Politicians in the North need to up their game

IT IS a pitiful reflection on the current custodians of the peace process – entrusted to them by those who took such enormous risks to set in place – that all today’s crop of ‘leaders’ are prepared to take is offence. We are just months from recording the 20th anniversary of the historic Good Friday Agreement. Instead of honouring that milestone achievement and building on its transformational legacy, we are being driven back into the cul-de-sac of the past, with all its trappings of tribalism and sectarianism.

Next week there will be a renewed attempt to restore power-sharing in the North. It is a scandal that after so much herculean work to set up, the shared institutions of state should have been shut down for so long. Democracy came at a terrible price in the North of Ireland, and those who show contempt for its offices raise questions about their fitness for government. Sinn Féin and the DUP have both displayed an insolent disrespect for their responsibilities.

Sammy Wilson’s dubbing of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as a “nutcase” is the latest example of how poorly the people of the North are served by those entrusted to act in their interest. A change of mindsets, and a recognition of grave obligations, is long overdue. In bowing out of office, John Hume passed on the baton, saying: “You are the generation that will be leading in the new century and the new millennium, so the challenge is to make sure that your influence is used to ensure that the entire world learns that humanity transcends difference.” So far, too many have failed miserably to rise to that challenge.