Unionists must be confronted on pact

FOLLOWING the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the participants in the multi-party negotiations dedicated themselves to the “achievement of reconciliation, tolerance, partnership, equality, mutual respect and the vindication of the human rights of all”.

Nationalists were told that the level playing field that would emerge after seven decades of political exclusion would be a vista where nobody could hide politically.

Also, the political majoritarianism indulged in by unionism would be replaced by the politics of consent.

Recent events, however, indicate this is not happening.

The leader of the UUP, Sir Reg Empey, in an act of political opportunism that pollutes the democratic process, joined forces with the PUP leader, David Ervine, and by extension its military wing, the UVF.

Also, the Court of Appeal in Belfast has given the go-ahead for Orangemen to be appointed to the Parades Commission, much to the delight of Northern Secretary of State Peter Hain and to the chagrin of the nationalist community.

In an act of the true hardliner, the outgoing Presbyterian moderator Dr Harry Uprichard refused to attend a service for deceased members of the RUC because the Catholic Primate, Archbishop Seán Brady, would be present.

It is patently obvious both political and religious unionism are unwilling to implement the Belfast Agreement, which was mandated by the electorate on both parts of this island in as long ago as May 1998.

If the Sinn Féin leader, Gerry Adams, and his SDLP counterpart, Mark Durkan, are unable to move the process along, then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British prime minister Tony Blair must once and for all confront the religious and political unionist hillbillies and, if necessary, impose joint authority over the North.

Tom Cooper

23 Delaford Lawn

Knocklyon

Dublin 16