Ancient & modern
The IRA now revealed as the criminal gang the government has been desperately trying to pretend it is not, there can be no more pretence of democratic dealing with Sinn Fein–IRA and its leaders Adams and McGuinness. So what next?
The collapse of the Roman republic in the 1st century BC was largely down to the naked power that dynasts like Caesar and Pompey could wield by having private armies at their back. The result was that the tradition of ‘checks and balances’ involving Senate, consuls and people that was felt by Greeks and Romans to be the great strength of the republican system applied no more. When Julius Caesar emerged as top dog after defeating Pompey in the civil war (49 BC) and made himself dictator, the republic was to all intents and purposes dead. Cicero lamented this in a letter to Brutus: ‘We are made a mockery by the whims of soldiers and arrogance of generals. Everyone demands as much political power as the army at his back can deliver. Reason, moderation, law, tradition, duty count for nothing.’ On Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC, his adopted son Octavian (18) became his heir. He was unassociated with anything that had gone before. Thirteen bloody years later, Octavian emerged as the first emperor, Augustus. With the Romans sick of internecine strife, he brilliantly manoeuvred all power into his own hands, created a single army accountable to the state and, because he maintained institutions like consuls and Senate, persuaded the Roman people that the traditional constitutional order had been restored. True or not, it was a paradigm shift that was to alter the landscape of Roman politics for ever.
Ulster is sick of gang warfare. With Adams–McGuinness and the old Sinn Fein–IRA dead in the water, a new paradigm is needed. If Sinn Fein is ever to be credible again, it will require the emergence of new leaders, untainted by past associations, all links with their private army cut, prepared to commit their party to constitutional accountability. Things may turn nasty, but until that happens nothing will happen in Northern Ireland.
For details of the Spectator Classics Cup (closing date 23 April 2005), log on to http://www.friends-classics.demon.co.uk and follow ‘News: latest’.
Peter Jones
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