Did that Northern Ireland Peace Monitoring report miss the mark and hit the wall?

  "Are we leaving the Troubles behind or does the continuation of sectarian division mean that at some point in the future the underlying tensions could see a violent eruption?"


That's a question from the Northern Ireland Peace Monitoring report - a progress report on our society since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.


The report's author is Paul Nolan and he should know that the conflict here was and is not a sectarian one. Not that there wasn't a core of crazies, among both nationalist/republicans and  unionist/loyalists, who were sectarian. But the violence in Ireland has never been essentially about what religion people were or are; it's been about Britain's right to exercise jurisdiction in Ireland.   By referring to it as 'sectarian', you do two things: you label it as bad (for sectarianism is, by definition, bad) and you start looking for ways to cure this sectarianism, rather than look for a way to resolve the political issue.


In his report, Nolan appears to go after both the sectarian and the political. He points  to a lack of integrated schooling, a lack of integrated social housing and the absence of a new political party since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.


OK, let's try to untangle that particular ball of wool.  Dr Nolan has certainly mixed together stuff that shouldn't be mixed together.


I. Integrated schooling: excellent idea. But then so too is segregated schooling when properly done, as in most cases it is. Sectarianism isn't taught in segregated schools - the very opposite is the case. Besides which, as I've pointed out, the problem is not sectarian, it's political. 
2. Segregated housing: it exists here because the political division is so central, most people feel more comfortable living with those who think along lines similar to their own. Just as we buy newspapers that offer a view of the world that matches ours. It'd be nice if we all thought the same way but we don't. Hence segregated housing. And that applies to leafy suburbs as well as social housing, by the way.
3. No new political party: now Nolan has moved from sectarianism to politics. What would such a new party look like - the Alliance Party? The Workers' Party? The problem is not that we don't have a new party, it is that we haven't reconciled ourselves to this notion of being governed by the next-door island. So we have parties that represent the different views on that question of union. Seems sensible to me.
4.  On TV last night, Paul Nolan himself got to the nub of it. Was the present "peaceful" state of affairs a permanent condition or just a passing interlude, like two boxers resting up between rounds?  His answer was that we should look at Irish history. He got that one right.  As I said to an amused Jon Snow on the occasion of QE2's visit to the south,  the core issue hasn't changed - the exercise of control from London over a part of this island. And that, I promise you, is a political problem, not a sectarian one.