| The new political face of the North
 IT
HAS been a long and tortuous road but it finally seems that politics in
the North of Ireland is ready to move on to the next level.
Sinn Féin will sit down for the first time with the DUP on May
8 in a new
power-sharing Executive one of the most monumental days in the Province’s
troubled political history.
Here Padraig Hoare profiles the new Executive.
Sinn Féin
Martin McGuinness Deputy First Minister
Chief negotiator of the party, a former leader within the Provisional
IRA, and an all-round political tough guy.
He first came to prominence in the early ’70s as a feared member
of the Republican group and to this day has never denied his involvement
within top-level operations.
He confirmed this at the Bloody Sunday Enquiry in 2003 where he admitted
that he was second-in-command of the IRA at the time of the outrage.
After spells in jail for Republican activities he became increasingly
involved in Sinn Féin.
Elected as an MP for Mid-Ulster in 1997 he refused to take his seat in
Westminster as party policy dictates.
Becoming Sinn Féin’s chief negotiator in time for the Belfast
Agreement he was elected to the North of Ireland Assembly.
His first ministerial position was as Minister for Education where he
somewhat controversially scrapped the 11-plus exam.
But this did not go down well with Unionists — perhaps a sign of
the difficult road ahead in co-operating with Ian Paisley’s DUP.
He has been described as the ‘Godfather of Godfathers’ by
Unionist politicians and in 2005 was alleged by Irish Minister for Justice
Michael McDowell to still be part of the seven-man IRA Army Council.
This was flatly denied by McGuinness, who maintains his focus is on politics
only these days.
Gerry Kelly Junior Minister in Office of First and Second Minister
From diehard Republican to savvy politician, it has been a long and checkered
road for the Belfast man.
After initial involvement with the Civil Rights movement in the North,
Kelly moved into the more extreme armed movement in 1972.
He received two life sentences as a result of his involvement in the infamous
Old Bailey attack in March 1973.
While serving his sentence in Britain he started a 205-day hunger strike
which culminated in his transfer to Long Kesh in 1975.
In March 1983 he took part in a mass escape which saw Kelly go on the
run for three years before apprehension. Upon his recapture he alleged
that prominent public figures in the South including some politicians
had assisted him.
Following his prison spells Kelly turned to politics and was seen by most
as a link between the IRA and Sinn Féin. He was elected to the
Assembly in 1998.
Now an advocate of the peace process, he held talks with Nelson Mandela,
Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton to promote the possibility of
peace. He is currently the Sinn Féin spokesman for Policing and
Justice.
Conor Murphy Minister for Regional Development
Seen as the rising star of Republican politics Murphy is Sinn Féin
MP for Newry and Armagh.
His interest in Republican politics was ignited during the hunger strikes
of 1981 when he joined the IRA. This membership as well as possession
of explosives cost him five years of his life in prison in 1982.
Between 1989 and 1997 he was a Sinn Féin councillor. Since then
his rise is seen as meteoric.
Election to the Assembly in 2001 was followed by the Westminster seat
in 2005. A visit to Britain in 2005 caused outrage when Murphy addressed
the Conservative Party Conference. The first Irish Republican to do so,
he refused to condemn the Brighton hotel bombing, saying he regretted
nothing about the incident which killed five people.
Catriona Ruane Minister for Education
A former professional tennis player Catriona Ruane was born in Mayo and
now lives in Co. Louth with her husband and two children.
She is currently an Assembly member for South Down and is thought to be
targeting the SDLP’s Westminster seat for the next election.
The 43-year-old is perhaps best known for being the face for the Bring
Them Home campaign.
This campaign was active in its efforts to secure the release of the three
IRA members arrested in Colombia.
She is a fluent Spanish speaker and has campaigned extensively for Trocaire
in the past.
She was also an international observer of the free elections in South
Africa that led to the election of Nelson Mandela as President.
As a director of Féile an Phobail, the largest community festival
in Europe, she once took Unionists to court on the grounds of funding
discrimination. She is also seen as progressive on gay and lesbian rights
arguing that unions and marriage should be available to all, including
homosexuals.
Known as a fierce advocate of the Irish language, Ruane could possibly
run into difficulties with the DUP over her Education brief.
Michelle Gildernew Minister for Agriculture
A grateful recipient of Unionist in-fighting in 2001, Gildernew swept
into Westminster with a tiny majority of 54.
To put this in perspective, she succeeded Ken Maginnis, the controversial
UUP member and it is assumed she only won due to a split in the Unionist
vote.
At the time there were allegations of voter intimidation by Republicans
to ensure her victory but a judge upheld the election result.
In 2005 she cemented her position in Westminster with a far more impressive
majority of 4,500 votes.
Again her victory was marred by pundits claiming she only won due to two
candidates put forward by the Unionist parties.
It is widely speculated that Gildernew’s interest in politics stemmed
from her family’s alleged ill-treatment at the hands of the British
Government in 1968.
