Northern Ireland: direct rule looms

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, said Michael Hugh Walker in The Independent – “and what a way the DUP and Sinn Féin have decided to celebrate it”. Talks to restore Northern Ireland’s powersharing government, after a 13-month impasse, were thought to be close to success. Instead, last week they collapsed, when the DUP, led by Arlene Foster, pulled out. The sticking point was Sinn Féin’s demand for a law that would have given official recognition to the Irish language and allowed it to be used in the courts. Foster apparently couldn’t persuade her MPS to back the idea, while Sinn Féin and the DUP couldn’t even agree on whether they had a draft agreement before it all fell apart. Most likely, direct rule from London will now be reimposed. Yet again, Northern Irish self-government has been stalled by the deep division that has so bedevilled our politics.

Outsiders may wonder why a language spoken by 0.2% of the population is such an issue, said Daniel Hannan in The Sunday Telegraph: even republican leaders can generally only manage a few phrases. But Sinn Féin seized on it as a way of antagonising Unionists, who duly responded “with all the grace and agility of an elephant confronted by a mouse”. Then again, a return to direct rule from Westminster may be no bad thing. “For 20 years, Sinn Féin and the DUP have propped each other up like boxers in a clinch”, leaving both free to reward their supporters “with subsidies and sinecures”.

Both sides believe they can shore up their power bases by arguing rather than agreeing, said The Guardian – which is why Sinn Féin has chosen to “weaponise” the language issue. Unionists are wrong to fear that Gaelic could eventually become compulsory in schools or an essential job qualification; but republicans do want bilingual road signs throughout the province, which would be a huge and unnecessary provocation. Just a minute, said Steven Mccaffery in The Irish Times (Dublin). It was DUP ministers who made this question so toxic – at the last election, Foster compared an Irish language Act to “the feeding of crocodiles”. If Northern Ireland can’t accommodate both British and Irish identities, “then what does a shared future look like”? All is not lost, said the Financial Times. A coolingoff period and some direct rule should bring the two parties back to the table. And the Agreement’s anniversary should remind both sides of “what has gone right for Northern Ireland”. The key lessons of peace are that “compromise, understanding and trust are the ingredients for progress”.