Ceasefire anniversary - Time up for intransigent leaders?

This Sunday, as we mark the 20th anniversary of the IRA ceasefire, celebrations must by tempered by the fact that, three decades after that great, bitterly-won opportunity, the past still holds a crippling grip on the future.

Even if Northern society is not as divided or violent as it was, much of it is still in thrall to the old injustices, the old hatreds, and betrayals. And far too often, the old, poisonous bigotry. The guns may be silent, but so too are the political leaders of all hues who are fighting old battles unable to imagine that there might be a different, better way to move beyond history’s atrocities. The calibre of Stormont’s leadership is so very middle-brow, so uninspiring, it is easy to understand why it took forceful interventions from London, Washington, and Dublin to secure the peace. Energies that should be focussed on building what Bill Clinton described as “commercial diplomacy” — giving young people the opportunity to choose between work or terrorism — are devoted to almost endless fights over flags and intimidatory marches.

Energies that should be devoted to building all-inclusive schools or community-wide prosperity are squandered on hate-sustaining events like the recent Ardoyne Fleadh where guns-and-bullets balladeers sang songs that in a society confident of its pluralism and its place in the civilised world would be regarded as hate crimes and prosecuted as such. or from insecure and confrontational Orange Order fife-and-drum band masters. It would be easy to dismiss this cultural and historical boorishness if it was as inconsequential as it ought to be, but it is not.