We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
TWO AND A half years after Stormont collapsed, same-sex marriage and abortion legislation could be coming to Northern Ireland – but only if power-sharing isn’t restored by 21 October.
The votes in the House of Commons – the product of amendments put forward by Labour MPs Conor McGinn and Stella Creasy – are the culmination of years of campaigning and lobbying.
But even as the applause died down in Westminster and campaigners took to Twitter to celebrate, no one yet knows what this means for the stalemate in Northern Ireland.
It also raises questions about direct rule – the prospect of which has overshadowed Northern Irish politics for two years – and whether the British parliament’s intervention on same-sex marriage and abortion signal the final days of devolution.
Talks in Northern Ireland have repeatedly stalled since power-sharing collapsed following the resignation of Martin McGuinness as deputy first minister in January 2017.
A number of issues had led to power-sharing splintering, including the botched RHI scheme that had been overseen by then-finance minister Arlene Foster and the Sinn Féin demand for an Irish Language Act.
Since then, no one has budged. Sinn Féin have also made same-sex marriage and abortion reform a key ask in any negotiations.
The political environment has not helped foster a spirit of reconciliation. If anything, Brexit has become more of a polarising issue since January 2017, while the success of the 2018 repeal referendum in Ireland has helped focus international scrutiny on Northern Ireland’s restrictive abortion law.
Added to this is a Conservative government, nominally backed by the DUP, that has been repeatedly criticised for its approach to Northern Ireland, as well as Secretary of State in Karen Bradley who has faced calls to resign for her performance in the portfolio.
Talks have occurred intermittently over the last two years, with the most recent discussions place in May. However, even before Tuesday’s vote very few had predicted any return to power-sharing in the busy months ahead as both the British and Irish governments grapple with Brexit.
How the vote came about
In parallel to these negotiations, campaigners have been lobbying MPs to legislate for same-sex marriage and abortion in Northern Ireland. Both Labour MPs Conor McGinn and Stella Creasy have led the charge on this and these amendments weren’t the first such attempts to bypass the Stormont deadlock.
The campaign has come with caveats – everyone would rather this was legislated for by Northern Irish politicians. But pragmatism has often won out, alongside a pessimism that power-sharing will not be restored in the near future.
As McGinn wrote in The Guardian in 2018: “I’m very clear that the decision to approve same-sex marriage would ideally be made by the Northern Ireland assembly doing the job it is supposed to be doing. But there has been a vacuum now for more than a year and every day that LGBT couples in Northern Ireland have to wait for equal marriage legislation to be passed is a day too long.”
The same-sex marriage campaign has been bolstered by the fact that in 2015, the Northern Ireland assembly did in fact vote for same-sex marriage, but it was blocked by the DUP use of the petition of concern – basically a veto on controversial legislation.
What happens next?
In determining what happens next, it’s important not to lump together Northern Irish attitudes to same-sex marriage and abortion. While polling data is limited, there is a general sense that the majority of population in Northern Ireland support marriage equality.
When it comes to abortion, there is also evidence of public support for change – but like other issues in Northern Ireland survey evidence suggests that support and opposition are often manifested in the binaries of unionist and nationalist politics.
Yet for both parties, their response will now be defined by the realities of politics in the North. In recent years, following the collapse in support for the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP, both Sinn Féin and the DUP have become umbrella, catch-all parties where voters’ sectional interest matter more than differences over policy.
Crucially, as one former DUP official told TheJournal.ie, same-sex marriage legislation was largely inevitable as soon as the assembly was re-established given the current composition of MLAs.
In the 2017 local assembly election, the DUP only won 28 seats – leaving it two votes short of the magic 30 number required to trigger a petition of concern. While it could probably have relied on the support of another unionist party, namely the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), this would still have left the party short of the necessary votes.
The loss of this veto mechanism would have significantly changed the balance of power in Stormont if the assembly was still running.
But Tuesday’s vote only makes any agreement before October less likely, the former official said.
Prof Jon Tonge, a lecturer at the University of Liverpool and an expert on Northern Irish politics, said it was important to distinguish both parties from Northern Irish voters.
“DUP voters are much more liberal than DUP members,” Tonge told TheJournal.ie. “In terms of DUP voter base, they’ll shrug and carry on,” he said.
Tonge agreed that the votes will reduce incentives for both parties to return to power-sharing.
