In a brilliant and piercing lecture entitled "The Legacy Issue: Putting the wrongs of the Northern Ireland conflict to rights" Eamonn McCann traced the way a local campaign against injustice and inequality in Derry sparked a more generalised revolt against the State and led on to 30 years of Trouble. He assessed the extent to which the events which detonated the Troubles can be seen as part of the global upsurge of ‘60s radicalism and whether, if at all, the subsequent course of the Northern Ireland conflict fitted into any wider pattern. Was “the struggle” always a matter of communal rivalry and hostilities? If the Good Friday Agreement is now seen as the answer, what was the question?
Eamonn McCann came to prominence during the civil rights campaigns and marches in Derry during the late sixties.The campaign coincided with the international struggles for civilian rights in the US and mainland Europe.
It is an ironic contention the struggle for the rights of the citizens of Derry were not attained by the actions of Westminster ( where the strong block , sometimes amounting to the balance of Power , of the Ulster Unionists) prompted the failure to deliver equal rights for the minority Catholic community of Northern Ireland , but rather was achieved from the directives and equal opportunity legislative processes emanating from the EU based in Brussels and Strasbourg.A valid case can also be made crediting the EU in diffusing as well as militating the militant posture of central to regional government conflicts in the Basque to to some extent the Catalan as well as points of potential conflict in Italy.In all these cases the elected civilian governments were so composed as to be unable to deliver these rights whilst maintaining a cohesive central stability , the process could only have been done by a supra-national entity like the Common Market.
According to Eamonn McCann all this led to the Good Friday Agreement , a name that does not feature in the document , but has been given this label so there is an almost sacred element to the process.
McCanns objection to the agreement is it is based on the same model the french devised for Lebanon , and we all know how that turned out.The question to ask is , why should a classic divide and rule model designed to foster incohesion to make Lebanon ever dependent on foreign external interference from parties which have everything to gain from internal instability, tension and conflict to seen or presented as a model to bring permanent peace to Northern Ireland.Answering that question will go a long way to explain just what the old waring sectarian parties , the Uk and the US have to gain from the process.
The ground reality, as Eamonn Mccann sees it , is the most sectarian parties are the biggest gainers in the process , leaving the centreground and the parties that ought to command a bi-partisan non-sectarian constituency high and dry , this is due to a manufactured and fostered separation of both communities into devolved sectarian pre-labelled blocks , leaving no ground and thus void from recognition those that wish to transcend sectarian labels and create a large middle ground based on shared economic and social welfare issues which straddle both divides.This artificial delineation of communities with no middle-linking ground heightens the fear of both communities which in turn vote for the most sectarian elements to square upto the most sectarian elements being voted for by the other community , this in turn feeds an already negative cycle.The fear of both communities continues to heighten, rather than dissipate , as encouraged by the agreement, who in turn vote for hardline politicians who will counter-balance the hardliners of the other community.This means sectarian tensions are more , not less , pronounced.Whilst even in the 70s there were large swathes and urban estates which had Catholic and Protestant families living interspersed with each other , now , the demarcation is a fait accompli with a clear separation with no meeting points.Looking by this light the remarkable images of McGuinness and Paisley ( Sn. and Jnr.) sitting at the same Cabinet Table can be seen as a negative result of polar interests representing entrenched views rather than the superficial surface impression one may get of former enemies in a harmonious coming together.
Quite rightly , as McCann acknowledges himself, ten years of peace is not a prize to be taken lightly or considered as less than a favourable outcome to the calamity of the troubles.But he does rightly point out with the artificial boom times being over and a long period of economic downturn in the offing the negative points , issues and faultlines of the process may begin to unravel , it is in this context the support from the disaffected , underemployed , Catholic young for the increasingly militant Real IRA should be seen as an expected trend to be urgently addressed and not , as portrayed , an aberration to be casually glossed over.
One disconcerting factor for the community of Derry when the Good Friday Agreement was signed was the absurd nature of the economic peace dividend for the mainly Catholic Community after 30 years of struggle , one of the first factories built ( it was supposed to create some 150 jobs , though only some 30 materialised)was for the arms manufacturer Rayatheon , the maker of the very bombs used to destroy civilian buildings and lives in Palestine and Lebanon by US and UK supported Israeli forces.The bombs including the killing of innocent civilians in Qana in 2006.
Eamonn Mccann led a delegation to Southern Lebanon and laid a memorial tribute in Qana on behalf and in solidarity with the people of Derry to the victims of the qana atrocity.Mccann also praised the integrity of US singer Patti Smith who wrote a moving tribute song called , appropriately Qana.
Here is a poignant video featuring Patti Smith singing about Qana:
And here is Eamonn McCann giving a rousing passionate speech about the importance of the Palestinian cause in the struggle for universal justice:
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