WE MUST TURN OUR FACES TO EUROPE AND 1999
We must turn our faces to Europe and 1999
James Kelly
ON SATURDAY
WHILE the rest of the world gets on with the business of living and dealing with the fears of a global economic crisis resulting from the domino effect of the financial collapse in the Far East, we here in the cabbage-patch of the six counties have that morning-after feeling as if we had wakened from a bad dream. The guns are silent, the Semtex and fertiliser unused, the troops preparing to fly back to Blighty, an occasional helicopter still hovers overhead for no known purpose, the gates of the holiday-camp prisons are opening slowly to release the paramilitary POWs back to the reality of life in their domestic situations.
The 'war' which solved nothing is over after 29 years of conflict, death and untold misery for thousands culminating finally in the horror of Ballymoney and he unbelievable barbaric catastrophe of Omagh - the day of infamy, August 15 1998.
Up at Stormont in a gilded palace, an assembly, more like a county council,with all the trappings of a parliament, sat down for the first time in surprising amity after the years of naked hatred across the sectarian divide.
The muted speeches seemed sadder and wider, as if they too had awakened from a political nightmare, as if a terrible reality was born after the shock of that terrible afternoon when we all came to our senses.
Outside a handful of throwbacks, from the last outpost of insanity at Portadown-Drumcree, babbled about bloody old flags - once derided as the "the moth-eaten rags on worm-eaten poles".
Songster McCrea waved the union flag from his assembly seat but there were no cheers. The atmosphere was too serious for that.
Old enemies talked about a new beginning, Adams held out the hand of friendship to a sprawling beefy Paisley, who remained in thoughtful silence, while Martin McGuinness delivered a remarkable off-the-cuff speech of moderation which took the assembly by surprise. He called for a fresh start of reconciliation and tolerance.
There was obvious political indigestion as Paisley's cohorts and fellow travellers eat their words about going into the assembly to 'smash' the Good Friday agreement.
Assembly members, on money for 'old rope' - in fact �29,000 a year with a healthy rise due next year - showed no disposition to wreck the agreement and the assembly.
First Minister David Trimble MP (�40,000) and Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon MP (�35,000) are off to the European parliament to safeguard the funding of the new set-up by the EU while an educational seminar is being arranged whereby the Stormont assembly members will be taken to Strasbourg to see for themselves the truth of what John Hume keeps on telling us about the example of how old enemies who killed each other in Europe's wars are now joined in friendship and peace administering the affairs of the European Union in a democratic assembly.
A few years ago, when invited with a party of journalists to visit the Strasbourg assembly, I recall looking at the map as we flew across Europe and realising that we were passing over the battlefields of two world wars.
Afterwards, meeting EU members, I reminded them of Europe's debt to the thousands of Irishmen whose bleached bones lay in the killing fields of Europe.
They were genuinely concerned about our present plight and generously acknowledged not only their debt to the almost forgotten legions from north and south who never returned from those battles but also mentioned an even older debt of gratitude to the monks and Irish missionaries of past generations who brought the Gospel to the far corners of Europe.
In all the outdated rhetoric about the 'union' of which we have all heard so much, our attention is distracted from the fact that all that is changing before our eyes with the Irish border gone and a new constitutional set-up involving a Scottish parliament and a Welsh assembly being planned in London, an anglo-lrish council as part of the Good Friday agreement and Ireland and Britain partners in the European Union - the union which has changed the whole picture of our future as Europe's Atlantic outpost.
One other fact struck me at Strasbourg, namely that the educational establishment like the 'Little England' Thatcherites here were wearing blinkers.
The place was overrun with groups of young students from France, Spain, Germany and Italy; but little, if any, sign of the youth of Britain or Ireland.
If that has changed in the meantime well and good: but if not it is time the top brass in the education hierarchy woke up to realise that they are leaving the new generation in the dark about their future.
Not only the assembly oldsters but the young, linguistically-prepared like their European counterparts, should be taken in droves there to imbibe European culture rather than wasting time and money on stupid school ski-trips to the Swiss Alps.
If there is to be a new beginning here it is time we left parochial politics behind, including the awful Mr McNarry's fulminations about Orange 'culture' and the geographical numbskulls prating about the 'province' now reduced from nine to six.
if industry and tourism is to be induced to come to peaceful Northern Ireland we must look further afield after first silencing the 'marching season' humbugs who have cost the exchequer millions in security wastage and frightened off tourists in their thousands.
With Bertie Ahern, making a triumphant industrial tour of China, being received by the premier in a welcoming ceremony in front of the Great Hall of the People with a guard of honour and the Irish Tricolour, is it not high time that we took a leaf out of the book of our southern neighbours and widened our horizons?
A lot of time has been lost - years and years.
Big problems are ahead, including the impact of Euro single currency on industry. That danger is coming up fast.
