Northern Ireland has not ended up where it is today by accident. The relative calm which has fallen upon our land happened because brave men and women some still unknown, went into the lion’s den and dared to think the unthinkable. Those brave souls risked all. Self interest, party interests, and self aggrandisement were set aside for one goal – to bring IRA and Loyalist violence to an end.
Unfortunately peace does come dropping slowly and we are not completely out of the woods yet. We have various brands of militant Republicanism still engaged in so called physical force activity. Loyalist paramilitaries haven’t completely gone away either. Is the application of violence where there is no discernible popular support not simply anarchy? The opposite to order is disorder. So what can be done about this? Yes I am thinking the unthinkable. Should the Executive and the Governments on both sides of the imaginary border line not offer a one off amnesty to these people to take themselves off ? Give them six months to disappear. This necessarily means an end to all racketeering, extortion, protection schemes, money laundering and all illicit activity. The people of Northern Ireland have shown themselves to be sanguine and born with a capacity to absorb hurt and pain. Any amnesty of necessity would involve concessions of some kind.
What I am urging demands big leadership. We are entering a period of economic crucifixion in the coming years. That is a big enough cross to carry without millions of pounds being poured into security which we all know will not give us any returns. We know this informed by empiricism. The irony is those who suffer most have within them the greater capacity to suffer more. We have lived with all the cant and hypocrisy of the many governments declaring “we do not talk to men of violence.” Conflict nearly always ends up in dialogue. Let us cut to the chase. We have been down this road before. We have the template. It is for this reason there is a path beaten to the door of Parliament Buildings by representatives of nations plagued with internecine conflict. A former senior security figure no longer working here once told me ” I don’t agree with books on back channels etc? Why I queried, ” because we need these channels again” he declared. He had been reading my mail.
Thinking the unthinkable !
Eamonn Mallie
I am a regular contributor to discussion programmes on TV and radio both at home and abroad. An experienced political editor and author specialising in Politics, Security and 20th Century Art.