Flashpoint families 'need hope for the future'
Families living in sectarian flashpoint areas of Belfast need to be given a sense of a better future for their children, the leader of Fine Gael claimed today.
Enda Kenny urged political leaders to give loyalist and nationalist communities living along the peace line hope after a surprise visit to an East Belfast flashpoint area.
After meeting loyalist residents in Cluan Place, which has seen some of the worst rioting in Belfast over the past year, Mr Kenny said: “I think we should focus in on the real areas of dissent and on areas where we feel we can make a breakthrough.
“On both the loyalist and the nationalist sides this morning, there was a sense that mothers in particular need to have a much clearer picture in terms of the future for their kids.
“I think that’s an area of involvement in a community sense which would pay dividends.”
Mr Kenny met members of the Ballymacarett Arts & Cultural Society in loyalist East Belfast, but also took the opportunity to lead a delegation of four other TDs and three Senators to the loyalist side of the peace line.
The delegation also went on to the other side of the wall dividing loyalists in Cluan Place and the nationalist Short Strand.
The Fine Gael delegation consisted of TDs Simon Coveney, John Deasy, Fergus O’Dowd and Damien English, as well as Senators Frank Feighan, Sheila Terry and Joe McHugh.
Mr Kenny observed: “I think it was a revelation for Deputies and Senators on their first visit to Northern Ireland to see the environment in which people have to live in Cluan Place.
“We heard about the riot last Monday, the fact that people gather to see this during the marching season, the fact that so many people have been moved out of there.
“It is important for them to hear the other side of the story and visit Short Strand.
“The erection of a camera there is a point of interest for many residents and one man in Cluan Place said to me he had been there for five years, his father had moved out and that there were very few left in the street.
“I also talked to a soldier. He was of the opinion that the camera might have an influence on preventing disturbances, but he also said that last Monday the entire street was littered in bricks and bottles and they had to clean it from end to end.
“I think for Deputies and Senators from the Republic to actually stand in the community and feel the sense of intimidation in that environment as distinct from anything else is a revelation indeed.”
Mr Kenny agreed with British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s assertion in a speech in Belfast last October that people in flashpoint areas needed to see and sense the benefits of the Good Friday Agreement.
He said his party had discussed concerns among protestant community workers involved in cross-community work that they were under threat from the IRA because of documents found during the discovery of an alleged republican spy ring at Stormont.
He urged community leaders on both sides to show “patience, resilience, imagination and real commitment” towards resolving their differences and building a better future.
The Fine Gael leader added: “You can sense there was a lack of leadership in some quarters, there is despondency and disillusionment and, most certainly, people do not see the real fruits or appreciate the real potential of a successful conclusion to the Agreement.
“My preference would be to have the Assembly reconstituted, to have elections on May 1, and essentially this comes down to two basic facts:
“If the IRA on the one hand were to say they were reaching completion and produce a series of measures and David Trimble is convinced that it is all systems go, then the people will have a choice as to who they want to elect in May.”
