Northern Ireland's path to peace offers lessons to Palestine and Israel

A mural in solidarity with Palestinians painted on the International Wall in Falls Road, in the nationalist area of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Reuters

Belfast’s Europa Hotel has its place in history – some good, some bad. It was built in 1971 near the city centre on Great Victoria Street, two or three years after the start of the Northern Ireland “Troubles” during which more than 3,000 people were killed.

When I lived in Northern Ireland, there were so many bombings of businesses along Great Victoria Street that I thought of the area as being like a mouth in which most of the teeth had been removed. There were demolished buildings turned into car parks and the stumps of bomb sites with few remaining shops, offices and restaurants.

By 1995, then US president Bill Clinton and his family stayed in the Europa as part of his peace efforts. Their entourage booked 110 rooms.

The hard work of Mr Clinton, several Irish prime ministers and British prime ministers John Major and Tony Blair eventually paid off. Great Victoria Street now is a thriving shopping and dining area.

I’m back in the Europa Hotel to speak at an event for 500 people as part of an event called Ireland’s Future. You can’t plan a future without remembering the past, but the trick is not to be stuck there.

The idea behind the Belfast discussions is that while Northern Ireland nowadays is at peace, it is fragile. Hatreds can be intractable. (It’s a lesson elsewhere too, as we know.) And peace here has been upset by Brexit. Many see politicians in Westminster ignoring the fact that Northern Ireland, like Scotland, clearly voted to stay in the EU.

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, hold a joint news conference on a post-Brexit deal, in Windsor. Bloomberg

Britain and the EU agreed to an overhaul of trade rules in Northern Ireland, a breakthrough aimed at resetting strained relations since Brexit. AFP

Britain's King Charles III receives Ms von der Leyen during an audience at Windsor Castle. PA

Anti-Brexit campaigners protest outside Downing Street in London. EPA

Mr Sunak and Ms von der Leyen hold talks in Windsor. Photo: No 10 Downing Street

Mr Sunak greets Ms von der Leyen at the Fairmont Windsor Park hotel, where the meeting was held. AFP

Mr Sunak and Ms von der Leyen make their way into the hotel. PA

The Prime Minister arrives in Windsor. PA

Government cars arrive at the Fairmont Windsor Park hotel. PA

In Belfast, I was struck by how the violence in Gaza and Israel repeatedly came up in our conversations as a dangerous road to be avoided at all costs

Although technically part of the UK, the main British political parties – Conservatives and Labour – govern Northern Ireland but don’t have MPs here. Those British parties, with notable exceptions, are often accused of indifference except when there is trouble, bombings and shootings.

There is also a boycott of the Stormont parliament by the largest unionist group the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). It’s committed to staying within the UK, but the DUP unwisely supported Brexit, and Brexit made their own voters feel less secure because the British government placed a customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

The Ireland’s Future discussions hope to bring together those from any political party (and none) who want to solve problems by discussing whether the reunification of Ireland is possible, desirable, possibly even inevitable.

Unionists, who tend to be Protestants, were historically the majority in Northern Ireland. They rejected a united Ireland partly because Catholics form the majority on the whole island of Ireland. But now, many younger voters are less interested in historic religious differences.

They just want a better life. Change is happening. Even some traditional British unionists have taken Irish passports because that makes travel in the EU much easier.

The challenges of bringing people together and ending ancient political, national and religious differences are immense (yet again, as we know from Palestine and Israel.)

Irish nationalists talk of British violence ranging back at least to Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century and the Anglo-Irish War of the 20th century. Unionists celebrate every year the victory of King William of Orange’s protestant army in 1690 or speak of the killings of protestants in 1641 and terrorism by the IRA in the Troubles from the 1960s onwards.

Palestinians cry as they walk away after an area hit by Israeli missiles in Rafah, the Gaza Strip. AP

Palestinians with foreign passports wait for permission to leave Gaza at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Reuters

A Palestinian boy pushes a man on a wheelchair past debris in Rafah. AFP

A paramedic holds an injured bird as he searches through buildings destroyed during Israeli air raids in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Getty Images

Israeli soldiers take part in ground operations at a location given as Gaza. Reuters

A man listens for any potential sounds of life following an Israeli air strike on the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza. AFP

People flee after Israeli air strikes on the Maghazi refugee camp. AFP

An Israeli soldier arranges artillery shells near the border with the Gaza Strip. AFP

Relatives and friends of those kidnapped during the October 7 Hamas attack hold photos of their loved ones during a protest calling for their return outside Israel's parliament. AP

Israeli flares illuminate the sky over west Gaza in the northern Gaza Strip. EPA

Smoke rises from northern Gaza after Israeli pounded the besieged enclave. AFP

Ambulances queue at the Rafah border as they wait to cross into Gaza to transport the injured back to Egypt for treatment. Getty Images

