The Bishop of Derry has appealed to politicians in the North to set aside their tribal differences and concentrate on tackling real issues affecting everyday lives.
The power-sharing executive in Belfast is facing collapse over allegations that the IRA still exists and killed one of its former members, Kevin McGuigan, last month. Sinn Féin has consistently denied that the IRA were involved in the murder but the Ulster Unionists have withdrawn their sole minister from the executive, and all but one of the DUP’s ministers resigned last week, with Peter Robinson also stepping aside as first minister.
“This is an abnormal government. The war is over but the conflict is alive and well,” Bishop Donal McKeown told The Irish Catholic. “In other words the Northern Ireland government is partly involved in trying to run Northern Ireland, but they also involved, certainly the DUP and Sinn Féin, in a battle for victory of Nationalism and Unionism.”
The bishop said that with the elections taking place in 2016, “this is just game playing in terms of the larger political strategy, the victory of unionism or nationalism”. “It is important to recognise that the big battle is more important for them than solving health and education.”
He said the problem for the people on the street “is that it gives very bad example for those of us involved in reconciliation work if our political leaders are constantly at loggerheads and think that a crisis is the only way to handle a disagreement”.
Bishop McKeown said his main concern is that “too many people are saying these politicians are a waste of time and we don’t need people to lose faith in the political process. If you lose faith in the political process then you say let’s try something else instead.
“These are our political leaders and we have asked them, and pay them, to solve political problems and we expect them to do that,” he said.