O’Conall Street

We are in the middle of the week ten years ago when it all turned sour. On the 10th of May the Balcombe St Gang paraded themselves at the Sinn Fein Ard Feis in Dublin and on the 14th Michael Stone returned the favour at the Ulster Hall in Belfast. In just one week the referendum went from being about the future to a ’celebration’ of some of the worst killing sprees in the troubles. This had a major impact on the middle ground and the Yes campaign began to hemorrhage support, particulalry amongst middle of the road protestants.

So much is different now. The achievements of the past decade are many and the progress had been substantial yet the sense that we remain in transition is still with us.

I had a long conversation this weekend with a friend and senior public servant about when, or even if, politics and government will move from this reactive transitional state to a progressive reform agenda. We agreed that what was first required was an effective alternative government, something to give people choice and capable of developing a public policy reform programme which could win popular support. Of course the people also need to decide the time is right to consider policy as well as personality or ‘position’ at election time. That could take the guts of a decade.

On the 20th anniversary of this week a decade ago, I wonder will politics have become more real or will we still in the words of Bono be starring at the sun waiting to go blind…..?

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 9:53 am and is filed under Business, Good Friday Agreement 10 years on, Politics, Public Affairs, Public Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.