IN 1922 the British government secured a peace agreement in Ireland. Partition created two 'states' - an Irish nationalist Free State within the Dominion and a unionist sub-state within the United Kingdom.
In the event of it not working, the British government retained a fail-safe mechanism for 'pulling the plug', and returning authority to London.
After 50 years of systematic human and civil rights abuses, one party rule, pogroms, sporadic armed insurrections, an unbroken state of emergency, and the imposition of military rule, the British government finally thought it appropriate to implement the failsafe mechanism in 1972. The Northern Ireland Parliament at Stormont was abolished in an afternoon. Unionists demanded that the "democratic deficit' be remedied, and exercise of power returned to the devolved administration at Stormont. The British government insisted it was their desire to do so, but that the price of devolution was to remedy the 'democratic deficit' which excluded non-unionists from sharing in the exercise of such power and authority as the British saw fit to devolve. In that same year, 1972, and on that basis, the first position papers on a Northern settlement were invited and prepared. Successive British governments have consistently adhered to the 1972 position paper put forward by the government of the day. The 197274 positions of the other relevant players were as follows:
The Irish government and the SDLP supported the power-sharing concept, with the creation of North-South bodies to facilitate social and economic interaction. They were supported in this position by the British government.
The unionists rejected the concept, insisting that copper-fastening the Union (no North-South bodies) was a pre-requisite to power-sharing. Any deviation from unionist rule was a concession, in their gift alone.
The 'Official' republican movement and the Communist party supported power-sharing as "the democratisation of Ulster", and an opportunity to develop non-sectarian class politics on a crosscommunity basis. The small anti-imperialist 'left' groups opposed it as excluding the interest of both Catholic and Protestant working class, further institutionalising the problems created by partition, and objected to Britain inserting itself as an impartial referee in the equation.
The 'Provisional' republican movement opposed the concept as a continuation of discredited British Rule and betrayal of the northern nationalist community by the Irish Government, the SDLP and the 'Official' republicans. They argued for armed struggle.
Those who criticised the powersharing proposals argued that nationalists, republicans and other non-unionists, long denied their rights, were being asked to accept the opportunity to secure them as a concession for which they should trade other rights.
Essentially a guarantee not to use any newly acquired power to the detriment of unionism was a pre-requisite to getting any opportunity to participate as equals.
Power-sharing failed because unionism viewed the exercise of power by nationalists as a concession, not a right. Bernadette McAliskey They still do, demanding an ever higher price for granting the concession.
As history repeats itself and we await the grace and favour of unionism to proceed towards implementation of the 1972 proposals, it would appear that the present-day positions are as follows:
The SDLP position remains as it was in 1972. doing so. These concessions are conditional, and will be rescinded at any sign of 'danger' to the The Irish Government remains committed, and, with the people of the Irish Republic, have conceded to unionism that the sovereign will of the Irish people as expressed through the Irish Constitution no longer includes the people of the North, and that the six counties are no longer territorially in dispute. They have returned to the territorial terms of the 1922 Treaty. Sinn Fein has moved from rejection to acceptance of the 1972 concept. In order to be accepted by it, they have conceded to unionism the constitution, partition, participation in collective responsibility for the continued administration of British Rule in Northern Ireland, and decommissioning of IRA weapons.
What has been gained?
The end of the war, and Sinn Fein participation with the SDLP in administering British government policy.
What has been lost?
Life and Liberty! In 1972 the 'provisional' republican movement
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