RITE and REASON:THERE IS huge variety in the centenaries to be marked in the next few years . . . from the launch of the Titanic to the outbreak of the first World War to the events that shaped the political landscape of the island of Ireland.
And there is an increasing urgency to figure out how to mark anniversaries well. The urgency behind the commemorations debate is that by 2018 we will be in a situation of 50 years on since 1968. This brings us into a new and exceedingly difficult round of anniversaries in which many people who experienced those events will be still alive.
That fact alone makes them immensely important, for every year after 2018 will be the 50th anniversary of an atrocity – another 30 consecutive years of anniversaries after 2018.
We must talk about this now – and we must get our upcoming anniversaries acknowledged and remembered in a way that properly honours the past, but does not trap us into wanting to or into trying to rerun it.
Democracy at the beginning of the 21st century is very different to democracy at the beginning of the 20th century.
It is, I think, very important to remember that the history of Northern Ireland and the history of the Irish Republic did not begin with the struggles over partition.
There is a shared and often tortured history involving us all. There are also myths to be dispelled, and unknown and even uncomfortable facts to be allowed to surface and to be properly interpreted. For example, it came as a real surprise to me to know that the (1912) Ulster Covenant was signed not only in Belfast and Edinburgh, but by 2,000 men in Dublin as well.
It is also not widely known that in 1934, James Craig, famous for his reference to a Protestant government for a Protestant people also said – “I, myself, laid down the principle, to which I still adhere, that I was prime minister not of one section of the community but of all, and that as far as I possibly could I was going to see that fair play was meted out to all classes and creeds without any favour whatever on my part.”
It seems to me to be very important to find some big overarching ideas that will enable us to properly remember the past, and, at the same time, help shape our thinking for the present and our hopes and plans for the future.
It is beyond question that our forefathers took what they believed were the right courses of action in their day and generation – in that climactic period from 1912-1922. They took a variety of positions as to what good citizenship meant to them.
But democracy has moved on recognisably since then – not least in the aftermath of much war and much pain. For the unionist community, good citizenship 100 years ago meant that they signed the Ulster Covenant.
By 1998, good citizenship to the majority of citizens on this island meant that both the unionist and nationalist/republican electorate voted for the implementation of the Belfast Agreement.
To put the point another way – our understanding of good citizenship 100 years ago divided this island and our communities. Within a couple of generations, a shared understanding of good citizenship has helped us take some steps along the road of building a shared future.
That was symbolised in Beragh at Constable Kerr’s funeral last April and by the visit of the Queen in May. This leads me to suggest that those of us to whom a shared future matters are already in the business of redefining active citizenship for our time and generation – basing it on mutuality, respect, consensus and with rigorous, but non-confrontational debate about the values we wish to see upheld.
I also want to suggest that those of us with Christian and biblical convictions ought to be part of that debate, not least because our shared Christian heritage goes back over 1,600 years to St Patrick and his ministry here in Ireland. A shared future is but one facet of what the Bible teaches on the importance of restored relationships.
This is an edited extract from an address by the former moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Rev Dr Norman Hamilton, to an Ulster GAA club and community development conference in Armagh recently