The Need for BALANCED constitutional Change (19th - mar- 1998)

(1)There are concerns in both main communities in N.Ireland that any settlement will not be fair and just. There are many details which need to be worked out to arrive at a just settlement, one set of details involving how to reconcile the two conflicting constitutional claims on the territory of N.Ireland. Recently the emphasis has been on amending the Irish constitution and the question arises how will it be possible to amend the Irish constitution as part of a package of constitutional changes on both sides to arrive at a balanced settlement. That is the question which is examined here.

(2)It should be clear to all that the link with the Republic of Ireland means as much to nationalists as the link with Britain means to Unionists and vice versa. Furthermore , there is a growing acceptance that the heritage, beliefs and traditions of BOTH communities must be protected and that there is no simple "one - or - the - other" political solution.For these reasons a just and equal political settlement will require BALANCED constitutional change ( which does not mean NO constitutional change on either side - a settlement will require constitutional changes from BOTH sides.

(3)There has been speculation recently (first week of March 1998) that the Irish Government is prepared to put amendments to Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution before the people of the Republic of Ireland in a referendum. There has also been concern expressed that such changes are the first and main step in what amounts to accepting that Ireland will remain permanently divided and that Britain will retain sovereignty over the six counties of Northern Ireland from this point on.

(4)Constitutional change of such fundamental importance (assuming the speculation is correct and it most likely is ) needs to be handled with great care. First of all, if a genuine settlement which acknowledges, respects and treats both of the main traditions equally is to be found then such constitutional change in BOTH Articles 2 & 3 of the constitution of the Republic of Ireland AND of the Government of Ireland Act will be necessary to reconcile the two conflicting claims.

(5)In arriving at balanced constitutional change it is important to start from a correct viewpoint of N.Ireland's constitutional position within the framework of connections linking it to both the Republic of Ireland and Britain - namely that it is the subject of DISPUTED claims by both traditions. BOTH claims have a certain validity, BOTH certainly have errors in them (depending on how the origins of N.Ireland are viewed - whether the coming into being of N.Ireland is just another example of how borders in Europe have changed as a result of wars and hence its existence separate from the Republic Of Ireland is entirely justified or, on the other hand, the separation of Ireland into North and South was imposed on Ireland against the democratically expressed wishes of its people through the threat of total war and other violence and thus cannot be justified). In short , in attempting to solve this problem properly it is necessary to start from the viewpoint that there are TWO disputed claims here, BOTH with some validity and that these TWO disputed claims must be reconciled , rather than starting from the viewpoint that only one of the claims is valid/legal and that the other is totally invalid/illegal.

(6)It seems that the majority of nationalists are prepared to recognise that Unionists have a valid point of view and that this viewpoint has to be taken into consideration in a fundamental way via constitutional change. On the surface at least it seems that the majority of Unionists still do not accept that nationalists do have a valid point of view and believe that only their view is valid/legal and hence does not need to be amended in any fundamental way. If this is truly the case therein lies a deep problem. If the majority of Unionists truly are incapable of transcending there own world-view and seeing that there genuinely are two valid viewpoints then will not see the necessity of trying to reach a reconciliation of these two viewpoints, except in so far as it is pragmatic for them to throw some minimalist scraps to nationalists to try to salve the situation without truly coming to grips with the fundamentals.

(7)On the other hand this may be just the surface that the Unionist parties are presenting to the public as they really do perceive that there are two viewpoints with validity but believe that Sinn Fein and the IRA are the ones who have not yet accepted that there are two valid viewpoints, believing only that the republican viewpoint is the only one with validity.

(8)Constitutional amendment on BOTH sides will be necessary to resolve the conflict in Northern Ireland.The Irish Government is right to insist that it will only take place as part of an overall agreement and it should only take place if there is a corresponding position of Britain with regard to Northern Ireland.

(9)What would constitute balanced constitutional change? Balanced necessarily means a set of changes on both sides whose sum will result in both traditions being equally represented and equally protected.There are probably many ways to fine-tune this change , but broadly there are probably two main strands:-
a)Either BOTH governments continue to claim the territory as part of their state but BOTH accept that neither should exert governmental control over it that power should be devolved equally from both governments back to some form of assembly which would be equally linked to BOTH states, however weakly or strongly;
or
b)BOTH governments amend their claims to the territory equally, accept that Northern Ireland should only be fully integrated territorially with either the Republic of Ireland or Britain if and when this becomes acceptable to a majority of the people in BOTH of the main communities.This would involve Northern Ireland being equally free from BOTH Britain and the Republic of Ireland but the people being either British or Irish by choice.

(10)Since any changes to Articles 2 and 3 will primarily affect northern nationalists there are two safeguards which should be in-built:-
a)No changes in articles 2 and 3 should be put before the electorate in the Republic of Ireland which opinion polls have not shown to have the prior acceptance of an overwhelming majority of northern nationalists ;
b) No change in articles 2 and 3 should be put before the electorate in the Republic of Ireland unless these changes are part of an overall package which would leave N.Ireland EQUALLY constitutionally linked to both the Republic of Ireland and Britain.

(11)The big danger with the proposed changes in Articles 2 & 3, if they are in line with what has been reported in some of the newspapers(defining Ireland in terms of its people instead of its territory by no longer regarding the six counties of Northern Ireland as part of Ireland and regarding them as part of Britain instead), is that they will leave Irish Nationalists living in N.Ireland in the position of having to look at Northern Ireland much in the same way as an Irishman or Irish woman living in , say, Yorkshire would look at Yorkshire(as part of Britain), making him/her a stranger in his/her own land. This would be a totally biased one-sided change , particularly if there was no corresponding changes in the Government of Ireland Act, leaving Unionists in the position of a Yorkshireman looking at Yorkshire - looking out over territory which was unquestionably British. Such a scenario would constitute the exact opposite of a balanced, just and equal settlement.

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