Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Defining the Community
- Part II The Historic Compromise?
- Introduction to Part II
- 4 The Ideological Origins of New Sinn Féin
- 5 On the Long Road: The Provisional Politics of Transition
- 6 The Historic Compromise?
- Conclusion: The End of a Song?
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction to Part II
from Part II - The Historic Compromise?
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Defining the Community
- Part II The Historic Compromise?
- Introduction to Part II
- 4 The Ideological Origins of New Sinn Féin
- 5 On the Long Road: The Provisional Politics of Transition
- 6 The Historic Compromise?
- Conclusion: The End of a Song?
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
For many, the pictures of Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley around the table in Stormont signalling their intentions of going into government together were a ‘telling and forceful image’ marking the end of the Troubles and the start of a new era in which ‘real politics can begin’ in Northern Ireland. This was just the latest in a line of what one Secretary of State for Northern Ireland called ‘it'll-never-happen moments’, which reinforced the sense of normalization that had been a central strand in the narratives of the peace process since the early 1990s.
If there was widespread agreement that these events were historic, there were contrasting views among the participants about their true meaning. For Gerry Adams they represented ‘a new start … with the potential to build a new, harmonious relationship between nationalists and Republicans and Unionists.’ Ian Paisley was characteristically more direct, claiming them as ‘a great victory for the Unionist people’ because ‘Gerry Adams will sit in our Assembly – a British institution of the British state … [and] will take an oath to … support the rule of law,’ which meant ‘the end of Republicanism’.
While the Provisionals claimed that they remained ‘unrepentant Republicans’, some within their political tradition agreed with the Democratic Unionists that it was they who were ‘writing the agenda … and forcing Republicans to adhere to their demands.’
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- Information
- The New Politics of Sinn Fein , pp. 134 - 137Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2007