Her grandmother was turned down for a public housing assignment, due to
alleged sectarian motives. Even though she had a large Catholic family,
it was claimed that a single Protestant woman was housed ahead of her.
SDLP
Margaret Ritchie Minister for Social Development
A member of the Assembly for North Down, Margaret Ritchie takes over
a very difficult portfolio.
Many observers feel that it is a poisoned chalice as the task of trying
to achieve an acceptable affordable-housing scheme in the North of Ireland
has proved elusive in the past.
It may be a lonely place for Ritchie as she will be the only SDLP Minister
in the new Executive.
But this shouldn’t denigrate her reputation as she is seen as a
truly capable pair of hands within the party.
It is thought that she will be the preferred SDLP candidate to succeed
Eddie McGrady as MP for South Down in the next British General Election.
This may prove to be a real dogfight as she faces stiff competition from
Sinn Féin’s Catriona Ruane.
As well as her experience in social affairs, Ritchie is the international
secretary of the SDLP.
UUP
Sir Reg Empey Minister for Employment and Learning
The leader of the embattled Ulster Unionist party has a tough task ahead.
Sir Reg Empey has one eye on the Employment portfolio combined with trying
to mastermind the resurgence of his party.
He will need all his political savvy in the coming months to ensure his
eye is not taken off the ball by either position.
The unenviable task is not made easier by the realism that each mission
is as important as the other.
But Empey has always been a shrewd operator. He is familiar with the employment
portfolio having served in a similar situation in a previous Assembly.
That time he was the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment. He
lasted the entire time of that Executive’s existence in the role
and combined it temporarily with that of First Minister when David Trimble
resigned.
Observers feel he therefore has a chance of being successful in both roles.
He came to prominence in the 1990s and was part of the negotiating team
under David Trimble’s leadership.
Michael McGimpsey Minister for Health
Known for having a slightly leftist view Michael McGimpsey is also a
member of the Ulster Labour group.
He was a close ally of David Trimble and was touted as a future leader
of the party.
These hopes were dashed when Trimble’s leadership led to a miserable
showing in the 2005 British General Election.
McGimpsey first came to the public fore in 1985 when he launched a legal
challenge to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, arguing that it was legally invalid.
He claimed that Articles two and three of the Irish Constitution which
laid a claim to the North contradicted the terms of the Agreement.
What was unusual about this argument was that Unionists had never before
recognised the veracity of the Constitutional claim. Not surprisingly
the challenge failed in the Irish High Court.
The Health portfolio will need his political know-how if he is to be successful.
UUP
Sir Reg Empey Minister for Employment and Learning
The leader of the embattled Ulster Unionist party has a tough task ahead.
Sir Reg Empey has one eye on the Employment portfolio combined with trying
to mastermind the resurgence of his party.
He will need all his political savvy in the coming months to ensure his
eye is not taken off the ball by either position.
The unenviable task is not made easier by the realism that each mission
is as important as the other.
But Empey has always been a shrewd operator. He is familiar with the employment
portfolio having served in a similar situation in a previous Assembly.
That time he was the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment. He
lasted the entire time of that Executive’s existence in the role
and combined it temporarily with that of First Minister when David Trimble
resigned.
Observers feel he therefore has a chance of being successful in both roles.
He came to prominence in the 1990s and was part of the negotiating team
under David Trimble’s leadership.
Michael McGimpsey Minister for Health
Known for having a slightly leftist view Michael McGimpsey is also a
member of the Ulster Labour group.
He was a close ally of David Trimble and was touted as a future leader
of the party.
These hopes were dashed when Trimble’s leadership led to a miserable
showing in the 2005 British General Election.
McGimpsey first came to the public fore in 1985 when he launched a legal
challenge to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, arguing that it was legally invalid.
He claimed that Articles two and three of the Irish Constitution which
laid a claim to the North contradicted the terms of the Agreement.
What was unusual about this argument was that Unionists had never before
recognised the veracity of the Constitutional claim. Not surprisingly
the challenge failed in the Irish High Court.
The Health portfolio will need his political know-how if he is to be successful.
DUP
Rev. Ian Paisley First
Minister
THE fire and brimstone preacher who requires no introduction.
The most polemic figure in the politics of the North for decades he is
still bellowing his message at the ripe old age of 81.
An extraordinary figure Paisley has been a hate figure for Nationalists
and Republicans alike for his perceived bigotry towards Catholics.
He is the leader of the the Free Presbyterians Church which he founded
and is a vociferous critic of the Papacy. He has combined his role within
his church with that of DUP leader since 1971.
Vehemently opposed to the Good Friday Agreement it was thought that the
time for Ian Paisley’s brand of politics belonged firmly in the
past.
But the great survivor made a triumphant comeback and the DUP has been
the largest Unionist party in the Assembly for the past two elections.
It came as a major surprise that power-sharing with Sinn Féin became
a political reality this year given his immovable position of the last
few years.
