The Ireland Funds : News : People

Senator Maurice Hayes

Senator Maurice Hayes, Chairman, The Ireland Funds Advisory Committee writes about 'Swings and Roundabouts'

I remember an occasion, about twenty-five years ago, watching two little girls play on a swing in a tranquil seaside village in Co. Down, mercifully insulated from the grosser aspects of the Northern Ireland conflict. One of them had been intimidated out of her home in Belfast in a period of sectarian strife and had come to live with her grandparents-our neighbors. The other little girl was my five year-old daughter.

As they played, I was intrigued to hear the little Belfast girl say, "Lets play 'protestants', I want to be the protestant." I asked her why she wanted to be the protestant. Her reply was chilling.

"I want to push her off the swing."

In another context, it could just as easily have been a little catholic girl who had been put off the swing, but that bit of childish make-believe told me more about the realities of life to a little child, catholic or protestant, living in a sectarian interface, in the shadow of an age-old adult struggle to which they were being sucked in and indoctrinated.

That incident has been a benchmark against which I have measured progress towards peace and reconciliation. Things have gotten better, but not universally and not always at the same rate. Indeed it is sometimes the fact that there have been improvements at a political level which lay bare the deep residual pools of sectarian bitterness that will continue to poison the atmosphere for some time ahead.

An example of this has been the recent sight of little children being escorted to school in North Belfast between ranks of riot police, to prevent them being abused by the parents and children of a neighboring community. Most people will find it sad that children should be exposed in this way. Even sadder perhaps is the sight of other children of the same age being encouraged, even trained to join in the abuse that is being hurled at those who in other circumstances should be their friends and play fellows.

What all this underlines is the disappointing truth that the improvement in the quality of the dialogue at a political level has not followed on to the local levels. The chiefs may be in pow-wow, with success, but the Indians are still miles apart separated by suspicion, lacking trust and ancestral attitudes.

We may well be on the brink of historic developments with the beginnings of decommissioning and demilitarization in parallel, the new beginning in policing, the entrenchment of human rights and changes in the criminal justices system. The Assembly may have a bumpy ride as the parties slowly learn to trust each other and work together for the common goal on social and economic problems. There will be instances of difficulty and back sliding, but movement in general will be in the right direction.

At the community and individual level there is much still to be done. Apart from a history of animosity stretching back through the generations, the conflict of the last thirty years has left its scars. Terrible things have been done; there has been suffering on all sides, innocent victims, and what is now euphemistically called "collateral damage". It will take years to bind up the wounds, a generation to heal the psychological scars and to lay the ghost of sectarian bitterness and bigotry.

The task of the present generation is to break the cycle of bitterness, as we have hopefully broken the cycle of violence and terror. To preserve our children and grandchildren from the legacy of hate which we have received from our grandparents. It is a difficult, daunting and challenging task, but nonetheless worthwhile because it is so necessary.