Read In Touch – a new community newsletter for South Belfast

In Touch is a new community newsletter for South Belfast which I have produced. If you live in the Balmoral or Newtonbreda areas you’ll probably get one through your door. All feedback very welcome.

InTouch Web

John Hewitt Summer School speech

Here is the speech I delivered yesterday at the John Hewitt Summer School.

The Good Friday Agreement changes the debate about the future of our island in a fundamental way. The question goes from being whether there will be a united Ireland to how Ireland will be united and what that will mean for people North and South. 

Yet no nationalism, Irish or British, unionist, loyalist or republican has even begun to debate what this means for us as a region and as an island. It is like we consider the absence of violence to be peace, and that we believe that stable political institutions equals reconciliation.

Will this new Northern Ireland, indeed New Ireland, be built on the very thing that has made it possible – the Good Friday Agreement – or are we to be condemned to more of the same zero sum equation tribal politics that have held us back for so long?

In other words, do those of us who claim the title “republican” want to build a Catholic and Gaelic Ireland, or somewhere more representative of the true diversity on our island? And can the North, Northern Ireland, become a prosperous region of Ireland whilst continuing to grow for as long as its people wish to remain as a region in the UK? 

It’s a great pleasure to speak at the Hewitt summer school. Hewitt has been an inspiration to me for many years and was one of the first people to pose the questions I have just asked. He did so well before the first shot was fired in our modern troubles and at a time when this region was synonymous with political discrimination and inequality.  In a 1964 letter to his great friend and poet John Montague, Hewitt wrote;

 “By trying to waken folk to the concept of the Region, it seemed to me the necessary step to prize Ulster loose from the British anchorage: then and only then, when free in ideology, the unity with the other part of our island could be realised and established.

The North cannot be invaded, and taken by force into the Republic: if simply outvoted by a nationalist majority resentment would remain, but, realising themselves for what they are for the first time, not Britain’s pensioners or stranded Englishmen and Scots, being instead a group living long enough in Ireland to have the air in their blood, the landscape in their bones, and the history in their hearts, and so, a special kind of Irish themselves, they could with grace make the transition to federal unity.

I always maintained that our loyalties had an order to Ulster, to Ireland, to the British Archipelago, to Europe; and that anyone who skipped a step or missed a link falsified the total. The Unionists missed out Ireland: the Northern Nationalists (The Green Tories) couldn’t see the Ulster under their feet; the Republicans missed out both Ulster and the Archipelago; and none gave any heed to Europe at all. Now, perhaps, willy nilly bundled in the European rump of the Common Market, clearer ideas of our regional and national allegiances and responsibilities may emerge.”

It is in this spirit that I came to Platform for Change; a gathering of people from this place who want to remain here and make this region work. Platform makes no endorsement of my nationalism, nor does it validate another’s’ unionism. It is about the common ground that cannot be ignored; the Northern Ireland beneath our feet. It hopes to be a space where issues are debated and solutions are found which will benefit the many, and not just the vested interests of the few. It’s a place where a new politics for a new Northern Ireland can be fostered. 

The history books of our island are jam packed with conflict between tribes. When we talk about equality we hear – community. When we talk about community, we often forget that it is people who have rights, and people, in all their diversity, that make up communities, be they communities of interest or communities of faith.

Yet the single biggest challenge facing us today is inequality. Not simply between two communities but between people from all sides, amongst those who have and those who have not. Surely a new politics would put tackling the true and growing inequality at the top of its agenda?

One of the great tragedies of 20th century Ireland is that this politics took a back seat to the national struggle.

Partition and the emergence of the southern state set the cause of equality, reconciliation and social justice back a hundred years. It did not just divide our island but smothered any debate that sought to move beyond the national question.

It gave rise to a tokenistic neutrality and protectionist economics; to armed republicanism, reactionary loyalism and, ultimately, a dirty and futile war.

The question today is surely not whether we wish to simply reintegrate the national territory in the image of the Irish state but whether Irish men and women, Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter wish a New Ireland to emerge.  An Ireland that reflects our diversity, built on good government and that places equality, prosperity and justice at the heart of everything it does.

My generation has been handed the keys to that Ireland. We are the inheritors of peace, not the perpetuators of conflict.