Forget about 1690. Think about 1999.
James Kelly
ON SATURDAY
WHILE the rest of the world gets on with the business of living and dealing with the fears of a global economic crisis resulting from the domino effect of the financial collapse in the Far East, we here in the cabbage-patch of the six counties have that morning-after feeling as if we had wakened from a bad dream. The guns are silent, the Semtex and fertiliser unused, the troops preparing to fly back to Blighty, an occasional helicopter still hovers overhead for no known purpose, the gates of the holiday-camp prisons are opening slowly to release the paramilitary POWs back to the reality of life in their domestic situations.
The 'war' which solved nothing is over after 29 years of conflict, death and untold misery for thousands culminating finally in the horror of Ballymoney and he unbelievable barbaric catastrophe of Omagh - the day of infamy, August 15 1998.
Up at Stormont in a gilded palace, an assembly, more like a county council,with all the trappings of a parliament, sat down for the first time in surprising amity after the years of naked hatred across the sectarian divide.
The muted speeches seemed sadder and wider, as if they too had awakened from a political nightmare, as if a terrible reality was born after the shock of that terrible afternoon when we all came to our senses.
Outside a handful of throwbacks, from the last outpost of insanity at Portadown-Drumcree, babbled about bloody old flags - once derided as the "the moth-eaten rags on worm-eaten poles".
Songster McCrea waved the union flag from his assembly seat but there were no cheers. The atmosphere was too serious for that.
Old enemies talked about a new beginning, Adams held out the hand of friendship to a sprawling beefy Paisley, who remained in thoughtful silence, while Martin McGuinness delivered a remarkable off-the-cuff speech of moderation which took the assembly by surprise. He called for a fresh start of reconciliation and tolerance.
There was obvious political indigestion as Paisley's cohorts and fellow travellers eat their words about going into the assembly to 'smash' the Good Friday agreement.
Assembly members, on money for 'old rope' - in fact �29,000 a year with a healthy rise due next year - showed no disposition to wreck the agreement and the assembly.
First Minister David Trimble MP (�40,000) and Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon MP (�35,000) are off to the European parliament to safeguard the funding of the new set-up by the EU while an educational seminar is being arranged whereby the Stormont assembly members will be taken to Strasbourg to see for themselves the truth of what John Hume keeps on telling us about the example of how old enemies who killed each other in Europe's wars are now joined in friendship and peace administering the affairs of the European Union in a democratic assembly.
A few years ago, when invited with a party of journalists to visit the Strasbourg assembly, I recall looking at the map as we flew across Europe and realising that we were passing over the battlefields of two world wars.
Afterwards, meeting EU members, I reminded them of Europe's debt to the thousands of Irishmen whose bleached bones lay in the killing fields of Europe.
They were genuinely concerned about our present plight and generously acknowledged not only their debt to the almost forgotten legions from north and south who never returned from those battles but also mentioned an even older debt of gratitude to the monks and Irish missionaries of past generations who brought the Gospel to the far corners of Europe.
In all the outdated rhetoric about the 'union' of which we have all heard so much, our attention is distracted from the fact that all that is changing before our eyes with the Irish border gone and a new constitutional set-up involving a Scottish parliament and a Welsh assembly being planned in London, an anglo-lrish council as part of the Good Friday agreement and Ireland and Britain partners in the European Union - the union which has changed the whole picture of our future as Europe's Atlantic outpost.
One other fact struck me at Strasbourg, namely that the educational establishment like the 'Little England' Thatcherites here were wearing blinkers.
The place was overrun with groups of young students from France, Spain, Germany and Italy; but little, if any, sign of the youth of Britain or Ireland.
If that has changed in the meantime well and good: but if not it is time the top brass in the education hierarchy woke up to realise that they are leaving the new generation in the dark about their future.
Not only the assembly oldsters but the young, linguistically-prepared like their European counterparts, should be taken in droves there to imbibe European culture rather than wasting time and money on stupid school ski-trips to the Swiss Alps.
If there is to be a new beginning here it is time we left parochial politics behind, including the awful Mr McNarry's fulminations about Orange 'culture' and the geographical numbskulls prating about the 'province' now reduced from nine to six.
if industry and tourism is to be induced to come to peaceful Northern Ireland we must look further afield after first silencing the 'marching season' humbugs who have cost the exchequer millions in security wastage and frightened off tourists in their thousands.
With Bertie Ahern, making a triumphant industrial tour of China, being received by the premier in a welcoming ceremony in front of the Great Hall of the People with a guard of honour and the Irish Tricolour, is it not high time that we took a leaf out of the book of our southern neighbours and widened our horizons?
A lot of time has been lost - years and years.
Big problems are ahead, including the impact of Euro single currency on industry. That danger is coming up fast.
Forget about 1690. Think about 1999.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0393
Published Date: 19-Sep-98
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