open Democracy News Analysis - Belfast's walls have not come down yet, Senator, Ian Parsley - Comments

Ian James Parsley on "Belfast's walls have not come down yet, Senator"

Ian James Parsley — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:35:32 +0000

Hi Tom,

Yes, that's basically it.

Hi Anthony,

The consequence of peace is an apparently booming economy, but the point is twofold:
a) a lot of people are not part of the boom, most obviously those living next to the peace walls; and
b) the "booming economy" is largely artificial, a product of a combination of (temporary) international interest/goodwill and huge subsidy from Southern England.

So, while it is true that your average English visitor to NI would not notice any deterioration in living standards (possibly the contrary), the foundations are weak. NI still does not come close to creating its own wealth, and that in turn leads to a dependency culture which, until overturned, will mean instability is always a threat.

The peace walls could be seen to be a little like the £6.4 billion subvention - a necessity whose outcome is peace, but a necessity which can only ever be temporary. A lot of the "real work", in both cases, remains ahead of us.

Anthony Barnett on "Belfast's walls have not come down yet, Senator"

Anthony Barnett — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:44:18 +0000

Fair enough Tom, but if the consequence of the peace now is a relatively booming economy I'm not sure what Ian means. It's a great post, I should have added. What do you think, Ian?

Tom Griffin on "Belfast's walls have not come down yet, Senator"

Tom Griffin — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:18:16 +0000

In fairness, I read Ian as referring to the economic consequences of sectarianism, rather than suggesting it has economic causes.

Economism has not been the besetting sin of Northern Irish politics that it has been at Westminster, and the tentative signs that the economy has become a higher priority are a very healthy development.

Anthony Barnett on "Belfast's walls have not come down yet, Senator"

Anthony Barnett — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:11:00 +0000

According to Robin Wilson writing in OK on the tenth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement earlier this year there are about 50 'peace walls' in Belfast.
So thank you for reminding us all and for drawing the good Senator's attention to this lamentable aspect of the peace in Northern Ireland. But I simply don't understand your last paragraph. It looks clever but what does it mean? If the economic growth and the improvement in the quality of life are as considerable as you describe, it surely follows that it is NOT the economy which is the issue. Clinton seemed to be right when he first used the phrase but that was because he was seeking the presidency in the aftermath of a sharp economic downturn. It is crass economism to think that economics is the driving force of politics in any simple sense. (My way of saying it is "stupid"!) If things are so much better yet the walls are still going up, surely it is sectarianism itself that is responsible for sectarianism? What will bring the mushrooming walls down if they go up in times of economic growth? Only a politics that organises people to demand and assist their peaceful demolition, integrating schools and social life.

PS: Obama has nearly 300 foreign policy advisors, with dedicated teams for each part of the world, as the New York Times reported, assessed HERE by Godfrey Hodgson. He should not have got this wrong. Someone out there is not reading OurKingdom!

Belfast's walls have not come down yet, Senator, Ian Parsley

Ian Parsley — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:04:43 +0000

Ian Parsley (North Down, Alliance): Senator Barack Obama made the inevitable reference to Northern Ireland during his speech in Berlin last week, saying that walls had “come down in Belfast, where Protestants and Catholics found a way to live together”.

These are delightful sentiments – but they do not tell the story. There are, in fact, more walls up separating communities in Belfast than at the time of the Agreement 10 years ago. In truth, it could better be argued, Protestants and Catholics have found away to live apart - and they have done so, primarily, for economic reasons.

Life is unmistakably better in Northern Ireland than it was 10 years ago. It is worth recalling that, even into the 1990s, people could not move freely without security check, unemployment was high, more people left than arrived, foreign visitors were almost unknown, holidays abroad were a luxury for the few, city and town centres were grim. Nowadays, free movement, low unemployment and immigration are taken for granted, with a range of holiday and retail options open to people in Northern Ireland to an extent that would be the envy of many other UK regions – the economic benefit of learning to live at least without violence.

However, society in Northern Ireland remains fundamentally divided. 95 per cent of people attend schools segregated by religious denomination, and leisure, sporting and political preferences often proceed along those same sectarian fault lines. On one occasion, Unionists and Nationalists in the Assembly even divided up on the issue of whether or not to wear jackets in the chamber on a hot day! Most obviously of all, peace walls are being constructed faster than they are being taken down – including one, within the past year, in the grounds of an integrated school.

This “secret sectarianism” does not just blight the communities where the walls are put up – separating them in many cases from their nearest health centre, job opportunity or leisure facility. It continues to hinder social progress, threaten the political settlement, and cost billions which could be better spent on frontline public services and reducing rates bills. Those “costs of division” alone are estimated to come to over £1 billion out of the Northern Ireland budget alone (for example, through maintenance required for extra leisure centres, additional capital and transport costs in the segregated education system, or higher policing costs to maintain the peace), before costs to local business.

It was welcome that Senator Obama mentioned Northern Ireland, and legitimate to mention the progress made. But he might have been better calling for “change we can believe in”. Indeed, given the economic benefit of peace but the ongoing costs of division, he might have used the last Democratic President’s famous line – “It’s the economy, stupid”.

Cllr Ian James Parsley is Policy Director of the Alliance Party, and currently serving as Deputy Mayor of North Down.