WHAT CHANGES and altered attitudes have emerged in Northern Ireland in a few short years! The traditional Twelfth of July was marked by a relatively trouble-free Drumcree over the weekend. The marching season, such a barometer of political dysfunction in former years, has turned into a summer celebration of unionism. Progress has been made, and not just on the political front.
There has been strong inward investment. Jobs were created. And in spite of current difficulties, the economy is still growing. The hopelessness and despair that characterised the long years of paramilitary violence and tit-for-tat killings has given way to growing community confidence and social ambition. No longer does a banned parade at Drumcree bring Northern Ireland to the brink of red-eyed madness.
A determined effort has been made by the Orange Order to reinvent its marches as family- friendly cultural events, rather than triumphalist gestures of control in a divided society. That is a welcome development. In response, community leaders within nationalist areas have worked hard to defuse tensions at traditional flashpoints. This important work on both sides has gone largely unacknowledged. But it reflects and reinforces the political accommodation that is the Belfast Agreement.
Northern Ireland has become a different, more secure and confident place, as sketched by Bryan Coll, the winner of this year’s Douglas Gageby Fellowship, in a series of articles entitled: “Out of the Night – the emerging Northern Ireland” in this newspaper. Arts, commerce, social life and politics are all undergoing transformation. While threats of instability exist on all fronts, there is reason to believe they can be surmounted.
It has gradually dawned on both communities – those who march and those who oppose – that confrontation and violence on the streets damages both of their interests. Some extremist elements would be happy to turn the clock back, as was seen on Saturday. But, emerging public attitudes and political commitments to power-sharing and to an accommodation of the rights and identities of the two traditions have created circumstances that make this unlikely. At a time when economic investment is slowing, hard-pressed communities will be aware that jobs gravitate towards those areas that are free of paramilitary influence.
The war is over for the Provisional IRA. The Rev Ian Paisley made history last year when he led the Democratic Unionist Party into a power-sharing Executive with Sinn Féin. Since then, Peter Robinson has taken his place with Martin McGuinness as First and Deputy First Minister. There are difficulties and tensions, but nothing that cannot be overcome with good will and determination. Creative change in Northern Ireland is now being driven from the bottom up as well as from the top down. All of these developments make Northern Ireland a better place in which to live today.