Gerry Adams notably advances reconciliation by comparing sections of unionism to Afrikaners, writes DAVID ADAMS
THANK GOD for Gerry Adams and his efforts to bring reconciliation to our tiny island. While the rest of us were preoccupied with the Irish bloodlines of Barack Obama, and basking in the reflected glory of yet another Irishman making it to the White House, Adams was thinking of how best to address a much more immediate and problematic relationship, that between unionists and nationalists.
As an aside, it is surely only a matter of time before someone comes up with conclusive proof that Jesus had Irish antecedents. The simple lifestyle, and the dedication to peacemaking and helping the poor and dispossessed, the quiet dignity in the face of oppression and disparagement - culminating in a supreme act of self-sacrifice. There must be an Irish connection in there somewhere. Though in fairness, Christ's forgiving nature probably owed more to His Jewish than His Irish side.
Anyway, speaking in New York last week, at a $500 a plate fundraising dinner, he (Gerry Adams, not Jesus Christ) compared sections of unionism to Afrikaners. "Few human beings of my acquaintance are as petty and mean-spirited and negative as those in the Afrikaner wing of unionism," he said.
Upon first reading, this may seem a tad harsh, particularly to those not fully acquainted with Northern Ireland.
However, in comparison to what other nationalist leaders have said about them, Adams's "petty and mean-spirited and negative" comment is quite complimentary. Not so long ago, President Mary McAleese and Fr Alex Reid, who have also worked tirelessly for reconciliation, were comparing them to the Nazis. And just the other month, Dame Nuala O'Loan, erstwhile policing ombudsman, now practising her mediation skills in East Timor, spoke of how amazed she was to discover that Protestant (unionist) parents in Northern Ireland raised their children to "distrust" Catholics (such poisonous parenting amounts to child abuse in any right-thinking person's book).
In elevating unionists to the status of Afrikaners, Gerry Adams is also swimming against the tide of opinion within his party and its traditional support. Martin McGuinness, Adams's long-time political understudy, has likened them to the Taliban. Former Sinn Féin director of publicity, Danny Morrison - whose cultural leanings nowadays find fuller expression in the writing of poetry and novels - once opined in a newspaper column that unionists are entirely without a culture of their own, and can only make do with what they have purloined from others, most notably the "native Irish".
Adams's Afrikaner comment is sure proof he has adopted a different method of achieving reconciliation to other nationalist leaders. Instead of pointing to the myriad shortcomings of unionists - humourless, homophobic, racist and sectarian, to name another few - he is trying to boost their confidence. Once again, Adams is way ahead of the pack. Though maybe the pack is larger than he thought. Unionists are, naturally enough, delighted and grateful that an Irish nationalist leader has seen fit to lift them above their usual Nazi/Taliban/poisoners of children's minds status. Not so delighted, it appears, are Afrikaners at being lumped in with unionists.
Last week, on BBC Radio Ulster's Talk Backprogramme, presenter David Dunseith and Adrian Guelke, a South Africa-born professor at Queen's University Belfast, discussed Adams's comments. Dunseith, in his usual professional manner, meticulously pointed out the similarities between Afrikaners and unionists - siege mentality, Protestantism, intransigence, inward-looking, and so on - but Prof Guelke was having none of it.
He suggested that what might be true of unionists can no longer be said of Afrikaners, who, "when it came down to it", had "proved remarkably open to change". Though he didn't quite say it, one was left with the uncomfortable feeling that Guelke felt the only legitimate comparison was with apartheid-era Afrikaners. Dishearteningly, Dunseith and Guelke concluded, "it is simply the way of the world" that some groups, "like Serbs and the unionists", are considered fair game for demonising.
It may be the way of the world, but it is certainly not the way of Adams to demonise anyone, even if they do deserve it. He has promised to go over the heads of unionist politicians, if needs be, and speak directly to their electorate. This is no empty promise; he has spoken directly to ordinary unionists before. At least once, as I recall, even to those residing within his parliamentary constituency - albeit from a Sinn Féin rally on the Falls Road, some 300 yards distant, with the help of mega-watt speakers pointed towards the Lower Shankill.
Still, he at least made the effort, and that's what counts. In his preparedness to reach down to unionists, Gerry Adams has proved himself a humble man and a true peacemaker, so reminiscent of a historic religious figure of a similar type.
If - or when, more like - we are finally able to pin Irish heritage on the Prince of Peace from Nazareth, I know which modern-day Irish prince of peace my money will be on to be carrying the same bloodlines.