| Culzie | Date: Saturday, 2012-04-28, 5:01 PM | Message # 1 |
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Generalissimo
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| Unionists too slow on power-sharing - Robinson
Published on Saturday 28 April 2012 08:04
UNIONISTS were too slow to accept that power-sharing was inevitable when the majority rule Stormont Parliament fell in 1972, Peter Robinson last night admitted.
The DUP leader, who since the party’s formation in 1971 played a key role in opposing power-sharing with nationalists, said that unionists were “too slow to accept or appreciate” that there was no way to avoid shared government.
However, the First Minister also argued that the SDLP had also “set the bar too high” to achieve power-sharing in the 1970s and that such a compromise would have been all but impossible while IRA violence continued.
In the landmark speech in Dublin, at an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) conference, Mr Robinson also described Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness – who was looking on – as being “committed to ensuring peace”.
However, Mr Robinson’s speech to the major Dublin conference celebrating Northern Ireland’s peace process was denounced by the DUP leader’s former party colleague Jim Allister as a vast U-turn.
Mr Robinson told the conference: “In Northern Ireland unionists were slow to accept or appreciate that after the fall of the majority rule parliament at Stormont in 1972, some form of power-sharing was inevitable.
“And when they did, constitutional nationalists set the bar too high to achieve it.”
Mr Robinson added that “more significantly” it was not until the late 1980s or early 1990s that the republican movement “finally began to consider a political resolution”.
The First Minister also praised his Stormont colleague Martin McGuinness.
“Many people will highlight the IRA ceasefire of 1994 or 1996 or even the Belfast Agreement as defining moments in the peace process,” he said.
“In their own way they were all important events, but none of them actually brought about peace, stability or the removal of paramilitary structures.
“To do that it was necessary to make it clear that there was a future for every party with an elected mandate – but only if they played by the same rules as everyone else.
“Once that rubicon had been crossed it was only a matter of time before a genuinely sustainable agreement could be reached.
“This has been good for the process and today I believe that Martin McGuinness is as committed to ensuring peace in Northern Ireland as I am.”
Mr Robinson described the symbolism of his united front with Mr McGuinness as “the clearest evidence that the peace which has been achieved is here to stay”.
He added: “Whereas once politicians sought to gain power by pledging to oppose other parties, last year both the DUP and Sinn Fein increased their mandates by promising to work together for the benefit of the people of Northern Ireland.
“We may not share the same long term constitutional aspirations but we have learned that we must work together to address the everyday issues that face our people now.”
Mr Robinson said that Northern Ireland had “expertise” in ending conflict and that “today, our peace process is hailed as a success”.
He added: “Any settlement that cannot command widespread support is not sustainable. Even the Belfast Agreement that received the endorsement of 71 per cent of the population of Northern Ireland in 1998 was not able to command a clear majority of unionists.
“Such an outcome, where there is a significant difference in the level of support between the various communities, is a recipe for instability which will ultimately paralyse and undermine the whole process.”
The TUV leader, and Mr Robinson’s former DUP colleague, Jim Allister, said that the IRA’s victims had “become an embarrassment to the new political order”.
“Fourteen years on from presenting itself as its most vociferous opponent, the DUP today attended the Dublin conference to eulogise the Belfast Agreement . . . the inescapable truth is that the nefarious Belfast Agreement is being implemented, in all elements, by those who gained power by vilifying its architects.”
When asked last night whether Mr Robinson was admitting that the DUP had been wrong to oppose power-sharing when it was put forward by Ulster Unionist leaders such as Brian Faulkner, a DUP spokesman said: “Unionists were slow to accept that Her Majesty’s Government was not going to permit a pre-1972 style government to be re-established at Stormont.
“However, the nationalist definition of power-sharing at that time was unacceptable to unionists. A more acceptable form of power-sharing was not on the table.”
According to Mr Robinson’s personal website, the DUP was founded in 1971 “to stem the policies of appeasement which were espoused by the Official Unionist Party”.
And, it says that in 1973 the DUP “strongly condemned the proposal to form a power-sharing executive body”.
The party’s opposition to the power-sharing Sunningdale Agreement of that year was instrumental in its collapse.
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Saturday, 2012-04-28, 5:54 PM | Message # 2 |
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Colonel general
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| Quite clearly further evidence that there stand against the GFA wasn't on principle but just about getting themselves to the position of the main Unionist party by destroying the UUP. Absolute traitors the lot of them.
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| Culzie | Date: Monday, 2012-04-30, 2:51 PM | Message # 3 |
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| No doubt about that. I'm close to the point where I would say I despise them. What they did and what they now stand for. They got their '30 pieces of silver' and thats all they were interested in. Hain proved that when he called their bluff.
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Monday, 2012-04-30, 4:07 PM | Message # 4 |
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Colonel general
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| Aye, I hate them myself. I use to be one for Unionist unity and while I supported the likes of UKIP and the BNP, I always believed that they shouldn't stand over-here as they'd just further split the Unionist vote, but to hell with that now. They are all the bloody same and don't stand on principle whatsoever when their pay packets are up for dispute!
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| Culzie | Date: Tuesday, 2012-05-01, 5:07 PM | Message # 5 |
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| In all honesty I couldn't vote for any of the local parties. Of course that could change...if they changed,but there seems little likelihood of that happening. Its sickening watching them squirm and wriggle and take on different positions. Robinson is now singing the praises of the Maze and puttin lashings of spin on how great it is now. They were all against taking on the policing responsibilty. Then at Hillsborough they sold out and came out talking about how they'd won. They must think people are stupid. Well maybe some are like those who vote for them. Those who fall for their guff.
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Tuesday, 2012-05-01, 7:31 PM | Message # 6 |
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Colonel general
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| Very true, where the Maze is was one of the last remaining solid loyalist heartlands, the whole area has around 10 orange halls within around 3 miles, actually on the roads that circle the side of the Maze is two Orange Halls and loyalist hamlets, now this area is going to full of visitors attending the IRA shrine, as that's what it will be, a shrine to the Hunger-strikers. In this local area, even the most senior loyalist and a former prisoner, held a conference were he was the chair-person at a hotel in Templepatrick between loyalist and republican prisoners. Obviously another individual getting his 30 pieces of silver, to further sell-out our beloved Home-land. The whole lot stinks from top to bottom.
I feel sorry for those, who stood their ground, held the line and ended up in their graves our disabled for life, as it's all been for nothing, when you see how many traitors come out from under the carpet, and how the murdering vermin are treated with a chuckle and a laugh with our so-called Unionist leaders.
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