We must respect each other

IN HIS speech to Orangemen and supporters at Garvagh, the Orange Order Director of Services Dr. David Hume called for unionists and nationalists to engage in a period of re-evaluation of the past and its legacy.

Noting that several major centenary anniversaries will begin from 2012 and the anniversary of the Ulster Covenant, and conclude with the centenary of the formation of Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, he said that there should be an honest appraisal of the legacy of the Home Rule period for everyone.

“There will be major anniversaries over the next few years in relation to the history of Ulster, of Northern Ireland and of Ireland and the British Isles generally. All of these give us an opportunity to explore what happened, what motivated people, and what we can learn from it all.

“It will be a time of re-evaluation. It can be a time of reconciliation,” he said.

The Orange Order official said that unionists had to remember that a legacy of the period was that not all those who signed the Covenant in 1912 were afforded secured positions within the Union.

“The lost unionist communities of the Irish Free State are testimony to that. People felt let down. People were subsequently intimidated, bullied, some murdered, because of their unionism. Yet today the descendants of these people still feel culturally British,” he added.

He called on the government of the Republic of Ireland to “afford opportunities to recognise their identity in the years ahead and explore that identity with them”.

“Unionists must also consider the stewardship which they provided within the United Kingdom. Lord Carson warned of the dangers of placing one community in control of another, as he did not feel it was the best situation for Ulster.

“Maybe we were not perfect in our governance and our stewardship. We are nothing if not an honest people. We need to be honest about these things,” he said.

But the Garvagh guest speaker said that the re-evaluation must also include nationalists and republicans; “In the midst of this anniversary period we have 1916, the year of two very different responses on the world stage. The tricolor which was unfurled at the GPO in Dublin had green white and orange to symbolize the great traditions of Irish society. Yet republicanism has never, beyond clichs, been able to understand the desire and wish of the Ulster Unionist people to remain part of the UK,” he said.

Dr. Hume called on nationalism and republicanism to accept that there was no likelihood in a present generation of a united Ireland and, accordingly, little real chance further down the line of people agreeing to alter the status quo. “The watchtowers may have gone, but the border remains,” he said.

He called for ‘a new covenant’ in which unionists and nationalists would respect each other’s culture and said that nationalists had to consider the proposition that much of their cultural identity was recognised today in Northern Ireland.

“They may retain their political aspiration but for most the respect accorded their culture should be a guide to them that can be accepted within the United Kingdom as a minority with a rich culture, identity and heritage. The political status quo will not change. There will be no united Ireland, not in the political sense.

“But a new covenant to respect each other’s culture would be a good start to marking the centenary of the major anniversaries which we will witness in the next few years.”