he eye of the storm
Y kawle Knox Londonderry Y this week Brian Faulkner goes through yet kother trial by Northern Ireland Unionist lell-fire. His opponents in the Unionist uncil are for the third time in three months ing to roast him out of the leadership of the arty. They are urged on especially by legates from the west of the province where e Protestant population is in a minority, or It best at parity with Catholics. Students of
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ninocracy should note that these vehement
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d Jectors to the sharing of power with Cath d 'tics may well succeed. There seems more than
chance in fact that all the travail Heath, ,Cosgrave and company underwent in Berkshire
aSt month may go to waste because people Won't any longer bother to read. Statesii en all over the world are always meeting t aiese days, and forever, when they've finished Rat bout of talking, they issue communiques hich are seldom worth a reflective glance. fle Sunningdale treaty—as it virtually was— a rare achievement, and certainly needs %ding, especially where the British and Irish Ltovernments, in parallel, state their policies !Wards the future of Northern Ireland and liake quite clear that neither has changed its *jectives. So many loud mouths have by now sinterpreted the document, in the meeting !ails and on the telly, that few in Ireland 'Ould go back and read it with a clear head. True, in Dublin they have received it more loberly than in Belfast, but then they were ;Sore serious there about the whole business *forehand. When those weekend talks start
at Sunningdale one Derry publican assured and so much of life in Ireland centres
the local that publicans must be lisr• ed to — that the one certain thing was gley wouldn't finish till late Sunday, so the Illeliticians wouldn't be able to start their ,I.sruption before people got to work on c,*unday. When agreement was reached on Alnday night, he naturally looked modestly 1,14..se. I wonder what those politicians and civil 7rvants who went through all-night sittings • Sunningdale would have said to him. On t411„e morning the conference began a strolling
e reporter in the streets of Belfast found
at one person in five he stopped to question °11 Sunningdale simply said: "What talks?" h The 'loyalists,' a title that William Craig, Ian : sley and Harry West, each leaders of :Tarate former Unionist groups (though !est also stays within the Unionist party), ;re shouting that in the new Council of itheland Dublin plus the SDLP, representing ,e Northern Catholics, will have a majority; gley never mention that the Council may only tl:t on unanimity. Harry West, a passionate iker on democracy, probably produced the 'est quote: "The Eire government has made a 111mitment that there will be no change in 'tatus" (of the North of Ireland) "until the 4.jority" (in the North) "want it. But that's ready written into the Constitution Act — bee'thing new there ... If the majority want to Come part of a United Ireland, the British 6overnment will force it on us." The 'demon doctor,' as Brian Faulkner t:Iled him — in no mood of seasonal panotruime — has not been far behind. His sense ,democracy was outraged when the Speaker iour'"J ned the Assembly last week in rather ieliss than the official time for a round of boxg. This was because the Speaker wished to Ivor k out tougher procedural rules, following Previous week's assault and battery r4flthin the chamber by various clerical and eademic loyalists against Faulkner's
Unionists. Paisley said the Speaker wasn't allowed to anticipate violence; if he (Paisley) openly told the press in advance that he was going into the Assembly to punch Faulkner on the nose, that was nothing to do with the Speaker until the blow was actually swung. There is one brighter sign, though it, like Kohoutek, may vanish into space. The usual press and broadcasting prophets of fury had predicted instant Protestant violence if Sunningdale should disappoint the loyalists, though one could hardly imagine what less it would do. But now the Ulster Volunteer Force, whose battle honours consist almost entirely of a number of callous murders of Catholics in Belfast, has declared it will continue its current truce, at least for the moment, while it considers that the loyalist politicians are pursuing a 'constructive' policy.
'Constructiveness' in Northern Ireland is rather like 'democracy' — something that is fine so long as it is going for you. The Ulster Defence Association, it is true, considers abandoning its 'defensive' role. Nothing much has been heard of the UDA since the assassination of its ex-leader, Tommy Herron; nothing much has been heard of that murder either, which was such an inside job that it seems to have silenced the police as well as the politicians. But the UDA also has its eye on a 'constructive' feature, and whatever else that adjective means in this weird society, it doesn't usually signify 'on the rampage.' Maybe the Protestants are just consulting their dictionaries prior to reading the Sunningdale agreement, but I fear not. The Rev Martin Smyth, head of the Orange Order, to whom the word ecumenism is Greek or something, has come out uncompromisingly against Sunningdale.
While there is no concerted Protestant violence, Northern Ireland can breathe normally (though that's not easy breathing). The Heath-Cosgrave settlement is, one might say, the God-given opportunity for the defendants of this esoteric faith. If it is let pass, what is left for them with which to prime their muzzle-loaders? The IRA of course cannot accept the settlement. It cannot now accept anything but the sadistic misery it is the lot of miserable men to inflict. But the Army is geared to fight the IRA, unrewarding as that fight may be; it could hardly tackle a determined Protestant uprising at the same time. The Army would have to compromise, as it has done before, thus renewing the suspicions of the Catholics and making the position of the SDLP within the new executive intolerable. The storm passes on into ferocity again with Brian Faulkner's latest test. If he should lose, the wind could reap havoc, because the supporters he expected to gather to him with his assumption of authority will lightly be whisked away. He would almost certainly form a new party, but it would be a loser's party, a rump, and for such rearguard formations history has a whole row of little pigeon-holes.
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