Ireland’s Wars: Northern Ireland In The 2000’s

From as far afield as West Africa, we now return back to the island of Ireland itself. It is my intention to cover events in Northern Ireland within the 21st century (and the very last years of the 20th) in two entries, taking a decade or so in each. In so doing it is not my intention to minimise or otherwise downplay the sometimes horrific events that took place in that period, but a continuation of my previous approach to the Troubles era, taking a year at a time, seems excessive to me. Thankfully, the number of violent incidents in Northern Ireland was, relative to the three decades before, low in this era, though they never entirely ceased.

In 1999, the structures of the peace process remained intact, despite the horror of events like the Omagh bombing and the slow pace of decommissioning. The latter was a serious delay to greater political engagement from unionists, with that community ever wary of the GFA turning into a deal that was more beneficial to nationalists than themselves. Despite the efforts of figures like Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair, it was difficult to bring unionist parties to the table concretely as they demanded more progress on the decommissioning of arms, something nationalist entities like Sinn Fein still believed was a periphery issue. Thanks to the work of George Mitchell, back in Northern Ireland in September, an agreement to form an Executive in the Assembly was made without forward motion on the issue, but it was going to be something that returned again and again as a major problem. Piecemeal killings continued, some of an internecine nature, such as the assassination of Eamon Collins, a former Provisional IRA member turned critic, killed by unknown assailants in January. Mo Mowlam stopped short of declaring hat the IRA ceasefires were at an end however. It was perhaps partly this that did for Mowlam in the end, with her relationship with unionists now more of a detriment to the ongoing process than anything else. In October 1999 she was recalled to London and replaced by Blair’s close friend Peter Mandelson. By the end of the year devolved powers had been transferred to Stormont and this, in line with the low death toll connected to paramilitary violence – just seven, the lowest number since the 1960’s – gave every indication that the process was working.

Only it wasn’t. Less than three months later, David Trimble’s Ulster Unionist Party walked out over the lack of progress over decommissioning, with disillusionment with the GFA now widespread among unionists, many horrified at the sight of one of Sinn Fein’s assigned ministries, Education, going to the hate figure of Martin McGuinness. The publication of the planned report on the RUC also raised hackles, recommending as it did widespread changes, from the name of the organisation – now to be the Police Service of Northern Ireland, or PSNI – to mandated Catholic recruitment.

Trimble had always threatened to resign if decommissioning was not progressed, and the UUP walkout prompted another round of desperate politicking, as all feared that resumption of the violence was possible, maybe even likely. The Provisionals, for their part, now demonstrated a bit more leeway, issuing a statement a few months later that they would “completely and verifiably put beyond use” their weapons, with agreed international figures to be allowed to inspect arms dumps. Ian Paisley and his Democratic Unionists rejected the state of affairs, but the UUP, though starkly divided, agreed to come back into Stormont.

Once again, things seemed as if they might be on the right course, with that years marching season incidents reduced, with Drumcree especially seeming like less of an issue than ever before. Support for such things from unionist circles was ebbing away owing to marches association with paramilitary figures like Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair, the hardline commander of the Belfast Ulster Defence Association, who was at the centre of occasionally bloody feuding with the Ulster Volunteer Force in the city, with the death toll connected to paramilitary violence spiking back up in 2000. On the republican side of things, the PIRA was connected to the killings of drug dealers in some majority-nationalist areas, while entities like the Real IRA now went back to violence as a tool, through a series of small-scale bombing and mortar attacks, with some of these taking place on the British mainland: they included a rocket launched at the headquarters of MI6, and a car bomb exploded outside of the main BBC building.

In 2001, things tipped towards a crisis point. A British general election that year saw the UUP lose serious ground to the DUP, and the SDLP to Sinn Fein: John Hume would bow out of the SDLP leadership position as a result. There were several suspensions of Stormont owing to Trimble’s annoyance over a lack of progress on decommissioning, something perhaps done in part to try and arrest the collapse in support for the UUP from the unionist community. The case of the “Colombia 3”, three members of the Provisionals arrested in Colombia on charges of assisting rebel guerrillas there, also increased tensions, indicating as it did that the PIRA had not ceased their military activity, their own claims to the contrary. Several instances of rioting in Northern Ireland, mostly in Belfast, underlined the situation, occurring during the July marching season and the November Remembrance Day commemorations. So too did the so-called “Holy Cross dispute” in Ardoyne, where members of the local unionist community attempted to blockade a Catholic school over sectarian tensions in the area, leading to a lengthy period of on-and-off violence and the disturbing sight of schoolchildren needing to be escorted to their place of education by armed soldiers, holding back adults slinging abuse and projectiles. And in December, ostensibly growing out of a protest at the perceived slowness of demilitarisation, a large group of republicans attacked two British Army watchtowers and a police station in South Armagh, injuring dozens.

In 2002, further crises meant that Stormont could no longer continue. In March three men broke into a Special Branch office in Belfast and made off with vital documents before the breaking of “Stormontgate” in October: several men were arrested under suspicion of operating a republican spy-ring in Stormont, which carried with it highly emotive scenes of police raids on Sinn Fein offices. The alleged ringleader, Denis Donaldson, was a former Provisional then working as an administrator for Sinn Fein. The charges were eventually dropped, with Donaldson later outed as a double-agent in the employ of MI5: he was later murdered, allegedly by the RIRA. The UUP walked out of powersharing again, and this time the resulting suspension of Stormont would last for four difficult years.

