Adams’s message is unmistakeable
WHAT exactly did Gerry Adams mean when he said: “The republican struggle was not and is not about bums on Executive seats – even a bum as delectable as Martin McGuinness’s”?
The great father of the republican peace strategy sounded almost like a dissident, bemused by where the Provos have ended up after all those years of killing, dying and refusing to settle for British rule. Is this a threat to pull out of the Assembly if the DUP won’t give ground on some key Sinn Fein demands?
You won’t find any reference to McGuinness’s bum in the official report of Adams’ speech at the hunger strike commemoration in Galbally 10 days ago. That bit was an ad lib added to Adams’ prepared speech, which, as it happens, was made while McGuinness had ‘gone fishing’. To Adams’ mild embarrassment, the outtake was recorded by Gareth Gordon of the BBC and reproduced by Martina Purdy on the Devenport Diaries political blog.
The faintly bullying tone, the poking fun at McGuinness and the implied threat to rain on his parade, prompted me to look up the official version.
As it turns out, the sentiments are much the same; in the approved copy, Adams didn’t name McGuinness but still served notice that Sinn Fein politicians may not be in Stormont forever.
He said “the republican struggle was not and is not about bums on seats in the Executive or Parliament Buildings or Leinster House or the EU or any other forum just for the sake of it. Our representatives know this. We are not in the business of electoral politics for the sake of it but to use the political mandate we receive to bring about real change.”
The message is unmistakeable, Adams’ personal commitment to the democratic institutions can’t be taken for granted. Electoral politics are only one weapon in his party’s armoury and can be decommissioned, like the last lot, if they outlive their usefulness.
Just as we thought the peace process was secure, Adams imposed a price tag on his cooperation. He claimed that “bedding down” the peace “means completing the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement; on the transfer of powers on policing and justice; on a Bill of Rights and on Acht na Gaeilge” (the Irish Language Act).
The Sinn Fein President adds, almost as an afterthought: “it also means tackling disadvantage and poverty and injustice and delivering effective government.”
Despite the silly theatricals at Galbally, where people dressed up as IRA members and even RUC Special Branch interrogators to re-enact scenes from the Troubles, Adams’ speech can’t be read as a threat to return to violence. That would deprive him of all credibility. It would be tantamount that his whole strategy was a failure and the dissidents were right all along.
However, Adams’ words can, and should, be taken as a threat that, if he doesn’t get what he wants from the DUP, he may create political instability.
We got a taste of this sort of brinkmanship last year when Ian Paisley resigned and Adams orchestrated a standoff in an attempt to bounce the DUP into a timetable for devolution of policing and justice powers.
It didn’t succeed then because Sinn Fein blinked first, but if they had held their nerve it could have led to the fall of the Assembly. It could now too and, even if it doesn’t, it could make decision making still slower and more cumbersome than it is already.
Of course it is easy for Adams to make a cheap laugh out of other people’s bums on seats when he hasn’t got a real job himself. In the absence of something substantial to do, he is attempting to reinvent himself into a high level mover and shaker, rallying Americans and Londoners for Irish unity while he lays down the law at home. He seems living proof that the devil really does find work for idle fingers.
My suspicion is that, unless the DUP plays into his hands, most nationalists wouldn’t thank him for pulling the house down over a Bill of Rights or an Irish Language Act. If he pushes these issues, and the DUP keeps its head, Adams will have to back down like he did last time.
Now is the moment for unionists to pick their words carefully and build confidence in the devolved institutions by improving the speed and quality of decision makings. If the DUP and Sinn Fein can’t make this deal work, they will face a day of reckoning in the forthcoming Westminster election.
