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<\/a>Joint Camp PROS (Public Relations Officers)[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n
\u201cIn Long Kesh we, Republicans and Loyalists, have attempted to bridge the gap by engaging in constructive dialogue without conceding principles.\u201d[2]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n \n <\/p>\n On the 17 April 1991, the Combined Loyalist Military Command called a ceasefire to provide breathing space for the Brooke talks then taking place in Northern Ireland.\u00a0 The CLMC maintained this ceasefire until 4 July 1991, even in the face of an IRA campaign that killed 13 people and resulted in bomb attacks on Protestant housing estates.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n While this ceasefire did not immediately thrust loyalism in to the political arena, as many politicians and political parties ignored it, it did show that loyalism could think politically, act in a disciplined manner and was a force that had to be included in any settlement that would take place in Northern Ireland.\u00a0 This undercut the Provisional IRA narrative that the conflict was only between it and the British government. In this account, loyalists were not independent actors; they were simply puppets of the British state.\u00a0 (This narrative still exists and may even be stronger today than it was in 1991.)\u00a0 As a result of this and other factors, Sinn Fein and the IRA, who were already questioning the effectiveness of the armed struggle, issued the following statement at Bodenstown in 1992,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We know and accept that the British government’s departure must be preceded by a sustained period of peace and will arise out of negotiations. We know and accept that such negotiations will involve the different shades of Irish nationalism, and Irish unionism engaging the British government either together or separately to secure an all-embracing and durable peace process. We know and accept that this is not 1921 and that at this stage we don’t represent a government in waiting.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is not to say, that the Provisionals based their analysis strictly on what the CLMC did in 1991. However, one cannot escape the obvious conclusion that the Provisionals, in the wake of the CLMC ceasefire and, again, other factors, realised that they would have to engage with \u201cother\u201d community in Northern Ireland, in any sort of settlement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fast forward to the summer of 2014 and the 12th<\/sup> of July marches in Belfast and the Apprentice Boys march in Derry\/Londonderry.\u00a0 The Unionist political parties, the Orange Order, the paramilitaries and ordinary unionists put aside their political differences and disagreements to ensure that the parades went off peacefully. They acted within the context of the law and made sure that there was no repeat of the violence of 2012-2013. Furthermore, they put their message across politically.\u00a0 At the same time, the Apprentice Boys of Derry, the Orange Order and the Black Preceptory have developed The Maiden City Accord to deal with parading, a document that has even gathered support from Sinn Fein.\u00a0 In other words, contrary to the narrative of unionists and loyalists as simple bigots, backwoodsman, and sectarians who cannot think or act politically, these groups have acted in a concerted, lawful and political manner to make their point. Just as in 1991, this concerted and disciplined action undercut the popular narrative of unionism and in particular loyalism.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It has also caused concern for Sinn Fein as was evident on the 10 June 2014, when Gerry Kelly coined the phrase \u2018pan-unionist front\u2019[5]<\/a> when talking about what unionism demanded. \u00a0Billy Hutchinson recognised Sinn Fein\u2019s concern about this \u2018unionist unity\u2019 on the 10 August 2014, when he referred to Sinn Fein\u2019s use of this term in his speech at Twaddell.\u00a0 While arguing that this is a cultural war, something that Brian Spencer has called into question on eamonnmaillie.com<\/a>, Hutchinson made it clear that the united front would continue and all unionist and loyalist actions would be done through concerted and democratic action.\u00a0 In other words, unionism and loyalism would use the law and the democratic process to deal with any attacks and\/or \u2018perceived\u2019 attacks on their community from Sinn Fein.\u00a0 This is crucial for this analysis.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As it was in 1991 and then 1994-1998, loyalism is now in a position again, in its alliance of convenience with unionism — and we should be in no doubt that it is an alliance of convenience — to inject itself in to the political arena and to act politically to represent its own community and, I would argue the entire community of Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How do they do this?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Well, we have witnessed something that many people on all sides did not think could happen; \u2018unionist unity.\u2019 In other words, a strategic alliance has developed that ignores all the issues that separate the various groups and parties within unionism and loyalism.\u00a0 This is very important. Ask yourself, what unites TUV and the PUP other than \u201cculture\u201d and \u201cnation?