Tackling sectarianism in Northern Ireland should be made “sexy” by using “role models and champions who have clout”, it was suggested at a brainstorming session at the Northern secretary’s official residence in September 2002.
“Promote the ‘Feel Good Factor’ by binding in the sporting and entertainment worlds etc. Make it ‘sexy’,” a group of community relations practitioners recommended, according to documents recently released by the Northern Ireland state archives
They also suggested the establishment of a British-Irish peace foundation for peace and social progress, which would be “a tangible symbol of a joint approach”, and putting "the stark cost of doing nothing before people”.
The proposals were among a number of potential ideas for action put forward following the session and included as an annex to the declassified document entitled “Sectarianism – Update on Strategy”, dated November 2002.
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The delegation, which included Duncan Morrow, then of the Community Relations Council, and Brendan McAllister of Mediation NI, was invited to Hillsborough Castle to discuss how the then Northern secretary – the Labour MP John Reid – “might approach the problem of tackling sectarianism”.
It was acknowledged, the document noted, that this was “a wide and complex problem … those present cautioned that the Secretary of State should be careful not to say that he was taking on the whole problem by himself.
“Instead, he needed to give a strong message that ‘we could only do this together’.”
In observations that remain relevant to dealing with the stubbornly persistent problem of sectarianism in Northern Ireland today, the delegation said people must learn “to be citizens together and to de-couple ‘back row’ politics from general urban angst”.
“Sometimes things needed to be recognised as local – everything was not always about two ‘communities’ in conflict.”
Key questions that were identified included how the government might avoid “becoming ‘fascinated’ with the subject, and, therefore, simply feeding it” and how to fund community relations work. “The current picture beyond 2006 is stunningly bleak,” it observed.
The group agreed “urgent attention” was needed to tackle “the legitimisers of sectarian attitudes and actions as well as the perpetrators, and for Government to be prepared to bolster those who took risks to address the problem.
“Government now needed to deal with some of the unresolved issues – the rush to devolution had left people stuck with their emotions in a half-finished scenario.”
Unresolved issues such as decommissioning, demilitarisation and policing “remained the things that ‘pushed people’s buttons’” and “we now needed to get people ready for a ‘refinement’ of the Good Friday Agreement, but not the unpicking of its core values.
“There was a need to change the image of Northern Ireland by persuading people that it was possible.
“We needed to hand people the possibility of responsibility for making a choice – sectarianism was something that could not be eradicated by technical mechanisms, people had to decide to get rid of it.”
Other suggestions put forward during the brainstorming session included working with the media “to encourage responsible reporting”, the “possibility of a Legacy-type series on TV – people giving five minutes of ‘Who I am’,” and “a series of events that would demonstrate that the Secretary of State was at home in a wide range of settings – British, Irish, Northern Irish”.
There should also be “a different approach to formulating [UK] Government policy, which should never be designed “without first of all asking, how does it affect the sectarian agenda and how does it affect community relations?
“There is a real need to dust down the term community relations and bring it back into fashion.”
