OLDEST IRISH AMERICAN NEWSPAPER IN USA, ESTABLISHED IN 1928
Category: Archive

Editorial ‘No Parking: Tow Zone’

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

There was good and bad news this week for the Northern Ireland peace process. The good news came in the form of an opinion poll whose results, published in the Irish Times, showed that there was an increase in support of the Good Friday peace agreement since last year’s referenda, North and South, overwhelmingly endorsed it. It now stands at 73 percent for the agreement, compared to 71 percent in favor when the referenda were held in May. The same poll also showed that some 84 percent of the people of Northern Ireland would prefer to see the executive take power than not.

Even accepting the vagaries of opinion polls, especially in the North, this result should strengthen the hand of those who continue to seek a way out of the deadlock over decommissioning in the knowledge that, as the SDLP’s deputy leader, Seamus Mallon, pointed out a week ago, the agreement belongs to the people of Ireland and must not be allowed to fall because of the whim of any party’s agenda.

The bad news, however, is that it looks like the agreement will be "parked" directly as a result of the conflicting agendas of the Ulster Unionist Party and Sinn Fein. As the weeks drag on without a resolution, all sides are growing jittery over the prospect of the upcoming European elections and the explosion on the scene soon thereafter of the Drumcree crisis. Not a propitious time to be engaged in the dangerous art of compromise in Northern Ireland — an art rarely practiced in that polity at any period.

The British government has insisted there will be "no parking," and that the talking will go on. The Irish government, too, has expressed its determination to keep things going. Most political leaders have come out in public with no-parking statements. Indeed, there are more no-parking signs around the Good Friday agreement than there are on a mid-town Manhattan street. But, unfortunately for the people of Northern Ireland, parking regulations in New York tend to be more assiduously observed than are the promises of Irish and British politicians.

Unless a miracle intervenes within the next few weeks, it is likely the agreement will be parked, though the British government will not use that term. But what it will mean is that round-table discussions will end. However, the dialogue between the Unionists and Sinn Fein must continue, elections or no elections, marches or no marches, since that is where the problem lies. Both sides must remember the fate of things that are parked for too long: they tend to get towed away and dumped.

Never miss an issue of The Irish Echo

Subscribe to one of our great value packages.

Other Articles You Might Like

Sign up to our Daily Newsletter

Click to access the login or register cheese