We can open the door in front of us and, with courage, recast all about us; or we can look back and repeat the mistakes of the past. We can embrace the words of Hewitt.

They are, after all, the philosophy on which the Good Friday Agreement is built. That Ireland and its people have allegiance to region, to nation, to these islands and to this great continent.

When I talk to young northerners, I meet people who embody Hewitt’s dream; proudly Northern and proudly Irish.

Many are proudly British too and most happy to be Europeans.

The truth is that the people of our region are not as divided as our politics suggests.

Irish nationalism can take the old road of a “one size fits all” future or it can walk into a new one in which unity is neither a unionist nightmare nor a nationalist pipedream.

But to do that it must change, and change radically.

First the very issue of unity needs to be elevated above politics. That’s why the SDLP has recommended the reconvening of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation to discuss unity. We owe it to ourselves as a nation to debate and agree a model of a united Ireland and to do so before 2016. We cannot be complete as a nation without a shared vision of our future. North needs south but south will need the North if a new Ireland is to emerge and the absolute potential of our island is to be fulfilled.
 
Secondly, we need to make Northern Ireland work. Ignoring the opportunity of regional government is to ignore the common ground on which a new Ireland will be built.

That means maximum devolution but also imaginative regional solutions to local problems. It means real power sharing that is capable of building the best education system in Ireland, defending the NHS – a British institution made Irish in Northern Ireland, and modernising our budget system so it funds need and not departments. 

It also means getting serious about the economy because we will never build a strong all Ireland economy if we have a weak northern one.

We need to make the North a place where sectarianism is the real enemy and government leads the fight against it.

A strong North means a strong Ireland. A weak, underperforming and politically dysfunctional one means a weaker Ireland.

Our home is a region of Ireland. My dream is for it to flourish under a common flag representing the words on the coin and so often quoted by Hume – e pluribus Unum.

Others hope it will remain a region of the UK.

But we all surely agree that it is our region and needs governed for the benefit of all our people.

That is the as yet unfulfilled opportunity of the Good Friday Agreement. To build a great region on Irish soil, united in a common desire to see our neighbours flourish.

Where culture is shared; where sport and art is honoured and celebrated, never politicised and denigrated. Where the weave of diversity is strong and common ground is worked.

Where endeavour and enterprise are promoted and where prejudice is rejected.

The old Irelands, North and South, aspired to a separate but equal relationship with others. They adopted an old fashioned conservative British view of equality.

They cast progressive politics aside in favour of great nationalisms that could bind people in a common struggle but were incapable of accommodating those who did not fit with its sense of identity.

The New Ireland must honour those who believed in their cause, whether we agree with it or not, but it must not repeat the mistakes of their past.

It must work the common ground. Share a common goal and, in this region, coalesce to give the political leadership necessary for prosperity to trump poverty and allow reconciliation to become a reality.

Then, and maybe then, two centuries and ten years after Tone professed the unity of catholic, protestant and dissenter, his dream will finally become a reality.

Durkan’s Saville Speech in Commons

It is already being described as one of the finest contributions made it the British Parliament for many years.

This is Mark Durkan’s speech in the House of Commons on the day the Saville Report was published.

sez she….. The Queen in Ireland 1900 & 2011

There was a Royal Visit to Dublin by Victoria in April 1900, which occasioned Percy French to write “The Queen’s After-dinner Speech”. He claimed it had been overheard and written down in poetic lengths by Jamesy Murphy, Deputy Assistant Waiter in the Viceregal Lodge.

“Me loyal subjects” sez she
Here’s my best respect, sez she
And I’m proud this day, sez she
Of the elegant way, sez she
That you gave me the hand, sez she
When I come to the land, sez she
There was some people said, sez she
They were greatly in dread, sez she
I’d be murdered or shot, sez she
As like as not, sez she
But it’s mighty clear, sez she
That it’s not over here, sez she
That I have cause to fear, sez she
It’s them Belgiums, sez she
That’s throwing the bombs, sez she
And frightening the life, sez she
Out of the son and the wife, sez she
But in these parts, sez she
They have warm hearts, sez she
And they all like me well, sez she
Barring Anna Parnell, sez she
I don’t know Earl, sez she
What’s come over the girl, sez she
And that other one, sez she
That Maud Gonne, sez she
Dressing in black, sez she
To welcome me back, sez she