\u201d\u00a0 How do the progressive loyalists and unionists square their alliance with conservative loyalists and unionists, except on the national and cultural question?\u00a0 The answers are that they have little that unites them and you really cannot square the alliance. However, because of the perceived attack on the whole unionist\/loyalist community they have put what separates them aside and now are working together to protect the interests that they believe are important to all of them.\u00a0 Thus, groups and individuals that have very little in common, have put aside what separates them to defend what unites them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This brings us to the main point of this piece.\u00a0 We know that loyalists and republicans in Long Kesh worked together on areas of common interest without sacrificing principles and they did it while minimizing conflict and containing sectarian feelings. The historical record demonstrates their cooperation over visitation, food and even treatment by the guards, as well as the creation of the Camp Council and the Downtown Office scheme.\u00a0 They did this, in their words, \u2018without conceding principles\u2019 or descending into sectarian violence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As mentioned above, we now see this same phenomenon taking place within unionism as unionists and loyalists now engage in constructive dialogue and bridge their gaps to work for the future of their community.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This then begs a most important question.\u00a0 If those with radically different conceptions of nationality situated in the most extreme of circumstances inside Crumlin Road and then Long Kesh could overcome divisions to work together, as well as contain sectarianism; and those within unionism and loyalism can now put their very different conceptions of Northern Ireland aside to work together, then why can this not \u2018travel further afield?\u2019[6]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 By this I mean, why can those on both sides of the divide, not engage with each other on the issues that affect all the citizens of Northern Ireland?\u00a0 Is it impossible to act like unionists and loyalists are doing now in the \u2018pan-unionist front\u2019, and the prisoners did in Long Kesh? In other words, is it not time to put to the side, those issues which they know that they cannot agree on and that only prevent any progress in Northern Ireland, to work on the very real problems that affect everyone\u2019s life?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Everyone\u2019s concern must be, as Dr. John Kyle put it last year at the PUP Party Conference,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We\u2019re not opposed to Protestant poverty, we\u2019re opposed to poverty. We\u2019re not opposed to Protestant unemployment, we\u2019re opposed to unemployment. Unemployment is a curse and wherever it is in our country or our city we are working to get rid of it.\u00a0 Sectarianism is looking after yourself and if we act only in narrow self interest then morally we\u2019re bankrupt. Sectarianism is corrosive and damaging to our communities and we don\u2019t need it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is particularly important now, under the Conservative-LibDem Coalition. In Northern Ireland, the Con-LibDem alliance, committed to the austerity programs, which we know are now discredited, cuts the NHS, Education, Welfare, Arts and on and on. Where is the response? The divided communities cannot act in concert because of the national question and lingering and sometimes outright sectarianism that exists in both communities. Consequently, the government continues its assault on the welfare state.\u00a0 These attacks, in particular the cuts to education, social welfare and the NHS affect everyone.\u00a0 Therefore, there has to be a coordinated response to these attacks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So, how do we break out of the narrow confines of only caring about Protestant or Catholic poverty or Protestant or Catholic problems?\u00a0 This is where the strategic alliances come in.\u00a0 I would argue that this means, as someone here told me many years ago, the creation of \u201ca society where you\u2019ll see some unholy alliances, an alliance against those who\u2019ve benefitted from the \u201cTroubles\u201d by keeping the lower classes apart.\u201d\u00a0 I would argue that it is now time for this \u201cunholy alliance\u201d and the creation of the alliances across party lines and sectarian and ethnic divisions to work for the betterment of all the people of Northern Ireland on the key social, economic and educational issues. Like the prisoners in Long Kesh, you do not need to surrender your principles to work on issues that are important to everyone. However, you need to suppress sectarianism and be willing to put aside the irreconcilable differences to work on common interests.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I believe everyone in Northern Ireland recognizes that the moment has come where talking about the problem\/s stops and the difficult work of finding a way to solve the social, economic, and educational issues, begins.\u00a0 The strategic alliances across the many divides may be the start of that process.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> \u201cThe Long Kesh Visits,\u201d Orange Cross<\/em> 51 (March 1974).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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