Even serious illness has not kept him down — the rumours of his
impending demise in 2006 proving exaggerated.
Peter Robinson Minister for Finance and
Personnel
The deputy leader and chief strategist of the DUP Robinson will be in
charge of the Province’s financial affairs.
The MP for East Belfast is seen as the most complex member of the DUP.
Capable of creating extraordinary controversy, he is nevertheless seen
as the one who is a realist in the complex politics of the North.
In 1986 he was convicted of being involved in a Loyalist mob storming
a Co. Monaghan police station where two officers were assaulted.
Around the same time he was photographed wearing the military outfit associated
with extreme Loyalism.
He briefly resigned from the deputy leadership when the pictures were
published in newspapers.
The contrast to this image is that Robinson is a believer in Realpolitik
meaning he accepts the inevitability of power-sharing with Republicans
in the North.
Yet it would be a mistake to think that Robinson believes Dublin should
have any impact into the North’s future.
This somewhat visionary combination has led to speculation that he may
be the successor to Ian Paisley when the time comes.
Nigel Dodds Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment
A real political hardliner Nigel Dodds is a stalwart of the DUP.
The barrister has been Lord Mayor of Belfast twice and has been general
secretary of the DUP since 1993.
His family’s links with political Unionism and the Orange Order
go back for generations.
Dodds gambled on challenging incumbent UUP MP Cecil Walker in the 2001
General Election. The fear was that the splitting of the Unionist vote
would let in Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly.
Those concerned needn’t have worried and the gamble paid off as
Dodds was elected with a majority of 6,000.
He was a minister in the Executive when the DUP decided on cooperating
with the Good Friday Agreement, but resigned on many occasions when the
Agreement was not to his party’s liking.
As Minister for Social Development his term was hampered by allegations
that his department favoured Protestant areas in relation to necessary
social funding.
Even though Dodds is a DUP hardliner he is known to be more relaxed than
the loud and brash oratory style associated with the party.
For that reason there is much speculation that he is an acceptable successor
to Ian Paisley as he is seen to bridge the divide between evangelical
and secular Unionists.
Arlene Foster Minister for the Environment
A high-profile defector from the UUP to the DUP in 2003 Foster has had
a long interest in Unionist politics.
Her association with the Troubles began in her childhood.
A bomb was discovered on a schoolbus on which she was travelling at the
age of nine.
Her father was also a target of an assassination attempt as an RUC reservist.
She is a practicing solicitor graduating with a law degree from Queen’s
University in Belfast.
College life was the start of her political career when she joined the
Ulster Unionist Party serving as the chairwoman from 1992-93.
She further chaired the youth wing of the party until 1995.
Elected as a UUP member to the Assembly in 2003 she caused consternation
among the party faithful by defecting to the DUP alongside the rising
star of Unionism Jeffrey Donaldson.
An attempt to unseat Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew in the
2005 General Election failed to land the Westminster position, where she
trailed by 4,500 votes.
She currently sits on the Northern Ireland Policing Board as one of the
DUP’s four representatives.
Edwin Poots Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure
Eyebrows have been raised at the appointment of a DUP member to the position
of promoting arts and culture, given the religious fundamentalism that
sometimes seems incompatible with the arts.
Edwin Poots will have a hard time making the sell.
Previously the party spokesman on agriculture and rural development it
seems that the secular voters of the North of Ireland will have difficulty
accepting his credentials for the post.
A farmer with four children Poots completes a trinity in Lagan Valley
where he sits alongside fellow DUP members Jeffrey Donaldson and Norah
Beare.
He is no stranger to controversy. In 2001 he caused a storm with his remarks
about homosexuality.
He criticised the Human Rights Commission when it said a ban on homosexual
blood donors could be seen as discriminatory.
The major argument he had was that there was no way to be sure that donated
blood was not contaminated by the HIV virus.
He famously said: “It is a human right for people who are receiving
blood to know that they are getting clean blood and blood that has not
been contaminated by the HIV virus.”
Ian Paisley Jr Junior Minister in Office of First and Deputy First Minister
The son of the DUP patriarch, “Baby Doc” is the youngest
child of the newly-appointed First Minister.
He has been at this father’s side since the early days.
After graduating from Queen’s University with a history and politics
degree, he joined his father’s party as a researcher and parliamentary
aide.
He is a published author and was once awarded the Royal Humane Society
Award For Bravery in 1999, when he rescued a young child from drowning.
Just like his father he has been no stranger to verbal spats.
As well as Baby Doc, the name Ian Og has begun to stick.
The Irish for Young Ian he was referred to by this moniker during a debate
with Sinn Féin rival Catriona Ruane.
He accompanied his father on the historic visit to Dublin earlier this
year where the senior Paisley shook the hand of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
In his new role in the Executive he is expected to be the eyes and ears
for his father when dealing with the new Deputy First Minister Martin
McGuinness. |