Some violence continued, with most fatalities now associated with in-fighting within the unionist community of remaining paramilitary organisations, but as of yet there was no resumption of Troubles-era levels of political killings. In 2003 the gradual downwards slide of the UUP resulted in it being overtaken by the DUP as the largest party in the Assembly after elections in November, while Sinn Fein claimed a safe third spot well ahead of the SDLP. The rise of Paisley into a position where he was now the presumptive First Minister of the Assembly if it was actually sitting led many to assume that the peace process was doomed, owing to the DUP’s hardline rhetoric on the GFA, and their seeming in ability to contemplate forming a power-sharing government with Sinn Fein. But, remarkably, the DUP was now actually starting to change course, with messaging indicating the possibility of compromise, and Paisley himself now changing a lifetime of obstinacy by agreeing to meet political figures from the Republic like Bertie Ahern. When it came to that., it is possible that lengthy periods of serious illness at the time may have had an impact on Paisley. But on issues like decommissioning, the now 78-year-old Paisley was the firebrand of yesteryear, demanding photographic evidence of weapons being put beyond use, and striking a triumphalist tone when he also insisted that the PIRA be forced to “wear sackcloth and ashes”. Many in nationalism feared that the PIRA would be obligated to destroy its arms, after which the DUP would simply refuse to engage with the GFA processes.

The impasse continued on into 2004, which dragged on without much in the way of progress. Things were not helped by the robbery of over 25 million pounds from a Belfast bank in December of that year, with the Provisionals largely assumed to be responsible, and the murder of Robert McCartney by member of the same, the young man apparently killed after a “non-political” argument in a Belfast bar in January 2005. But eventually, things did evolve. In July 2005 the Provisionals issued a firm statement that it had ordered an end to the armed campaign, with all units still in existence told to dump their arms and then put them beyond use. Verification of the same was to be undertaken by members of both Protestant and Catholic religious institutions. There would be no visual evidence of the decommissioning, as Paisley had demanded, but the effort appeared to be a sincere one. At the same time, internecine unionist violence continued, with the ceasefire of the UVF no longer recognised by the British government from 2005, owing to its continuing violence against members of the Loyalist Volunteer Force.

All at the same time, political negotiations continued, with a focal point in 2006 being St Andrews in Scotland. It was there that the St Andrews Agreement was reached in October, where Sinn Fein agreed to formally recognise the authority of the PSNI and the DUP agreed, in principle anyway, that they could form a power-sharing government with republicans. It was a remarkable turnaround for a figure like Paisley, who has probably helped along by the fact that there was no other major unionist figure to challenge him: Trimble had resigned as UUP leader the year before. It still took another complicated series of internal party ruminating and votes for the principles of St Andrews to come into fruition, but in May 2007, helped along by another election where the DUP and Sinn Fein gained at the expense of their rivals, Paisley was sworn in as First Minister with none other than Martin McGuiness as the Deputy First Minister. It was a remarkable sight in many ways.

It also came with initially quiet, and then more public, discontent within unionism, with some hardliners coalescing around Traditional Unionist Voice, an ever more right-wing split off of the DUP, and others within the DUP agitating against Paisley’s continued leadership. While powersharing had support, the image of Paisley and McGuinness working side-by-side, and, to the horror of many, enjoying a cordial relationship, did not seem likely to really please unionists. Paisley would resign as First Minister only a year after taking the job, with long-time deputy Peter Robinson graduating to the top position. He was also able to enjoy a working relationship with McGuiness, through a succession of dicey negotiations and unease in the workings of Stormont, many of them revolving around the position of Justice Minister, which eventually went to the non-aligned Alliance Party.

Powersharing held grimly on, even through major crises, like the killing of two soldiers and one PSNI officer by the Real and Continuity IRA in separate attacks in March 2009: another remarkable sight at the time was Robinson and McGuiness issuing a joint condemnation, with McGuiness’ language extremely strong in the effort. Internal difficulties within both the DUP, over issues within Robinson’s own family, and Sinn Fein, over historical sex abuse claims, continued to create difficulties in the Northern Irish political sphere, as did continued problems with policing. But, critically, paramilitarism was on a downturn. In this period, both the UVF and the UDA essentially began the process of ending their active existence, with decommissioning of their own weapons going hand-in-hand. The INLA too, though on a ceasefire for some time, also gave up any pretensions of armed campaign around the same period.

Paramilitary activity was not fully ceased, and shootings and other violence did still occur, but no longer in great numbers. Riots still occurred in those high-tension months of July and November also, but no longer quite on the same level of Drumcree. And political instability was still a constant threat, but with the St Andrews Agreement there was scope for former enemies to work together to a much greater extent than before. In other words, the promise of the peace process seemed to be coming true, in so far as political violence was lessening substantially, in favour of the political arena. We will return to Northern Ireland again shortly enough, to cover the remainder of its military and political history up until the present day.

To read the rest of the entries in this series, click here to go to the index.