A Tangled Web

Waugh and 'Peace'



I am viscerally against the principle of power sharing in Northern Ireland. My stance has nothing to do with sectarian sentiment (I would much prefer the company of a Catholic Unionist to a Protestant republican anytime) and everything to do with the argument put forth by no less a person than Belfast Telegraph columnist, Eric Waugh. He argues that all such models of governance in Ulster would fail due to the bigoted refusal of Irish nationalists to recognise the integrity of the State they preside over.



The folly of consociationalism involving immiscible forces is all too evident by the refusal of governing parties in Scotland and Wales to permit separatist elements to hold power. In Ulster, devolution was conceived with the exact opposite in mind. Thus, when government ministers make stupid comparisons about the need to resurrect Stormont in the context of a devolved UK, Unionists should simply retort with the argument of 'differing objectives': devolution in Scotland and Wales was conceived with the intention of preserving the Union; in Ulster, it was created with the objective of weakening that same Union.



As Unionists see it, Ulster's minority has been fattened on a wealth of concessions without the essential reciprocity of intent to stabilise Northern Ireland and make it enduring. Unless there is a sea-change in the attitudes of the nationalist minority, no Unionist worthy of the name must ever countenance power sharing again.