We read, listen and watch, for the media provides for us
day by day with a word and picture state of the country, warts
and all. To make sense of what it tells us is difficult, for
it is often a presentation of the contradictory words and
actions of people wrestling with the problems that beset a
society shot through with differences and disagreements. And
these affect us in every detail of our lives, for we live
in a situation, and with circumstances, dangerous, disastrous
perhaps, for the future of the Province, if wrong decisions
are taken now. With the Ulster Unionist deadline of January
18 and its determination to pull out of the Executive of the
Stormont administration we were left to wonder what could
happen to alter a situation which appeared to be incapable
of the changes of attitude demanded for the full implementation
of the Belfast Agreement. Sinn Fein, with its private army,
continued to make a resolution of the primary problem, peaceful
co-existence, much less sharing in government, untenable.
The Sinn Fein/I.R.A. refusal to meet their agreed obligations
made for an obstruction which had to be removed if we are
to have the kind of government we were promised when the Belfast
Agreement was ratified. The refusal of the Prime Minister
and the United Kingdom Government to ensure that the determinations
of the Agreement were kept, insofar as Sinn Fein/I.R.A. is
concerned, has been the prime cause of the present impasse.
And the promise of a political outcome with most undeserved
and undesirable consequences for this society! The Unionist
aspiration for a devolved government remains constant and
the willingness to share in such an administration with other
political parties, has been illustrated in government and
local government. So that the charge of a Unionist intention
to have only Unionists in power in Northern Ireland is a nonsense.
Good government here has to be shared government, but the
sharing must be honest, honourable and peaceful without threat
of violence from any source. And then the Chief Constable,
Hugh Orde, on October 4, took a decision which brought to
Sinn Fein a raid on its offices at Stormont and on homes elsewhere.
This was the day when in Bogota the three I.R.A. men where
to appear in court on the charge of training FARC terrorists
in Colombia. Their refusal to leave their cells brought about
the postponement of the hearing. Hanging around, too, was
the alleged I.R.A. involvement in the break-in at Castlereagh.
The raid showed a determination by the police to get answers
to questions about Sinn Fein/I.R.A. spying activities at Stormont.
Arrests were made and charges preferred in court. The Unionist
reaction to this further evidence of Sinn Fein/I.R.A. activity
made them demand the exclusion of its ministers from the Executive.
And then we had frantic meetings with Prime Ministers and
politicians and all involved in the threatened end to the
Assembly as presently constituted. In the event not exclusion
but suspension was taken by the Prime Minister and the question
we are all asking is where do we go from here?
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