“Stormont isn’t coming back any time soon,” Tonge said. For Sinn Féin, yesterday’s votes come close to guaranteeing two of the party’s major demands. They’d be “mad” to return to negotiations before October, Tonge suggested.
However, in the long-term the amendments could help plot a path back to Stormont by removing some of the more contentious political issues from Northern Ireland politics.
“The DUP didn’t want this. But there is a section, even of the DUP, that probably is quite relieved in one sense that if Westminster sorts these issues then at least the DUP can’t be seen as part of the process,” Tonge said.
“The DUP would rather these days be defined by attitudes towards the union more than it would on attitudes like same-sex marriage,” he added.
In the hours since the vote, the DUP has remained largely quiet on the issue. Arlene Foster, who is not an MP and was at Wimbledon rather than Westminster on Tuesday, has not yet commented but in the days to come we can expect the party to raise objections to the process – as opposed to the substance – of the votes.
In the House of Commons, DUP objections indeed focused on how these amendments undermined devolution in Northern Ireland and raised an awkward precedent for the British government.
“It is not right that we should drive a coach and horses through the devolution settlement in relation to certain issues which people feel passionately and deeply about here but which are the subject of devolved powers in Northern Ireland,” DUP MP Nigel Dodds said.
“It does raise constitutional questions – is this direct rule? Is it halfway house direct rule? There are questions to be answered,” Tonge said.
“If devolution has collapsed, why aren’t a range of laws being introduced?” he added.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
She had a chance to make Northern Ireland the Singapore of Europe,, missed the boat.. Iiving in the past..
@Tomas: england will not sacrifice their pawn on this Island over something like equality. One way or another they need a strong Unionist base to keep the Irish in their place. Why do you think the plantations of Ulster by red neck royalists happened in the first place. The previous invaders ended up becoming more Irish than the Irish themselves. These knuckle draggers were too inbred to take on the language or customs of the indigenous population, so they were perfect to support the english queen without question.
@Cal Mooney: NI unionists are indeed a pawn. Pawns are used to capture one or two other pieces but their ultimate fate is always to be sacrificed whren necessary on the road to a checkmate. They have little.other use. They are just.pawns after all….
@Lar Meyler: And Boris is a master at sacrificing pawns just like the UK ambassador to the US…
@Cal Mooney: keep the irish in their place? England would dump NI in a heartbeat if it could. It’s the black sheep of the union.
@Cal Mooney: well there’s a mouthful of racism if I ever saw one!! And a complete lack of understanding of the situation to boot.
@Charles McGuire: I keep on hearing this even though there hasn’t been one sign that they would. We’re talking about a Conservative and Unionist government for the most part in the most jingoistic country in history,bar possibly the US. There is no chance they’d give up a piece of ‘their empire’. None
@Cal Mooney: Tell us how you really feel Cal :-)
Think today’s queen would be delighted to be rid of them and their uncompromising bitter ways.
@Joe Johnson: don’t know about that. I think he couldn’t give a monkeys about the situation.
The next logical step is to stop their salaries and expenses.
The biggest Fup by DUP of all time, They tried to use Brexit to cover up Cash for Ash and failed
Bulldog chewing a wasp… Ahhh never gets old…
They stall. Pretend they did everything they could to to reinstate devolution and then blame it on SF .They will then move on with a kind of warped conscience that at least it was out of their control even though the were implicit in the start middle and finish.
This opinion piece suggests that if Westminster finally allows same sex marriage and abortion rights in the North as most civilized countries do, then the only thing the DUP need to be seen to acknowledge and accept is that the Gaelic language should have the same standing in the North as it does in Scotland, Welsh does in Wales. Do you really think the DUP or the UUP would respect that sort of language rights equality?
@Cal Mooney: The issue with Westminster is that they have not worked out yet that the north is half Catholic and hence a more mutually beneficial arrangement is required. The DUP need to be reigned in and made tow the line.
@Charles McCarthy: Yeah, common sense is not that common to people like you and me. The english want the Irish to continue fighting amongst ourselves. We only got the South because US public opinion insisted on it after hearing about the blood sacrifice of the 1916 rebels. Otherwise we would still be singing God save the … whatever inbred they call their head of state.
The expectation that Arlene would encapsulate the qualities of a leader for all is sadly lacking. This woman has all the charisma and diplomatic diplomacy off a one eye frog running endlessly on a hamster wheel thinking they are a lizard without a tail. The north is a special case and hence needs individuals who can navigate the political climate for the good of all as opposed to the select few.
