February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Jack Holland
David Trimble, Unionist leader and First minister of the Northern Ireland Executive, hardly knew what to make of it.
“It was all terribly polite, all hearts and flowers,” he said, looking astonished as he sank briefly into a couch in the lounge of the Benjamin Hotel on Lexington Avenue and 50th Street. He was referring to the panel discussion on the Northern Ireland peace process that had taken place a few hours before as part of the World Economic Forum on Sunday, Feb. 3. Clearly, the battle-hardened Unionist leader was not used to such love-ins.
“All the primary political people were there, dealing in platitudes — apart from myself, of course,” he continued with a smile. “David Ervine [Progressive Unionist Party leader] came out with the absolutely vital insight that the problem we had in our divided society was caused as a result of being human. I thought that this was a really powerful explanation and we should immediately see the solution to all our woes.”
Trimble paused for a moment to permit the full implications of this to sink in. More revelations were to follow. He said that someone had asked Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams a “really precise question” about whether the Unionist minority in Ireland had the same right to secede as that which he asserts for nationalists.
“Adams floundered,” as Trimble recounts it, “but ended up saying that you couldn’t have a United Ireland with Unionists if it doesn’t have their assent or if it doesn’t have their consent. He used the words ‘assent’ and ‘consent,’ both.”
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This was what captured the headlines in Ireland. The Unionist leader was asked if this was reassuring to Unionists and would they believe Adams?
“The ones that need the reassurance won’t believe him,” he replied. Part of the problem for Protestants, he explained, was how republicans behave.
“They’re very in your face,” he said. “And one of the things they’re in your face about is that they haven’t changed. All these very ostentatious demonstrations of the republican movement and its sacrifices are part of that.” He said that he has pointed out to Adams that the Good Friday agreement was about change, and that they had to change as well. However, Trimble believes that because of all the “remarkable U-turns” republicans have done, this is a way of “keeping their troops faithful by winding up the celebratory aspect of it.”
Meanwhile, one of the few figures Trimble had praise for was President Bush’s envoy, Richard Haass, for his emphasis that decommissioning was a process not a single act. Asked if he thought the process would continue, Trimble answered: “My guess is that there will be more in April — to influence the Irish election.”