OPINION:The major parties take a pragmatic approach and realise they cannot afford the privilege of storming out of office, writes DAVID ADAMS
TODAY, IN the UK general election, Sinn Féin and the DUP will be returned again as the two largest parties by the Northern Ireland electorate.
It will be due reward for their managing to work so well together at Stormont (or, given some of the difficulties they’ve faced, for managing to at least stick together at Stormont).
It hardly needs stating that each of the parties would have much preferred for its efforts not to have been conducted against the backdrop of dissident republican violence, yet it is nonetheless paradoxically true that dissident activity has inadvertently been to their electoral advantage.
The violence has been a sharp reminder to the Northern Ireland public of the way things were not so very long ago, and of how easily things can become that way again. It has heightened awareness of the inter-dependence of the two communities, and of the critical importance of Stormont in this regard.
Stormont is now valued like never before. It is properly recognised as a bulwark against the past, and as the only vehicle for realisation of hopes for the future. Sinn Féin and the DUP have been central to Stormont’s survival.
Over the years, there has been deserved acknowledgment of how far Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have managed to carry their constituency. Sometimes, it must be said, even to the extent that the clamour impeded political progress.
There hasn’t, however, been anything like the same appreciation of the distance DUP leader Peter Robinson has moved his party and its electorate; albeit from a markedly different starting point, and along a different path.
But it was no easier a journey to convince people to take. Anyone with the slightest insight into how the DUP once viewed Sinn Féin can only marvel at what Robinson has achieved. Losing the now TUV leader Jim Allistir along the way was a small price to pay.
Let no one be under any illusions either: it is Peter Robinson, more than anyone else, who deserves the credit for bringing the DUP to where it is now. Long-time chief and sometimes only strategist, it was he who carefully steered them into powersharing with Sinn Féin in the first instance, and has kept them there ever since.
When Robinson took over as DUP leader and First Minister, it was against the backdrop of Ian Paisley having been forced to stand aside for being too chummy with Martin McGuinness. So one could hardly have faulted him for being cautious about getting close to the Deputy First Minister. In truth, he was a bit too cautious and this in itself became a problem.
Ultimately, it was McGuinness who made it possible for them to build a relationship.
The beginning of the thaw came just over a year ago, after dissident elements had murdered two British soldiers and a policeman in the space of 48 hours.
The future of the Assembly depended on how Sinn Féin would react to the killings, and on how the DUP would respond to Sinn Féin’s reaction. A visibly angry McGuinness, standing with Robinson and the then chief constable Hugh Orde, publicly described those responsible for the attacks as “traitors to the island of Ireland”.
McGuinness did more than save the Assembly and begin to earn the trust of Peter Robinson and the DUP that day. He raised himself in the estimation of the unionist community who recognised his courage and commitment for what it was.
When Robinson’s marital difficulties became public knowledge and there were questions raised about his integrity, Sinn Féin made little comment, where once they would have made hay. They said only that they felt the matter should be left to the authorities to investigate.
It was shortly thereafter that the DUP agreed to the transfer of responsibility for policing and justice to the Northern Assembly. Since then, there has been a noticeable improvement in the relationship between Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, which has lifted the air of perpetual crisis that seemed continually to hang over the institutions, and in the process lifted the spirits of their respective communities.
It appears that something approximating grown-up politics has arrived in Northern Ireland at last. When the BBC ran a story (a very thin story, it should be said) about a land deal involving Robinson, Sinn Féin adopted a responsible wait-and-see attitude. Neither has it all been one way. Claims that Gerry Adams had been less than forthcoming about serious charges against his brother were left by the DUP for others to deal with. They made the same response to allegations against Adams carried in a recent book.
Thankfully, the major parties now recognise that they cannot afford the privilege of storming out of office at the first unsubstantiated sniff of scandal, or at the first dredging up of (again unproven) history. Stormont is still too tender a plant for that, and the alternative, now being glimpsed, is much too stark.
I am not naturally inclined towards either Sinn Féin or the DUP, but it would be churlish in the extreme not to recognise their vital contributions.