount!

The unprecedented TUV turnout speaks volumes for the waves of bigotry currently sweeping through grass roots disillusioned unionism. To further crank up the pressure on the DUP, Allister buoyed by his achievement, vowed to stand in Ian Paisley's old electoral stronghold in the next general election. The TUV leader jubilantly pronounced that unionists were;

"Fed up with the roll over unionism in the era of Sinn Féin rule"
~Jim Allister~

To further exacerbate Northern Ireland’s political climate, David Cameron has already indicated that he wants to replace the current forced coalition of Sinn Fein and DUP with a,

'voluntary coalition'

(politics of exclusion) - in other words, unionist majority rule. If this was to be the case then we would most definitely be facing a Sunningdale Mark II scenario.

Much work needs to be done by both sides to prevent the front pages of Northern Ireland, UK and World newspaper from being adorned by sectarian imagery this summer! A recent article by Jim Cusack in the Irish Independent gave a chilling warning of potential hostility this summer. He draws stark comparisons with this callous murder of Kevin McDaid and that of the sectarian murder of Protestant man, Billy King. Mr King was kicked to death by Catholic rioters outside his home in the Fountain area of Derry in 1969. This murder was regarded by many as an incendiary event in the escalation of what we now describe as the ‘The Troubles’.

Northern Ireland’s re-branding of collusion, for the 21st Century?

The rearing of the ugly head of sectarianism in Northern Ireland society has recently manifested itself in the loyalist mob murder of Kevin McDaid in Coleraine. Tensions still run high in the area despite strong intervention by both communities to quell the atmosphere. Ever since the gruesome attack, there have been strenuous claims by Mr McDaids family that the PSNI could have averted it. Since the mindless atrocity there has been persistent speculation of PSNI collusion in the Co. Derry attack. This resurfaced recently regarding alleged loyalist contact via text message between a PSNI officer and loyalists in Coleraine prior to the attack. The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland is now proceeding to investigate the allegations.

One thing we can be almost certain of in Northern Ireland society and that is of history repeating itself. The above allegations bear a startling similarity to the tragic events surrounding the murder of Robert Hamill. Mr Hamill was another Catholic victim of Loyalist mob attack in Portadown in 1997. Again strenuous allegations were made by eye-witnesses regarding alleged police ‘voyeurism’ as the attack unfolded. No-one was ever convicted of Hamill’s murder and his family’s lawyer – Rosemary Nelson - was subsequently murdered in a car bombing attack in 1999.

Northern Ireland Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan, former Canadian Supreme Court Justice Peter Cory, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch found evidence that MI5, British military intelligence and Northern Irish police colluded with Unionist terrorists in the Hamill and Nelson murders.

Where now for the DUP?

The DUP leadership will wake up this morning to a day of confusion, fear and recrimination. The onus is very much on First Minister Peter Robinson to command his party through these uncertain waters. The DUP can look to a variety of reasons for its emphatic and historic fall from grace in Northern Ireland’s European Election 2009.

As a direct result of these European Election results the DUP may now seek to delay the devolution of policing and justice powers from Westminster to the Assembly