Women cry as one of them holds an injured toddler outside Shuhada Al Aqsa hospital after an Israeli bombardment of Deir Balah, in the central Gaza Strip. AFP

Displaced Palestinian children sit in a makeshift shelter at Al Shifa hospital, amid the Israel-Gaza war. Reuters

Israeli soldiers patrol outside a house destroyed during fighting with Hamas militants, in the kibbutz of Kfar Aza. Bloomberg

Palestinians from Bureij refugee camp use Salah Al Din street as they flee the southern Gaza Strip. AP

Palestinian children clean up outside their home after Israel struck Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. AP

Khan Younis residents search through buildings destroyed during Israeli air raids. Getty Images

People take part in a candlelight vigil in Dizengoff Square, in Tel Aviv. Getty Images

Demonstrators rally in support of Palestinians in Denver, Colorado. AFP

Galya David, the mother of hostage Evyatar David, takes part in the 'Bring them home' event organised by the Greek Israeli Community in Athens. EPA

Lebanese parademics show the blood-stained high-vis jackets of four of their colleagues wounded after their ambulances were hit in a strike on the Lebanese town of Tayr Harfa. AFP

Flares are dropped by Israeli forces above Gaza, as seen from Sderot, near the border with the Palestinian enclave. AFP

Israeli forces at a position along the the border with Gaza. AFP

Palestinians search for bodies and survivors at Magazi refugee camp in Gaza after an Israeli air strike. Reuters

Leaflets are dropped by the Israeli army over Gaza city asking people to evacuate towards the south of the Palestinian enclave. AFP

An injured toddler awaits treatment at the emergency ward of Al-Shifa Hospital following an Israeli strike, in Gaza city. AFP

A Palestinian man wails amid a search for casualties after an Israeli strike on houses, at Magazi refugee camp, Gaza. Reuters

Anadolu news agency cameraman Mohammed El Aloul pictured after several of his children and siblings were killed in Israeli strikes. Reuters

Israeli soldiers walk past debris and damaged buildings at a location given as Gaza by Israel's military. Reuters

Protesters rally outside the White House in support of Palestinians in Gaza, Washington. Reuters

A man mourns after losing relatives following an Israeli air strike in Gaza city. AP

An art installation of prams with the faces of kidnapped children on display in Tel Aviv. Getty Images

An Israeli woman calls for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. AP

A Palestinian man stands on a collapsed building following a strike by the Israeli military on Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP

Palestinians gather at the site of Israeli strikes on a residential building in Khan Younis. Reuters

Thousands of civilians, both Palestinians and Israelis, have died since October 7, 2023. AFP

A Palestinian woman sits in the rubble as rescuers look for her relatives following the Israeli bombardment of Khan Younis. AFP

Smoke rises from Gaza as the conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas continues. Reuters

Mourners at the funeral of Druze Israeli Lt Col Salman Habaka in the village of Yanuh Jat, northern Israel. AP

A Palestinian boy pulled from the rubble of a building following an Israeli air attack on Bureij refugee camp, in the Gaza Strip. AP

A survivor calls from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis following Israeli air attacks. EPA

People wait on the Egyptian side of the border after passing the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. EPA

Pro-Palestinian supporters during a demonstration near a US military transport vessel at the Port of Oakland in California. AP

But Ireland’s Future discussions have attracted interest from a number of political parties, although unfortunately not the DUP.

One of their famous party slogans was that “Ulster Says NO!” to Irish unity. Demographic changes suggest growing numbers are now thinking “Ulster says MAYBE”, or at least hope for a better relationship with the Irish Republic, an enduring peace, stability and economic opportunity.

I talked with many people in the audience, including Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Fein, the main opposition party in the Irish parliament – a party with its roots in the paramilitary IRA.

Ms McDonald is tipped to be a future Taoiseach, the Irish name for prime minister. This itself is an astounding change. Sinn Fein – once a fringe republican group – is now polling well north and south of the Irish border.

It is impossible to predict Ireland’s real future, beyond the fact that many want a change from old conflicts and the brain-dead politics of the past. Unionists and Nationalists both want peace and prosperity for their children and grandchildren.

And once more in Belfast, I was struck by how the horrific violence in Gaza and Israel repeatedly came up in our conversations as a dangerous road to be avoided at all costs. Gaza, as an Irish supporter of Palestine described it to me, has been an “open prison” for years.

Fear, suspicion and hatred are never a good basis for peace anywhere. Yet as another of the Belfast participants reminded me, the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin insisted that you don’t need to make peace with your friends. You need to make peace with your enemies.

Mr Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli extremist before he could achieve that peace he so desired.

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