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Editorial
Devolution
The scenes at Hillsborough last week as politicians came and went again and again, day and night, joined for two days and two nights by the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach, certainly had all the air of a crisis. So much depended on a positive outcome, as the Archbishop of Armagh has pointed out (report, page 1). Elections would not necessarily resolve any matters and direct rule would not be welcome in most quarters. Despite the fact that there has undoubtedly been more than just an element of dysfunctionality about the Stormont administration, it is better that Northern Ireland has its own devolved government as opposed to returning to rule by Secretaries of State and Orders-in-Council.
However, it has of course always been essential that adequate community confidence should be there to support the devolution of justice and policing. The consequences of proceeding without such confidence could be very serious indeed. For some people, the DUP’s adding into the equation of the parades issue has been considered as possibly even a sign of a lack of willingness to proceed at all, given the great difficulty of reaching a full resolution of the parades issue. On the other hand, parading is an ongoing aspect of life in Northern Ireland, whether one likes it or not, and feelings do run high around the subject.
In his interview with the Gazette, Archbishop Harper expressed a genuine longing that the issue could finally be resolved. It was no bad strategy that the DUP brought this into the discussion because it is a matter on which there needs to be real progress.
What the people of Northern Ireland now need is, quite simply, a settled life: settled arrangements for government and settled arrangements for parades. However, all of these settlements must work and must deliver for the people.
If such a state of affairs can be reached, the devolution process will have been completed and the many instances of ‘hot house’ talks throughout the span of the peace process so far will be seen to have been more than worth the effort.