British and Irish baloney

One of the least well-known facts about the the Belfast Agreement is that it created not only cross-border bodies but also so-called ‘East-West’ bodies, (1) institutions intended to add a co-operative British-Irish element to dialogue not only about the North, but in the internal policies of Britain and Ireland.

The British-Irish Council (BIC), which had its thirteenth summit this month, is the principal East-West institution. Composed of representatives from the governments of Ireland and Britain as well as the local legislative assemblies of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and the governments of Crown dependencies Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Jersey, the BIC summit saw Taoiseach Brian Cowen lead the Irish delegation for discussions on the economic situation, renewable energy and language issues. So, a typically pointless but buzzword-compliant talking shop, then.

How sad the members must feel: thirteen summits and nobody knows who you are or what you do. In fact, this could be said of any institution that arose from the peace process other than the Northern Assembly itself. The creation of Mickey Mouse outfits like the North–South Ministerial Council was the price of getting the SDLP and Sinn Féin to accept the Belfast Agreement but why bother with their British equivalent?

Republicans had to be convinced that there was something in the peace process for them. After all, they weren’t getting Irish unity. Unionists, however, were getting the maintenance of the union with Britain, so why should they care about these curious talking shops?

British and Irish and devoid of meaning
Traditional Unionist Voice, the party founded by former DUP Euro MP Jim Allister, is the hardest of the hardline unionists and, as such, it can be safely assumed that the party’s opinions on political matters represent continuity with pre-Agreement unionism.

A TUV spokesperson told forth that the party sees the North–South links as a threat to unionism: “Under the Belfast Agreement the union has been diluted, not just in relation to the un-British form of devolution but because of the links it forces us to have with a foreign country, the Irish Republic.

“Not only do you have six cross-border bodies – most of which deal with economic matters because it is a very short step from economic integration to total political union – but as soon as a power becomes devolved it automatically comes under the ambit of the North-Southery established by the Belfast Agreement. This is one of the key reasons why we oppose the devolution of policing and justice powers to Stormont.”

forth is not a unionist publication – far from it – but unlike so much of the political discussion in the North, TUV’s objections are perfectly straightforward. TUV’s fears that the North–South will bring about Irish unity by stealth are overstated but they do represent clear – and clearly unionist – thinking. (2)

However, TUV has also expressed scepticism on the question of the East-West bodies: “The Union with the rest of the UK is about more than a line on a map. We want to be part of the great family of nations which make up the UK. We feel we share a common history, language and literature and want to strengthen those ties. It is because the Belfast Agreement erodes them that we so vigorously oppose it.”

TUV is not against the bodies per se, rather it has raised concerns about their function – or lack thereof.

However, from a traditional unionist point of view, creating British-Irish bodies is surely a tacit admission that the North is more Irish than it is British and that, even as an entity within the British polity, it requires extra-parliamentary bodies in order to mediate political union with Britain. Taken to their logical conclusion the British–Irish bodies reduce unionists to the status ‘Ulsterish’ aboriginals. It is unlikely that this was their express purpose but their creation was clearly informed by the British Establishment’s desire to have as little to do with the North of Ireland as possible. (3)

Whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing, you’re doing it wrong
Even supporters of the institutions have expressed doubts about their implementation: Slugger O’Toole editor Mick Fealty, who is also a well-regarded commentator on Northern affairs with the Guardian and Daily Telegraph, told forth that the East-West bodies were an afterthought.

“They aren’t substantial,” he said. “Cross-border bodies were given policy function and head quarters. The Council of the Isles has none of those things, they only meet fitfully and it took them ten years to agree on headquarters.”

Fealty, who previously ran a successful British Council cultural project called Britain and Ireland, says that there is room for the institutions but that the North is no longer on the tip of everyone’s tongues: “There is a potential role for them – this comes down to the strange creature that the UK is – a group of semi-devolved institutions. Northern Ireland is no longer the centre of everybody’s attention.

“If the institutions do become [genuinely] functional – and that is not a rhetorical question – Northern Ireland will be at its periphery. The Scottish MPs and and Welsh assembly members have ideas of their own. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does represent a challenge to unionists,” he said.

What appears to be missing in the entire debate, though, is that the peace process has delivered another one of its classic afterbirths: layers of pointless bureaucracy that do nothing and inspire no support but also no strong opposition.

The fact that British government felt its relationship with any part of Ireland required new forums for dialogue says more about the British political class than anything else. Disconnected and disoriented, the political parties have no idea how to actually engage with the very real relationships that already exist and instead felt the need to create Potemkin institutions to do things that no-one wants or needs.

The truth is that Ireland, North and South, has always had substantial connections to Britain, culturally, economically and, most of all, in its people. We already have plenty of links with Britain without the need for phoney-baloney British-Irish institutions. As usual, the people are ahead of the politicians.

Jason Walsh is a journalist and editor of forth

(1) ‘East-West’, of course, being a particularly pathetic euphemism for Ireland and Britain
(2) That said, many nationalists had been hoping the South’s economy would make the North want to join the rest of the country
(3) Why Northern Ireland is a one-party state, Jason Walsh, spiked, November 17, 2009