Resetting the agendas
The path to a better relationship with our neighbours within Ireland, the United Kingdom and Europe is not to focus on settling old scores but resetting old agendas. The contributions in this issue focus on what is needed on some of these issues.
Katy Hayward takes a detailed and critical look at the way in which issues that affect us most directly have been side-lined or left to future negotiations within an aspirational reset of United Kingdom/European Union relations. The hurts and inconveniences caused by Brexit and the special status of Northern Ireland have not been adequately addressed, despite the tiny amount of trade involved and the ease with which they could be resolved by special arrangements.
The same could be said about the continuing strains between the British and Irish governments over key elements in dealing with the legacy of the ‘troubles’. The detailed account by Paul Nolan of the haphazard approach to the appointment of public inquiries into specific issues and incidents highlights the huge cost, the interminable delays and the disappointing outcomes of the current list of inquiries. One possible exception was the Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday, which at least resulted to a fulsome apology by the British Government. The linked discussion by Tom Hadden of the difficulty in combining the objectives of truth and justice and truth and reconciliation in a single body like the ICRIR highlights the need for better structures for truth and acknowledgement that might lead to better outcomes for all concerned.
Whether any of this can be expanded into the wider international problems over the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and now over Iran’s nuclear ambitions remains to be seen. But the underlying message is that the use of destructive military power rather than diplomatic negotiations over the futures for the populations directly involved rarely leads to a satisfactory outcome.