And all that gammon, sez she

About me causing the Famine, sez she
Now Maud’ll write, sez she
That I’d brought the blight, sez she
Or changed the seasons, sez she
For political reasons, sez she
And I think there’s a slate, sez she

off that Willie Yeats, sez she
He should be at home, sez she
French polishing his poems, sez she
Instead of writing letters, sez she
About his betters, sez she
And parading me crimes, sez she
In The Irish Times, sez she
Ah, but what does it matter, sez she
All this magpie chatter, sez she
When I heard the welcoming roar, sez she
Coming up from the shore, sez she
Right over the foam, sez she
Sure it was like coming home, sez she
And me heart fairly glowed, sez she
Along the “Rock road”, sez she
And into Booterstown, sez she
And be Merrion Round, sez she
Until I come to the ridge, sez she
Of the Leeson St. Bridge, sez she
And was greeted in style,
By the beautiful smile,
Of me Lord Mayor Pyle, sez she
Faith if I’d done right, sez she
I’d a made him a knight, sez she
And I need not repeat, sez she
How they cheered in each street, sez she
Till I come to them lads, sez she
Don’t you know them undergrads, sez she
Oh, and indeed and indeed, sez she
I got many a God Speed, sez she
But nothing to compare, sez she
With what I’ve got here, sez she
So pass the jug, sez she
And I’ll fill each mug, sez she
And I’ll give you a toast, sez she
At which you may boast, sez she
Now I have a power of sons, sez she
All sort’s of one’s, sez she
Some as quiet as cows, sez she
Some always in rows, sez she
And the one that causes the most trouble, sez she
Should the mother loves double, sez she
So here’s to the men, sez she
That’s gone in to win, sez she
That’s clearing the way, sez she
To Pretoria today, sez she
In the gap of danger, sez she
There’s a Connaught Ranger, sez she
And a fusilier not far, sez she
From the heart of the war, sez she
And they may talk a lot, sez she
And them foreign baboons, sez she
May drawn their cartoons, sez she
But there’s one thing they’ll never draw, sez she
And that’s the lion’s claw, sez she
For before our flag is furled, sez she
We’ll own the world, sez she.

Our own Seamus Murphy has penned this account of the Queen’s after-dinner speech at Farmleigh in the autumn of 2011 as recounted by a temping waitress from the locality.

A hUactaráin, sez she
And everyone, sez she
It’s great to be here, sez she
I mBaile Átha Cliath, sez she
After 800 years, sez she
And it is a fair city, sez she
More bustling than pretty, sez she
As for traffic, well please, sez she
I got stuck on the Quays, sez she
Then we went to Dáil Éireann, sez she
Lime green I was wearing, sez she
A crowd filled with hate, sez she
At Kildare Street gate, sez she
Waving placards, sez she
Shouting at Civic Guards, sez she
Don’t know what they were up to, sez she
Someone said they were SIPTU, sez she
We don’t want any incidents, sez she
With none of your dissidents, sez she

For the Belfast Agreement, sez she
My support is vehement, sez she
These devolved institutions, sez she
Is the only solution, sez she
The successes consecutive, sez she
Of the power-sharing Executive, sez she
Show how much can be done, sez she
When two sides act as one, sez she
And that nice Mr McGuinness, sez she
Showed his confidence in us, sez she
By stepping up to the spot, sez she
When my soldiers got shot, sez she

Blessed are the peace-makers, sez she
And the movers and shakers, sez she
And Martin McAleese, sez she
Stabilising the peace, sez she
Sipping tea with old dears, sez she
And golfing brigadiers, sez she
We must make a confession, sez she
About all that oppression, sez she
I do be listening at home, sez she
To the Wolfe Tones, sez she
It would make you cry, sez she
My husband and I, sez she
We must make reparation, sez she
Between our ancient nations, sez she
No more power I’ll wield, sez she
O’er the Fourth Green Field, sez she

But the 1St Para, sez she
Is a holy terror, sez she
I must tell you with candour, sez she
That my son’s the commander, sez she
But they’re getting on grand, sez she
In Afghanistan, sez she
And Irish lads are willing, sez she
To take the odd shilling, sez she
They feel the attraction, sez she
Of some military action, sez she
It’s not really that far, sez she

