The latest poll results on Executive ministers meeting with the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) are unsurprising and serve as a reflection of how divided our society is.
In September, there was much debate — and anger from some quarters — when it emerged that DUP Education Minister Paul Givan met with the LCC, which represents the UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando paramilitary groups.
LCC representatives and Mr Givan discussed educational underachievement and the LCC raised objections to an Irish language school being established in east Belfast. Last month, DUP Communities Minister Gordon Lyons also met with the LCC.
The latest LucidTalk poll for the Belfast Telegraph shows that eight in 10 unionists support Executive ministers holding such meetings, while 88% of nationalists and 87% of Alliance voters oppose them.
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Furthermore, views on such meetings are not just divided along green and orange lines, with the poll results showing that women and middle-class voters are much more likely to oppose these meetings than men and working-class voters.
Our own history is littered with politicians talking to people they were warned not to, and vilified for it.
However, one could argue the historic 1998 Good Friday Agreement would never have been reached had such talks not taken place.
John Hume, the late SDLP leader, was demonised by many for having talks with Gerry Adams during the peace process. Indeed, it also emerged recently that DUP figures met with Martin McGuinness at a time when the unionist party’s official policy was that it would not talk to Sinn Fein representatives. Though by that stage Sinn Fein did have an electoral mandate – something the LCC conspicuously lacks.
A further sign of the divisions within our society is in the reaction to Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill’s decision to take part in the official Remembrance Sunday event at Belfast City Hall.
Many unionists, and families and survivors of IRA violence, hit out at Ms O’Neill for attending, viewing it as offensive. Some relatives of Troubles victims from the republican community also criticised Ms O’Neill. A banner reading ‘traitors’ was even put up at her constituency office in Cookstown.
Ms O’Neill would have known what kind of reaction her attendance would have provoked. But one should always try to do the right thing, regardless if some find it unpalatable. When Ms O’Neill became First Minister, she pledged to be a “First Minister for all”. Her actions on Sunday showed that commitment.
The reaction to Ms O’Neill taking part in the ceremony, and the contrasting views on Executive ministers meeting with the LCC, show that you can’t please everyone in Northern Ireland. Ultimately history will judge whether their actions were the right.