Not a bad analysis overall. However, the remark concerning the “Sinn Féin demand for an Irish Language Act” needs qualification. The Irish Language Act is not a “demand”. It is an intrinsic part of the Fresh Start agreement agreed all parties including the DUP and the British government. Its implementation is also supported by the SDLP, Alliance and Greens in the North and also by FG and FF.
They were adamant in their claims that the North was indivisible from the rest of Britain. Now they will be able to enjoy another piece of legislation that the rest of the British people enjoy. I hope that the irony isn’t lost on them
I reckon she’s saying a decade of the rosary
I’m curious how this will turn out, will Sinn Fein go back to talks? If they don’t they’ll be getting 2 major major wins by not going back into power. If the DUP do not want equality and abortion what will they offer sinn fein? Will Sinn Fein be seen as selling out if there was some sort of compromise.
@Charles McGuire: I am curious to find out if SF will attend in Westminster to ensure that their policy is passed.
Given that they remained as lathair throughout the Brexit votes, when it mattered for all NI residents, I won’t be betting on it.
@William Kelly: 6 mps to save Brexit.you must not of seen the how the votes in Westminster went if your still going on with the ff/fg rubbish that sf could of stopped Brexit.
@matthew o reilly: All SF have done in the current Brexit crisis is show their utter irrelevance. They could have taken their seats in Westminster and put the case for majority in NI, offering an alternative and modern voice to the appalling medieval DUP. They could have embarrassed the Tory Government and been pivotal in a few tight votes. But no. They were too noble. So instead they removed themselves from the stage. They are as hypocritical as the Brexit Party MEPs who stood for EP elections, take the EP salaries and perks and then do nothing except try to destroy the institution they stood for. A party as rigid as SF has shown its continued unsuitability for Government. And by Government I am referring to that of a nation state, not the NI power sharing Executive.
@John R: if you believe that your either very naive or just another follower of the ff/fg parties who spout stupid elitist rubbish.Do you really think sf going to Westminster would embarrass the tories.most likely it would do the exact opposite & drive the brexiteers in the tories & labour party to vote against May.I dont vote in this country anymore because of the state of our politics.But to say sf are not fit for government & to think tweedle dee & tweedle dum are fit for goverment when you look what ff did to this country & what fg are continuing with their policies
@John R: The people who vote for Sinn Fein dont want them to take there seats in Westminster like how can you and the rest of the ones that hate Sinn Fein not get that through yout thick heads.
@William Kelly: For SF to take their seats in WM they would have to swear allegiance to the Queen, which will never happen
Fine Gael passively using this as a political football just like Fianna Fáil passive about Fune Gael’s disastrous government
@John Smith: flawed argument. What has occurred in Ireland has no baring on Northern Ireland. The DUP are bigots not because Ireland has allowed equal marriage and they refuse but because Britain has allowed it since 2014 and the DUP have blocked it for UK citizens living in that Provence.
The DUP cant have it both ways: direct rule without te Trojan Horse of Mainland laws.
“Tis a package deal by troth !
I think people do not understand how deeply each party in the executive hates the other. The dysfunction came from the deep tribalism and extremism of the parties not the voters who are both more liberal and centrist than their representatives strangely. One also has to look at social conditions here, 30% of the workforce is out of work, 25% of adults are functionally illeterate, the figures are slightly higher for school children so the future is bleak, Belfast has the highest rates of both drug and alcohol related deaths in europe, and one of the highest rates of suicide in the world. It is difficult to have so many deep problems to address at once…
Who actually gives a fcuk anymore.
Life is too short to be for ever indulging people obsessed with their all important cultural identity – first and foremost we are all human with this artificial differences taking precedence over all else – its pathetic – who wants NI – its not the centre of the Universe.
Eat your cake you f$&@ing dinosaur and stop dragging this island down!!!
When one considers the speed at which the Berlin Wall fell down or the Soviet Union cleared out of Eastern Europe, the Democratic Unionists have to be concerned about their future. The consequences of Brexit are unknown. They will have an impact on these two islands which Arlene is not in control of. Her alliance with the Conservative Party is dependant on the balance of power in Westminister. England’s and Europe’s priority does not have Northern Ireland (1.8 million) as a major issue. A deal for England is a priority and Europe’s priority is not to unbalance or upset any existing members. Northern Ireland’s old certainties are being disassembled. Arlene needs to re assess her priorities – times they are a changing.
have your say