From Castlebar to Kandahar, sez she
But to cut to the facts, sez she
Do yous want the North back?, sez she
With their priests and their rectors, sez she
And their huge public sector, sez she
And massive subvention, sez she
To buy out contention, sez she
And their flags and their marches, sez she
And their big Orange arches, sez she
And their dreary steeples, sez she
Are they our kind of people?, sez she

The north’s a hard place, sez she
They’re a different race, sez she
But here in the Pale, sez she
There’s a Home Counties feel, sez she
And it makes one’s heart soar, sez she
To drive through Dublin 4, sez she
It’s like civilization, sez she
With good conversation, sez she
And people of letters, sez she
With respect for their betters, sez she

But the business class, sez she
Is in a hard pass, sez she
Yous have your own troubles, sez she
And your property bubbles, sez she
I regard very highly, sez she
Sir Tony O’Reilly, sez she
And I think I done right, sez she
To make him a knight, sez she
And it won’t be too long, sez she
There’ll be many a gong, sez she
And fine Irish names, sez she
Winning the Commonwealth Games, sez she
And now that matters of state, sez she
Have been put in their place, sez she
Prince Philip and me, sez she
Is off on a spree, sez she
I’ve been wanting for ages, sez she
To go to Punchestown races, sez she
Or down to the Curragh, sez she
And have a wee flutter, sez she

Cohesion Sharing and Integration Strategy “joke”

The proposed Cohesion Sharing and Integration document is a joke.

Not my words but those of a senior official in the power sharing executive speaking privately to me last week.

Sinn Fein and the DUP have reduced what the incoming moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Norman Hamilton, described as the single biggest challenge facing our society to a share the spoils and the pain under a separate but equal approach.

SF and the DUP couldn’t bring themselves to put reconciliation at the centre of the Programme for Government where it belongs. In fact I’m not sure they know what reconciliation really means, or worse still, that they actually want to achieve it.

The real work of reconciliation is not just to end conflict and to reduce tension but to figure out a pathway to a Shared Future. There is an enormous difference between the vision of a Shared Future which I would subscribe to and the uneasy coexistence that the two parties leading our government seem to be content with.

Our ‘Troubles’ have created a legacy of communities that live apart. For too long people have grown up, played and lived in separate neighbourhoods, been taught in separate schools, followed different sports and been slow to share the workplace.

There can be no doubt that over the years this segregation fuelled the conflict. Entrenched, both physically and mentally, communities grew further apart, unwilling and unable to see that this segregation was as much the cause of their insecurities, as the answer to them.

Unless we try to reduce segregation by driving forward a progressive public policy agenda then we cannot achieve reconciliation.  And for the SDLP the obvious place to start was in housing.

When Margaret Ritchie, then DSD Minister, announced the New Housing Agenda in February last year, she very deliberately made Shared Future a central theme in all housing policy development.

The Northern Ireland Life and Times survey has revealed that some 80% of people would, given the choice, live in a mixed neighbourhood. Yet the reality is that those waiting for social housing have very often little or no choice in this regard, and more often than not end up in single identity estates simply because there is no alternative. In the same survey some 52% of people thought that Government could do more to address the problem.

The first ‘Shared Neighbourhood’ initiative at Springfarm estate in Antrim provides a good example.

Springfarm Community Association five years ago identified that older residents were moving away, replaced by younger people who didn’t want to stay long. The estate had a growing reputation for drug dealing, and sectarian attacks were on the increase. Not surprisingly, the Housing Executive struggled to find tenants for empty homes and these vacant properties added to the ant-social behaviour issues in the area

Many parents today choose the medium of integrated education for their children because they want them to be educated in a mixed, shared environment. The State recognises this demand and generally does its best to meet it. So why do we not offer the same thing in housing? If parents want to bring up their children in a mixed, shared community then surely the State has a duty to meet that demand also?

The Education sector also has a well established Shared Future ‘product’ – the integrated school. We now need to create a similar product in Housing and, although I don’t underestimate the difficulty, I will be undertaking the necessary work to make this a reality.

