'Normality' in North will take more than just restoration of GFA institutions

Hopefully when they do get back to the debating chambers and committee rooms, politicians and civil servants will back up their words with action, says Dolan O’Hagan

Lanark Way interface gates which allow traffic to move between republican and loyalist areas of Belfast during limited times of the day was painted ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Picture: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

The ongoing events to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement have included marches, civic events, international conferences, and even a US presidential visit.

We will soon learn what role, if any, these will play in the restoration of the Good Friday Agreement power-sharing institutions and whether they will help cement — and assuage — the myriad hopes, fears, desires, and protections expressed and interwoven in that historic document.

The anniversary has already prompted voluminous commentary — and some inevitable finger-pointing — on why these institutions have collapsed, again.

Commentary that inevitably asks why the hoped-for nirvana (or 'normality' as most commentators like to call it) of cross-community and cross-border peace, co-operation, reconciliation, and prosperity has not yet been achieved.

While there are inevitably disagreements as to who exactly is to blame for that, most commentators settle on the conclusion that the restoration of devolved government and other cross-border institutions will be necessary if all the hopes and aspirations invested in the GFA have any hope of being achieved in the decades ahead.

Less prominent — and worryingly so — in much of the commentary (particularly in the south), however, is an acknowledgement and understanding that true and lasting peace, an end to sectarianism, and greater shared prosperity will not be achieved in the debating chambers of Stormont, the Dáil, or Westminster.

They will only be achieved if any such political will is mirrored and reflected on the streets and in working-class communities which make up cities and towns such as Belfast, Portadown, Derry, and Lurgan.

Yes, we and they have all enjoyed the fruits of peace and seen an end to what was then the regular and needless slaughter of loved ones as a result of sectarian and armed conflict in this country.

But it is also time to ask if many of the communities worst affected by that slaughter have — in any real sense — seen their hopes and desires for improved cross-community relations, educational and employment opportunities, and enhanced living conditions realised to the same extent.

The importance of asking that question is perhaps highlighted best with reference to the writings and work of two Irish people who rose to prominence in the same city, but who were from very different eras and backgrounds.

The first is Derry native, Irish grandee, and Nobel Laureate, the late John Hume.

Former SDLP leader, the late John Hume, pictured in 2002. Picture: Marc O'Sullivan/Collins

It was at his behest that in 1995 — three years before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement — US president Bill Clinton travelled to the North and Derry City to lend his support to the formative peace negotiations that were going on at the time; talks that would ultimately lead to the signing of the GFA.

I was a cub reporter with the Derry Journal at the time, and so watched on enviously as senior editors, reporters, and photographers emptied the office to cover his historic visit. I, meanwhile, was putting the finishing touches to a weekly on-street vox pop that I had taken outside the city's historic Guildhall the day before.

Some 24 hours later, and the US president was addressing the people of Derry from the same location with what was, unquestionably, a powerful speech.

"My friends, everyone in life at some point has to decide what kind of person he or she is going to be," he said. "Are you going to be someone who defines yourself in terms of what you are against, or what you are for? Will you be someone who defines yourself in terms of who you aren't, or who you are?"

Thought-provoking stuff, but it was words uttered by John Hume, in his introduction to Mr Clinton, which resonated most with me and are perhaps those which verbalise best the real challenge facing us all in the decades ahead as we attempt to realise all the hopes and aspirations which underpinned the signing of the GFA some 25 years ago.

He told the crowd: "The economic problems that we face today unite all sections of our people ... and as we move to the next century, let it be our dream to build a new land ... a land where, for the first time in our history, there will be no killing in our streets, and no emigration of our young people to other lands."

Little did Mr Hume know that 24 years after he spoke those words, and 21 years after the signing of the GFA, one of those young people, a journalist in his own city, would be killed by a stray bullet which found its way to her during riots by disaffected republicans and young people in one of the most disadvantaged areas of the city.

Belfast Journalist Lyra McKee. Picture: Jess Lowe/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

It is in Lyra McKee's words that perhaps we find the answer to what will see the eventual fulfilment of all the hopes and promises of the Good Friday Agreement.

"I don’t care much for a stronger union or a united Ireland," she wrote. 

I just want a better life — and I think most people just want a better life."

Perhaps, if his visit has achieved nothing else, the clear love and admiration Mr Biden has for Irish poets and thinkers will prompt us at home to also extol and respect the words of our own Irish heroes and perhaps, God forbid, actually listen and realise them.

Dolan O'Hagan is the Irish Examiner’s Digital Products and Projects Editor. He lived in Derry City and Belfast from 1982-1999.