Ulster stands at the crossroads again

'Bizarre and unprecedented': the Robinson affair is symptomatic of a culture of concealment

GUBU entered the Irish political lexicon after a strange series of incidents in the summer of 1982 that led to a double-murderer being apprehended in the house of the Attorney General. Taken from a statement by the then Taoiseach Charles Haughey - himself no stranger to scandal - it stands as an acronym for grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented, an appropriate one, then, for the events of the last week in Northern Ireland. Yet the sexual and financial scandal surrounding First Minister Peter Robinson and his MP and MLA wife Iris, her 19-year-old lover, his riverside café and a gift of £50,000 from prominent property developers is only one of several difficulties currently facing the power-sharing Stormont administration.

The Robinson scandal itself has many facets. The most striking aspect to Iris Robinson's affair with a teenager, Kirk McCambley, is the breathtaking hypocrisy she displayed. For two decades, she was a Democratic Unionist Party politician who spoke out vociferously on matters of sexual morality, and proffered a fundamentalist Christian perspective on issues as varied as Sunday trading and homosexuality. Rumours abound of further sexual indiscretions, with one national newspaper alleging that Iris Robinson had other affairs, including with McCambley's father before his death. Further to that, and more importantly from a political perspective, are the serious charges of financial impropriety made. The BBC investigative team that exposed the scandal alleges that she acquired £50,000 from two property developers as start-up capital for her lover's business. She served as a councillor on the local authority who awarded McCambley the contract to set up a business supported by public funding. She took a £5,000 cut of the private donations, and when the relationship ended she demanded the remaining £45,000 back from McCambley. The finality of Iris Robinson's downfall is beyond question. She has been expelled from her party and is to step down from all elected roles that she holds. It has also been announced that she is receiving acute psychiatric care and she has not been seen publicly since 28th December 2009, when she announced that she was withdrawing from public life because of mental health problems. The timing of her resignation, and her husband's subsequent statement about her affair, was widely interpreted as an attempt to blunt the allegations made in the programme. There is no question, however, about the veracity of Mrs Robinson's health problems.

These events and allegations have grave ramifications for her husband. It is alleged that he knew about the affair, and the financial aspects to it, in March 2009. The Ministerial Code dictates that, if he did know, Peter Robinson had a duty to inform the relevant authorities. Today, he stepped down as First Minister for a finite period - six weeks - in order to clear his name and resolve personal matters. He has appointed a party colleague to cover his duties, whilst he has engaged a QC and asked for parliamentary, departmental and assembly inquiries into the matter.

These are seismic events that will have a significant impact on the wider political process in Northern Ireland, both in the short and long term. The pressing concern is the stability of the assembly and the executive. Quite simply, the Robinson scandal couldn't have come at a worse time. There was already a political crisis about the devolution of policing and justice, and it looked increasingly bleak for the future of the power-sharing coalition, even before the revelations of the last week. Sinn Féin wants control of policing and justice matters to be handed to the assembly as per the St. Andrew's agreement of 2006, which was the precursor to the return of the Stormont administration in 2007. The DUP maintain that there isn't ‘sufficient community confidence' amongst unionists for this to happen. It's an issue that Sinn Féin place great importance on, and was pivotal to the party signing up to the new policing arrangements and working with the reformed Police Service of Northern Ireland and other agencies. There was a very real possibility that a Sinn Féin Ard Comhairle (National Executive Committee) meeting in Dublin scheduled for last weekend would decide to withdraw from the institutions, but the Robinson saga and the weather combined to force a postponement. Peter Robinson has made clear that his interim replacement as First Minister, Arlene Foster, will only fulfil the duties of that office, e.g. answering First Minister's Questions, co-chairing the executive meetings, attending public events, but he will retain the leadership of the DUP and remain the key negotiator with Sinn Féin and the British and Irish governments whilst all four try to resolve this dispute.

Sinn Féin too have difficulties following the revelations about Gerry Adams's brother, who it is alleged raped his own daughter, and Adams's disclosure about his father's history of sexual abuse. Adams became aware of the allegations against his brother in the late 1980s and there are very serious questions about his contact with and knowledge about his brother in the intervening period. These particularly concern his brother's period as a youth worker in Adams's West Belfast constituency and involvement in Sinn Féin in the 1990s.

The immediate priority is to ensure that the negotiations about the devolution of policing and justice are concluded, and that there is agreement between Sinn Féin and the DUP on the outstanding issues. That needs to happen in a matter of days and weeks or the institutions will collapse. In the longer term, a solemn and intensive examination of Northern Ireland politics and society needs to take place. The culture of concealment, unaccountability and nepotism that pervades the relationships between the media, politicians, business and religion has been exposed in startling fashion. It remains to be seen whether the current crop of party leaders have the credibility or strength to address the profound challenges posed by recent events.

Conor McGinn is the chair of the Labour Party Irish Society and a local election candidate in the London Borough of Islington. He is from county Armagh in Northern Ireland.

11 Jan 2010 14:30

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Comments

• Posted by Patrick Davies on 11 January 2010, 6:30:16 PM The wider UK election implications are significant. At present of all the MPs from NI, as far as I know, not one is committed to supporting the Tories after the General Election. Even Lady Hermon the sole UUP MP has not supported the Tory/UUP link-up. If the present chaos in NI leads to the Tory/UUP gaining any seats at the General Election this could add vital numbers to the Cameron tally in the event of a close UK result.
• Posted by Jeremy Killingray on 11 January 2010, 7:41:17 PM Conor's informed account of the issues at stake here is thoroughly and thoughtfully presented. What I would add in a slightly more optimistic tone is that both the Adams family child abuse claims and the Iris Robinson allegations demonstrates perhaps that the culture of concealment has had its day. Both issues with their very public airiing suggests a more confident 'civic' response to dealing with these matters rather than having them buried or 'dealt with' by shadowy sectarian organisations. However, more worryingly is how the leadership problem with both the DUP and Stormont plays out over the coming weeks and months. A concern now would be, what attitude would any new DUP leadership have towards the devolution of Policing and Justice and what favours might it think it can prise from a weak coalition or wafer thin majority government in Westminster post May.
• Posted by WilliamCobbett on 11 January 2010, 11:22:24 PM Is such a culture of secrecy a surprise in a political set up that is both colonialist and institutionally sectarian, in effect still excluding voters in NI from casting a vote for or against the real government - the Westminster government - that appoints the Secretary of State or proconsul who can, with a nod or wink from Dublin, change the personnel 'governing' the province without any electoral input from the people of the province? Is it not time the Labour Party put some muscle behind the few courageous souls who have joined up?
• Posted by Paul on 12 January 2010, 12:49:45 PM Good to see these bigots in it up to their necks! One thing for certain is that she will BURN IN HELL!