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WATCHING THE RECENT violent scenes unfold on the streets of Belfast, like many others I despaired, not just because of the violence and the appalling attacks on the police, but for the images that our children would witness on TV screens that night and Saturday morning.
As a parent you have hopes and aspirations for your children. You hope that they will be healthy; you hope that they will be safe; you hope that they are respectful of themselves and others and you hope that they will find fulfilment, happiness and opportunity.
I am a parent with these hopes. I also hope that my son will never live through the history I lived through. On Friday past I watched those hopes flicker.
During the past four hundred years the people who populate this island have created and developed their own narratives. The narratives are not shared and unsurprisingly neither is the parchment of land on which we carve out our lives.
Today in Northern Ireland we live a largely separate but equal existence. It allows us to go to the same workplaces, the same canteens, the same shops, the same cinemas, the same restaurants and the same bars.
It is ‘norn iron’ normal.
And when visitors come we can put our best foot forward. It’s no small irony that the president of the World Police and Fire Games, which were finishing as the violence was kicking off against our own police service, described Belfast as the friendliest games ever. Yes we can show the kindness of the stranger to visitors but in reality our day faces can be about as real as Venetian masques.
The recent violence shows that we are more than capable of passing on to another generation the failures of the past. In some ways, despite being the generation who created a gap for peace, our innate sectarianism, like a strain of malaria, remains dormant not dead.
We simply have not yet sufficiently created the structures that have inherent in them a priority on relationship-building within and between communities, and with public bodies that will prevent the recreation of conditions that caused conflict in the first place.
But we cannot let the peace narrative suffer because a small section of society sets their faces against it. To do so would be to take the less difficult path in decision-making and would fail future generations.
Regarding parades, we need to ensure they are not used to suggest that deepening the peace is somehow out of tune or out of step with fairness and equity for all.
Some people talk about cultural wars and the eroding of identity. In the Parades Commission we ensure that no-one’s identity or culture is threatened.
Of the 4,500 parades annually, 2,500 are from the Loyal Orders Loyalist bands or the unionist community; a 3 per cent increase on last year. Just 170-odd of these 4,500 parades are considered “contentious”, leaving aside the 51 weekly parades at Drumcree. Nearly a quarter of those 170-odd have no restrictions put on at all, and fewer than half of the 170-odd have a route restriction imposed. Those statistics do not reflect a culture under threat or unfairly treated.
If only people would sit down and talk they would build relationships, build trust and by doing so may reach agreement on at least some of those still contentious parades. It works. We see that time and again.
With the Haass initiative on flags, parades and the past starting soon, Brian Rowan, a highly respected journalist and author, argues that part of the challenge is “for all to think outside their own boxes… to do and give something for peace and for those younger people who are being poisoned by the experiences of the conflict generation”.
In years to come, whether our grandchildren demonstrate respect for each other’s identity and traditions will depend on their relationship with each other; and that will depend on what we, in this generation, do now. If this generation, as leaders and parents, doesn’t start showing more respect, tolerance and sensitivity toward others from a different tradition, why should we expect our children to teach that to their children?
And if we don’t, and our children don’t, what happens next?
Peter Osborne is chair of the Parades Commission and is a Northern Ireland Committee member of the BIG Lottery Fund. He been involved in good relations, cohesion, community enablement and development work for over 20 years, and is currently a non-executive Director of Extern Ireland, the charity that provides social care and support services to children, families, adults and communities.
[Main photo: A petrol bomb hits riot police after it was thrown by loyalist rioters in the Woodvale area of north Belfast, Northern Ireland, Saturday, July 13, 2013. AP Photo/Peter Morrison]
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The wounds inflicted on this country during “the troubles” have only partially healed. It would be all too easy for the wounds to be reopened especially by members of the younger generation who don’t have the same memories of some of the horrors committed during that time. I was a teen when the omagh bombing occurred and the pictures from that day are something I will always remember and never want to see similar things happen here again.
The supremacist mindset that exists throughout Unionism in general is a huge obstacle and is something that “hasn’t gone away you know”. Leadership on tackling this issue needs to shown by the British government as the Unionist leaders don’t have the capacity or possibly the want to take on the Orange Order. On the Republican side the dissidents have practically no support in the community so I can’t see them threatening the peace process, however the Orange Order although being unelected as well as nakedly and openly sectarian, commands serious clout and destroys the summer economy in the north every year. They are the last remaining true obstacle to peace and reconciliation between the two communities. The problem is though, how do you negotiate with supremacists and their warped view of equality?
The mindset exists in some nationalist sections also
Jack you have illustrated my prior point perfectly – it is the other side that is wrong, our side is harmless but is still threatened by the others.
Territory marking and pole pissing comes to mind when I hear about Marching in northern Ireland, regardless of which community is doing the marching. What is so sacred about the “traditional routes”? All I can see is pig-headed triumphalist aggressive ignorance on both sides.
Each generation is responsible for passing their side of the cultural and political myths on to the next generations. This channel of hatred must, at some time, be broken in order for normal inter- community relations to thrive.
I know it sounds extremely childish but until both sides can agree to march peacefully I think they all should be called off.
As long as young kids can’t see each other because of 30 foot high walls communications will always be a problem.
To respect another we must understand another. It’s easy for me to say we should all sit down and talk, it’s not my past or present, but I know these people aren’t the images depicted. They are people, with children and hopes. We simply need to talk
There remains a deep rooted distrust among the working class communities in both sides of the divide. Both are guilty of perpetuating this. As with anything, education and dialogue are the silver bullets. Amazing work has been done on both sides but it is imperative that the govts on both side don’t suffer from “peace process fatigue”. This is at least a 3 generational process and needs to be supported. The “sexy” bit is getting paramilitaries on both sides to lay down their arms. The real challenge is in engendering a culture change in thinking across the communities
sad but as long as there are a small minority who always want to create chaos up the North Peter, you can be sure it won’t end! Every July sure, madness!
Can we have more columns for this guy instead of that eejit McCann?
Born and raised in the south, no problem telling you that catholic Protestant thing is systematic brainwashing
I wouldn’t be worth a damn (a junkie) if it wasn’t for meeting my best friend, a so called northern-Irish proddie, pain effects everyone and my normal cocky sarcastic bullsh*t attitude aside, I hope things get better in the north, sooner rather later
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