ULSTER
ASSEMBLY: Old hatreds live on at Stormont
From DAILY TELEGRAPH July 2nd, 1998
Reports by Toby Harnden at Stormont
THE ONLY flags in the assembly chamber were the Union Jack hearts floating
in a sea of red, white and blue on Ian Paisley's tie. Sitting just a few
yards away was Gerry Adams, wearing a green ribbon in his lapel and speaking
Irish as hard-line Unionists heckled and scoffed.
Mr Paisley did not look pleased. If some were pinching themselves in case
the scene before them was just a dream, others seemed determined to remind
their lifelong foes that they were together in the same arena for the first
time, the old enmities showed no sign of going away. In the public gallery,
Royal Ulster Constabulary bodyguards stood nervously by the doors rubbing
shoulders with Terence "Cleeky" Clarke, a former IRA prisoner and now Mr
Adams's bodyguard, and a gaggle of senior republicans who were settling
down to watch the performance.
Mr Adams was at his most unctuous. He was the first Sinn Fein president
to sit in a partitionist body in Northern Ireland but he was well aware
that it was Unionists who were the most uncomfortable. "It is only by meeting like this that we can stop thinking about ourselves and our own political niches and start thinking about our children and our future," he intoned.
"I am very pleased to be here and to see so many other people present here
with us."
The Ulster Unionists sitting opposite shifted uncomfortably in their seats
as he welcomed the nomination of David Trimble for First Minister. Sinn
Féin would abstain because "we may not be doing any favours by voting for him", he added, but the damage had been done.Mr Paisley lifted his bulk
from his seat.
"Mr Adams tells us to think of people, well I'm thinking today of people, of those that were murdered by his cohorts, the families that were torn apart, the people who were smashed and turned into vegetables by IRA violence,"
he thundered. Tactics had clearly been agreed beforehand and if Mr Paisley
was the bludgeon, then Robert McCartney QC was the rapier. "Sinn Féin/IRA",
he said, intended to move forward "on the twin track of the democratic process while retaining their military capability".
How, he asked, could Mr Trimble sit down with them if this strategy continued?
Turning to Mr Trimble's members sitting behind him, Mr McCartney appealed
to them to prevent their leader becoming First Minister. Much fire was turned
on Sinn Féin but Mr Trimble was the real target.
Mr Adams objected to the term "Sinn Féin/IRA". In the interests of "good manners", he said, parties should be referred to by their correct name.
Speaker after speaker from the anti-agreement Unionist camp rose to vent
their spleen. Sinn Féin's contribution to democracy "can be seen on the tombstones around this province", said Peter Robinson, the DUP deputy leader.
Mr McCartney's right-hand man Cedric Wilson said it was only with "great difficulty" that he could sit down with the apologists of terror. All Unionists
should "recoil with moral contempt" at the idea of sharing a cabinet table
with them. Perhaps noting Mr Adams's objections to Mr McCartney's phraseology,
Sammy Wilson, of the DUP, referred instead to "IRA/Sinn Féin" and poured
scorn on Mr Trimble's promises not to treat with terrorists. "Had he been
Pinnochio," he said staring at the UUP leader as he studied his assembly
rule book 10 yards away, "he could have poked me with his nose from where
he's sitting."
That raised the biggest laugh so far but Martin McGuinness - not famed for
his sense of humour - topped it. It was good to meet Mr Wilson, he taunted.
"And it's really great to see him today with his clothes on." Mr Wilson,
whose political career is only just recovering two years after an Ulster
tabloid featured him gambolling in the nude with his girlfriend, was not
laughing. Jabbing his finger at Mr Paisley and Mr McCartney, Mr McGuinness
told them that they would be forced to accept change. |
