Republicans 'must reach out to unionists': McDowell
True republicans must do more to reach out to the unionist community in the North, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said today.
As loyalist rioting erupted across Belfast for a third night, Mr McDowell vowed that the violence would not bring down the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and urged greater reconciliation.
He said that a new vision of Ireland must recognise and respect the orange panel in the tricolour.
Police Service of Northern Ireland officers said they arrested 20 people last night after blast bombs and missiles rained down on them and burning cars blocked main streets across Belfast.
It was the third night of violence across the North, which has been described by the PSNI as some of the most dangerous ever seen in the history of British policing.
“I don’t think it will bring down the Agreement because the two governments are totally committed to it,” Mr McDowell said today.
“But I believe it can be deeply damaging to the prospects for reconciliation between the two communities in Northern Ireland.”
He said the first challenge for all republicans was to respect the orange panel of the tricolour and to develop a sense of Irishness which includes Ulster Scots and Anglo Irish.
“It must reach out to those people, not polarise Northern society,” he explained.
“The two communities are drifting further and further apart. That’s wrong for Ireland and it’s wrong for the children of both communities going forward.”
Mr McDowell said the governments had made every possible effort to include every shade of opinion in the political process in the North.
He said voters had made the choice to opt for a polarised political spectrum, rather than supporting the centre ground.
“It’s for genuine republicans such as myself to re-articulate a vision of Ireland where reconciliation of orange and green is the centrepiece of progress in Northern Ireland.
“Not polarisation of two communities, not the foolish idea being proposed by Sinn Féin at the moment that Westminster elections should in Catholic areas be elections to Dáil Eireann and in Protestant areas be elections to Westminster.”
Unionist leaders have been urged to re-assert their authority over their communities by PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde and US Envoy to the North Mitchell Reiss.
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