Factoring Shared Future thinking into the provision and allocation of social housing could have profound implications for both our system of allocating houses (the Housing Selection Scheme) and also our planning of where to build (The Social Housing Development Programme) – but this is necessary if we are to change.

Do we really want to have a society where the first thing people think about when they meet is ‘which foot’ the other person kicks with? Where we have a Minister changing an official document 150 times because he finds the term ‘Northern Ireland’ unbearable. Where the BBC has a daft ‘policy’ on the use of the word ‘Derry’?  And where paramilitaries still rule the roost in single identity  working class communities all over Northern Ireland.

If the current CSI document is anything to go by you could be forgiven for believing that the DUP and SF are.

If you think libraries are expensive, try ignorance

A day after his head on attack on the Ulster Museum the Minister for Arts, Culture and Leisure, Nelson McCausland is to allow the closure of half of Belfast’s libraries.

This is a further assault on learning and enlightenment. It will deprive some of our most deprived communities in this city from the opportunity to access knowledge.

It says everything that is rotten about the DUP – Sinn Fein approach to government. To describe education policy, this step, the move to deny the need for a proper shared future strategy as a race to the bottom is no exaggeration.

Ignorance fuels prejudice but knowledge sets us free.

Pity the big two don’t see it that way.

Slugger election breakfast TV

The boys from NITV pitched up at the Slugger O’Toole election breakfast last week to capture the morning after the night before. I’m in there with a quick comment about the South Belfast result (min 7) and then in talking about next year (after min 20).

The Morning After The Night Before from Northern Visions/NvTv on Vimeo.

Question for graduates; would you like to come work with me this summer?

I am looking for graduates and soon to be graduates who are looking for work experience in politics.

Working on campaigns at regional and local level as well as being part of the day to day constituency work this is an internship which will appeal to anyone interested in the workings of the Assembly, the all island bodies and relations with Britain.

You will also have the opportunity to experience online campaigning first hand and be part of some exciting campaigns like the one to  support my private members bill to reduce speed limits to 20mph on all urban residential streets.

As an MLA I have a busy workload dealing with some of the highest profile issues in this region.  I lead for the SDLP on the development of one of the party’s major policy themes – shared future, as well as serving on the Regional Development, Justice and Assembly Executive and Review Committees. The office also works closely with the SDLP’s central policy unit on manifesto development.

Anyone interested in press will also find this an ideal internship.

If you would like to be considered for a placement during July, August, September or beyond please send a full CV with 100 words on why you what you would like to get out of a work placement to c.mcdevitt@sdlp.ie .

Join campaign to oppose Russell Group proposals to increase student loan rates

The proposal by the Russell Group of leading universities that graduates be asked to start repaying their student loans earlier and at a higher interest rate is a short sighted will act as a disincentive for many young graduates to start work.

Student loans are meant to allow graduates to get the foot on the career ladder and be earning a reasonable sum £15,000 before they start paying back. Even then the point is to allow the young professional to repay at a modest interest rate rather thus, in theory, allowing them to make career and life plans without the burden of a large debt hanging over them.

As it is the interest rate charged by the Student Loan Company is volatile and can fluctuate by two or three hundred percent making some graduates wonder whether it is wise to accept a reasonably low paid job as doing. These proposals will make that situation much worse.

I have set up a Facebook Group to oppose this proposal. I will bring a petition to the Northern Ireland Assembly with all the names in the group so please join and pass the word on.

Olympic Games’ Communications Chief to give Belfast lecture

With preparations already at an advanced stage, the London 2012 Olympic Games’ Jackie Brock-Doyle will exclusively outline the experiences and challenges involved in organising the globe’s premier sports occasion with an audience at the University of Ulster on June 18th.

Organised as part of the School of Communication’s Distinguished International Visitors Address, this is a rare opportunity to get the inside track on the biggest sporting event from one of Europe’s most influential communicators.

Jackie has designed and directed communication, media and sponsorship programmes for some of the world’s biggest brands and events, including Visa International, the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Cadbury and the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games. She was a leading member of the team that masterminded London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

This should be a great event and is free, however places are strictly limited.

To register your attendance or to find out more about the event or please contact Michele Gardiner on 028 9036 8847 or email m.gardiner@ulster.ac.uk