Assembly resounds with echoes of Sunningdale
From DAILY TELEGRAPH July 2nd, 1998
BY TOBY HARNDEN
AS they took their seats in the assembly yesterday, at least four members
were casting their minds back 25 years to the last elected body in Northern
Ireland designed to devolve power and bring the Troubles to an end. John
Hume, Seamus Mallon and Eddie McGrady of the SDLP and John Taylor, UUP deputy
leader, were all members of the ill-fated assembly which underpinned the
Sunningdale agreement of December 1973. It collapsed after five months.
As Mr Mallon, the new Second Minister, had pointed out, the Stormont deal
contained all the same elements of Sunningdale. Now, as then, the blueprint
for the future is an assembly, a power-sharing government bringing the Unionist
and nationalist traditions together and a cross-border dimension linking
Northern Ireland to the Irish Republic. But although the institutional arrangements
agreed at Stormont were eerily reminiscent of those at Sunningdale, the
political dynamics of Ulster have shifted considerably. Sinn Fein and the
IRA were then on the outside and Unionists dominated. The assembly on which
Sunningdale was to be based had been elected in June 1973 with Unionists
winning 50 seats, the SDLP 19, Alliance eight and the Northern Ireland Labour
Party one. In the assembly room yesterday were 18 Sinn Fein representatives
and 24 SDLP members facing a total of 58 Unionists. Several of the most
pro-agreement assemblymen had played a part in bringing the Sunningdale
agreement down. But as David Trimble's critics are quick to point out, there
are striking similarities between his position and that of Brian Faulkner,
the Official Unionist leader, who was destroyed by hard-line elements in
his party and the loyalist strike of 1974. Ironically, Mr Trimble was among
those who brought Faulkner down. And, like Faulkner, Mr Trimble now finds
himself opposed by Ian Paisley, a majority of his own MPs and many of his
former political allies. As a young constitutional lawyer, Mr Trimble was
the chief strategist of William Craig, who split from Faulkner to form the
Vanguard Party. Mr Trimble's deputy, John Taylor, also opposed the Sunningdale
deal. Mr Trimble, one sensed, views the Stormont agreement as more of a
last resort than a new opportunity and yesterday he admitted he had no idea
whether it would succeed. The nationalist mood was more positive. "It's over," said one delegate. "This time, I really believe it's over." For a
people bewildered by the pace of change in recent months and hardly daring
to hope too much for fear of being let down again, only time will tell whether
the new Stormont assembly can consign failure to the past. |
