IT is 100 years since the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed. A treaty Michael Collins called a “stepping stone to Irish freedom”. It was, of course, no such thing and its effect was to create a century of shame, where the northern six counties were condemned to a living nightmare.
 
The next treaty signed, the Good Friday Agreement, was not framed with such words. It was framed as the end to the nightmare, the beginning of a new era of peace. Ironically, it did provide the clear and definite stepping stones that had been missing – unity is possible if Irish people vote for it. 77 years later, nationalists, unionists and the two governments secured what Collins and Griffith did not.
 
In advance of using that pathway, we all agreed to share power. We did so on the basis of human rights frameworks and European norms and laws. Sadly, this opportunity was squandered.

Genuine power-sharing has proven too difficult for those who see Catholics and Irish citizens as enemies and unequal, and England took us out of European jurisdiction against our will. Consequently, the pathway to Irish unity has become the focus of many since 2016.

 
If the past few weeks of DUP turmoil and uncertainty about the future of the Assembly have taught us anything it is that the politics of 2021 is entirely different to what has gone before.

They are being called out and being put on the floor of the Assembly. The status quo is gone, unlike tired narratives. That makes life so uncomfortable for unionists who oppose change that they are happy to destabilise the current power-sharing arrangements.
 

We know that local power for local citizens is essential for the delivery of accountable public services. So, in 2019, when nurses went on strike the local population wanted the lights turned on in Stormont again.

But that did not mean the local population had confidence in the six-county-based power-sharing government as a whole. There is a contradiction that quite simply does not go away no matter how many quislings might wish it was back to the days pre-2016. How can government involve the DUP when the DUP is actively undermining the principles of equality and human rights? Their leaders come and go but their intransigence remains constant.
 
Within weeks of restoration many of the commentariat, and indeed some of the parties within the Executive, started moaning about the evident failures in Stormont as though these had nothing to do with the unresolved matter of right-wing anti-Irish bigotry at the heart of government. Never mind that Sinn Féin, SDLP, Alliance and the Greens opposed Brexit and support the Protocol. Never mind that those parties agree on the Bill of Rights. 

LAZY COMMENTARY

Never mind that those parties agree on the Irish Language Act and the way forward on legacy. And never mind that they are in fact in the majority in Stormont. Somehow that truth gets ignored and the lazy commentary of blame goes to the DUP and Sinn Féin equally despite that being evidently ridiculous in this new Assembly. Issues are no longer getting stuck or hidden.

They are being called out and being put on the floor of the Assembly. The status quo is gone, unlike tired narratives. That makes life so uncomfortable for unionists who oppose change that they are happy to destabilise the current power-sharing arrangements.
 
 And every time that happens many of us point to where local accountability and human rights compliance are deliverable. Irish unity is possible, legitimate and more and more looks like the only option that will deliver political stability. Despite the nay sayers’ discomfort.