JAMES McKERROW,
Madam, - Are we witnessing the final chapter of the Fenian phase of Anglo-Irish relations? Following the famine, ordinary Roman Catholic Irishmen took up a violent struggle against the British state which they saw as the foundation of their woes, at a time when only a handful of propertied men had the vote, and change brought about by constitutional democracy was out of the reach of most.
Today all has changed. The Republic of Ireland is an affluent, modern democratic state, as is the United Kingdom. The majority of the citizens of Northern Ireland wish to remain as part of the United Kingdom, undaunted by 30 years of republican violence. The republican movement has recognised the validity of the North and its border with the South, and acknowledge that its route to the realisation of a 32-county Ireland lies through democratic persuasion, and not the gun, the bomb and intimidation.
But whatever we think of the secret and violent Republican Army, it is an institution, and all institutions suffer from two characteristics. First, they hang on well beyond their sell-by date, despite growing irrelevance. And second, left alone they degenerate.
Machiavelli pointed out how monarchies tend to tyranny and democracies to anarchy. He could have added how guerillas tend to mafia-style criminality, and it is particularly for this reason that we need to see all paramilitary organisations decommissioned and disbanded as soon as possible.
Those who lead Irish republicanism have come a long way since the Famine, and not without success. If they are grappling with the members of their outdated violent institution in order to finally put their army into the museum, and make their political wing paramount, they deserve support. That support is best given through determination of purpose and not concession, but allied with a willingness to re-enter the Executive of the Northern Ireland Assembly with a truly constitutional and democratic republican political movement that has demonstrably eschewed its violent origins.
If we are witnessing the final act of the Fenian phase of Anglo-Irish relations, I doubt if Ian Paisley and his followers would recognise the fact, or even want to as it would herald the end of their own relevance. Instead it will be up to reasonable and responsible unionists to make that judgment, and act in accordance with their conclusions.
If the leaders of republicanism are up to this they must recognise that acts of completion have to be transparent and demonstrable. And if they are, it will be up to the pro-union people of Northern Ireland to exercise judgment with responsibility, and have the courage to act on their conclusions. - Yours, etc.,
JAMES McKERROW, (Ulster Unionist), Bangor, Co Down.