Is government funding for loyalists just a device to encourage paramilitaries in from the political cold, asks Margaret Canning
This week, SDLP Assembly member John Dallat had a colourful take on the continuing efforts by the British government, with considerable support from the Irish Government and Áras an Uachtaráin, to bring loyalist paramilitaries in from the cold and set them, however uncomfortably, inside the political tent.
Dallat doesn't trust the loyalists to deliver and accuses the UDA of trying to stage a "stick-up at Stormont".
"Government ministers should not be buying out gunmen and bombers or pensioning them off under the guise of retraining, they should be locking them up and putting them out of business," he said, adding: "The only money the brigadiers should be getting is a weekly prison allowance."
Earlier this week, the North's political development minister, David Hanson, met the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG), political spokespeople for the UDA. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern met them last week, as did the Northern Secretary Peter Hain.
Dr Martin McAleese, husband of President Mary McAleese, has probably lost count of the number of meetings he has had with UPRG and UDA members. He has even played golf with Jackie McDonald, the UDA "brigadier" in south Belfast, and the most influential of the UDA commanders.
The British and Irish governments are engaging in a calculated but tricky gamble with loyalist paramilitaries that may or may not pay off.
They have been accused on several fronts, most notably by the SDLP and Sinn Féin, of offering "sweeteners" to the UDA and UVF to go away; of being willing to hand out millions of pounds to the loyalist groupings to persuade them to do what the IRA has in large measure - depending on your perspective - done: decommissioned and ended activity.
SOME OF THE monies that have triggered comments include a £30 million (€44 million) grant given three years ago to smarten up Protestant schools in deprived areas and a £3 million (€4.4 million) grant announced this month to "re-image" loyalist areas dominated by images of sectarianism and violence in paramilitary murals, plus other as yet unquantified sums expected to be used to "re-skill" former paramilitaries. Some mainstream unionists have defended these payments, saying they are absolutely above board and that nationalist areas have fared better in terms of similar grants.
But the big nationalist concern is that there is huge money to come which, regardless of how it is depicted, will be used to reward UDA members for going out of business.
Cynics of the true intentions of loyalists - and they are legion - point to a raft of examples to justify their distrust. They quote the recent report of the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee which found that paramilitaries, including loyalists, were engaged in armed robbery, drugs smuggling and peddling, extortion, oil fraud, cigarette smuggling, intellectual property crime, illegal dumping and human trafficking.
They note that while the Independent Monitoring Commission has found that the IRA has generally ended paramilitarism and is actively moving away from crime, loyalists are involved in the activities listed above by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.
They also emphasise that since the 1994 ceasefires, loyalists have murdered scores of people, often in internal feuding.
They point to the current tensions in north Belfast, where the Shoukris brothers were ordered by the UDA to stand down as its leaders in the area, raising fears of another internecine loyalist shooting war.
They point to the need for David Hanson to introduce a charities commission to clamp down on paramilitaries using some charities to launder millions of pounds, tax free, of ill-gotten gains.
NONETHELESS, THE TWO governments are persisting with their efforts in the belief there is a real chance that loyalists will react positively.
David Nicholl of the UPRG says regardless of the scepticism, loyalism has turned over a new leaf and is ready to play a productive and peaceful role in Northern Ireland's future.
"There has been a transformation in loyalism, and significant change in terms of political thinking in the last year and a half from the grass roots up," he says.
He is conscious of the allegation that even charities are not immune to the greed of loyalist groups. While he has "heard stories" about such organisations being used as a front for paramilitary fundraising he has never encountered charities being exploited in such fashion.
He insists any government funding that will come into loyalist areas will be used for these areas and not to line the pockets of the brigadiers, their generals, colonels all the way down to the loyalist foot soldiers.
"I wish I knew where the sweeteners are," he says. " I have had no sweeteners and the Maiden City Festival [ centred on the annual August Apprentice Boys march in Derry] has just been abandoned due to lack of funding."
POLITICAL HISTORIAN DR Eamon Phoenix says there is no handy historical precedent to decide the question of trust, because loyalism as we know it is a relatively young movement with a short history. "There will be difficulties with the UDA becoming a full-blooded political organisation and it may always have shadowy hooded figures who are into their sectarian activity, their paramilitary acts and racketeering," he says.
The British and Irish governments need to play a major role in helping loyalism change, and perhaps "sweeteners" are to be expected. "Historically, drawing paramilitaries into peace has always involved offering some kind of a sop, giving them jobs as community representatives, for example, and in some way funding them in a more conventional way to pursue a conventional role," adds Dr Phoenix.
David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party which is aligned with the UVF, says that there are changes within loyalism. Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey has taken his own personal gamble by inviting Ervine into the UUP fold at Stormont. The PUP leader indicates that progress is being made behind the scenes.
"We have never been here before. We've never had the potential for devolved administration in a sustained way. The world has changed," he adds.
"There are consultation processes which have to go on in quiet. We are moving absolutely in the right direction which, barring natural disasters, will reach a logical conclusion. I'm convinced of that."